Day 0 - Blog Post
We arrived in China today. Over the next week and a half, a delegation of 25 Hoosiers and I will meet with prospective importers of Hoosier goods, Chinese government officials, commodity trade groups, Chinese trade associations and research universities. The action begins tomorrow, so I may as well start with our goals and a quick story.
Indiana began a relationship with China in 1987, when then-Gov. Robert Orr established a sister-state relationship with the Province of Zhejiang. Despite that relationship, the number of Hoosiers employed by Chinese companies in Indiana is only around 200. In contrast, there are 200 Japanese companies with an Indiana presence, employing 45,000 of our friends and neighbors. As you see, there is a lot of work to be done. Gov. Mitch Daniels made contact in 2009 with his trade mission to China, and we hope to expand on that.
While our agricultural exports to China have increased sevenfold since 1997, China still is our fourth-largest importer behind Canada, Mexico and Japan. With the growing population there, the relationships we build on this mission will position Hoosier farmers to provide more and more agricultural goods to China. Those exports currently support 24,000 Hoosier jobs both on and off the farm.
With those figures in mind, I’ll leave you with an anecdote about the Indiana-China connection.
I don’t mean to borrow other people’s stories, but I can think of no better example of the opportunities that exist for Hoosier producers in China. This story belongs to Jay Hein, president of Indiana’s Sagamore Institute, who helped us prepare for this trip.
Jay first visited China several years ago, and on his group's last night here he and the others wanted the full Chinese dining experience. They talked to their hotel concierge about where they could go for the best Peking Duck, a Beijing original and one of China’s national foods.
They arrived at the restaurant, ordered the duck, and began chatting up the waiter, who spoke respectable English. The waiter asked where they were from and Jay replied, “We’re from America. A state called Indiana that you may not have heard of.”
The waiter smiled. “Your duck,” he replied, “is from Indiana.”
Personally, I’m looking forward to the Chinese cuisine. But for the best China has to offer, I guess I’ll have to wait until I get back in Indiana.
Day 0 - Photos
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