SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Chinese and California business representatives and entrepreneurs met on Tuesday in California to exchange business information and investment opportunities.
Representatives from 39 Chinese and American delegations from the sectors of agriculture, commerce and trade, electronics and telecommunications shared their market information and interest to explore potential business at the event held in Sacramento, the capital city of California State.
The event was jointly hosted by the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco, the California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GoBiz) and Sacramento city to build bridges for direct sub-national exchanges between China and the United States.
Yang Yihang, Chinese Economic and Commercial Counselor in San Francisco, said China is the biggest trade partner of California, particularly in agriculture where the two sides are highly complementary, apart from health care, information technology, and advanced manufacturing.
"As the world's two biggest economies, China and the United States share a very important and mutually beneficial economic relationship," Yang said.
The Chinese Consulate General and GoBiz will further cooperate to schedule more face-to-face opportunities for key industries from both sides to promote local-level cooperation between California and China's provinces and cities, said the Chinese diplomat.
Evan Reade, international affairs adviser of the Office of California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, said China is California's top trade partner in Asia last year.
"California exported more than 16 billion U.S. dollars of goods to China in 2018, making China our third largest export market worldwide," he added.
He admitted that current U.S.-China trade frictions have a negative impact on many businesses and thousands of jobs in California.
Speaking on behalf of Kounalakis, Reade said the lieutenant governor is optimistic about the prospect of the two countries' effort to meet the challenges they both face.
Although California can't set its own trade policy, it can do what it has done -- keeping the critical and important personal and professional relationships with China alive, Reade said.
The delegation members from both sides exchanged California and China's food safety standards and experience, and received briefings on food safety, agriculture and trade policies of the United States.
A single purchase
