Ties That Bind - Bay Area Council Economic Institute

140
Ties That Bind
finance and other knowledge-based activities. While much of this may happen on its own, it
may not likely to reach its full potential without a strategy and promotion. As an initial step
in that direction, regional leaders should consider a survey of Chinese companies, their overseas
expansion plans, and their perceptions of the Bay Area as a place to source goods and
services, invest, or locate.
8. Support China-focused regional protocol and business support entities to host programs, facilitate businessto-business
relations, receive delegations and represent Bay Area interests. Despite the depth and
breadth of the Bay Area-Greater China relationship, there is no overarching regional entity
to host and coordinate the many Chinese delegations visiting the region, explore mutually
beneficial exchanges, or to promote Bay Area companies and expertise. As China encourages
enterprises to “go outside” and build brands overseas, small and medium-sized companies
on both sides of the Pacific stand to benefit from coordinated trade and investment
development efforts.
An improved regional capacity to focus and support these activities could expand both the
Bay Area’s profile in China and business opportunities for local companies. Alternatively,
cities and businesses in their communities should encourage the development of Chinarelated
entities that serve the region. A World Trade Center complex, for example—similar
to the trade exhibition, conference, and office facilities that exist in Asia, could advance that
goal. In 2006 the Bay Area World Trade Center proposed the conversion of the Henry J.
Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland as a World Trade Showcase Center, patterned after
the Taipei World Trade Center in Taiwan. . That proposal was turned down by Oakland’s
City Council, in favor of reuse of using the facility as a new main library. The developers are
still looking for a West Coast site that may or may not be located in the Bay Area.
Separate from this proposal, but on a parallel path, the Chinese Consulate General is exploring
the creation of “China House,” a facility which that would be based in the Bay Area
with the job of introducing Chinese and American buyers and sellers; this potentially could
include a North America exhibition facility for Chinese products located in the new World
Trade Showcase Center. Projects such as these can help raise the profile of the Bay Area in
China, support business development, and attract new trade activity to the region.
9. Increase capacity at, and logistical access to, the Port of Oakland. Ten percent annual growth in
freight volume compounds quickly. While the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach capture
the lion’s share of California and U.S. ocean-borne trade with China and Asia, both are congested
and face serious capacity constraints. Oakland is currently the only major port in California
that is underutilized and has excess capacity.
Since most China trade with the United States passes through California ports, Chinese
shippers are concerned that California could become a bottleneck and are exploring alternatives,
including new ports and routes through Mexico. Thousands of California and Bay
Area jobs depend on trade logistics and on California’s role as the principal U.S. gateway for
Asian trade.