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Regional Cooperation Conference

US-China Business Seminar in Columbia, South Carolina

US-China Business Seminar, co-organized by US-China Exchange Association, Columbia Municipal Government, Columbia Export Consortium, and Columbia World Affairs Council was held in the Conference Room of State Chamber of Commerce of South Carolina on November 30, 2007. Robert Coble, Mayor of Columbia, Dana Turner, Assistant City Manager of Columbia, Haneez Zattam, Executive Director of Columbia World Affairs Council, Andrew Sorensen, President of University of South Carolina, Dr. Ronald Drayton, Vice President of Midlands Technology College, Dr. W.C. Howard, Vice President of Allen University, Ute Wachsmann-Linnan, Director of Global Studies of Columbia College, and totally more than 60 Columbia and South Carolina business and education leaders attended the event.


Fred Monk, President of Columbia Export Consortium hosted the seminar, and E.W. Cromartie, Mayor Pro Tem of Columbia delivered welcome speech. Dr. George Wang, President of US-China Exchange Association, Chair of Finance Area of the College of Staten Island of City University of New York, and Member of the International Council of National League of Cities, delivered the keynote speech. He discussed on the various issues related to China market, and especially addressed the questions from the audiences regarding the trade imbalance, job lost, product recall and other "hot" topics debated in the media recently. The seminar was very well conducted and very well received by the audiences.

The City of Columbia is the capital of the State of South Carolina. With the arrangement of the USCEA, Columbia signed the MOU with China's Yibin City of Sichuan Province for developing the collaboration relationship between two cities in Shanghai about two years ago. Since then, two Chinese delegations from Yibin, led by Mayor Guanglei Wu and Vice Mayor Xiaocheng Liu, respectively, have visited Columbia in 2007. Both parties expected that the collaboration relationship between two cities will be further developed in the year 2008.