US city looks to better China ties

By Joy Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-11 07:34

SAN FRANCISCO -- The mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, is scheduled to arrive in Shanghai Wednesday to launch a privately funded business recruitment initiative, as part of the city's drive in the past two years to further relations with China and its own environmental projects.

"The two most important things for us are energy independence and establishing a stronger relationship with China," Newsom said, ahead of his arrival in the financial center.

The ChinaSF, a joint initiative between the San Francisco Center for Economic Development and the city of San Francisco, aims at combining the goal of creating an innovative green economy with building stronger ties with China.

With the financial turmoil originating from the US economy spreading, Newsom finds it "important to both grow the top line and cut the bottom line".

Indeed, in the city's 2009 budget, capital projects are to grow by 29 percent while expenditures on equipment and facilities maintenance will drop by 15 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

"That's also why we're doing the ChinaSF initiative, to increase the top line while we cut the bottom line," he said.

The ChinaSF initiative is designed to attract businesses to San Francisco and does not use taxpayers' money, he said.

Instead, it is funded by service-sector businesses such as banks, law firms, consulting firms, commercial real estate companies, and architecture designers.

It also has a marquee advisory board that includes heavyweights such as former US secretary of state George Schultz; Jim Wunderman, chairman of the Bay Area Council; and Phil Ting, the city's highest-ranking Chinese-American elected to office.

"China will be our godsend here in California and in America if we establish a stronger relationship," said Newsom, "not just with the government, but with entrepreneurs, business leaders, artists, intellectuals".

The initiative is also expected to highlight Shanghai's Pudong's digital media park, Yangpu's knowledge and innovation community, Suzhou's Bio Bay, and other business clusters.

San Francisco has been Shanghai's sister city since 1979.

It also has one of the first Chinatowns in the US.

"I want to see the best and brightest in San Francisco and China engage in business, technology, art, and intellectual exchanges.

"I want people in China to first think of San Francisco when they think of America. I want them to see this city that embraces China, even though they may not always agree on everything,' he said.

Newsom expressed pride for his own proximity to the Chinese community, where he grew up and attended a Chinatown French Catholic school called Notre Dame des Victoires.

"I took the bus to school everyday, and tried to get my father to take me to lunch or out of school early, walking through Chinatown (Those school days) gave me a stronger appreciation of the contributions of the Chinese community, a more inherent and organic understanding of the people from an early age, rather than one hastily developed during a mayoral campaign."

"I can use numbers, firms recruited, money invested as metrics of this initiative's success, but the biggest thing can't be monetized. It's the human capital.

"So you now also have a friend in San Francisco, and possibly in California," he said.