ChinaSF becomes real on the interwebs!

ChinaSF, an SFCED (San Francisco Center for Economic Development) initiative now is officially established!

Proof : it now has official webpages dedicated to it.

You've got - A short SF office of economic and workforce development blurb on the ChinaSF office, which you can read here http://www.oewd.org/China-SF.aspx
and - a whole ChinaSF section in the international part of the SFCED website http://www.sfced.org/international/chinasf
The section details what ChinaSF is (both in English and in Chinese), what China SF is all about, who to contact (Ginny Fang obviously), gives all sorts of info answering the obvious "Why San Francisco" question and informing everyone what services ChinaSF offers.

These self-described one-stop business "concierge services" range from : information clearinghouse, i.e. concierge assisting the settling in; assistance with dealing with theadministration , both state and federal; Real estate assistance and Tax credits and incentives, which helps Chinese companies find the programs and incentives they can hope to benefit from. Other services can also be provided upon request.

Funnily enough (is it?), the contact page doesn't even spell Shanghai right (it reads Shnaghai). Great start for an office focused on "Building business opportunities between two major economies." I guess good proofreading isn't a priority in that field. Don't you have interns for that though?

Contact info for Ginny Fang, ChinaSF director :

San Francisco Office

Ginny Fang

Director, ChinaSF San Francisco Office

T: 415-352-8873 (US country code: 001)

F: 415-392-0485

E: gfang@sfced.org

San Francisco Center for Economic Development
235 Montgomery Street, Floor 12
San Francisco, CA 94104

From GreenTech to ecopartnership

This blog's post talks about ecopartnerships, and how that reminds them of a project in Austin.

But it also makes me think of something I mentionned in an earlier post here. Indeed, "Bay Area entrepreneurship has the unique advantage of offering green tech", so the EcoPartnerships would be ideal within the ChinaSF framework.

EcoPartnerships are described by the US China Business Council as:
“voluntary, cooperative partnerships to develop new models for sustainable economic growth in the United States and China that prioritize finding solutions to the energy and environmental challenges that both countries face. These partnerships will be set up between localities in the United States and China, as well as between regional or sectoral organizations and associations, private enterprises, and academic/research entities”.

More on why a China SF initiative is good for San Francisco

Courtesy of the November SF Chamber Newsletter, a letter from Steven B. Falk, President and CEO, titled HOW WE SEE IT - City Needs Strategies To Stimulate Local Economy/Speed Recovery talks about the state of San Francisco's economy,

"This is clearly not a time to sit idly by. It’s time to take action to shore up our local economy. ”

and how, among other things, "Promoting initiatives like China SF to attract foreign investment" is going to help improve the situation.

Also of interest, the page 1 of the Newsletter which sums up pretty well the initiative behind the China SF office.

First comes tourism, then comes business?

Can relaxed travel rules help California China ties?

Let's hope so, since thanks to relaxed rules for travel between the US and China, California, and more specifically, the Sacramento Region, expects a surge in Chinese tourists in 2009.

Sure, it's naive to think Chinese tourists are going to come to the region and become convinced this is the place to set up their overseas business, but at least it's an indication of good faith when it comes to making the region more accomodating and more flexible. If it helps improve California's reputation abroad, and by extension San Francisco's reputation, then it's good, right?

For more information on the expected Chinese tourism surge, check out this article from the Travel Daily News.

Meet Vincent Lo

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article Monday (11/17/08) on China - SF ties which was written from an interesting point of view (more interesting at least than all the different so called "articles" simply rehashing a week old news). Called "The Man to see in Shanghai", the article is about Vincent Lo, who epitomizes - according to the SF Chronicle - San Francisco/Shanghai relations.

M. Lo "is one of the most successful businessmen in China. He owns a number of companies under the Shui On label, including real estate development, construction and building materials firms. For a while, he even owned a piece of the Bank of America building in San Francisco. Estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.4 billion in 2006, he is also known as the "king of guanxi (connections).", according to the Chronicle. He also chairs a committee making strategic recommendations to the China SF project.

By presenting the man and his goals/desires/needs, the article also points out a bunch of interesting facts and issues, as follows :

• Why bringing Chinese businesses to San Francisco and Bay Area Businesses to China and is a good trade off for both cities :

From the Chinese point of view :

1. Bay Area entrepreneurship has the unique advantage of offering "innovation, high-tech know-how and the ability to turn these attributes into commercial successes", and most importantly green tech, says the article.
2. San Francisco is the first city Chinese think of when they think of the US - a quarter of its population is Chinese or of Chinese descent. As such, Mr Lo said in an interview during the U.S.-China Green Tech Summit, San Francisco is the "natural gateway to Asia". Chinese businessmen, he believes, will "be most comfortable" in San Francisco.

From the Bay Area point of view:

1. In return for help on the Californian soil, the articles says M. Lo is willing to give Bay Area companies the resources necessary to "break into the gigantic Chinese Market". The article quotes the interview he gave during the US-China Green Tech Summit which recently ended on the 14th of November : "We need to help small and medium-sized companies. They tend be the most creative and entrepreneurial. But they probably don't have the necessary resources to understand the market and formulate a long-term view. I think we can easily help them."

• Some issues to deal with :
  
  1. if Bay Area entrepreneurs are interested in the prospect, M. Lo said, "They should be committed to coming here and staying, at least for a while. Not just one man, the whole family."
  2. San Francisco's reputation, which is that it's bad for business. "That's why we have to change it," Lo said. "That's why it's really a breath of fresh air talking to Mayor Newsom and Michael Cohen. They all want to make a difference. They see the future."
     Thank you for your insight, Mr Lo (as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle)

Partie II : Pré-démarche de veille

Une pré-démarche de veille consiste à déterminer, une fois le sujet défini et arrêté, les contours de la veille qui va être effectuée sur le sujet. Cette première ou pré-étape permettra ensuite d'utiliser les outils de façon réfléchie et efficace.

Il s'agit donc de définir la géographie de la veille, les points d'accès (ou acteurs en présences) par lesquels l'information sera accessible, puis les mots clés qui seront utilisés pour trouver les informations.

Géographie de la veille :

L’initiative du ChinaSF est extrêmement récente, puisqu’elle a été seulement mise en place en Novembre 2008. Son nom a même changé entre les premières informations communiquées à ce sujet et l’inauguration du bureau. De ChinaDesk, le nom est devenu ChinaSF. Si, en conséquence, les acteurs de cette initiative ne vont se dégager qu’au fil de la veille, le sujet est déjà très attractif et bénéficie donc d’une certaine visibilité en ligne.

Par définition, le partenariat public-privé qu’est le ChinaSF recouvre une ère géographique relativement précise.
D’un côté, le bureau China SF est implanté à San Francisco et a pour but de développer l’implantation des entreprises et l’investissement chinois. La zone concernée sur le territoire américain est donc en priorité San Francisco et sa métropole au sens large, la Baie (Bay Area). Pour pouvoir mettre les différents éléments trouvés en perspective, la veille s’attachera à suivre également, de temps à autres, les relations économiques entre les U.S et la Chiine.

De l’autre côté de l’océan, la Chine entière est ciblée. Cependant, le choix de Shanghai comme ville d’accueil du bureau ChinaSF en Chine semble indiquer que les efforts se concentreront davantage sur cette zone de la Chine.

Acteurs en présence :

Une recherche superficielle sur google avait mis en évidence des points d’accès initiaux (acteurs) tels que les chambres de commerce (Chambre de Commerce de San Francisco, Chambre de Commerce de Californie, les Chambres de Commerce Sino-Americaine en Californie), le consulat de Chine à San Francisco, des associations et organisations à but non lucratifs (Asia Foundation, Asia Society, etc) et le Office of Economic and Workforce Development, organisme duquel dépend le ChinaSF et des points d’informations comme les journaux économiques ayant une version locale, ainsi que les actualités des différentes chambres de Commerce.

Grâce aux outils de cartographies (Kartoo et Mooter en particulier), d’autres acteurs, tout aussi pertinents ont pu être mis en évidence, comme :
- the Bay Area Council (contacts : Melanie Paulos, Jim Wunderman)
- the Bay Area Economic Institute (directeur San Randolph)
- the Comittee of 100

Une fois ces deux étapes effectuées, il a fallu déterminer les mots-clés avec lesquels travailler par la suite, nécessaires pour une démarche de recherche structurée.

Recherche de mots-clés:

Le but est que ces mots soient aussi pertinents, problématisés que possible, ou du moins suffisamment précis pour obtenir des informations ciblées, sans pour autant être trop restrictifs.

Etant donné la géographie du sujet, la recherche de mots-clés s'est effectuée en anglais principalement, par anticipation de sources qui seraient en anglais majoritairement.

La lecture du guide d'utilisation des opérateurs boléens de Google a permis d'affiner les mots-clés utilisés, (et donc les résultats trouvés) tout particulièrement le signe "+", les guillemets et le "~", qui permet de faire des recherches englobants tous les mots synonymes à celui sur lequel cet opérateur boléen s'applique. Par ailleurs, le NEAR dans d’autres outils (DevonAgent par exemple) se révèle très utile.

Les premiers mots-clés choisis ont été les suivants :

China Desk / China Desk San Francisco / China Desk + San Francisco
Relations économiques San Francisco Shanghai
Relations économiques US-Chine
Relations économiques San Francisco Chine
San Francisco China economic ties
California China economic ties
California China economic relations
Chinese Business in California
US China ties

Ces premiers mots clés étaient assez larges et vastes afin de voir s’il existait des infos les comportant. Les résultats furent cependant mitigés et souvent majoritairement peu pertinents. Très vite, certains mots-clés se sont révélés plus utiles que d'autres, et certains ont été abandonnés, d'autres ajoutés.

Plusieurs problèmes se sont ainsi posés pour certains mots clés : par exemple beaucoup de résultats en rapport avec le mobilier de bureau (en raison du mot desk), même avec des guillemets ; et des résultats en rapport avec le tourisme (en raison de la combinaison San Francisco/Shanghai) qui viennent souvent polluer les résultats. De plus, US-China ties donnaient beaucoup trop de résultats, ce qui rendait impossible de retrouver des informations intéressantes.

Après utilisation d’outils (cf Partie III), les mots clés ont été revus.

Les outils cartographiques comme Kartoo sont réputés pour aider à la détermination de nouveaux mots clés. De fait, c’est davantage en cliquant sur les liens proposés qu’à la simple vue des cartes que de nouvelles idées de mots clés sont apparues. Ainsi, il est apparu utile :
- d’élargir les notions recherchées : Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area ; the Bay Area région, SF Bay area plutôt que simplement San Francisco;
- d’inclure des synonymes : economic {business ; trade ; commerce ; investment ; exchange} ; ties {relations, links, connection, connections} ; Business {companies ; firms ; venture ; joint venture ; corporation headquarters…}
- et d’ajouter des mots : Gateway (« Bay Area Gateway to China/Asia » Bay Area + Gateway to China ) ; Portal (« Bay Area Portal for US China exchange »)

Etant donné l’importance des synonymes qui peuvent être utilisés de façon relativement interchangeable, pour qualifier le sujet l’emploi d’opérateurs tels que « ~ » dans google et le NEAR dans d’autres outils (DevonAgent par exemple) se révèle très utile.

A partir de ces mots clés, une veille a été mise en place.

Partie I : Présentation du blog

I. Détermination du sujet :
Le ChinaSF comme vecteur des relations Chine-San Francisco

A l'origine du sujet:

Historiquement, il existe une longue tradition de relations économiques privilégiées entre la Californie et la Chine (voire la Grande Chine, qui inclurait Hong Kong et Taiwan). La relative proximité géographique (de part et d’autre de l’océan Pacifique) en permettant une immigration croisées dès le 19ème siècle explique sans doute en partie cela. Ainsi, les premiers migrants chinois débarquent à San Francisco au milieu des années 1800 et les bateaux marchands américains sont arrives à Canton a peu près à la même période.

Cette relation privilégiée représente un avantage économique assez unique au monde, puisqu’elle tire profit des avantages comparatifs des pays des deux côtés du Pacifique.
De ce point de vue, toute mesure décidée pour conserver et accroitre cet avantage économique paraît logique. C’est ainsi qu’en 1979, une nouvelle étape a été franchie lorsque les villes de San Francisco et Shanghai ont été jumelées. Plus qu’un accord culturel et symbolique, cet accord facilite également le transit entre les deux villes (notamment en ce qui concerne les visas).

Actuellement, la création d’un ChinaSF à San Francisco semble être une étape de plus franchie. En effet, le ChinaSF serait un bureau dont la mission est de favoriser l’implantation des entreprises et intérêts chinois dans la région de San Francisco (Bay Area).

Problématique et interrogations sous-jacentes:

L’objet de cette veille économique serait donc de s’interroger sur l’efficacité d’un outil tel que le ChinaSF San Francisco. Le ChinaSF peut-il être un vecteur des relations entre la Chine et San Francisco ?

Il s’agit d’une veille à long terme puisque le ChinaSF en est encore au tout début de sa création (on trouve encore en effectuant des recherches, les offres d’emploi à pourvoir au sein de ce China Desk – même si ceux-ci ont été pourvus). Il s’agit donc de déterminer les actions et effets du ChinaSF San Francisco et d’en constater les effets sur l’évolution des relations économiques sur une période donnée.

Quelques pistes de réflexion :

• Comment la création d’un China Desk va-t-elle affecter les relations économiques entre la region Bay Area de San Francisco?
• Quel but remplira-t-il ?
• Quelles seront ses fonctions ?
  
• Quelles sont et seront les initiatives effectuées pour rendre la Californie attractive aux yeux des Chinois ? Pour quels résultats ?
  
• Comment le China Desk va-t-il s’intégrer avec les autres acteurs qui œuvrent dans le même sens ? Qui sont ces autres acteurs?
  
• La conjoncture économique et politique a-t-elle un effet direct ou indirect sur les relations sino-californiennes?
  

Enjeux du sujet :

• relations économiques entre San Francisco et la Chine
• Relations économiques entre les US et la Chine
• Influence du politique sur l’économique et vice-versa
• Les partenariats public-privés
• Le contexte économique (et la réaction des acteurs à la crise économique)

Why a ChinaSF in San Francisco? Part Deux

Clearly, the San Francisco municipality is proud of establishing a ChinaSf office in their city.

More reasons on why San Francisco is the best city for such an initiative keep coming out.
Here's the SFgate's take on it :

First, because SF has awesome resources - "City officials are not shy in boasting that they beat out San Jose and Los Angeles, respectively, for the honors. Why San Francisco? "There are great resources for us there - a diversified workforce and cross-cultural variations," said Yimei Wong, a Trina Solar executive who will be managing the office. "

Second , because "Surely, San Francisco's demographics didn't hurt, either."

and third, because of the strong cultural ties San Francisco and Shanghai share :

"Cultural ties that bind: Asian Art Museum chief Jay Xu gave Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel, a truly expert tour of the ancient bronzes and other treasures at the Shanghai Art Museum Tuesday. The occasion: Our Asian Art Museum, it was announced, will host a major exhibit of contemporary art from Shanghai in February 2010. This is quite a big deal for art lovers. "A blockbuster, of King Tut levels," said one city official, perhaps overreaching a little. But it's also a sign of Newsom's concerted policy of solidifying San Francisco's relationship with China, a fact that Newsom and other city officials have repeatedly emphasized on this trip."

"And, of course, where culture flows, business often follows." (emphasis added)

So there you have it : extensive resources, demographics, cultural ties... apparently and (hopefully for San Francisco) are the keys to good (foreign) business relations.

Shanghai 2010

Shanghai will be having a "San Francisco Week" during the Shanghai Expo in 2010, "touting our city's ballet, symphony, opera, food and wine. And, above all, what Newsom described as "San Francisco's world leadership role in sustainability." (The SFgate) -
This is a direct result of Mayor Gavin Newsom's trip to meet with Shanghai's mayor Han Zhen.

For more info, click here to read what the Mayor's site has to say on the subject.

An account of Gavin Newsom's trip to Shanghai

In the New York Social Diary no less...

Interesting account of what went on over in Shanghai, and most importantly of who's who in this entreprise.

To explore, even if all you'll look at is the pictures of this "high-powered group". To do so, click here.

Newsom back from China already?

Newsom's trip on the 10 of November to China was all over the web (if you know where to look), and it seems he's back already.

With good results though, since the China Desk Chinese counterpart was opened in Shanghai.

The goal, according to the Bizjournal San Francisco edition article is "a reciprocal relationship that benefits both sides" (quoting Newsom, of course), where incentives such as tax breaks, workforce developments, help setting up, finding real estate, in short, implementing an infrastructure of services, will get Chinese companies decide to move to San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Important info : the China Desk is no longer called the China Desk - its new name is ChinaSF Did not see that one coming! Guess I should change the name of my blog =(. Ooh wait, I can't.

In other news, new facts about the China Desk ... sorry ChinaSF :

• Ginny Fang will head the ChinaSF office in San Francisco. Ms. Fang was until recently a consultant to the City Hall on economic and workforce issues.
• Her advisory committee will include Assesor-Recorder Phil Ting (cf. previous post) as chair; "Mark Edmunds of Deloitte, Supervisor Carmen Chu, Arthur Gensler of Gensler architecture and many other well-known Bay Area business leaders."
• Funding, unlike the Chigago one (which has yet to see real results apparently, despite the hiring of John Thomson,English- and Mandarin-speaking former State Department diplomat and as such lauded expert in US-China Relations), will be entirely private, and will come from companies such as Deloitte & Touche (who already has several China Desks, such as the Israeli China Desk for instance), Barclays Global Investors, HOK, the law firm K&L Gates, Warburg Pincus, Gensler, United Commercial Bank, Stanford Hotels Group.
  Budget for the next three years : $1.5 million (only half funded yet)

Positive results already?

Newson has proudly announced at the opening ceremony two Chinese companies planning to locate to San Francisco. Trina Solar, a public company listed with the New York Stock Exchange, with 5,000 employees that manufactures solar modules, will open an office in the city in 2009 for US operations. China Daily, a national English-language daily newspaper in China, will also open its first West Coast Bureau in San Francisco. And... ambitious goals : "If we can hit that elusive tipping point and get enough Chinese companies to sign up with us," said Cohen [director of San Francisco's Office of Economic and Workforce Development], "in 10 or 15 years San Francisco really will be the North American gateway for China's business."

Looks like the project is starting out well...

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

From the China Daily, outposted by the MasterChinese website :

"US city looks to better China ties" - San Francisco being the city mentioned here.

Mayor Newsom is to go to Shanghai on Wednesday to officially launch "a privately funded business recruitment initiative", the ChinaSF initiative, "to further relations with China".

The article addresses the usual WWWW,H questions :

WHY - "energy independence" i.e. "creating an innovative green economy and "a stronger relationship with China" . "China will be our godsend here in California and in America "

WHAT - "The ChinaSF initiative is designed to attract businesses to San Francisco".

WHO - "a joint initiative between the San Francisco Center for Economic Development and the city of San Francisco"; "a marquee advisory board that includes""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.

WHERE - San Francisco, the Bay Area, Shanghai especially Pudong, Yangpu, Suzhou and "other business clusters"

HOW- privately funded, it "does not use taxpayers' money"."Instead, it is funded by service-sector businesses such as banks, law firms, consulting firms, commercial real estate companies, and architecture designers." "I [Newsom] 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,"

Backgrounder : China and San Francisco share strong cultural and demographic ties

"Why China matters to San Francisco" - From San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting

Click here to read and learn more about the cultural and economic influences of Chinese Americans and how that contributes to the SF-China ties.

China's new plan... has an effect on US economy

China unveiled its new bailout plan : $586 billion to spend by 2010 to bolster its economy, through social welfare and national infrastructure projects.

That's a huge amount of money to spend to stimulate its economy! In comparison, according to the IHT, "the United States, with an economy of almost $14 trillion, [China's gross domestic product is approx. 3.5 trillion] sent out about $100 billion in tax rebate checks this summer".

But for Dominique Strauss Kahn, this is a good thing: "It will have an influence not only on the world economy in supporting demand but also a lot of influence on the Chinese economy itself, and I think it is good news for correcting imbalances."

And indeed, according to Washington Business Journal, it does have an influence, as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 23 points to 959 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 198 points to 9,192.

The question left to answer is how long will this influence last? And what will this economic stimulus plan do for US-China relations, and especially San Francisco - China relations?

Here's the beginning of an answer, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle (article from November 12th, 2008) :

"China's $586 billion economic bailout, announced over the weekend, could not have come at a better time for Bay Area business delegations looking to make their mark here.

More money, assuming the Beijing government follows through on what it says, will be pumped into export growth and green tech. And that plays right into the sweet spots of San Francisco's ChinaSF initiative and the Bay Area Council's U.S.-China Green Tech summit. Both groups are in Shanghai this week meeting with the locals, hoping to gin up business in those exact areas."

Click here to read the full article.

Why a ChinaSF office in San Francisco?

Did you know Shanghai has been San Francisco's sister city since 1979?

According to the Bay Area Economic Forum (bayeconfor.org), "Shanghai was chosen for its parallels with San Francisco as a port city and a financial center, following a business mission there led by Feinstein." (from the BAEF report, The ties that bind, The San Francisco Bay Area's economic links to Greater China, November 2006)

Sister city agreements typically make it easier to create a connection between two cities, and in this case, made it easier to create a two way economic connection between San Francisco and Shanghai - and, on a larger scale, between the Bay Area region and China.

Therefore what better place to set up a " China Desk" than San Francisco?
UPDATE : They're setting up a ChinaSF office.

More details on that later.

In the meanwhile, this 2006 article (based on the BAEF report mentionned above) sums up pretty well the situation in '06.

Bienvenue sur ce blog

Bienvenue sur ce blog intitulé "From the China Desk San Francisco to Shanghai".

Etudiante en Master 2 COMEX-CMAI (Commerce et Management des Affaires Internationales) à l'Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille (Lille 1), en option Asie, je réalise ce blog dans le cadre du cours de "Veille et Intelligence Economique" dispensé par Jean-Paul Pinte.

En appliquant les méthodes et outils fournis par M. Pinte, je vais tacher de rassembler des informations pertinentes sur les relations économiques sino-américaines et plus particulièrement entre San Francisco et Shanghai, où un "China Desk" se met petit à petit en place.

Ce blog est donc l'occasion à la fois de me familiariser avec les outils de veille et d'approfondir mes connaissances pour les relations sino-américaines, qui, m'intéressent au plus au point. En effet, ayant déjà une connaissance relative des relations sino-françaises (stage effectué au Consulat de France à Shanghai par exemple) et étant franco-américaine, je souhaite également connaître l'état des relations entre la Chine et les Etats-Unis.

NB: afin de le rendre accessible à un public international, ce blog sera, dans la mesure du possible, rédigé en français et en anglais.

N'hésitez pas à me faire part de vos questions et/ou commentaires, toujours bienvenus.

Welcome to my "From the China Desk San Francisco to Shanghai" blog.

A graduate student in the COMEX-CMAI (International Affairs Business and Management) - with a special emphasis on Asia - Masters programme at Lille's Science and Technology University (Lille 1), I have created this blog as part of our "Veille et Intelligence économique" course taught by Jean-Paul Pinte (www.veillepedagogique.blog.lemonde.fr).

Using the different methods and tools learned in class, this blog will attempt to collect all relevant info on the US-China economic ties, and more specifically on those between San Francisco and Shanghai, as a "China Desk" is slowly being set up.

This blog will be the occasion to familiarize myself both with the different data collecting tools and to learn more about Sino-American economic relations,which I'd like to know more about. Indeed, being French-Americain, with a strong interest for China, and as I already somewhat have an understanding of French-Chinese relations (having spent for instance a year interning for the French Consulate in Shanghai), I would like to also gain an understanding of where US-China relations stand in order to have a more international perspective.

Note: in order to make this blog internationally accessible, it'll be both in English and in French.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any quesitons or comments.