Georgia's Business Ambassador Brings Wealth of Experience

BEIJING — Lindsay Liu, Georgia's first full-time business ambassador to China, confidently rattles off advice on how the state can tap China's growing market.

If you're a manager planning your first meeting with a potential Chinese partner, don't expect to get right down to business and do pack Pepto-Bismol to counteract probable shots of grain alcohol.

If you're a state official trying to attract Chinese firms to your district, make sure to talk with government officials in Beijing, who often pull the strings behind China's largest companies.

And if you want to attract China's 1.3 billion people to travel to Georgia, mention "Gone with the Wind," one of the first American films shown in China after the country began to open to the West in the late 1970s.

Georgia's Department of Economic Development, which hired Liu to direct the state's new trade development office in Beijing, hopes such insider knowledge will help the state deepen its burgeoning trade ties with China, the world's fastest-growing large economy.

"Georgia has a lot going for it and we need to let Chinese know about it," Liu said.

Gov. Sonny Perdue arrives in Beijing Tuesday with a delegation of state officials and business executives. Perdue will officially open the office, announce a new partnership between the University of Georgia and China's Tsinghua University and meet with Chinese leaders.

Many states – including Ohio, Kentucky and Nevada – have recently opened or expanded trade development offices in China. Georgia's Department of Economic Development emphasized finding the right person to run the office.

Liu, who started on March 1, has foreign and local experience and deep contacts with Chinese officials, journalists and managers.

"She is a great salesperson who knows how to serve her customers efficiently and graciously, and she has a knack for matching Georgia and Chinese companies," said Gretchen Corbin, director of international operations for the Department of Economic Development.

Born in China's southern Guangxi province in 1970, Liu earned a degree in English from a top university and spent seven years working for the Malaysian-owned Shangri-La luxury hotel group.

In 2003, she took a job with Fleishman-Hillard, a St. Louis-based public relations firm, where she helped American companies navigate China's complicated legal system and managed their corporate communications.

Because 15,500 jobs are created in Georgia for every $1 billion of exports, "it's really important to help our existing Georgia companies find new ways to sell their products," Corbin said.

Working with Liu is Michael Su, 27, the state's commercial representative, who will focus on helping Georgia-based companies increase sales in China. Su graduated from the University of Georgia in 2004.

To sell the state, Liu plans to focus on Georgia's strengths as the transportation hub of the Southeast and a competitive investment environment offering tax breaks and other incentives.

The contacts Liu made working for Fleishman-Hillard also could help Georgia-based companies investing in China. Many American companies operating in China struggle with the country's weak legal and regulatory system, and knowing the right people — a web of contacts Chinese refer to as "guanxi" — can sometimes solve seemingly intractable problems.

Part of her efforts to promote Georgia in China will be "to influence the influential people," Liu said.

Su said that because of cultural, language and regulatory system differences, companies have to be patient to be successful in China. For example, while American executives might be used to closing deals by Internet or over the phone, "over here people want to see whomever they're dealing with," he said.

In April, Liu will travel to southern China with Kevin Langston, the state's assistant commissioner for tourism, to promote Georgia at a travel industry trade show. Among other things, she will stress Georgia's southern hospitality — a character she said her home province in China shares — and history, including the 1996 Summer Olympics, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and the Margret Mitchell House and Gone with the Wind Museum.

"In the 1980s, Gone with the Wind was one of the first foreign movies Chinese saw," she said. "It has a huge impact here."

Liu's to do list:

— Support Georgia companies trying to sell in China. China's booming economy and strengthening currency have boosted imports from the United States. From January to September last year, exports from Georgia to China totaled $1.2 billion, roughly 60 percent higher than the year before, according to state data.

— Convince Chinese companies to invest in Georgia. Several Chinese firms have signed contracts to build factories in Georgia in recent years. Last September, Sany Heavy Industry Co., a Chinese producer of construction equipment, announced it would build a factory in Peachtree City that will create 200 jobs.

— Promote Georgia as a destination for Chinese tourists. According to the Chinese government, 41 million Chinese traveled abroad last year. Fewer than 400,000 visited the United States, but Liu and other experts expect Washington to begin allowing individual Chinese tourists in coming years, a shift that could lead to millions of annual visitors.