Ambitious leader opens Pacific door for China and US (2)

ChinaSF is a partnership between the City of San Francisco Mayor's Office and the San Francisco Center for Economic Development with the goal of supporting increased business exchange between China and the San Francisco Bay Area. ChinaSF has set up three offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou and introduced over 15 Chinese companies stationing in the San Francisco Bay Area, including China's Bank of Communications, Sunergy, since its first emergence in China in 2008.

Now, the Bay Area Council has a new task. Brown the governor signed the AB2012 Bill in September 2012 to reopen trade offices globally in order to attracting direct foreign investment, increasing exports and expanding employment in California. Jim Wunderman told People's Daily Online that acting as a non-profit contractor to the state, the Bay Area Council aims to develop and operate California's trade office in China. "Our office in Yangpu District, Shanghai, will serve as the first trade office for California globally to make the overall operation efficient and effective," He said.

Data show that since 2009, California exports increased continuously. It peaked the highest level in history to reach over 159 billion U.S. Dollars in 2011, representing an increase of 25%. Over 70% volume was exported directly to Asian markets.

Nathan Williams, the general manager of ChinaSF Beijing office, told People's Daily Online: "Venture capitalists, clean technology start-ups, software companies......they are all eager to understand China and seize the opportunity to enter the Chinese market, but they are lacking of guidance and do not know exactly how to operate."

Jim Wunderman explained that's what the Bay Area Council wants to help."Through our China office, staff members both in the Bay Area and Shanghai help small, medium and large Bay Area businesses expand into the Chinese market, while working to attract Chinese businesses and investment. The partnership has the goal of strengthening existing economic relationships between the Bay Area and the greater Yangtze region, and cultivating new ones," He said.

"The Bay Area Council strives to open up a trading door across the Pacific Rim between China and America to let the next century be the Pacific century. In this process, China and the San Francisco Bay Area will play a key role irreplaceablely," He stressed.

Prior to the Bay Area Council, Jim Wunderman worked for Providian Financial Corporation and ran his own consulting company, The Wunderman Group. He also spent about half of his career in the public sector. From 1992 to 1995, Mr. Wunderman served as the Chief of Staff to San Francisco Mayor Frank M. Jordan. He also worked in San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein's administration from 1984 to 1988 and played a key role preparing the city for the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

"China's growth continues to defy imagination, it's one thing to talk about it. Another thing to be here is the determination to create great opportunities for its people is evident everywhere we look," Jim Wunderman wrote an email to People's Daily Online to describe his currently experience in China.