Foreign trade plans developing
A bilateral trade partnership between Fort Worth, Germany’s Free State of Lower Saxony and its capital, Hannover, is taking shape in moves that may pay off within a year.
“Our goal is to have Fort Worth companies doing business with Germany by 2011,” said David Berzina, the Chamber’s executive vice president of Economic Development. “Germany is the No. 1 economy in the European Union. They have a history of producing quality product,” and their businesses and industries match up well with Fort Worth’s.
There’s also interest in expanding trade relationships between Fort Worth and cities in China, Berzina said.
China
In early May, representatives from the Chamber and the City’s Economic Development Department joined a six-day Fort Worth Sister Cities trip to Zhaoqing, China, just northeast of Hong Kong — a “small town” with a population of more than 4 million.
They also visited the modern, industrial “forest city” of Guiyang, population around 4 million, more than 400 miles farther northeast in the Guizhou Province. Guiyang’s green mountainous setting makes it one of China’s top tourist destinations.
Both cities were finalists to become Fort Worth’s eighth sister city. Guiyang won the recommendation.
Chamber Research Manager Lacy Kreger posted daily blog descriptions of developments as the delegation explored each city’s rich cultural and education strengths and business possibilities with help from Fort Worth executive Walter Chaing, CEO of CP&Y engineering consulting firm, who served as translator and advisor.
Germany
In Lower Saxony and its capital city of Hannover, the June 21-25 trade mission established numerous relationships that are opening a path to bilateral trade.
Berzina and Melonye Whitson, the Chamber’s director of Local Business Development, met with business, industry and university representatives who are key players in the state’s recovery from global recession-related challenges.
Ulrich Hartmann, a Hannover native who holds a B.A. and MBA from Texas Christian University and who considers Fort Worth as his second hometown, began discussion with the Chamber last year about the trade mission.
Hartmann supports and facilitates business development for key businesses in Hannover Region and Lower Saxony – a role that involves monthly trips to Fort Worth for meetings with business and industry leaders here.
“I have always been interested in seeing a business exchange between Fort Worth and Hannover Region since my days at TCU business school,” Hartmann said. “The dominant industry sectors in Fort Worth and Hannover Region are complementary: production technology, logistics, energy solutions, IT and communications technology.”
Whitson reported on the trade mission with daily blog posts on the Chamber website, including sessions with Deutsche Messe, which manages Hannover’s 11-million-square-foot, 27-hall convention complex, the world’s largest and home of CeBIT, the world’s largest computer trade show, and Hannover Fair, the world’s largest industrial show.
At every meeting, Chamber representatives “were enthusiastically welcomed, and the conversations were positive and productive,” Hartmann said. “We are encouraged.”
Deutsche Messe will share its massive database of participants with the Chamber and will assist with other details as Kreger, Whitson and Berzina refine matchups between businesses and industries here and in Lower Saxony and Hannover.
Hartmann will bring a trade delegation from Hannover and Lower Saxony to Fort Worth October 26. Part of the mission will include sessions on Texas accounting rules, laws, banking and real estate.
The Chamber is weighing a trade exchange in the spring of 2011, Berzina said, and is considering how to communicate with members who may want to participate in the 2011 CeBIT in March and Hannover Fair in April.
“You’ll see us get behind an awareness campaign with Germany,” he said, while searching for additional domestic and international business. “We’re out there looking for opportunity.”
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Trade Mission details, Oct. 24-28
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Tags: Chamber, China, Economic, foreign, Fort Worth, Germany, impact fee, Update