Georgia China Alliance

An eight-year relationship between China’s central government and the University of Georgia has resulted in numerous exchanges of official delegations that are now arriving here at a rate of about one a month, said Rongrong Liu. Ms. Liu is a program director at the university and the executive director of the GeorgiaChina Alliance in Atlanta.

The most recent delegation of 21 administrative officials from Jiangxi Province in southeastern China arrived in Athens on Sept. 24 and left for Washington on Oct. 4.

Ms. Liu told GlobalAtlanta that the next delegation is to arrive on Sunday, Oct. 15, from Tianjin, which she called the “Savannah of China” because it is an historic city and the largest seaport in north China. It also is one of only a few municipalities that is under the direct administration of China’s central government.

The Jiangxi delegation was mostly composed of officials from the Special Committee for Education, Science, Culture and Public Health of the Jiangxi People’s Congress and the province’s Food and Drug Administration.

Besides attending classes at UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the delegation visited the Phillips State Prison in Buford to see prison administration first hand and Newnan where it learned about the first Chinese investment in the state. Ningbo, China-based Kingwasong LLC recently announced it would manufacture, process and package a variety of condiments there.

The delegation also met with local and state officials and then visited Amicalola Falls State Park and the town square in Dahlonega to see the state’s natural beauty and to learn more about its culture, Ms. Liu said.

The delegation was hosted last week at Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP in Midtown at a reception sponsored by the law firm, the Carl Vinson Institute and the GeorgiaChina Alliance, a local group promoting Georgia-China relations.

During the reception, members of the delegation encouraged Georgia companies to explore the possibility of investing in Jiangxi, which has agricultural, manufacturing and mining sectors as well as an important forestry industry. The province is China’s largest manufacturer of porcelain. It also has 67 universities and colleges and 5,000 vocational schools.

To learn more about the visits by Chinese delegation to Athens,
Ms. Liu may be reached by email at rong@georgiachina.com.