Lancaster, California says "Ni Hao" in Effort to Lure Chinese Investors to their City

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The City of Lancaster, CA is going "all out" in the effort to "woo" Chinese Investors and Businesses into their city. This effort includes having city officials taking Mandarin-Chinese lessons.


In this article, we are going to discuss some of the things that City Officials and Business people in Lancaster, CA are doing in order to lure Chinese Investors and Businesses into their town, in order to revive the economy.

More specifically, we will discuss the following items.


What is Lancaster's curent economic condition?

What are City Officials/Businesspeople doing to lure Chinese Investors/Businesses to Lancaster, and

Is this effort paying off?

The intent behind this article is to provide the reader (that may also find their business or city in a difficult financial situation) with some information on an approach that can used to "weather this economic storm" and (perhaps) even prosper during these tough economic times.

2.0 LANCASTER'S CURRENT SITUATION
Lancaster, CA is located about 60 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles, and is situated in the "High Desert".

Although this city is roughly an hour's drive away from Los Angeles; in the past many of Lancaster's residents have taken great pride and comfort in being relatively far away from Los Angeles and much of what it represents to them.

However, (at the time that this blog post was written), the economic conditions in the United States (and for much of the Developed World) have been very hard. Further, many communities in the "Far-Flung" suburbs of large cities (like Los Angeles) have been particular hard hit.

Lancaster, which has an unemployment rate of 17%, has certainly shared in this pain.

While the Developed Nations have been mired in a hard recession over the last couple of years, China is one of the few nations that has been experiening consistent economic growth.

In 2009, China's GDP grew by 8.7%.

This fact has not gone unnoticed by the various City Officials and Businesspeople in Lancaster, CA.

Specifically, City Officials and Businesspeople (from Lancaster) have been putting forward great effort to improve the economic conditions in their town by luring Chinese Investors and Businesses to their city.



3. 0 WHAT IS THE CITY DOING TO TRY TO LURE CHINESE INVESTORS?
At the time that this article was written, the City of Lancaster was doing the following things to lure Chinese Investors/Business people into their city.

The City (including the Mayor, Mayor R. Rex Parris) has put together a "promotional video" (which will be dubbed in Mandarin-Chinese) to promote Lancaster as a "Great Place" for Chinese Businesses to consider expanding to.

Lancaster will also be sending a business delegation (consisting of business people, city staff and clergy) to China in early 2010 (prior to the Spring) in order to meet with Chinese Investors and Business People.

The City of Lancaster has partnered up (and formed a "Sister City" relationship) with Huainan (in the Anhui Province) of Central China.

Currently, Lancaster's Asian population makes up about 3.8% of the City's Population. Therfore, Lancaster is considering establishing a bilingual English-Mandarin Charter School, in an effort to entice more Asians to move to Lancaster.

"We have realized that it is a global economy" said Mayor R. Rex Parris. "The Chinese have Trillions of American dollars. We want them to reinvest those dollars back in America."

In recent months, Lancaster has hosted several delegations of potential Chinese Investors.

In spite of Lancaster's remote location, the members of the Chinese Delegations are welcomed in Mandarin-Chinese by staff and officials (including the Mayor) that have been studying Mandarin over the past few months.

These greetings are typically along the lines of "Hello", "How are you?", "How was your trip?", and "Welcome to Lancaster" said Luis Garibay, a senior redevelopment project coordinator for the city (described by peers as one of the most proficient Mandarin students)

"We never expected to become experts" Garibey said. "The goal was to get some fundamentals to help break down barriers".

"What is important is the understanding that we care enough to try to understand their culture and language and to try to communicate even on a small level, that their investment is important to us" said Deputy City Manager Jason Caudle, who also has taken the Mandarin-Chinese lessons.



4.0 IS THIS EFFORT PAYING OFF?
The answer to this question may be "Yes".

Mayor Parris said that Lancaster was "leading the pack" to beome the location for a new car-manufacturing plant owned by the Chinese Manufacturer BYD Co, LTD, a giant in the re-chargable battery industry.



5.0 CONCLUSION:
It is interesting to note that many of the City Officials in Lancaster saw that it was important to learn Mandarin-Chinese in order to cultivate a good relationship with Chinese Businesspeople and Potential Business Partners.

Click here if you are interested in learning how you can take the first steps towards cultivating your relationship with a Chinese Businessperson or Potential Business Partner.




6.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to mention that an Article in the February 5, 2010 edition of the Los Angeles Times (by Ann Simmons) on this topic was very helpful to me in writing this article.