Lt Gov. Reynolds and Others Hold Conference Call From China

Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds spoke to the Poweshiek County Republicans in Montezuma on Friday June 3rd.

Beijing, China – In an early morning conference call from Beijing, China, Iowa’s Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds, Debi Durham from the Iowa Department of Economic Development, and Teresa Wahlert from Iowa Workforce Development made comments and spoke to reporters on their recent efforts in China. Their trade mission is nearly completed, with the exception of the nearly 20 hour return flight to Iowa.

The Conference call was at 8:15 a.m., which was a local time in China of 9:15 p.m. for the delegation. The delegation left Iowa on June 6th and took with them many business representatives and lawmakers such as State Rep. Betty De Boef of What Cheer.

Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds said they had just wrapped up their final Iowa reception about an hour before the conference call. The reception had nearly 100 attendees with Iowa connections.

“Real opportunities for relationship building and networking.” Reynolds stated. She went on to tell of a visit they had to a Pioneer’s Research and Development facility in Keling, China. “It was wonderful to have the opportunity to actually visit the site.” There they noted the planning that “they put in place, to work with the Chinese, that really fits the way to do things in helping them develop the feed business.”

“I’m very pleased with the discussions and the meetings that have taken place during our visit to China.” Debi Durham of the Iowa Department of Economic Development said in her opening remarks to those on the early morning call. “We have hosted three Growing Iowa Global Partnership seminars. We’ve had the opportunity to visit Vermeer [and] Pioneer’s operations in China.”

“I’m confident that the foundation we have laid, not only from these seminars we hosted but also from some of the high level appointments and business visits that we’ve done for new investments, will serve to strengthen the Iowa-Chinese [relationship] for the future.”

I asked the delegation what other products besides agricultural ones were the Chinese interested in from Iowa.

Reynolds said that manufacturing is of great interest to the Chinese. The Chinese are building massive amounts of infrastructure and that generates interest in the construction industry as well. “Their very interested in wind [energy] production.”

Debi Durham from the IDED said, “The energy platform they see is a growing factor here.” She went on to explain a visit they had to Northeast China. Durham, speaking of that region and it’s similarities to Iowa, said, “It was particularly interesting because they’re so similar to us in so many ways. It’s very agriculturally based, even the diversity of the population.” She went on to explain that they were so excited by the ‘Growing Iowa’ presentation that the delegation gave, “that the vice mayor invited Secretary Northey and I [Durham] to a private impromptu meeting, just immediately after that, to begin to frame together a trade mission that they could make in the fall. They want to talk further about trading. They also want to bring companies for investments along in the wind energy sector, in the bio-chemical, and the bio-sciences.”

“I was amazed by the response that we had that was so immediate.” Durham said about the response to their visit. She went on to explain that trips from groups in China will be heading to Iowa, in the near future, in response to the groups visit.

“We’ve got a great foundation, I think, with some of the companies already over here with John Deere and Pioneer, New Holland and Vermeer. There’s some real opportunities for existing companies, that have great strength over here, for us to continue to build on. And there’s a lot of opportunity, again, with mechanization and modernization taking place in China.” Reynolds said of existing relationships between Iowa and China. “There’s a great opportunity for manufacturing to expand.”

In an interview earlier this year with Blair Van Zetten of Oskaloosa Food Products, I made the comment that it is amazing how Oskaloosa does reach out into the world, and Van Zetten quickly agreed saying, “This is an amazing story, you have Clow, you have Vermeer, you have Pella Corp., you have MUSCO, you have Paslode, Oskaloosa Food Products, you’ve got Cargill. You have a lot of companies in a very small area.” Van Zetten went on to say how he believed the products from these companies had most certainly found their way, not only to most assuredly every state in the union, but also into nearly every county and town as well.

Pella based Vermeer Manufacturing has production facilities in China, as does Oskaloosa based Musco Lighting. They have manufacturing and offices located in Shanghai, China.