Bellevue to court trade with China

The man in the dark suit and glasses walking into Bellevue City Hall last month may have seemed perfectly ordinary. But the visit by Gao Zhansheng, the Chinese consul general based in San Francisco, was evidence that Bellevue is no longer doing business as usual.

The city now has the highest percentages of Asian residents and foreign-born residents among major cities in the state, spurred, in part, by immigrants in search of jobs in high tech. And yet until the last year or two, it had never promoted itself as a center for international trade.

That's changing, with the city aggressively homing in on the world's fastest-growing market: China. The largest minority group in the city is Chinese-American; many of its members are running hundreds of small businesses, and Chinese companies have deep pockets to invest in the Eastside's biggest city.

"We are an international city," said Bellevue Councilman Conrad Lee, who was born in China and helped organize the new initiative. "... We need to be thinking globally."

While leaders in Seattle and Tacoma have nurtured overseas trade for years, Bellevue's government is new to the game. Its strategy is to focus on the city's strengths, particularly high tech.

Trade-mission trip

City officials and business leaders are flying to Dalian and Qingdao, China, on Saturday, on the first city-led trade mission. Over a week, the delegation will visit with government officials and businesses to promote Bellevue as a source of new business.

Among the initial targets are video-game companies in Dalian and mobile-phone firms in Qingdao, two industries that already have a strong presence in Bellevue.

"We're not doing a shotgun approach" to connecting with China, Lee said. "We know what businesses we need to go to."

The goal is to establish relationships with Chinese political and business leaders, in the hope that Chinese companies will eventually open offices in the city and work with Bellevue companies.

Chinese officials have made several visits to the Seattle area over the past couple of years, including President Hu Jintao in 2006. Gao, the Chinese consul general, said he was impressed by his talks with Bellevue city officials and business leaders last month, according to attendees.

Meanwhile, the city is also beginning to reach out to Asian businesses closer to home. Eleven percent of businesses in Bellevue are Asian-owned, more than in Seattle and one of the highest rates in the state. Many of the businesses already conduct overseas trade, city officials said.

A lot of the city's business owners are also employees at large tech companies, such as Microsoft, and have started small computing companies out of their homes, said Bob Derrick, the city's economic-development director. Others run retail stores, restaurants and architecture firms.

Ken Tan, 22, moved to Bellevue from China three years ago and opened Asian Food Center last fall. The grocery has a strong customer base among the city's growing Asian population, especially Chinese Americans, he said.

"Right now, to open the store is good timing," Tan said.

Supporting the small tech companies could be particularly vital, Derrick said. Some of them may take off, like Hewlett-Packard did out of a California garage in the 1930s, he said.

"There will be something like that here," Derrick said. "Something dramatic."

Officials are in the middle of a citywide survey to determine the needs of business owners and tap their expertise with trade.

Strong ties

While city officials are getting started in China, several prominent businesses already have strong ties there. MulvannyG2 Architecture has designed more than a dozen large projects in China, including hotels, research parks and college campuses.

Expedia opened a call center in Beijing last fall, and Microsoft, which is expanding its presence in Bellevue, is so deeply connected to China that Chinese President Hu dined at Bill Gates' Medina home during his 2006 visit.

The Bellevue Entrepreneur Center, which is funded by the city and business and civic groups, supports the growing number of minority- and women-owned businesses. Bellevue Community College recruits students from China and started a sister-school relationship with Shanghai Business School last fall.

And the Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce is working with the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce to attract foreign commerce and better serve Chinese-owned businesses on the Eastside with workshops and outreach.

Bellevue is "getting very developed and very international," said Elaine Chan, a Bellevue financial adviser and member of the Chinese chamber board. "They have the same mission we do."

The city's effort is not so much about competing with neighboring cities, officials say. Bellevue joined the board of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle last year and is active in promoting trade around the region.

City officials say the ultimate goal is to diversify the city's economy with foreign trade and investment so that it will remain relatively stable even during recessions. Business is great now, with 15 downtown projects under construction, "but if there's a dip, a slowdown, we want to have other opportunities," Lee said.

Connecting with China is "baby steps" but an important start to overseas trade, Mayor Grant Degginger said.

Lee said the city's large Eastern European and Korean populations could be fertile ground, and the city also wants more firms in the fields of biotech, medicine and clean technology.

"It's just a broad approach to look at every avenue, every opportunity to promote Bellevue as a great place to do business and a good place to live," Derrick said.

Ashley Bach: 206-464-2567 or abach@seattletimes.com