Influencing Our Future: A Dynamic Strategy to Revitalize Ohio Through Partnerships with China

Abstract

China’s rapid development and Sino-American relations have a direct impact on the lives of just about everyone in the United States. CHINA Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections is a national day of programming designed to provide Americans across the United States and beyond the opportunity to discuss these issues with leading experts. The National Committee on United States-China Relations is pleased to present this program, which features a nationwide webcast by Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. An on-site presentation by China specialist I. Allen Barber II will precede the webcast. Barber will address issues in the U.S. - China bilateral relationship in his presentation titled "Influencing Our Future: A Dynamic Strategy to Revitalize Ohio Through Partnerships with China." Barber, President of the Denver-Hainan Corporation, will explain the reasons behind China's "opening up" policy, which led it to grow from very small economy in 1978 to the third largest global economy in 2007. He will outline the problems, needs, and desires caused by the spike in urban and rural growth in China and discuss how these problems, needs, and desires provide Ohio with unique opportunities to revitalize through partnerships with China. Barber began working with Hainan Island, a new Special Economic Zone, in 1987. He focused on infrastructure projects designed to prepare Hainan for leadership in Chinese economic growth. In 1989, he founded the Denver-Hainan Corporation to assist a group of Chinese State Owned Enterprise executives with modernizing their companies. Working together, they identified potential U.S. partner companies and structured working relationships that were beneficial to both sides. Denver-Hainan Corporation has evolved along with China and now works with a number of projects throughout the U.S. and China. Mr. Barber provides customized support to assist U.S. and Chinese companies with achieving their objectives efficiently and successfully.