Chamber sponsoring China trip to drum up foreign trade

The Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce next year will sponsor a visit to China, its first international trip.

Chamber officials announced the trip in a Wednesday meeting that focused on foreign trade.

Rex Hammond, president, said the trip is part of new efforts by the chamber to emphasize exporting opportunities for local businesses.

“We have stressed exporting for more than a decade, but to sponsor a trip so our members can actually meet people involved in international trade is a new step,” he said.

“Because we’re such a big manufacturing community, we already have a lot of businesses that export. We want to build on that strength.”

The trip will take place from Oct. 10-18, 2010. It will cost $1,999 per person, according to information cards from the chamber. An orientation meeting for the trip will be held Jan. 19.

Hammond said the chamber’s directors have discussed the idea of an international trip for about six months and decided a couple of months ago to pursue it.

In October, Hammond traveled to China with executives from other chambers of commerce. He was surprised at the amount of development happening there, he said.

He also realized how important relationships are to doing business in the Chinese economy. “They don’t do business with people they don’t know,” he said.

Hammond said several companies in Lynchburg — including Areva, R.R. Donnelley and Simplimatic Automation — do work in China. He said he wants to showcase their success and have other local businesses follow.

China is “an amazing market,” Hammond said. “They’re buying billions and trillions of dollars in goods and services. It would be great if more Lynchburg businesses could get a piece of that pie.”

The trip will include visits to tourist sites as well as meetings with potential business partners.

The Wednesday breakfast meeting sponsored by the chamber focused on the role international trade plays in the economy and how it can be important for local businesses.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce TradeRoots Director Liz Reilly, the keynote speaker, said that less than 1 percent of small businesses export goods or services. “We need to do more,” she said.

The U.S. Chamber is working on a campaign to promote more agreements allowing international trade. Reilly said that the chamber is pushing for fewer barriers to trade so U.S. firms can provide goods and services in more countries.

Hammond said that chambers of commerce see international business opportunities as a way out of the recession.

“There’s a growing recognition that free enterprise and free trade are things that made this country great,” he said. “We believe a greater dose of each are necessary to restore economic vitality.”