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On May 22, 2018, Matt Bevin, the Governor of Kentucky and his Chief of Staff, Blake Brickman joined a meeting with CGCC members regarding the possibility of facilitating China-Kentucky business cooperation. Business executives from CGCC member companies including Bank of China USA, HNA North America, China Merchants Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Anbang International and HSBC joined the conversation.
Governor Bevin emphasized that Kentucky wants to be a true partner to Chinese business and is striving to “cut the red tapes” to make it easy for the foreign business to enter and thrive.
Besides the political advantages, the governor also shared detailed information about the economic, technical and geographical advantages of Kentucky, such as the affordable energy, the capacity to support the world’s largest Toyota plant and the convenient water, rail and air transportation to serve the UPS’s world shipping hub. Governor Bevin said that Kentucky is striving to engineer and manufacturing excellence in many other industries.
CGCC members also shared constructive insights with the governor’s team on utilizing its natural tourism resources such as bringing Chinese visitors to the famous “bourbon trail”, racing horses farms and astonishing landscapes. As Governor Bevin said, “if Chinese tourists love Hokkaido, they will love Kentucky. We need better dialogues.”
During the productive one-and-a-half-hour conversation, Governor Bevin also shared his plan to visit China with his economic development team and look forward to cooperating with CGCC member companies in planning great business-oriented meetings and meeting potential Chinese investors.
Kentucky and China have already formed a strong business relationship and has three sister cities. Participants of the meeting also discussed the necessity of building up State-Province level economic and trade cooperation.
Special thanks to the governor’s office and all attended business executives. Their contributions enhanced mutual understanding between the state government and business communities.