Silicon Valley's close relationship with the world's second-largest economy is getting even tighter with the launching of China Silicon Valley, a non-profit organization committed to promoting investment and business communication and cooperation between China and the Silicon Valley.

China Silicon Valley held a launch celebration at San Jose City Hall on Tuesday. The event brought about 300 guests together, including local officials and entrepreneurs. The organization is headquartered in San Jose with offices slated to open in Shanghai and Beijing.

"We are very excited about the prospect of partnering with the organization's leadership to help bring jobs and growth to San Jose and Silicon Valley," said Kim Walesh, director of Economic Development for the City of San Jose.

Walesh said the new China Silicon Valley is important for the community because more and more Chinese enterprises are coming to the area and "it will help Chinese companies and investors become better oriented with the region".

"It's an interesting trend that Chinese companies are finding their way to San Jose," she said, mentioning NQ Mobile, Tencent, China Unicom and Hanhai as examples.

Because of its historically strong ties with China, the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the hottest spots for Chinese delegations to visit and invest, not only for Chinese companies, but also for government delegations.

This week, a delegation led by China's Jiangsu province governor Li Xueyong visited San Francisco to promote trade and cultural exchange with California, its sister-state. In April and May, three delegations from Shandong cities Qingdao, Zibo and Penglai visited Northern California on business.

Fred Greguras, China Silicon Valley board member and a partner at K&L Gates law firm, said, "The organization has strong relationships with city governments in Silicon Valley including San Jose, Sunnyvale and Campbell as well as with first and second tier cities in China. Our partnering with city level governments enables us to identify major investment opportunities and cooperation that will have a long-term impact for economic development in both countries."

Recently, China's largest property developer Vanke announced a $620 million joint venture with Tishman Speyer in San Francisco, and Beijing-based real estate developer Zarsion Holdings signed on to do a $1.5 billion waterfront project with Signature Development Group in Oakland.

California attracted 156 deals from China between 2000 and 2011, a quarter of all Chinese investment in the US during those years, according to a report published by the Asia Society, which also projected that the state has the potential to draw as much as $60 billion in Chinese direct investment by 2020.

Bruce Pickering, executive director of the Northern California office of the Asia Society, said the number of deals from China in the Golden State would keep increasing

"California is not the best for heavy industry, but technology and innovation are the things that California does really well," Pickering said. "So as Chinese firms begin to innovate more, California is their natural partner."

Pickering applauded the establishment of China Silicon Valley, saying what it will do is similar to what China SF and the Bay Area council have done - help people connect.

"If you are a new entrepreneur in China, who has been successful locally and want to take your brand to California, who do you talk to? Where you go? Now you can come to China Silicon Valley and get professional and efficient help" with those questions, he said.

yuwei12@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 06/28/2013 page10)