China-US business experts in Silicon Valley believe that China's reforms and development under its new leadership will provide "enormous" opportunities for US companies, as long as they are carefully taking notes.

"This is the year that President Xi Jinping announced to the world that in the next five years, China is going to import $1 trillion from the outside, and invest $500 billion to outside," said Xia Xiang, commercial counselor at the Chinese general consulate in San Francisco.

Speaking at a panel discussion called Opportunity for Silicon Valley - China's New Ruling Body hosted by China Silicon Valley, a non-profit organization committed to promoting investment and business cooperation between China and the tech hub, Xia said the Chinese government is pursuing more solid, intensive and cleaner growth, citing many policies and measures to protect the ecological environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Last month, Xie Zhenhua, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, and California Governor Jerry Brown signed a climate change agreement to cooperate on clean energy, lowering carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emission.

Another area Xia thinks deserves particular attention is tourism. About 1.5 million Chinese tourists visited the US in 2012, US Department of Commerce data shows.

Thomas Shoesmith, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, listed seven priority industries that China has focused on: energy conservation and environmental protection, new energy sources, clean energy vehicles, biotechnology, new materials, IT and high-value manufacturing.

"It almost looks like the list of things that Silicon Valley companies are interested in," Shoesmith said. "We have now seen a real convergence of objectives between what Silicon Valley companies are doing and what China now wants to invest in, and I think that is great."

Another topic that has been brought up constantly is China's new free-trade zone in Shanghai, which is considered by many as China's new reform and opening-up strategy.

Nicholas Hope, director of the Stanford Center for International Development, said foreign companies could benefit from the free-trade zone in Shanghai.

"If foreign companies can decide what we want to do, if people can simply come in and register and put down their capital and say 'I'm going buy this building and we are going to bring our Chinese-speaking foreign national in to run this company', I think you will see tremendous interest from foreigners," Hope said. "But that doesn't mean that they are all going to come, because they will only come if they perceive there will be business to transact.

yuwei12@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 10/11/2013 page10)