Report from China: Springfield Trade Mission

SMS officials, local business people and officials with the Springfield Area of Chamber of Commerce are on a trade mission this week in China. KSMU's Missy Shelton is with them and joins us now from Beijing. Good morning Missy.

MICHELE: SMS officials, local business people and officials with the Springfield Area of Chamber of Commerce are on a trade mission this week in China. KSMU's Missy Shelton is with them and joins us now from Beijing. Good morning Missy.

MISSY: Good morning Michele or actually from Beijing, good evening.

MICHELE: Tell me what the purpose of this trade mission is.

MISSY: Well Michele, the purpose is to explore relationships that could develop in the future between some local businesses in Springfield and folks here in China. The trade mission began here in Beijing where I am now. We're getting ready to move to Dalian where SMSU has its branch campus. Then we'll be going to Zhengzhou and meeting with Chamber of Commerce officials there.

MICHELE: What is the trade situation like now between Springfield and China?

MISSY: Well, it's in very preliminary stages. There have been some previous trips with the head of the Chamber, Jim Anderson, coming over with again some SMS officials. But, it's in the very early stages. We have, for example, the CEO from Willowbrook Foods in Springfield who's here hoping to build some relationships, possibly get some of their products over here. They produce meat and hot dogs for example. So this is an exploratory mission, they're just hoping to find some possible business opportunities that would grow and expand in the future.

MICHELE: During this trade mission this week, what exactly will the business people and the Chamber of Commerce officials as well as SMS officials be doing? Who will they be meeting with?

MISSY: Well, they'll be meeting will officials from the SMS branch campus in Dalian. That's a big part of what we're doing the early part of the week. Then toward the end we'll be in Zhengzhou and there again be meeting with Chamber of Commerce officials there. That's a smaller city than Beijing of course. So they're going to be meeting with different officials. It's really about connecting and making contacts and those initial meetings, having dinners, having lunch meetings, those sorts of things. We've spent a great deal of time in Beijing doing sightseeing tours, visited The Great Wall for example. Those things are very important because it gives them an opportunity, the Springfield folks, to have something to talk about when they meet with the Chinese officials for the rest of our trip. So it's all part of building relationships, exploring the other culture, getting to know what China is all about, both culturally and in terms of economics.

MICHELE: Thanks Missy. Missy Shelton reporting from Beijing.