Islanders discuss doing business with China

Staten Island Advance
Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Wayne R. Taitt and Daniel Klein were among those attending the U.S. and China business seminar yesterday, hoping to market their children's entertainment products to China's millions of youngsters.

"We want to find an entry into the Chinese education market, to share our unique American-style music and story-telling in a sensitive way that will form a bridge between American and Chinese children," Klein said of the company, Mee Wee Entertainment, Manhattan.

"We want to expand globally; and what better way to bridge into China than through children," added Taitt, who also manages the Commercial & Industrial Capital Corp., Bloomfield, which helps finance the Island's Empire Zone businesses.

Taitt of Silver Lake and Klein of New Springville were among 150 people -- about half of whom had traveled from China -- attending the seminar at the College of Staten Island (CSI).

This initiative at CSI is a result of an agreement between China and the World Trade Organization in late 2001, said Dr. George Wang, a professor of finance at CSI and a prime force in CSI's Chinese-American business initiative.

Jay Anderson, associate director of the Staten Island Economic Development Corp. (SIEDC), outlined the advantages Chinese companies would have when setting up shop in this borough.

With translation into Chinese by CSI Librarian Dr. Zuwang Shen, Anderson outlined such Island attributes as 1 million square feet of prime office space, and 70 percent of the city's vacant industrial land.

The borough has the Teleport, with 25 satellite dishes serving top communications companies, and is home to Howland Hook Container Terminal for import and export worldwide; and is near three major airports.

The Island's nearly half million population is made up of an educated work force, 29 percent of whom are college graduates, with an annual median household income of $55,000.

Thomas J. Russo, chairman of Russo-Picciurro and Maloy insurance firm, Bloomfield, said he eagerly attended the conference to see what might develop for the Wellington Associates Group, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., a company he has a part interest in with Alfred B. Curtis Jr.

"We are general consultants, who want to see what business options there are in the education, business and medical fields," Curtis said.

Commerce with China can be selling merchandise or services produced on the Island, or an Island company might want to invest in production facilities over there to sell in China and elsewhere, noted Dr. Laura S. Nowak, a professor of finance, and chairwoman of CSI's Business Department. Both Ms. Nowak and Wang were part of a United States contingent that visited China earlier this month.

Guangyuan Sun, assistant governor, Shandong Province, outlined opportunities in Shandong Province; and Guomin Zhang, deputy director of Shandong Province Economic and Trade Commission, noted that Shandong counts tourism among its many attributes.

William D. Spitler, network director of the U.S. Commercial Service, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, noted that Shandong Province, the birthplace of Confucius in 551 B.C., has a lot to offer, including the fact that it will be the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics marine sports events.

Other speakers included Michael Pappas, regional administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration; Gabrielle Riera of the city Economic Development Corp., Richard Truitt, CSI vice president.