NY state has much to entice China: expert

Having received little attention from Chinese companies, New York state is ripe with potential for Chinese investment, even if New York City gets most of the attention of Chinese looking to diversify their overseas portfolios, said Daniel Rosen, founder of the Rhodium Group consultancy.

New York has a history of being a strong manufacturing state in the US, and yet more than two-thirds of upstate New York doesn't have any Chinese business activity.

In 2015, Beijing-based Bohui did acquire Ithaca-based Advion, a life sciences equipment manufacturer, but overall there has not been much investment in upstate New York.

"You've got some [activity] around Buffalo, some around Schenectady and Rochester, but there are a lot of empty investment pockets there, waiting for something to happen," Rosen said on Tuesday at the China Institute in New York.

"Governor Cuomo has given indication that he's aware of this. There's a lot of excitement in upstate Albany about what the governor's office has in mind to try to illuminate what the logic is for more China-New York state investment," he said.

In 2015, New York received $5.4 billion in Chinese investment through 18 deals, but most of that money was funneled into real estate and hospitality and financial services, according to Rhodium figures.

Furthermore, China's job-to-investment ratio in New York is low, because much of the capital spent on real estate and property does not yield jobs. Some prominent real estate deals, however, will lead to construction jobs.

Upstate New York is where manufacturing jobs can be brought back, and the Empire State might have success in emulating a trend that has worked well for the Carolinas in the South. The Carolinas also were predominantly manufacturing states and lost many jobs when manufacturing was outsourced to other countries.

But Chinese companies have helped reverse the trend in recent years, such as Chinese-owned Volvo's announcement to build a new plant near Charleston, South Carolina, and Keer Group's decision to establish a cotton-yarn plant in the state.

"So we know what success needs to look like; New York state can benefit from that as well," Rosen said.

"We have tremendous infrastructure We still have some of the finest engineering, higher education in the world in New York state, and tremendous assets to work with. I won't call them stranded assets, but they're definitely underutilized today," he added.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 05/12/2016 page2)