China Business Boom Holds Tampa Allure
By PEGGY LIM
Tribune correspondent
Published: Mar 13, 2006

TAMPA - Because of heritage and location, the Tampa Bay area has long nurtured business relationships with Latin America. It has been slower, however, in cultivating direct ties with the Far East and Asia's heavyweight: China. Increasingly, though, local entrepreneurs and professionals are paying more attention - and making visits - to the country.

For some businessmen, untapped markets and the shifting tectonics of the global economy have spurred their interest. For others, the nation has become a fascinating model of development as a point of comparison for Tampa's own growth trajectory.

``It's not your father's China,'' says Jason Busto, chief operating officer of Busto Plumbing. Busto has traveled to China five times, most recently in April for a Global Construction Summit in Beijing. ``In 1988, the view from the Bund across [Shanghai's] Pudong River was pretty similar to Tampa Bay marshlands. Sixteen years later, it looks like lower Manhattan.''

Despite being 8,000 miles away, China is hard to ignore. The world's most populous country essentially has become the world's largest factory.

China's ravenous demand also has pushed up global prices on raw materials, such as oil and steel.

In 2004, the country's economy grew at the breakneck pace of 9.5 percent; the United States grew at less than 4 percent. Much of that growth comes from international companies that are flocking to the country for its abundance of low-cost labor.

Billy Rowland, president of the Tampa marketing consulting company International Commerce Center, believes there are still plenty of untapped opportunities in both directions. His company, founded about four years ago, researches potential markets for buyers and sellers in China and the United States.

Rowland, also chairman of the Tampa Bay International Business Council, acknowledges international deals require more time and patience but says China is improving in terms of its research abilities and patent protection.

The biggest barriers that exist in Tampa are ``the minds of the people,'' he says.

``There's a two- to three- week delay in Long Beach, Calif., for shipping and unloading from companies in China. They're so backed up they're going to Atlanta, all the way to New York. And Tampa's not getting into the business,'' he says.

``We just recently got containerization [the packaging of cargo in large, standardized containers for efficient shipping and handling]. We could be so much more aggressive.''

Peggy Lim, a former Tampa Tribune reporter, is a staff writer for The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.