DC has opened its first foreign trade office overseas, the D.C. China Center in Shanghai. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development’s (DMPED) Business Development Office has oversight of the new office, which will assist Chinese businesses seeking to enter the growing DC market as well as give a leg up to DC firms hoping to do business in China. Mayor Vincent C. Gray, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Victor Hoskins and David Zipper, DMPED’s director of business development and strategy, visited China on an economic development mission in June. They were joined by Elliott Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of Destination DC (901 7th Street), which is negotiating with a firm to represent DC’s interest in the leisure market. The DC delegation met with several tour operators in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong and hosted two seminars for more than 40 tourism industry executives and media contacts. China is the second-largest overseas market for the Capital Region, which welcomed 235,000 visitors to the area last year—a 91% increase over 2010.
