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Issue: 1083 Date: 5/26/2011
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Asian-American Chamber of Commerce launched in region
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| March 2, 2011, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley invited Asian community to talk about the Chinese hub project at World Trade Center. |
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The fate of a Chinese air freight hub in St. Louis remains unclear, but discussions on the ambitious project have mobilized local Asian business leaders like nothing else in the past.
For the first time, Asian-American businesses in the region have joined to form their own chamber of commerce. The effort seeks both to promote the region's growing Asian business community - which has swollen by half in the last five years - and become a resource for those in Asia looking to do business here.
"It's a critically important development in the growth of St. Louis if we're going to be successful," said Mike Jones, a top aide to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and chairman of the Midwest China Hub Commission.
The lack of an Asian-American Chamber of Commerce has been a conspicuous one as St. Louis competes with other regions to attract China trade.
Similar chambers have formed throughout the country, from Minnesota to Georgia. Kansas City is on a growing list of major cities such as Philadelphia and Houston that have Asian-American chambers.
But when civic leaders began to push negotiations with China for a hub at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, the region had no single organization to represent Asian business interests.
That began to change in March, when Dooley invited various Chinese and other Asian businessmen to talk about the Chinese hub project. Alex Lee, an attorney who attended the meeting, said the gathering galvanized him and other Asian-American leaders.
And that energy is carrying forward even after the China project suffered a setback last week, when state legislators failed to act on a tax credit package for the project.
"We want to become the resource locally and internationally for all things St. Louis," said Johnny Wang, an organizer of the new chamber. "That's what we should strive to be."
On Saturday, Wang and Lee joined the burgeoning Asian-American group in Ballwin as it held its third meeting to continue shaping the formation of a new chamber.
In St. Louis, various Asian groups, including Chinese, Korean and Indian, have chamber-like groups. Bringing the leaders of all these groups together makes sense, said Anil Gopal, president of the St. Louis Indian Business Association, which has about 140 active members, many of whom own motels, gas stations and liquor stores.
The groups tend to operate in isolation, he said. By coming together, the businesses shaped by Asian immigrants will have a stronger, unified voice to help the region as it continues establishing international business relationships, Gopal said.
"If we all sit in our corners and do our little things, you don't get anything done," Gopal said. Bringing together various cultures and business backgrounds better prepares the region for business opportunities, he said.
"Today it's China, tomorrow it's Singapore. The next day it's India. We don't know where (business opportunities are) going to lead," Gopal said.
Other supporters say the chamber can become a natural resource for the area business community to turn to when it needs help with language or cultural differences. One of the chamber's priorities is creating a website that lists members by business and country. And it's crucial, organizers say, that the chamber leaders be a diverse mix of those who identify as Asian-American.
"We want every Asian ethnicity represented," Lee said.
Specialty chamber groups often emerge as population groups in the region flourish. St. Louis has had a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce since 1982. The Bosnian Chamber of Commerce was established in 2000.
The St. Louis region's Asian population grew by 62 percent in the last decade but remains small. Asians make up just more than 2 percent of the region's total population, based on 2010 census numbers. Nationwide, Asians make up about 4.75 percent of the population.
That growth locally also is reflected in the number of Asian-owned businesses. In a Census Bureau report released last month, Asian-owned businesses climbed in the area by 50 percent over a five-year period, to 6,432 from 4,299. Sales climbed by more than 120 percent with receipts totaling more than $2.6 billion annually.
The report looks at the years 2002 to 2007, prior to the recession.
The majority of business are tiny, averaging 2?employees.
Dick Fleming, executive director of the Regional Chamber and Growth Association, said the formation of an Asian-American chamber is pivotal to the area's push to expand its business relationships.
"This is a great addition to the civic infrastructure of St. Louis, both from the standpoint of continued advancement of the China hub, and in a broader role that St. Louis is increasingly trying to play on a global stage," Fleming said.
The regional chamber hosted a delegation of about 40 businesses leaders from China last November and teamed up with the Missouri Asian American Bar Association for one of the social events. Fleming says continued partnerships showing diversity of the region is a must in doing business with other countries.
Sook Park, executive director of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City, said her organization was formed in 1998 "to provide more systematic support and advocacy for Asian-owned businesses."
The Kansas City chamber currently has 160 dues-paying members and a contact list of 1,200.
Park said she was surprised St. Louis did not have an Asian-American chamber.
"St. Louis is much bigger. They should already have one," Park said. "But it's never too late."
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
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