A series of dialogues between provincial governors from the U.S. and China were held in Beijing on Wednesday.

One of the participants, Governor of Washington State, Christine Gregoire said she believes dialogue at the provincial level could further benefit the enforcement of intellectual property laws, which is an important issue for companies such as Microsoft, which has its headquarters in Washington, to be able to do more business in China.

"We are doing everything we can to create a great partnership between Microsoft and businesses here in China because we think there is a much greater opportunity."

She said during her meeting with the Chinese governors, "work is being done to bring about the enforcement of those intellectual property laws. If that enforcement is successful, then, we could see even greater opportunities for us to have exchanges in the IT world".

This is not the first time for the Washington State governor to participate in provincial-level talks between the two sides. On July 15, she was among more than 30 U.S. state governors to have held talks with their Chinese counterparts from Zhejiang, Anhui, Yunnan and Qinghai provinces, in Salt Lake City, exploring new opportunities in trade, cultural and educational exchanges.

Governor of east China's Shandong Province, Jiang Daming, was one of the new faces to feature at the China-U.S. Governors Dialogue.

Before the afternoon session of the forum opened, Jiang said that he had struck an agreement of friendly cooperation with the State of Georgia: the location where Hisense Group, a big name in the electronics manufacturing sector both province- and nationwide, has launched its regional headquarters and research and development center.

Jiang disclosed that he will have pragmatic negotiations with the governor of Georgia, with a two-sided consultation between both sides having already been arranged. He also said that he is looking forward to being part of negotiations with the governor of Washington State.

"Since our local aviation industry prefers to use Boeing planes produced in Washington, the future development of the local aviation sector would inevitably lead to an increase in our purchase of Boeing planes," Jiang said.

The Shandong governor believes active participation at provincial-level forums would bring more benefits to all sides, citing Shandong's Haier Group as a successful example.

"Haier Group set up their headquarters in South Carolina, which is the location where they design and sell their products on U.S. territory. The action has completely freed them from any adverse impact resulting from the trade friction between China and America. So we base our negotiations on these practical details."

(CRIENGLISH.com October 19, 2011)