We’re finishing up a busy week here at the Division of Economic Development that was unique and unusual and promising.

The Chinese Delegation arrived Thursday.

            Very promising.

            In just a little over 24 hours, we hosted international delegations from Turkey (Wednesday) and China (Thursday). It’s not often we get to host to guests from overseas, so back-to-back visits is where the unique and unusual comes in. This tells us that from a global perspective, New Hampshire is rich in opportunity.

            From our perspective, we do, of course, already know that … and we are quite confident that from these visits will come an awareness of the products made right here in the Granite State and create new markets for the companies that produce them.

            When demand for products increases, so does the workforce and new jobs have to be filled.

            Our Turkish guests were from the Istanbul Efficiency Business Association and arrived very eager and enthusiastic about exploring everything from cultural exchanges and a couple of our college campuses to making connections for another planned visit in September.

The Turkish Delegation arrived on Wednesday.

About 5,000 Turkish-Americans call New Hampshire home and Turkey ranks ninth among our trading partners. So there were no strangers in the group, just friends we hadn’t met yet.

            On Thursday morning, we welcomed eight people from the Jilin province in China, many of them our counterparts in economic development, including Gao Cailin, Director General of the Office of Financial Affairs for the province and Dai Min, president of the Center for America-China Partnership.

            Their tour included a visit to JP Sercel Associates of Manchester and a discussion about our high precision and advanced manufacturing industries.

         New Hampshire companies exported products they make that totaled $4.3 billion last year and while parts of the world are dealing with their own challenging economies, China and Turkey are looking for new opportunities and new relationships.

            And they are looking for them right here in New Hampshire.