On 20 April, Thomas Shiekman, managing director of the South Carolina Department of Commerce Beijing Office, led a business delegation on a visit to Sanpower Group for discussions on commercial cooperation. Yue Lei, senior vice president of Sanpower Group, received the guests, and Chen Jianhua, business assistant for the Investment and M&A Strategic Management Centre of the group, Christine Wong, senior director of the International Affairs Management Centre of the group, and Ge Qiqi, business director of External Cooperation Management Centre of the group, also met the visitors.

Thomas Shiekman and his group first visited the Sanpower corporate culture showroom, followed by the Brookstone concept store and the senior care service direction centre, before gaining an in-depth knowledge of the industry position and international strategy of Sanpower Group. Thomas Shiekman introduced the investment environment in South Carolina. South Carolina attaches great importance to the development of Chinese businesses and provides a series of preferential policies. At present, more than twenty Chinese enterprises including Haier have settled in South Carolina. Thomas Shiekman and the other guests showed a great deal of interest in senior care, health and commercial distribution, and graciously invited Sanpower Group to make a visit to the USA.

Yue Lei noted that Sanpower was still in the phase of expanding international development at present, and the USA was an important battlefield on Sanpower’s international map. He hoped that two sides could keep in touch and build bridges and a platform for exchange between Sanpower and enterprises in South Carolina.