response for the proposal. after the vice-president returned to china, we worked very hard on the proposal and my visit this time is to further the proposal. to make further follow-up of the proposal. yesterday morning, the delegation was in sacramento so we had a very good and successful and fruitful discussion with the lieutenant governor newsome and secretary ross. we believe when the working group is set up, it will tap the cooperative potential between our two sides while in many areas such as infrastructure, new energy, biomedicine, electronics,

information industry, agriculture, and high and manufacturing. mayor lee echoed positive statements to our proposal before we came to this seminar. we had a very good meeting with mayor lee. he and san francisco will give us positive and strong support. i would like to say thanks to mayor lee. we also -- always believed san francisco is an important port and trade and cultural center in the western part of the united states. it has a long history of business and cultural exchange with china.

as i come to san francisco this time, i have some new feelings. i have been to san francisco many times but no time like this time that makes me more convinced that both sides share a stronger desire for corp. and no time like this time that i sense -- for cooperation. there are nmany opportunities in front of us, especially in the field of infrastructure. as i said this time, i have a delegation of 100 people coming from 40 companies. many of them in fact specialize

in infrastructure field. the closely followed -- they have been closely following the projects in city developments, in airports and seaports renovations, and real-estate, and high-speed railways. some have already had the experience in engineering design, construction, and management in the united states. so i hope that you will have candid discussions on infrastructure and many other fields and keep a close touch and eventually come to corp. -- cooperation on a win-win basis. ladies and gentleman, friends, we believe bilateral relations

matter greatly to the economic and trade relations. leaders have reached consensus on building a cooperative partnership based on mutual research and that if it for the 21st century -- and benefit for the 21st century. guided by the consensus, china and u.s. relations are now moving ahead on a healthy track. which we think will help a healthy development of the bilateral economic [inaudible] there are a number of figures that can show that benefit we have from our corporation. last year in 2011, our total trade volume reached $447

billion. for the first half of this year, we recorded trade volume of $231 billion u.s., an increase of 12%. china is of the first largest and growing market. china is the no. 1 market for agriculture for u.s. agricultural products like soybeans and cotton. soybeans are 60% of -- is sold to china. one-third of u.s. cotton is sold to china. china is also an important market for u.s. automobiles and aircraft. china also is in long-term market for u.s. service industry.

in this area, the u.s. has done a long time service. at the same time, the chinese want to prepare -- entrepreneurs are interested in making investments in the united states so there are more and more chinese companies coming to the united states and investments. according to chinese statistics, for the last 18 months, the chinese investment in the united states grew by 18-40% -- by 14%. it is up to $6 billion. the investment is still a small figure. it is growing very fast. today, our common interests have

expanded and interdependence has been deepened. now, as the impact of the financial crisis still lingers, both china and the united states have committed to transforming their economic growth. their economic growth models by increasing input in some new areas like new energy, high- tech, high end manufacturing, i.t., bioscience, etc. these could translate into new corporation -- cooperation opportunities. the u.s. as you know is implementing its export initiatives and select u.s. programs while the chinese

government is implementing its plan. one of the main contents of the plan is to expand tschida's domestic demand -- tschida's domestic demand. so for the next five years, -- china's domestic demand. we will import 10 trillion dollars of food from abroad including those from the united states. also, china is now working very hard on a global strategy. we encourage the chinese companies to work, to invest in foreign countries, including the united states. with this drive going on, i believe more and more chinese companies will come to invest in the united states. if we embrace all these efforts together, i am sure the result

will benefit both countries on both sides. history and the facts have proven that china and the u.s. or sino-u.s. corp. is no zero sum game. rather, it is always win win and win win always prevails. as the two countries are at development level, the two countries have a divergent history and political system, it is natural and normal that we can encounter some difficulties in disagreement and frictions during the course of our cooperation. that we should make a greater endeavour to expand our common interests and to properly deal

with these differences. the chinese government will make rigorous efforts to create a more leveling -- a more level playing ground for investors in china. we will step up our ipr protection and further open up our market. at the same time, we also strongly urge the u.s. side to loosen its export controls to china and also urged the u.s. government to treat the chinese enterprises working in the united states in a fair manner. i think as long as we were close together -- work close together, we will find more and more

opportunities and we will find more and more when-when results. -- win-win results. i hope that the seminar could be a catalyst to boosting cooperation between china and california and san francisco. and help bring more tangible benefits to the economy and the people of both countries of both sides. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, vice minister. now we will proceed with the signing ceremony. that will be emceed by [unintelligible]

>> [speaking foreign language] good morning, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. i am from the investment promotion agency. it is my honor to be the emcee of the signing ceremony today. matt have the honor of inviting the distinguished leaders -- may i have the honor of inviting the distinguished leaders to the podium for the signing ceremony? [speaking foreign language] let's invite the hon. avenue sen -- gavin newsom, honorable

edwin lee, the hon. minister of the deputy of commerce, the consulate general of china in san francisco, the minister of the embassy of china in the u.s. [speaking foreign language] and the tenant governor newsome is mcclaren's -- lt. gov. newsom is joining us. [speaking foreign language]

for the first year, the investment promotion energy and china sf to sign a memorandum of understanding. they are recycling the purchase contract. congratulations. [applause] [speaking foreign language]

let's invite both to sign the letter of tintend for soybean purchase -- intent for soybean purchase. congratulations and thank you. [applause] [speaking foreign language] let's invite the china chamber

of commerce and paramount. and blue diamond. the china chamber of commerce and blue diamond growers to sign the project on imports of all men's -- almonds. thank you. congratulations. [speaking foreign language] ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of the signing ceremony. congratulations to the organizations and companies and thanks to the distinguished leaders witnessing the ceremony.

thank you very much.

>> -- and what is left of this parking lot. obviously, i wanted to congratulate out here all the people who have blood in such incredible effort to come up -- who have put in such incredible ever to come up with this master plan. that might -- let me put my personal history on it. when i was introduced as public works director, this was one of the first things i had to pitch in to do. we had severe erosion in the

last part of the 2000 decade, and> the sewer pipe was threatened. the ocean was undergoing serious erosion because of the el nino years. out here and try to figure out. previous efforts were made by different agencies to cause different kinds of revetments across the beach to try to stem that tide. that was my introduction to laura at the time, and i think she was just opening her cafe down there and trying to organize the people who used the beach. of course, my introduction to java beach house coffee shop at the time. so we went through some intense -- ed dpw, and want to thank the staff that continues to be here. mohammed nuru, you have got it

now, but i think we have moved a lot of sand already. and what we did in those earlier years, at least to me, was to begin on what we could do to contribute to a larger picture, and this is what i got introduced to, the germans -- the tremendous diversity of people and activities that are taking place along our ocean with these new -- the zoo across the street, the ocean waters, the dog walkers, the kite gliders. people love walking our national parks. seniors, elders, and a diverse communities. and, of course, people who fish once in awhile, too. we also realized it was a we also realíp30 on as a great highway, infrastructure for our public utilities commission.

certainly fantastic in very important transportation infrastructure to get in and out of our wonderful parks. it is a link. and it is our ocean for the city. it is our touch of the ocean in is such a remarkable part of ours is -- our city. so beautiful. i know our twoté$%v(qñ supervise greatly appreciate that diverse use of this, along with the small businesses and our zoo and everything else. some time ago,ñs wonderful agency of hours -- taked a wonderful agency of hours, spur, to -- we have already known about their leadership for many years. i think today, this is a remarkable results of your leadership and effort and your

collaboration with all of the agencies here. rec and park included, national park service. all of the agencies. all of the different groups of users. today, we're announcing that the master plan has been completed, at least this phase of it, with this representation of the work and a lot of groups and conversation, engagement of communities out here, and the different interests to produce a plan that will suggest to us innovative ideas to go forward with decades more of how we continue the vibrant spirit out here that we call ocean beach. i want to thank ben for your leadership. i want to thank all the people

standing here and the agencies they represent. as you look at them and understand who they represent, it is reflective of the has to be balanced and how much of viewpoints have to be weighed in. this plan here does do that. we are going to take a good deal of time studying it ourselves, understanding it and then placing its ideas and priorities, but in terms of funding and so forth, but we do have to go through our government processes of adoption and review and make sure that the ideas here also meet the various legal requirements that we are obligated to carry forth on behalf of the public. i did want to be out here as a signal of my appreciation for the tremendous effort reflected in the completion of this plant.

it is important that we are guided by all the viewpoints and all the research that is done so that not just san francisco, but our partners, can all engage in the right direction, do the right thing, discuss among ourselves, and then with our federal, state, and local partners as to the funding priorities and the permissions that we have to gain from each other as to the right things to do. of course, i am always reminded that the most important voice is the snowy clover out here. some bird that i learned to respect very completely. but it is my joking way of saying that something that i learned in those early years at dpw -- you get out here and you cannot fight nature. you have to respect it. we had these tremendous issues occurring around the world.

we're more sensitive to in now with the climate changes and the weekly news that we see of climate changes, the sea rises, the el nino that occurs that caused a lot of erosion. in fact, some parts of the beach reseeded some 40 feet as a result of el nino inthn the 200- to a dozen 10 years. y just the responsibility of an agency. one week give ideas on how to protect the nature and how to manage it, we also have to keep in mind that in the long term, there are things that we have to do to respect nature. we cannot keep fighting it. that is also something that, if we have a special attention as well. but we have got graded for a stretcher. we have the zoo that has recovered and is very successful. thousands of kids every year.

thanks to tanya in your great leadership there for bringing this institution back to life for all of us. and one of the diverse uses. again, i want to thank spur. i want to recognize the great effort here and let you know that this work will be appreciated by all the agencies, certainly by me as we prioritize and engage in theaters around what we can do to continue this work and implement the great ideas. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you so much, mr. mayor, for those kind words. my name is benjamin grant. it has been my extraordinary privilege to manage the conversation about ocean beach over the past two years. we're going to hear from quite a

number of -- really, a remarkable collection of leaders here who have been involved in the process, which is very exciting. i wanted to mention a few other people who are here, including brian perkins, bill[goo)ru mclan from surf rider, and the county transportation authority. thank you all very much for being here. thank you, mr. mayor. i went to mention one thing -- as you look in this direction, we chose one location because you're looking at a taste of the future. if you look in the background behind you, you see the results of severe coastal erosion and our intent tos -- attmepts to address that on an emergency basis. ocean beach is the tip of the

spear. what is being experienced at ocean beach today is going to be experienced in all coastal communities in the future as climate change and sea level rise sets in. as we continue to do our best to prevent climate change by changing our patterns of behavior and our patterns with the environment, we have to be preparing to adapt to the climate changes that are already locked in. a great deal of change is coming, and one of the first places that expresses itself is on the coast as sea levels rise. k÷d÷e5eocean beach is very impon itself. but it is also very important because it gives us a view of things to come, and we hope that this process has helped us develop the interagency dialogue and community dialogue that gives us the tools to engage in this kind of climate adaptation planning in the future.

so we're very excited that you are all here. this is the second taste of the future that you're seeing which is standing behind me up here. that is the leadership of this city that has been so incredibly receptive and warm and coverage of in working with us as a process and engaging with the different voices in the community to make the different plan come together. i do not want to take any more of your time because we have a lot of folks to hear from. i want to bring up some folks who have been a credible leaders in the process. first we're going to hear from supervisor carmen chu. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you, ben, and thank you mayor lee for being out here. i wanted to bring the perspective of the district supervisor. here, as you know for ocean beach, much of ocean beaches the backyard of the sunset district. for many of my residence,