A Spokane delegation of business and education leaders is expected to embark on a 10-day trade mission next spring to Seoul, South Korea; Shanghai, China; and Taipei, Taiwan.


The trip is being organized primarily by Whitworth Colleges Institute of International Management and the International Trade Alliance economic-development group here, and is expected to include about 15 businesspeople, educators, and perhaps city government leaders, says JoAnn Nielsen, director of the Whitworth institute. Also involved in preparations for the mission are the Spokane Intercollegiate Research & Technology Institute and Washington State University, Nielsen says.


Though plans for the trade mission still are preliminary, organizers say it likely would take place in the latter part of March or in early April.


Nielsen says the organizing groups are making contacts with U.S. and trade officials in Korea, China, and Taiwan in hope that when the delegation arrives in those countries it will have ready access to potential trading partners. She says organizers intend to put a tighter business-prospecting focus on this trip than the one a similar Spokane delegation took to Japan two years ago. On that trip, which included visits with dignitaries in Spokanes sister city of Nishinomiya, many of the meetings were more civic or ceremonial in nature.


Our purpose is to expose the group to opportunities in their particular fields, to enrich them in the cultures of those countries, and to allow them to make business contacts, says Nielsen.


In preparation for the trip, Whitworth and the International Trade Alliance have held roundtable discussions with businesspeople who have expressed interest in pursuing trade in East Asia, and now workshops are being planned here in February to provide businesses with information on how to get such trade going, Nielsen says.


Businesspeople interested in participating in the delegation next spring will have to pay their own expenses, she says.


The trip is partly related to a two-year effort being made by Whitworth, the trade alliance, SIRTI, and WSU to build knowledge here of other cultures and international opportunities, says Nielsen. That effort is being partially funded by a $158,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and included sending 11 college faculty members from Whitworth and WSU to Korea last summer to collect ideas that can be added to their class curriculums back here, she says.