A health care delegation from China's Shandong province is visiting Atlanta June 17 to look for potential partners in the area of traditional Chinese medicine. 

Shandong Vice Governor Wang Suilian is heading up the six-person group, which has stopped in Atlanta for one day of "highly targeted" meetings, said Kathe Falls, international trade director at the Georgia Department of Economic Development. 

Their itinerary includes stops at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Emory Spine Center, a closed luncheon at the World Trade Center Atlanta and a meeting with Georgia House of Representatives Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) at the Capitol, Ms. Falls said.

She hopes that the delegation will help parlay a strong political relationship between Shandong and Georgia into profitable business ties. 

"This will be a relationship-building trip and then I think the companies will have the opportunities to take the relationship to the next level," Ms. Falls said. 

Georgia's partnership with Shandong, a province of more than 90 million people on China's east coast, has existed for more than a year. 

Ms. Falls first went to Shandong in March 2008, around the same time that Gov. Sonny Perdue  traveled on Delta Air Lines Inc.'s heralded inaugural flight to Shanghai, China, to complete his first business mission in the country. 

On a less-publicized trip that Ms. Falls helped arrange during her initial visit, Mr. Perdue returned with a delegation of Georgia health care and energy leaders in August on the eve of the 2008 Olympic Games, this time to Jinan, Shandong's capital. 

As GlobalAtlanta reported at the time, Mr. Perdue was participating in the Regional Leaders Conference, an alliance of state governments around the globe that meets every two years to share knowledge on issues affecting economic development. 

The Jinan conference focused on energy and health care, industries Georgia leaders recognize as crucial to the state's economic future.  At the time, Mr. Perdue invited Shandong officials to visit Atlanta for the 2009 BIO International Convention, Ms. Falls said.

Although China had a large presence at the premier international biotechnology event May 18-21, Shandong did not send a delegation, Ms. Falls said.

Jianli Zhao, a program manager at the Emory Spine Center, said the delegates would visit two Chinese acupuncturists working at the center.  

Though not a part of planned activities, Ms. Zhao also hoped to introduce them to a new program the center is piloting in China with the goal of replicating it around the world.  

The program is called the Emory Spine Center for Outreach & Medical Education. Surgeons from all over China would complete online coursework before coming to Atlanta to spend three weeks staying at a university, working in laboratories and at a hospital under a mentor doctor, Ms. Zhao told GlobalAtlanta. 

The mentor would follow the student's progress for two years upon their return to China, she said. Mentors would also commit to visiting the partner surgeon's facility four times during the two-year period. 

Ms. Zhao hoped the delegation would take note of the program.

"We wanted them to know about the program, and we think we would be interesting for them," she said.

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