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Student aids in trade visit
ByEricRineer
Staff writer
As a farm child growing up in
small-town Firth, Bruce Kroese never
imagined he would one day be eating
dinner overseas with government
officials from Hong Kong and China.
On Nov. 10, Kroese, a University
of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate
agribusiness student, traveled to Asia
with 29 delegates from Nebraska,
including Gov. Mike Johanns, in an
effort to boost trade with Asian
nations.
‘1 never even would have begun to
think about this,” Kroese said.
During the 11-day trade mission
to Hong Kong and China, Kroese
served as reporter, taking notes dur
ing meetings of the countries’ offi
cials.
Kroese wrote a 23-page report
after the trip, which he then sent to the
Nebraska Department of Agriculture.
For Kroese, the trip was a dream
come true.
“I almost felt embarrassed at
times meeting people like the vice
premier (of China),” he said.
“Here I am. What have I done?
I’m just a student.”
Kroese, who is set to finish his
MBA in agribusiness in December,
completed his undergraduate educa
tion at UNL in 1993 as an advertising
major.
After graduating in 1993, Kroese
briefly worked in Sacramento, Calif.,
as an account representative for the
California Cattlemen’s Association.
Through his experience in
Sacramento and his time working for
his family’s livestock business in
Firth, Kroese was able to earn himself
a ticket to China and Hong Kong.
UNL’s agribusiness program
selected Kroese to go on the trip
because of his international trade
experience and academic perfor
mance. ... . ^ .. .
Kroese has a 3.8 GPA and is also a
graduate assistant in UNL’s agribusi
ness program.
In Firth, Kroese helped import
cattle and other livestock from coun
tries such as Switzerland while help
ing to export genetic materials like
semen and frozen embryo to South
America, Canada and Mexico.
Those experiences played a key
H role in the uni
versity s deci
sion to send
Kroese to Asia.
While in
China, Kroese
said he was able
to meet some top
officials in the
Chinese govern
ment. He was
nrucM; also able to stroll
through China’s
Forbidden City in Beijing and visit
the Great Wall of China.
Beijing was a favorite, he said,
along with staying at a number of
five-star hotels in Chinese cities such
as Shanghai.
Though the hotels were impres
sive, he said, his conversations with
Chinese officials were what he’ll
remember the most.
Kroese said he had a dinner con
versation one evening with a member
of the China Council for the
Promotion of International Trade.
After asking the Chinese official
about his view of the United States,
Kroese said the official’s response
was somewhat surprising to him.
The official began talking of what
he believed to be a conspiracy by the
United States to bomb the Chinese
embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on
May 7.
Kroese said Lin Shunjie, the
council member, alluded that the U.S.
military was too advanced to commit
such an error and that its cover-up of
the situation was “ridiculous.”
And Shunjie claimed he mistrust
ed Japan more than any other country,
Kroese said.
“I didn’t push any further than
that,” Kroese said.
Another memorable experience
during the trade mission, Kroese said,
was in Guizhou, China, a province
that he described as a poor agricultur
al area in the south-central part of the
country.
The Nebraska delegation traveled
to Guizhou to visit with one of the
province’s farmers.
“There was definitely a Third
H
Here I am. What
have I done? I'm just
a student.”
Bruce Kroese
UNL graduate student
World look to it,” Kroese said.
For example, Guizhou people
were using carts and buckets to carry
food to the market, Kroese said.
One of the more intriguing
aspects of the China trip, he said, was
seeing English and Chinese transla
tors, at times, struggling for words.
“The language barrier was
tough,” he said. “Even the interpreters
they had for Johanns struggled at
times.
“I can’t comprehend how difficult
their language would be to learn. I
have a huge respect for anyone from
the Far East that comes here to a
Western university.”
Kroese said he was inspired by
Johanns’ ability on the trip to relate to
Hong Kong and Chinese officials.
“I didn’t know anything about
him when I started the trip,” he said.
“Johanns handled himself very well.
“The trip was surreal. Not only
just to travel to Asia, but to do so with
the governor. It was crazy. It was
humbling and makes you feel guilty.”
Stan Garbacz, who coordinated
the trade mission and works for the
Nebraska Department of Agriculture,
said Kroese was the perfect choice as
reporter for the trip.
“He obviously was very good,”
Garbacz said. “He just took volumes
of notes. He may have done a better
job than we would have otherwise.”
Kroese said he hoped his report
would lead to more cooperation
between the state government, state
Department of Agriculture and the
governor’s future trade missions on
agriculture issues.
“I hope after this is all said and
done, that I exceed their expecta
tions,” Kroese said, “so for the next
student who wants to do so, they’re
100 percent behind it.”
Councilman explores business
By Sarah Fox
Staff writer
City Councilman Jon Camp was
n’t setting people up, contrary to die
goals of most matchmakers.
Instead, he was helping make busi
ness matches on his trip to China from
Nov. 10 to Nov. 22.
Camp made the trip with Gov.
Mike Johanns’ trade mission. The
group met with Chinese trade councils
and businesses to introduce them to
Nebraska businesses.
“The Chinese are a little bit differ
ent focus,” Camp said. “They like to
deal in terms of relationships. It helps
us get contacts.”
The trade mission of 29 people
visited six cities, including Hong
Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.
Camp and the trade mission met
groups such as local chambers of com
merce, the Hong Kong Trade
Development Council and the Pudong
Free Trade Zone. The Pudong zone is
in an area of Shanghai that holds man
ufacturing plants and warehouses for
companies such as 3M and IBM.The
trip focused on agricultural business,
but Camp said he also wanted to repre
sent electronic commerce businesses.
He passed out lists of Lincoln
Chamber of Commerce members and
a directory of Lincoln area manufac
turers, including businesses such as
the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe
Railway and MDS Harris Laboratory.
% Camp said the meetings were
sometimes surprising.
He was talking with members of
the Pudong Free Trade Zone and said
it
The more (students) can understand China
and other parts of the world, the better.”
Jon Camp
city councilman
he asked them what trade relations
were like between Taiwan and China.
“This one guy just got up and
walked out of the room. I thought ‘Oh
my god, I’ve stuck my foot in my
mouth,”’ Camp said.
The other people in the meeting
told Camp the man had to answer a
phone.
Cellular phones were everywhere
in China, said Charles Lamphear,
director of the Bureau of Business
Research and professor of economics
at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Lamphear went to observe the
Chinese economy. He said some rural
provinces are 50 to 100 years behind
the modem world, and 70 percent of
China’s people live in rural areas.
But coastal cities such as Shanghai
have experienced “incredible growth.”
“It’s a country of extremes, but it’s
a country that will be a world leader in
the future,” Lamphear said.
Although its agricultural practices
were a little behind, Lamphear said, he
saw even more cellular phones than in
the United States. '
“Even individuals riding on bikes
had their cellular phones going,” he
said.
Camp said street vendors would
offer CD-ROMs and watches to his
group. He also saw 12 to 14 construc
tion cranes in Shanghai in an area the
size of Lincoln’s Capitol block.
More than 14 million people lived
in Shanghai in 1997, according to the
Information Please Almanac.
“Shanghai has more construction
cranes than all of the United States,”
Camp said. ,
Camp paid his own way for the
trip. He said he decided to go on the
trade mission because he had been to
China before.
Camp advised UNL students to
learn more about other countries and
to improve themselves.
“The more they can understand
China and other parts of the world, the
better,” he said.
He said understanding what is
happening in China will help
Americans be competitive with the
country.
Camp said he met several Chinese
students who wanted to come to UNL
and asked him if they could use him as
a reference.
UNL students should show that
same persistence, but they should stay
in Nebraska while improving them
selves, Camp said.
“We need to have that brain drain
elsewhere,” he said.
