Alaska governor Bill Walker poses with an information board of the state of Alaska in both English and Chinese at Governor's Office in Anchorage, Alaska, the United States, on August 31, 2017. (Xinhua Photo/Ma Dan)
ANCHORAGE, the United States, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- It's been almost five months since Chinese President Xi Jinping made a refueling stop in Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska, and the long-lasting effects of the brief stopover are being felt, Governor Bill Walker told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Walker, who hosted Xi at that time, said the relationship has grown significantly between the state of Alaska and China since then.
"Many opportunities have been confirmed, so we have continued to work on those opportunities," said Walker, adding that he is looking forward to visiting China in late September, his first trip to China as governor.
Xi met Walker while the plane of the Chinese delegation made a refueling stop in Anchorage on April 7 on his way back home after he met with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
During the meeting, the Chinese president said Alaskan industries are complementary to those in China. He noted that while steady progress has been made in mutual cooperation, there's more potential to exploit.
"My goal (of the China trip) is to talk about opportunities that Alaska has with China and China has with Alaska," the governor said.
"It's really unlimited what we can do in our relationship with China," he said.
Trade and business opportunities are tremendously important to Alaska, whose revenue relies heavily on resources. Walker pointed out that China is Alaska's biggest trading partner with seafood as its top export to the Asian giant.
As the largest U.S. state in area with a tiny population of 750,000, Alaska enjoyed a trade surplus of 700 million U.S. dollars with China in 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Alaska is one of eight U.S. states that holds a trade surplus with the world's second largest economy.
"We are looking forward to having more opportunities to export more resources to China," Walker said.
Elected in 2014, the governor has made energy a key part of his administration's agenda. What he made a strong pitch for during his short meeting with President Xi is a liquefied natural gas export project, which is aimed at shipping the natural gas developed in the Alaskan North Slop to the Asia Pacific market, the Chinese market in particular.
According to Keith Meyer, president of Alaska Gasline Development Corp., which is in charge of developing the project, high-level meetings with potential Chinese partners began shortly after Xi's stopover, and the talks are progressing smoothly.
Walker said he is also looking for more opportunities in tourism and mining with China, two other areas with great potential. He mentioned that the number of Chinese travellers to Alaska has grown since Xi's visit.
"I want to bring back a sense of opportunity that Alaska has with the relationship with China," he said. "Doing business with 1.4 billion people is really an opportunity for us."
