Cisco, HP, Oracle Sign $3 Billion Worth of Deals with China

Eleven California-based companies, including some of its best-known high-technology firms, signed contracts on Wednesday worth $3 billion with Chinese companies, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said.

Applied Materials Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Oracle Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. were among the companies involved, and more contracts between Californian and Chinese businesses will be signed later this week in Chicago, Schwarzenegger's office said in a statement promoting trade with China.

The Republican governor has made a point of expanding California's trade links with China even amid rising complaints over the growing U.S. trade deficit with the world's most populous country.

"Since I've come into office, California has nearly doubled its sales to China," Schwarzenegger said in the statement. "A key part of California's economic success is export-led growth that recognizes the enormous potential outside California and the United States."

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California exports to China last year totaled almost $10 billion, nearly double the $5.5 billion in exports in 2003 when the Hollywood icon became governor, according to his office.

Madam Xiuhong Ma, China's vice minister of commerce, in a meeting with Schwarzenegger in state capital Sacramento, said Chinese company Jiangxi Greatsource Display Technology Co. Ltd. would invest $95 million to build a research and development center in San Francisco.

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