On its first open business mission to China, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce saw established relationships lead to new investments.

As a 20-member Gwinnett delegation visited the headquarters of Hisense Co. Ltd. in Qingdao, China, the electronics company announced that it will open a 7,000-square-foot research and development center adjacent to its North American base in Suwanee. The expansion will create 20 jobs, according to a chamber news release.

Last June the company said it would invest $800,000 in Gwinnett to create an R&D center over the next three to five years. Steven Cohen, director of sales and marketing for Hisense USA Corp., said that investment ended up being a showroom and that the research and development center constitutes a new expansion.

"Last year we purchased and have built out a 6,000-square-foot sales and marketing facility and now have leased an additional 7,000 square feet for an R&D center in Suwanee," Mr. Cohen told GlobalAtlanta in an email. The amount of the second investment was not disclosed.

Hisense Chairman Zhou Houjian is scheduled to visit Gwinnett this month to begin planning for the R&D center, Gwinnett chamber spokeswoman Lisa Sherman told GlobalAtlanta in an email.

Hisense is one of China's top manufacturers of flat-panel televisions. It also makes refrigerators, air conditioning units, microwaves, washing machines and other appliances. The company released its first Hisense-branded TVs in the U.S. through hhgregg stores in April.

During their China mission July 5-15, the chamber also announced that Self Electronics Corp. USA, a Ningbo, China-based LED lighting manufacturer, would hire two or three more employees at its Gwinnett sales office.

The company is looking to purchase a 7,500-square-foot office building at 4500 Peachtree Lakes Drive in Duluth, according to a news release.

Self announced its Gwinnett office during a chamber trade mission last year.

“Our presence in Gwinnett has been a major success,” Vincent Li, vice president of Self's U.S. operation, said in the release. “It only took us a short time to see that we would need a bigger operation.”

The chamber also opened an office in Wuxi, a city of more than 4 million people just west of Shanghai. The office won't be staffed, but it will provide a space for Gwinnett companies on business trips to the area.

The new office builds on a Gwinnett-Wuxi friendship fostered by reciprocal visits over the past two years.

The recent mission was originally scheduled for April but was postponed so county officials could attend the grand opening of NCR Corp.'s new Duluth headquarters.

In China, the delegation visited Beijing, Qingdao, Shanghai, Wuxi, Hong Kong and Macau.

On the way home, the group stopped in Seoul and Incheon, South Korea.

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