Ep. 112: Being a Commercial Diplomat in China with Agnese Stūrmane

EPISODE SUMMARY

Every country has its diplomatic presence in China, but how can it serve foreign businesses and what do the commercial diplomats actually work on while in China?

Welcome to the China Business Cast, I am your host Simon de Raadt and today I’m happy to introduce a new co-host at CBC – Lina Bartusevičiūtė – who actually was my first guest, featured on Episode 97 in 2019. Lina is a founder of LITAO – a company operating since 2015 in Shanghai, that builds and executes China Market Entry and facilitates B2B sales.

Lina has lived in China since 2009 and started her career as a business negotiator and interpreter. Since then, she has helped foreigners lead more than 1000 negotiations and business meetings, and she joined us to help our listeners get more acquainted with China behind the scenes.

For this episode, we spoke with Agnese Stūrmane – a commercial representative of Latvia – about how foreign companies can benefit from commercial diplomats in China and what functions they perform in their day-to-day job. Let’s hear more about why she chose this career and what you could gain by contacting your own country representative when preparing to work in China.

– We hope you’ll enjoy – Let’s tune in!

EPISODE NOTES

About Agnese Stūrmane

Agnese is a young ambitious professional with a Bachelor’s Degree in Asian Studies (Sinology) and an MBA from Xiamen University, who has started her professional career in China as an intern in an educational company, in 2011.

In 2015, after completing her Master’s Thesis on business opportunities for Latvian cosmetics manufacturers in China, Agnese started putting her academic training to practice and got hired as Business Development and Export Manager for a Latvian natural cosmetics brand.

In 2016, she started working for a Latvian translation agency in Beijing and in a year was promoted from a Project Manager to Country Manager, a position she held for a year.

In 2018, she has been appointed as Counsellor of Economic and Commercial Affairs and the Head of the Representative Office in China for Latvia’s Investment and Development Agency.

Episode Content:

We sometimes hear SME’s complain about the support that can be provided by local representatives of their home country. Our experience has been positive when it comes to network, introductions, and support. From a business side, you of course have to make it happen, but a little push in the back often opens new doors. Especially as more and more diplomats have gained actual work experience in China, hence our interview with Agnese.