California Governor Schwarzenegger leaves for Asia on trade mission

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger left for Asia on Thursday on a trade mission aimed at easing the state's budget crisis.

The governor said the trip, paid for by a Chinese tycoon, will help raise revenue for California, which is burdened with a 19- billion-dollar budget deficit.

With an entourage of about 30 state employees, Schwarzenegger will be feted by an Internet tycoon in China, ride the fabled bullet train in Japan and visit U.S. troops in the Republic of Korea, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Among the goals of this mission, which begins with a private jet flight for the governor, is to encourage Asian builders to bid for work on California's high-speed rail line, the paper said.

Schwarzenegger hopes increased competition will help lower the ultimate cost of the project, his spokesman Aaron McLear said.

The governor, and dozens of business leaders who are paying their own way to accompany him, will build relationships in a region whose citizens bought more than 27 billion dollars in California exports last year and spent 1.3 billion visiting the state, according to McLear.

"The easy thing to do is to raise more taxes, but that will stifle our economy," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference in Silicon Valley on Wednesday. "The right thing to do is go on trade missions ... and create more revenue for the state."

Source: Xinhua