Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will undoubtedly be watching poll returns closely Tuesday, but Wednesday he heads to Israel and India for about 12 days for his third major trade mission as governor.
Mr. McDonnell, Republican, said Tuesday morning on his monthly call-in show on WNIS Norfolk that the Virginia delegation will talk with Israeli companies that already do business in the state and ones that they want to attract to the state, either through direct foreign investment or job expansion. Another goal will be to expand Virginia exports to Israel.
Mr. McDonnell is also scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu during the trip.
After that, he’ll head to India.
“India’s a huge market — 1.3 billion people — there are tremendous opportunities for agricultural exports,” he said.
Mr. McDonnell visited China, Korea and Japan in the spring, and said the state was already seeing significant benefits from the trip, in the way of soybeans, wine, beef and chicken exports, as well as other agreements in the process of being reached.
“If you want the sale, you’ve got to look your customer in the eye and say, ‘I want your business, and here’s why,’ ” McDonnell said. “I think we’re going to get a lot of good things done here in the next couple weeks.”
In addition to his trip to the far east, Mr. McDonnell visited the United Kingdom, Germany in the Netherlands in July 2010.
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