By Carol Coultas,Business Writer

LEWISTON – Stephen Franck’s new office in the Maine International Trade Center is a little bit cramped.

But that shouldn’t bother Franck any. He’s lived in some of the most crowded cities in the world: Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai.

So he’s well suited to his new job – director of the greater China desk for the MITC. His goal is to increase exports of Maine products to China and its 1.3 billion inhabitants.

“I see myself marketing Maine to the world,” said Franck, a 1982 graduate of Edward Little High School. “If I could go out and find a company not doing business now in China, and interest them in China as an export market, and then see them succeed … that would be wonderful.”

Franck got his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Maine system, then struck out to see the world. He ended up in Taiwan in 1989 and fell in love with the language and the land.

“It’s a fascinating place,” he said of Asia, where he lived throughout most of the ’90s. “It’s so different from anything I could have ever imagined.”

His most recent job in China was as an attorney in international trade law and foreign investment with a firm in Taipai, the capital city of Taiwan.

But he missed Maine.

“Almost everybody who grows up in Maine misses the walks in the woods and the things that make it special,” he said. “I just wanted to come home.”

Coincidentally, the MITC was creating a China desk to handle inquiries and offer expertise on trading with Asia. Richard Coyne, director of MITC, said it’s an emerging market for Maine’s booming exports. Last year the state reported exports of $2.4 billion placing it ninth in the country in terms of export growth between 2000 and 2004.

“We found we were getting a record level of inquiries,” said Coyne. CEOs were calling asking whether they should enter the Chinese market, asking about rules and regulations, issues with intellectual property and available resources.

Coyne said the MITC handles those types of inquiries for markets around the world. If they don’t have the answers at hand, they dig until they do. With Franck on board, it’s like having a one-stop shop for China trade questions.

“His level of contacts and depth of understanding are what make the difference,” he said.

Franck said he intends to establish contacts with the central bank of China. He said business in China is very much relationship based and he’s hoping to line up people in Maine with experience in Asia.

“I think the relationship part of doing business is more important there than in any other part of the world,” said Franck.

China, in particular, is a market ripe for Maine products. In 2000, Maine exported $23 million in goods to the People’s Republic. In 2004, it was $112 million, a 387-percent increase.

The growth has come primarily in exports of pulp and paper goods, and to a lesser extent, leather goods, electronic components and agricultural products.

Franck said it was fascinating to see the changes in China. When he visited in 1990, there were tiny glimmers of private enterprise – small stands of bike rentals or little restaurants that catered to tourists.

When he went back in 1997, entrepreneurship had mushroomed. There were multinational corporations. Shanghai had five-star restaurants and shops that rivaled those on Rodeo Drive.

And some of those small businessmen who had been renting bikes to tourists had become wealthy real estate developers.

“The growth was just amazing,” he said.