Transcript: China Chat
Simon: One area we're starting to see China make itself felt is in the area of technical standards. It think the Chinese recognize that over the last 20 plus years that they've had the open policy that they've been paying licensing fees or sometimes been accused of not paying licensing fees, but they clearly see that they have a role to participate in the setting of global technical standards in everything from Wi-Fi to new consumer electronics products. It's going to be an important period of time that we're now entering where we'll see whether or not the Chinese by virtue of the weight of the size of their market bring to bear their influence in helping to set those technical standards, and in particular, I think one of the interesting things we've started to see are discussions between Japan, Korea and China about using the influence of the three markets together as a way to help the Asia begin to influence Western technical standards in the future.
Utley: Professor Xue how do you view this, the creative side, the innovative side, of the Chinese work force looking in the years ahead, vis-a-vis the highly competitive manufacturing side?
Xue: We still have to wait some years for that potential to fully blossom. The major state-owned enterprises are still going through major reform, major transformation. so I think a lot of the innovative capabilities of those firms are still yet to be explored. And also I think a lot of the private firms are beginning to change the way they grow. Apparently they borrow the technology and basically just do the simple manufacturing, assembly and so on. But now they are beginning to invest in R&D and try to develop their own products. So I would say that in the coming decades I think those firms are going to be the real players in the market.
Utley: Many Chinese companies said, we have enough of a potential market in China to keep us busy for years if not decades to come. We're not knowledgeable about the global market environment so we're going to stay home. Others were saying "No" like Lenovo buying IBM's PC business, it's time to go global. Now obviously going global, if you look at the Japan story over the past several decades was key to Japan's post-World War II's recovery and prosperity. To what extent do you see China going global as businesses, as companies in a significant way over the next coming years, particularly their manufacturing industry?
Komesaroff: I would say certainly the mining of metals area and the energy area, there's no doubt that there is a strong thrust supported by the government to acquire offshore mining and metals companies. They finally need to secure raw materials. You've seen it with CNOOC and Sinopec acquiring stakes in oil fields around the world, so I think in those sort of industries that is very much the case, there's a desire to become global.
Fischer: We're seeing them in a variety of industries that are closer to manufacturing products. Hauwei, for example, in telecom systems. I was in Best Buy in New York last Friday night or Thursday night and many of the refrigerators there for sale were from Haier, a quasi state owned company/ I think TCL's purchase of the Alcatelhand set business and Shanghai Automotive's flirtation with Rover and MG, all illustrations of Chinese companies, who are very ambitious and I think who see international competition as a way of raising their own competitiveness
advertisement
