Interview: Steve Forbes on China's economic landscape

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Interview: Steve Forbes on China's economic landscape

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When a Globe-like Forbes hot balloon drifted above Shanghai's booming Pudong New District Tuesday afternoon, Steve Forbes, who was on board the balloon as the Forbes family ritual demands, must have thought of his legendary father Malcolm Forbes.

It took the American media tycoon Malcolm Forbes three years to finally bring Forbes's hallmark hot-air balloon to China in 1982 to mark the friendship between China and the United States. However, 21 years later, his son Steve, now president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Forbes Inc. and editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine, not only easily launched his balloon in this China's most developed city but also attracted over 300 business leaders worldwide to attend the 2003 Forbes Global CEO Conference from Sept. 16 to 18.

This year's conference is themed "Energizing Global Business: The China Factor". It is the first time that the annual event has been held in China's mainland and the third time in a row that Forbes choose to assemble global business leaders in an Asian city since the Global Conference was launched in 2001. Such conferences were held in Singapore and Hong Kong in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

"The Chinese economy will continue to grow and the growth of China will be not only changing China but having more and more impact globally, " said Forbes during an interview with Xinhua while attending the conference on Tuesday.

As a columnist for the "Fact and Comment" of the Forbes Magazine, Steve Forbes is the only person who has won four times the prestigious Crystal Owl Award for making the most accurate economic predictions for the coming year.

The widely recognized economic prognosticator told Xinhua that as China grows in both manufacturing and technology, China will become an increasingly important factor in global economy.

He says China has to face some "very real challenges" such as "integrating with the World Trade Organization Agreement", a banking system that has to deal with bad loans with state-owned enterprises, and better developing the rural areas.

"These are positive problems rather than problems of moving backwards," he said.

In fact, Forbes's optimistic attitude toward China's economic situations have been honestly reflected in the growing attention that the Forbes Group has given to China over recent years.

From 1999 to 2002, Forbes Magazine launched the China Rich List for four straight years and attracted wide attention.

Commenting on the fact that a few of the listed Chinese businessmen were later punished for breaking laws, Steve Forbes said that the Forbes list only aims to "take a photo of who has succeeded at a particular moment" and there are "always people doing things that they shouldn't do".

In fact, in order to further tap the Chinese market, Forbes launched a Chinese language edition of the magazine in March 2003,introducing both successful business experiences and failed entrepreneurship attempts to Chinese business people, whose number is now increasing in leaps and bounds.

To encourage entrepreneurship in China, Steve Forbes expects the magazine, "Forbes China" to be "useful in stimulating ideas and giving Chinese entrepreneurs some good lessons." (Xinhua News)

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