CIG CEO Keynote Speech at the CIV 2001Zhu Xinmin, vice president of the People's Daily, Xie Shengwu, president of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Wang Yunxiang, general consul of Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco, Myron Brilliant, managing director of US Chamber of Commerce and Wu Minchun (Michelle Wu), chairman and CEO of China Internet Group (CIG), made keynote speeches in the opening ceremony. Dr. Michelle Wu, Chairman and CEO of China Internet Group gave her speech titled "the Silk Road in the New Economy". The following is the full text of her speech: Good morning ladies and gentlemen, It is my great pleasure to welcome the esteemed guests and many new friends to the China Info-Tech Venture 2001. For those of you who are in Shanghai for the first time, I hope you'll have a little time to do some sightseeing; Shanghai is a great city with lots to see and do. For those of you still suffering from jet lag after crossing the international dateline, we have plenty of Green tea available. Talking about green tea, we all know the famous ancient silkroad, through which China was trading with the western world with its tea and silk, in return for silver and clocks. China has achieved great feats in the past such as the Great Wall but also has contributed to improving life throughout history by the inventions of paper, the clock, and spaghetti, and of course the world's first fully portable notebook sized super-computer, the abacus. Modern transportation and communications allows us to avoid many of the hazards that Marco Polo faced when he first traveled the long road over the desert and ocean to China. International executives and financiers can meet with local government officials, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs face-to-face at conferences like this, network with people at the same caliber, share thoughts on the market trend, discuss with experts and learn from other people's experience, close important business deals, and market products and services towards targeted decision makers. Ancient China is showing its new charm. China with its 1.3 billion population has great attractiveness in the market place. Its economic size recently was calculated at 9.1trillion RMB; or $1.1trillion USD in 2000. GDP Growth was an 8.3% average from the years 1996-2000 and is expected to be at 8% in 2001. Of the Major exports in the year 2000, Computers and telecomm equipment accounted for 10.8% of the total, and of the Major imports in the year 2000, computers and telecomm equipment accounted for 9.2% of total. Foreign Direct Investment continues to grow and increased 12.4% from a year earlier to almost US$11 billion in the first four months of the year, compared with an 11.7% rise in the first quarter. Meanwhile, capital expenditure grew by 16.5% during the same period, as the government continued to pour funds into infrastructure projects. In the financial sector the Stock market hits all time high, the Shanghai Stock Exchange reached over 2200 in late May and is still trading above that level, a sharp comparison with the falling of Nasdaq. Comes with the great opportunities, there are also risks for investing and doing businesses in China. The laws and regulations may not be most updated to apply to the new technology development, the lack of experienced talents, the modern management process in financial structure, the exit strategy for foreign venture capital investments, all these can present challenges and culture shock for foreign capital and corporations. However, as said by the old Strategist Sun Zi, "zhi ji zhi bi, bai zhan bu dai", knowing what you are getting into, will make you the journey to China smooth and help to achieve a great success. During the conference, we will discuss hot topics such as CDMA and new generation of wireless technology, The Opportunities and Challenges of Broadband in China, Then, Corporate IT infrastructure, The Outlook of China's Media Industry in New Economy, The Infrastructure and Business Model of Data Centers, and one of the most popular panels in all of our conferences, the VC Opportunities in China. There is a tremendous amount of information and experience we can benefit from the panels so be sure to attend as many as you can. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Information Industry, Shanghai Municipal Government, General Consulate of China at United States in San Francisco and Shanghai Jiaotong University for their full support. I am also grateful for our headline sponsor Qualcomm, and other sponsors including Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park Development Corp, Crystal Internet Ventures, and other sponsors who made this event possible. We also want to thank all speakers who take the time out of their busy schedule to contribute to the conference. I hope that this conference acts a catalyst not only for commercial ventures but as we work closer together to help and mutually develop our business concerns, I hope that our meeting here also acts as a catalyst for lasting friendships. I wish you all a safe and prosperous journey as we all travel down the new Silk Road. This time however, unlike Marco Polo, we will not travel this path alone. We will travel as partners and friends and again unlike Marco Polo, this time we all get maps! Thank you and I wish you all the greatest of success and fulfillment of your dreams! Enjoy the conference! - Michelle By PD staff member Shi Jiangmin, Du Minghua |
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