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News Analysis: Why World Economic Giants Cherish Special Interests in China

The most influential business giants in the world will gather at the Shanghai International Convention Center September 27 morning for the grand opening of the '99 Fortune Global Forum, universally acknowledged as an occasion to "stimulate thoughts of creation".
During the three-day forum, presidents and CEOs of the top 300 multinational corporations and celebrated politicians and scholars from around the world, will discuss, along with 200 Chinese entrepreneurs, the topic: "China, the next 50 years."
Chinese President Jiang Zemin will announce the opening of the Fortune Global Forum which will run September 27 to 29 and deliver a keynote address to the opening session.
The Fortune Global Forum, established by US-based Time Warner Inc. in 1995, chooses the city with the most vigorous economy in which to hold the forum each year.
As each forum focuses its agenda on hot topics of world economic development, it is a meeting of high-level business executives and a window through which to observe global economic trend.
The current forum will be larger than any of the four previous forums.
Why has the Fortune Global Forum selected Shanghai as the venue and shows such great interest in China?
Xie Kang, director of the Multinational Corporation Research Office under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said, "It was unimaginable 20 years ago that global economic giants would assemble in Shanghai to discuss the topic of China's future development. But present-day China is a unique attraction, with rapid and sustained economic growth. "
The Fortune Forum conducts an investigation prior to deciding the venue for each global forum, and Shanghai came out on top this year. The previous four meetings were held in Singapore, Barcelona, Bangkok and Budapest. Before this year's decision was finalized, Gerald Levin, chairman of Time Warner Inc. headed a delegation to China.
It was demonstrated to their satisfaction that China is now a vital place in the wake of two decades of economic reforms. During this period, the gross domestic product (GDP) of China grew at an annual rate of 9.7 percent, and the country now ranks seventh in the world in terms of economic development. It was the world's eleventh-largest trading power in 1998, compared to the thirty- second ranking in 1978. The country has approved the establishment of 324,000 enterprises created with direct foreign investment, involving a contractual value of 573.2 billion US dollars, the second-largest in the world, behind only the United States.
Shanghai, located in the dynamic economic belt of China's eastern coast, embarked on the road of rapid growth by opening the Pudong New Area to the outside world.
Last year, Shanghai's per capita GDP exceeded 28,000 yuan, ranking first in the country. More than 20,000 foreign-funded firms have been set up in Shanghai, with some 130 of the top 500 multinational corporations among them. The city has emerged as the "dragon head" of economic growth at the Yangtze River delta and the country as a whole.
Long-term political stability and all-round social development are other reasons for the great interest shown by major world businesses. Levin and his party drew their conclusion: China's economy has great prospects and enormous potential, and is an ideal partner for multinational corporations seeking new avenues for development.
The decision to hold the annual forum in China has aroused the active interest of many multinationals including General Motors, Ford, Sony, Procter & Gamble, Dell, Kodak, Toshiba and Nokia. Douglas Ivester, chairman of the Coca-Cola Company, and his rival, Pepsi Co. Chairman Roger Enrico, will be sitting in the same hall during this year's forum.
According to the latest statistics, executives from 60 multinational corporations among the leading 500 corporations worldwide, as selected by Fortune magazine, will attend the meeting. Also present will be former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
John Huey, managing editor of Fortune magazine, said that the heads of all multinational corporations are eager to gain a better understanding of China and hope to have direct dialogues with China's economic leaders, because China has greater latent potential for economic growth than any other country.
The US-based General Motors (GE) Corp, number one on the list of the 500 multinational corporations, has set up five enterprises, operating either as joint ventures or as exclusive investments in China.
GE President Richard Wagoner said his corporation expects to be a strategic partner with China because a country with a population of more than 1 billion is a market of strong appeal in scale and potential.
Durk Jager, president and CEO of Procter & Gamble, which has opened 11 firms in China, has shown great interest in the Chinese market. The achievements Procter & Gamble has made over the past 10 years derive from rapid economic growth and an improved investment environment in China, he said.
"I believe a more open and prosperous China is sure to provide even bigger room for us," he added.
Forum participants have every reason to be confident about China's economic development. This month, China promulgated a series of new policies for expanding the use of foreign funds, opening its service market to the outside world, encouraging technical innovation by foreign-funded enterprises, and offering financial support to foreign-funded firms. The policies aim to integrate China's economic growth with that of other countries to make still greater contributions to global economic development in the 21st century.
A resolution on the reforms of state-owned enterprises adopted at the just-concluded Fourth Plenum of the 15th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is bound to accelerate China's pace of economic reforms and opening.
Most experts believe that all this will make China even more appealing to overseas investors. (Xinhua)

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