Young businesspeople expect more interaction with the world

BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- "Eyes on the world" is the life motto of 31-year-old Zhao Chenli.

After graduating from university in 2016, Zhao started her career at Hengtong Optic-Electric Co., Ltd., China's leading optical fiber and cable manufacturer in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province.

Since 2018, Zhao has worked to help the company quicken its overseas expansion.

"The biggest obstacle to developing overseas markets is language and cultural differences," said Zhao.

"I am willing to constantly keep learning about cultures of other countries for better communication and business expansion."

As beneficiaries of economic globalization, many young Chinese businesspeople aspire to better interact with the world.

The younger generation was born in the years after China launched the reform and opening-up drive in 1978. They grew up in a period of robust economic growth as the country actively embraced the world.

Many of them attended universities, with some even studying overseas. After graduation, many work in professions that do business with overseas clients.

Nowadays, Hengtong Optic-Electric Co., Ltd., with a 15 percent share of the global fiber-optic network market, runs 11 industrial bases globally, with its business covering more than 100 countries and regions.

"Dealing with overseas businesses helps deepen my understanding of globalization and broadens my international vision," said Zhao.

Unlike Zhao, Wang Xiangpeng received his college education in Britain.

Wang graduated from University College London and became general manager of a family business in Dongshi township of east China's Fujian Province.

In 2019, the Fujian Youanna Umbrella Technology Co., Ltd., run by Wang and his father, acquired an Italian luggage and umbrella brand. After decades of growth, the private business has grown from a family workshop into a company with a workforce of over 700 and an annual output value of 300 million yuan (about 46.5 million U.S. dollars).

"We hope to bring the foreign brand to the huge domestic market to provide a diversity of consumer goods for citizens," Wang said.

With managerial expertise learned overseas, Wang has been helping optimize corporate governance and overseas expansion. The company has set up factories or sales outlets in countries like Bangladesh, Russia, Italy and Spain, with exports of umbrellas reaching 20 million U.S. dollars a year.

"Thanks to the opening-up policy and global market, Dongshi township has become a renowned umbrella production base," Wang said. Dubbed China's umbrella capital with over 300 umbrella makers, the township churns out over 500 million umbrellas a year, accounting for 30 percent of the global output.

"Overseas study experience helps me do good business with Western clients."

Xu Dandan, a 37-year-old tourist guide in Shanghai, joined the Shanghai Spring International Travel Service Co., Ltd. in 2016, bringing outbound Chinese tourists to many countries.

Xu's work was affected as the COVID-19 pandemic brought a collapse to global travel. But thanks to effective control measures, the domestic travel market has fully recovered, and Xu began to serve domestic and overseas tourists in the home market.

Xu and her colleagues designed a special tourism route for double-decker sightseeing buses in Shanghai that are run by her company and started operation in late May.

"The popular sightseeing bus service is a window for foreigners to learn more about Shanghai," Xu said. "We hope to present foreign visitors more vividly the history of Shanghai and its culture."