Acbo Call Centre

China to Become the World’s Largest Importer

by 2014

Share and Enjoy

CHINESE MIDDLE CLASSES A FORCE TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY

We have heard a lot about China becoming the world’s largest this and that. In 2009, when the world was in recession, China leapfrogged the U.S. to become the world’s largest auto market. In 2010, China overtook Germany as the world’s largest exporter. This year, China is likely to surpass Japan to become the world’s largest luxury goods market.

So, it shouldn’t be a surprise when The Economist predicts that China will become the world’s largest importer by 2014. Yet, many skeptics still doubt China’s potential to be a stronghold of the world economy.

Last month, I was on BBC World News to discuss the eurozone debt crisis and whether Chinese consumers can make a difference in the world economy.  My discussion partner Johathon Holslag from the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies argued that Chinese consumption is still far below its production, and people should not be over optimistic about China rescuing the world economy. See the discussion video below:

Yes, official statistics show that consumption is only 34 percent of China’s GDP (compared to 70 percent in the U.S.). While the West’s economy is imbalanced with over-spending, the Chinese economy is imbalanced with under-consumption. However, this dynamic is changing. When I travel in China, I can clearly see the consumption boom in China’s large and small cities. Retail has been growing like a wildfire in recent years.

While it is not China’s role to save the world economy, it is in China’s best interest to balance its own economy toward domestic consumption. In so doing, China serves as a counter-balance of over-spending Western economies.  China may not want to bail out Italy or Greece, but China can provide opportunities for these troubled economies to get their own house in order.

As matter of fact, China has already helped. The Chinese middle class is creating enormous opportunities for Western companies selling into China. Europe’s exports to China have been growing steadily. In the first half of 2010, Germany’s exports to China increased 55 percent. Exports from other EU countries such as France and Italy all had double-digit increase for the same period.

Many Western brands are doing extremely well in China. For example, Chinese consumers prefer to pay a premium price for furniture that is made in Italy. The UK-listed retailer Burberry has opened 60 stores in China and plans to have 100 stores in the near future. Western automakers, from Volkswagen to Bentley to General Motors, are enjoying huge success in China.

In the coming years, China’s economy may slow down a little, but will still grow at least at 7 or 8 percent. There are plenty of opportunities for Western companies to take advantage of China’s growing middle class. For companies that want to export to China, here are a few useful tips:

• Check out your local Chamber of Commerce or Export Assistance Center and familiarize yourselves with legal and regulatory issues in China. These facilities also have a lot of resources and services that can help you develop China market entry strategies and find the right business partners.
• Consider rebranding or repositioning your products in China. Remember, what works in your native country may not work in China. You really need to learn about Chinese culture, understand Chinese consumers, and adapt your products and services to the China market.
• For smaller brands, e-commerce is a great way to break into the China market without significant upfront cost. China’s ecommerce has been growing at 60 percent each year in recent years. More than 100 million Chinese shopped online last year. And China’s Internet users are expected to reach 750 million in 2015.

According to Credit Suisse, China will become the largest consumer market in the world by 2020. In the past, all the predictions about China have proved to be on the conservative side. With all its problems and potential crises, China somehow has managed to astonish the world again and again.

Helen H. Wang is the author of The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World’s Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Share and Enjoy

CHINESE TOLD BY WORLDS BIGGEST BANK TO INVEST IN AUSTRALIA

THE CEO of China’s largest bank has called for more direct investment from his country into the resource-rich regions of the world – primarily Australia, Africa and Latin America – in order to avoid the ”resource bottlenecks” that are hurting China’s economy.

As the breakneck speed of China’s economic boom starts to slow – this week major players in the country’s steel industry revealed they are struggling to make a profit – Jian Jianqing, chief executive of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, has called for increased foreign investment to secure vital natural resources.

Mr Jian also said China should follow the lead of Japan in the 1980s and manufacture overseas to avoid political backlash and potential trade barriers from developed nations. He cited the Japanese car industry, which has built factories around the world.

”The government should use preferential policy to encourage companies to invest in resources-rich regions. Intensifying the investment in natural resources could help China to overcome resources bottleneck during the period of its rapid industrialisation,” Mr Jian wrote in an article for Caijing magazine.

Mr Jian argued that more Chinese investment abroad could address the country’s over-reliance on exports and domestic investment in construction.

Mr Jian also urged better management of the Chinese investment projects abroad through enhanced legal and policy frameworks.

”The government should provide better support to privately-owned firms’ investing,” he said.

”The state-owned enterprises should be held accountable for their investment decisions from the perspective of shareholders.”

Laurie Pearcey, the CEO of Australia China Business Council, said Beijing had tightened up its outbound investment process and companies had been asked to undertake more due diligence before committing themselves to projects in Australia & abroad generally.

”National Development and Reform Commission [the key ministry responsible for overseas investment] is applying a much more robust due diligence test when it comes to approving Chinese investment offshore. Chinese businesses need to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the project and good cost management,” said Mr Pearcey.

Australia is now the single largest destination for direct Chinese investment. The Foreign Investment Review Board had approved more than $60 billion worth of Chinese investment projects under the current Labor government and mostly in natural resources as of late last year.

A total of $US34 billion was invested here between January 2005 and December 2010, according to Heritage Foundation, an American think tank. The Economist intelligence unit also ranked Australia as the largest Chinese foreign direct investment destination outside of Asia.

That rate of investment has slowed, in the aftermath of a string of bad Chinese investments in Australia.

The head of Sinosteel, Huang Tianwen, a major Chinese state-owned enterprise and an investor in Australia, reportedly lost his job due to investments that had gone belly-up in WA.

ICBC, considered the world’s biggest bank, has more than 16,000 branches in China, with 260 million personal customers. Its rapid expansion in Australia has seen assets increase from $630 million in 2009 to $3.5 billion this year.

Share and Enjoy

THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO INVEST INTO THE HOUSING MARKET IN AMERICA.FABULOUS HOMES ON SALE AT NEVER SEEN BEFORE PRICES AND SHOWING HUGE RENTAL RETURNS ON YOUR INVESTMENT

RETURNS OF 16-40% ARE NOT UNCOMMON

JUST SEND US YOUR CONTACT DETAILS AND WE WILL SEND YOU A FREE PROPERTY REPORT SO YOU CAN SEE FOR YOURSELF

Send us your details now here and we will email you back a

FREE PROPERTY REPORT so you can assess it for yourself

Share and Enjoy

 Li Binlan

Age: 56

2011 net worth (US$): 1 billion

2010 net worth (US$): NA

General ranking: 135

Company: A Best

Headquarters: Guangdong

Title: Chairwoman

Main focus: Retail

A newcomer on this year’s list, Li Binlan’s reputation as a strong-willed and visionary leader has earned her the nickname “Iron Lady of Retail.” Her reign at A Best has seen the company expand rapidly since its first supermarket opened in Bao’an, Shenzhen, in 1995 to more than 100 stores across the country today. Last year, the company reported a US$2.6 billion operations revenue, ranking 22nd in China’s retail industry.

(10) Liu Xiaomeng

Age: 56

2011 net worth (US$): 1 billion

2010 net worth (US$): 980 million

General ranking: 135

Company: Suning Appliance Group Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: Jiangsu

Title: Director of Fund Settlement Center

Main focus: Retail – appliances

Very little is known about Liu Xiaomeng, 56, who has kept a very low public profile. She helped to start Suning, one of the largest electrical appliance retailers in China, in 1990. Since then, the company has grown to include nearly 1,400 franchised stores in China and Japan, going public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2004. In 2010, Suning made US$24.4 billion in revenue and has a brand value worth US$7.94 billion. Liu, as one of the company’s “old heads,” now has a 42 percent stake.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Share and Enjoy

SICKENING SPECTACLE THAT IS THE AFRICAN STATE OF THE CONGO

Mariam

Mariam Twaibu Shirika isn’t strong enough to work after the injuries she sustained when she was raped in her home 18 months ago. Now living in Goma in accommodation provided by Women for Women. Has three surviving children, three others died of illness in 1989.

My name is Miriam Shirika and I am weak. I am in the women’s group because of housing problems.

I was living with my mum, my children and my siblings in a tent where I also had a small stall.

On December 5, 2007, thugs broke into my house. They took everything that I had at that time. They broke in a second time on December 27th. They met nothing so they decided to rape.

There were four. They were in civilian clothing not in military clothing, and they were speaking Kinyrwandan, the language from Rwanda.

They tore everything with a knife, everything: all the clothes. They raped me before my brothers, my sister, my mother, my uncle and the children. So they intimidated them.

They did this act in their presence, they blocked my shoulders and they started to rape me in the presence of all.

The aim was to rape me and my children together. They stopped as I was struggling a lot. One of them locked my shoulder this side, another this side, another one took this leg, pulling it so one of them succeeded in raping me. My children were there and the children saw everything so I’m quite sure it affected them, my children.

The children were there, my mother was there, everybody was there. I was very ashamed because they were seeing me at every moment, my nakedness at every moment.

When I was raped I was mentally upset. I could be walking along the road, not concentrating. I couldn’t even see the car that was coming.

Then one day the [Women for Women] enrolment team was passing by. They met me and they saw that I had a problem and they took me as a special case.

I would go crazy but Women for Women are giving me morale and hope and they showed me how to live again and that’s why I’m trying to be strong for the sake of my children. And now I am getting a little bit better as we are getting the training about trauma.

Since that time I have stopped selling as I do not feel strong enough to do any activity.

I’m living in a house I rent for $3 a month. It’s in a very critical bad condition. When it rains I get wet. I am living like a bird, I don’t know whether I am going to eat or not.

I have a boy and two daughters. The first one is in high school, 6th form, but now he is not going to school. I can’t pay the school fees. He is now 24 years old.

The youngest daughter is in year five. She’ll be 13 in July.

The other daughter is now a street girl, she is not living with me now. She is 15 years old. I haven’t seen her for one month now. I don’t know what’s going on. I think she has met with some friends who are better off, who are from another class other than mine. And I even don’t have time to look for her because I have to struggle for the other one just to get something, just food.

When I moved I felt a little bit relieved. I couldn’t talk with [my children] about such an issue.

What can I tell them? I don’t know what to tell them. Even the relationship with my 15-year-old has worsened. I’m ashamed of myself, of what happened. I don’t feel responsible for those children.

Yafanshize

Yafanshize Nihargwe was married at 17 and is now 22 years old. She and her husband were farmers in Massisi. She has been at Heal Africa in Goma since April 2004 with fistula, after being gang raped by soldiers while she was fleeing her home.

When I was eight months pregnant [my husband and I] ran away because of war.

One night we were in a field and we were visited by soldiers. Six soldiers took me and raped me, and then they took my husband. If he died or if he is alive, I don’t know.

And when they raped me, as I was eight months pregnant, the water began to break.

And then during the morning the ones who ran away far from where [the soldiers] were began to look for people who had died, and found that I was alive.

They took me up to the road and they brought me here to Goma. And [Heal Africa] begin to treat me.

There were so many patients at the hospital, so then they brought me here (to Heal Africa transit centre accommodation).

Now I have had five surgeries. I haven’t recovered yet and I am waiting for the sixth one.

The Interhamwe took my husband and I don’t know where he is. Sometimes when I think about my husband and how they took him, I think that he died.

My parents died while they were walking from the war. I have one brother and one sister left in Massisi. Five were killed during the war.

I used to pray and if God helps me to be well, to recover I will work only for God.

In a future life I cannot cultivate like before they raped me. Now if I am well I would go to the road with a machine and begin to sew for people.

If I recover I will get a place here in Goma, I can’t go back to Massisi. They say in Massisi the war continues, how could I go back?

Zamunda

Zamunda Sikujuwa is 53 years old. Mai Mai rebels raped her and killed her husband and children in 2006. She blames her relatives for turning to the rebels and causing the attack.

I’m here for treatment for the way they broke my body.

I came from Kindu because I was left with nothing, not even my children. That’s what brought me here to Heal Africa.

Local soldiers and Mai Mai arrived in the village. After five days, seven people came and we had to give them money.

One night at 4am there was a big attack by soldiers. Then they took my husband.

The children were there and they brought the husband into the room, and they killed him. The children were killed at the same moment.

Then they entered the room and they put a gun into my private part.

People from across the road took me to a local hospital. A priest had me flown to Baucavu. I had surgery in Baucavu.

If I went back to Kindu [the soldiers] said they would cut up my body and eat my body so I have to stay in Goma. If I went back to Kindu I would die.

In the beginning was very difficult to walk.

I need to find somewhere to live.

I wake up every night thinking of my husband and my children. I wish sometimes soldiers would have killed me so I can’t live. I don’t have anywhere to go and no one to care for me.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Share and Enjoy

INTERNET LANGUAGES ARE MANY & COMBINED ARE NOT ENGLISH

Five hundred and thirty seven million people use the Web in English; 445 million use it in Chinese. Yet the vast majority of users, 985 million people, navigate the Web in other languages.

“Although every Web site is global from the moment it goes live, few are designed with a worldly aspect,” says author John Yunker. Companies miss crucial opportunities if they don’t address a global audience. Research shows that people prefer to visit Web sites written in their own language.

A Eurobarometer survey, for example, found that 90 percent of European Web site users will always visit a Web site in their own language if they are offered a choice. Only 53 percent of users would choose to use an English Web site in place of one in their own language. Up to 60 percent of users who did navigate to an English language website expressed missing interesting information. In some countries, users only watch and read online content in their own language. This reluctance extends to buying products. A paltry 18 percent of users surveyed said they would “frequently or always buy products in a foreign language.”

Businesses ignore translation and localization at their own peril. The rise of the Millennial generation underlines the need for these tools. People under the age of 30 comprise more than half of the world’s population. The majority of Millennials live in China, Africa, South America, and other countries with per capita incomes of less than $1,000 per year. More than half of the users in China, which is expected to surpass the U.S. in terms of Internet users by 2013, are under the age of 25. Most U.S. Internet users are between 18 and 29 years old, according to a December 2010 Pew Internet survey.

Millennials are poised to make big changes to the global economy. The world is facing a peak population of 9.7 billion estimated for the middle of the century, an aging global workforce, and decreasing fertility rates. It is ready for the Millennial business model, which focuses on social causes in addition to the bottom line. An entrepreneurial group, Millennials harness widespread access to information and markets to collaborate internationally. Lower equipment costs, improved telecommunications infrastructure, and widespread mobile adoption around the world have ensured that almost everyone can connect easily and cheaply. Income no longer presents an insurmountable barrier to entry.

In many ways, big organizations are on the same page as millennials. A hypercompetitive economy has forced corporations to decrease their response times around both market and stakeholder needs. As a result, collaboration has to be efficient and take place on a global scale. Corporations have flattened their organizational hierarchies and become more flexible. Offshoring and outsourcing have led to a more diverse, multilingual global workforce, even within the same organization. Within this context it is essential to have training, marketing and technical materials available in relevant languages so that global teams can collaborate and work more efficiently.

Meeting Translation Needs

International collaboration is a must in the modern, Millennial-driven economy. Still, most translation options are one-size-fits-all solutions that don’t address a company’s unique needs. Hiring a good human translator is the traditional course of action. But at an industry-standard rate of 23 cents per word, the average millennial entrepreneur, who probably comes from a country with a low per-capita income, wouldn’t foot the cost. Considering the increasing predominance of social media within the organization, combined with how quickly content ages online, the time it takes to find the right translator, communicate the parameters of the project, find a project manager, wait for the translator to finish, then correct the content could cost a company its competitive edge & position.

One recent alternative, machine translation, is fast and free. But it doesn’t guarantee quality. The solution lies in combining the speed and low price of machine translation with the expertise of humans. Corporations today need a collaborative translation platform, which leverages both technology and crowds to create custom translation solutions. Through a combination of software and humans, analyzed and customized translations can match the level of importance of content. Instead of applying a uniform solution to unique needs, companies can match the workflow to the job at hand.

Millennials and multinationals alike benefit from fast, accurate, and cost-effective translation. In the new global economy, massive international collaboration is a core facet of doing business. The need for localized content and translation is no longer a luxury. It’s an absolute bare necessity.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Share and Enjoy