China Economy Forum

[qwerrty]

the biggest winner is japan's softbank

 

[qwerrty]

china still suck at football

 

[cirr]

I will visit South Korea eventually because my soon to be mother-in law lives there. LOL

Congratulations。

Korean wives are much better than Chinese ones。

Korean women really really tend to their men。

No house chores for men。Men not allowed in the kitchen。。。。。

 

[TaiShang]

Chinese firms increase presence in Indonesia

China's SINOHYDRO Corporation has teamed up with Indonesian firms to build Indonesia's second largest dam, the Jatigede Dam. It is one of many Chinese companies seeking to increase their presence in Indonesia.

​

China's Sinohydro Corporation has teamed up with Indonesian firms to build Indonesia's second largest dam, the Jatigede Dam. [China.org.cn]

During the construction period, the project has created more than 2,000 local jobs for the local people. Upon completion, the project will provide irrigation for around 90.000 hectares of rice fields in the Indramayu and Cirebon regions.

SINOHYDRO has contracted to construct the project, largely funded by the Export-Import Bank of China. The main purpose of the dam is to irrigate land and provide drinking water to the local people.

The completion of the first phase of the project will deliver benefits to the local economy and improve the local life.

Due to its contributions to the local sustainability, the water conservancy project is so important that, Chinese President Xi Jinping mentioned the project in a speech to Indonesia's parliament during his visit to the country last October.

The Beijing-based SINOHYDRO Corporation has been a poster child for Chinese assistance, with funds and technology in tow, to the development of the fourth most populous country in the world.

"The project doesnt only create jobs, but also acts as an enabler to help the local companies to enhance their technology," said by one of SINOHYDROs representative's for the project.

"The project hit a snag at the beginning due to the technical deficiency of the local staff. With the help of Chinese technicians, the project was able to move forward," he said.

Chinese's companies have been trying to better fit into the local environment. For instance, they employ local workers to prime the pump and bring in a third-party environmental agency to give a reliable environmental report on their projects.

Since the late 1990s, when the two countries restored diplomatic ties, Chinese investments have grown rapidly in Indonesia, and they run the gamut from hydropower to transport, financing to manufacturing.

Chinese companies are seeking to make good use of China funds to assist Indonesian economy as well as to bolster their presence in the market.

There have been some success stories. Huawei Technologies, for instance, has a large share of Indonesia's telecoms market in a partnership with mobile operator XL Axiata; and Haier, China's largest home appliances maker, acquired Sanyo's Indonesian household goods businesses in 2012.

Indonesia has revved up its efforts to improve its investment environment as its growing economy and stable political and social regime have made Indonesia a desirable investment destination.

The Indonesian government has put improving the business environment high on its list of priorities and has taken a series of reform measures.

Trade between China and Indonesia scored from US$16.5 billion in 2005 to more than US$66.2 billion in 2012.

​

China's Sinohydro Corporation has teamed up with Indonesian firms to build Indonesia's second largest dam, the Jatigede Dam. [China.org.cn]

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

china still suck at football

Practically every Asian nations suck to play it.

BTW, we care more about the economy and the military than we do care about the irrelevant football.

 

[TaiShang]

Smart City Development in China

Officials are turning to technology to improve efficiency and tackle problems in urban China.

The next time you visit Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, don’t forget to visit the app store first. In this historic Yangtze River city near Suzhou, you can check the arrival time of the next bus, make an appointment at a city hospital, and find parking spaces or public bicycles—all from your smartphone.

Zhenjiang city buses continuously report their position and operating characteristics to a “smart dispatch” control center, helping operators improve scheduling efficiency and reducing fuel use and emissions. In a pilot project, some buses are now also sporting fast 4G wireless internet for riders. According to the city, half a million riders a day are checking bus arrival times using smartphone apps, and the city is saving 6,700 tons of carbon dioxide and ¥17 million ($2.7 million) in fuel costs per year.

Although it was an early adopter, Zhenjiang is far from the only city in China trying to improve efficiency and service through technology. The central government has made development of smart city technology and projects a key national policy, and it’s now difficult to find a Chinese city of any size that does not have aspirations to be “smart.” With millions of rural migrants arriving every year and environmental and economic pressures mounting, Chinese cities can surely use all the smart they can get. But are smart city projects really a solution—or just the latest policy buzzword?

What is a smart city?

“Smart City” is a slippery term applied to everything from urban design to higher education policy. But the most accepted definition is the use of information technology to attack urban problems. Database and network systems developed in Silicon Valley to power Google, Amazon and Facebook—not to mention Taobao and WeChat—are now being connected to objects in the physical world such as meters, sensors, cameras, and control systems in pilot projects around the world. Smart city systems are managing traffic, stabilizing electric grids, allocating and coordinating emergency services, and providing more city information to people and managers than has ever been available before.

To date these systems have mostly been installed independently of each other. But multinational companies, including several from China, are now in a race to develop and deploy smart city platforms in which disparate systems communicate and share information. For example, if a sudden rainstorm flooded storm sewers in an area, sensors and social media traffic could quickly alert managers, who could then issue public announcements (again using social media), reroute traffic and public buses, and dispatch workers to resolve the problem. The leading example of this kind of connected and data-driven urban management is Rio de Janeiro’s Operations Center, set up by IBM in 2010. It coordinates information from 30 municipal and state agencies, and can manage traffic control and emergencies in real time. When three buildings collapsed in 2012, the operations center coordinated dispatching emergency personnel, closing nearby metro stops, and rerouting traffic.

More ominously, such systems offer an unprecedented level of surveillance and control of public spaces, and a means to assemble a tremendous amount of data on individual citizens. Worldwide, cities are still in the early stages of understanding and managing the capabilities these systems can provide, and smart city technology companies have also not been as proactive as they could be in addressing privacy and data security issues. In China, there has been little or no public discussion of this facet of the smart city vision, and some international companies, such as Cisco, have been criticized in their home markets for supplying China with surveillance technology.

For Chinese leaders, smart city technology looks like a win-win. For several decades, 20 million peasants a year have moved from the countryside to urban factories and construction sites, fueling China’s legendary economic rise. This immense migration is far from reaching an end: China is currently only half urban, less than other mid-level developing countries such as Malaysia (73 percent urban) or developed nations like the United States (80 percent), and the Chinese government is counting on further urbanization to support economic development. What is now worrying Beijing is whether cities can support an additional 100 million residents. Pollution, housing affordability, and traffic congestion are already taking a heavy toll, so policy-makers are looking urgently for ways to let cities continue to offer migrants a better life. At the same time, economic planners are pushing hard to transform China from the world’s export factory to a self-sufficient modern service economy, and smart city technology looks like a good investment.

A big bet on smart cities

This is the backdrop for China’s large and sustained bet on smart city projects. The 12th Five-Year Plan, which guides broad economic policy through 2015, specifically calls out smart city technology as a sector to be strengthened and encouraged, and ministries are jostling to sponsor programs and industry alliances. In 2012, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) organized the China Strategic Alliance of Smart City Industrial Technology Innovation. Last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) sponsored another group, the China Smart City Industry Alliance, and this year announced a ¥50 billion ($8 billion) fund to invest in smart city research and projects. A third group, the Smart City Development Alliance, was formed this spring by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Some companies are working with only one of these new groups, and some are involved with all three. At present there is little connection between the groups, which apparently exist to improve communications between industry participants and between industry and government and, in the case of at least the MIIT group, to coordinate investment.

The most far reaching effort, however, is led by the Ministry of Housing and Urban and Rural Development (MOHURD). Last year, MOHURD selected 193 local governments and economic development zones as official smart city pilot project sites, making them eligible for funding from a ¥100 billion ($16 billion) investment fund sponsored by the official China Development Bank. Investment from local government and private sources has also been growing fast: There’s no standard definition of the sector, but some estimates foresee ¥2 trillion ($320 billion) of investment into smart city development projects over the next 10 years. A more focused projection that I did for Navigant Research at the end of last year, looking only at the “smart” technology component in smart city projects, anticipated a cumulative market of $28.5 billion ($4.6 billion) over the next 10 years in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Defined broadly or narrowly, the investment will be huge.

These enormous sums, rapid technology advances, and vigorous marketing of smart city products from both domestic and international companies, have created a booming and chaotic marketplace. Both boosters and critics of smart cities are now concerned that local governments eager to juice their economies will see this indiscriminate encouragement as a blank check. In Beijing the effort now is to create standards and guidelines to manage this flood of new projects. This spring, all the ministries involved joined with the Standardization Administration of China to create working groups whose job is to manage and standardize smart city development, though their activities have not been publicized.

The private sector: smart city suppliers

The smart city sector is not a single industry, but an emerging collection of technologies cutting across many industries – transportation and utility infrastructure, network equipment, telecom and wireless, data analytics, electronics equipment, and software applications. To manage the torrent of information, applications rely heavily on new IT technologies such as cloud computing and “big data” analytics. Some companies—IBM and Cisco, for example—have made the smart city concept a centerpiece of their marketing efforts around the world, although no firm covers the entire industry chain. Currently, many disparate companies are extending their reach through partnerships and acquisitions. This has created alliances that would once have seemed incongruous. For instance, utility meter manufacturer Itron has teamed up with Microsoft to create a management app for Windows.

For international companies, huge opportunities in China are tempered by real challenges. The local government market is famously opaque, and smart city applications sometimes involve areas – digital mapping, for example – considered sensitive for non-Chinese firms. US firms in particular face increased scrutiny in the wake of the Congressional investigation of Huawei, the revelations of global NSA surveillance from whistle-blower Edward Snowden, and the US Justice Department’s recent move to name five members of the Chinese military to its most-wanted list for cyber-attacks against US companies. This last move has provoked several countermeasures from China, including the banning of Microsoft’s Windows 8 from government offices and the reported phasing out of IBM servers from Chinese banks. The recent announcement from the State Information Office that it would be testing the security (as yet undefined) of foreign information technology products and services, and barring those that do not pass, only further underscores the difficulties that international firms may face in China.

But the most significant challenge may be China’s rapidly maturing domestic competition. China is no longer a developing-nation market in which international companies compete only with one another. In typical fashion, Chinese firms have been adept at mastering technologies and shaking up markets, often by offering low prices. Huawei, for example, in 2012 assumed the title of world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, previously held by Ericsson. Telecom equipment manufacturer ZTE and integrated IT firm Digital China compete directly against international firms such as Ericsson and Oracle. And a host of smaller firms, primarily manufacturers and software application providers, are targeting the smart city market.

The situation is somewhat different for infrastructure-based providers like Siemens and Schneider Electric; their competitors tend to be state-owned, and large infrastructure projects often end up as collaborations between local and international firms. China’s two electric grid companies, State Grid and Southern Grid, as well as all three of its major telecoms, are actively developing smart grid policies and products and sponsoring pilot projects.

Yet with their strengths in technology, quality, and brand, international firms continue to expand. Their involvement in the development of smart city projects globally gives them a strong advantage that may not last, as Chinese firms move aggressively into developing markets elsewhere in Southeast Asia, India, Africa and Latin America—and occasionally into developed markets as well.

In China, there are many stand-alone projects based on a few core applications such as energy, transportation and government management platforms, but even at the pilot level there are not yet any comprehensive smart cities. But China has committed to its cities and is placing large hopes on technology to make them manageable and livable. The plans being prepared and submitted to MOHURD by nearly 200 demonstration sites have not been made public yet, but it will be surprising if there are not some groundbreaking projects among them. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the success of China’s smart city investment is one of the key conditions for the country’s continuing long-term prosperity.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Don Johnson (djohnson@ddj-consulting.com) is an urban planner, economist, and the principal of DDJ Consulting (DDJ Consulting | Urbanization, Urbanism and Technology in China Based in Shanghai, he has been leading planning and research projects across China for over seven years. He is the author of Navigant Research’s “Smart Cities: Asia Pacific,” released this March, and has contributed to smart city development projects both inside and outside China.

[Thank you to Tianxia for the post]

 

[TaiShang]

China’s Great Communicator

What can students of effective communications techniques learn from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent trip to Europe?

By Bill Black

US President Ronald Reagan was famously known as “the Great Communicator.” Because he was an actor for many years before going into politics, critics questioned whether he had the experience or ability to lead the country. But he used his acting skills to great effect, both to get elected and during his term of office. His appearances were brilliantly staged, his speeches powerfully delivered. He used simple language that average people could understand. He knew how to speak to the American people in ways that touched their hearts and appealed to their deepest beliefs.

I thought of Ronald Reagan recently when I watched Chinese President Xi Jinping make his successful visit to Europe. President Xi’s tour culminated in a remarkable speech in Bruges, Belgium at the College of Europe. Those of us who study effective communication techniques can learn a lot from this speech.

Seeing is believing

Because people are often affected more by what they see than what they hear, the setting of a speech is very important. Choosing Bruges as a location was stroke of brilliance on the part of President Xi. First, there is the name of the city itself, which President Xi used as a theme for his remarks. “In the Flemish language, Bruges means ‘bridge,’” he told the audience. “A bridge not only makes life more convenient, it can also be a symbol of communication, understanding, and friendship. I have come to Europe to build, together with our European friends, a bridge of friendship and cooperation across the Eurasian continent.”

Even more than this explicit connection to Bruges, there is the implicit message sent by setting this speech in one of Europe’s oldest cities: that audiences must understand China’s long history if they want to understand its current policies. Moreover, the speech was given at the College of Europe, emphasizing that the president’s message was meant for the entire continent, not just the local audience.

Timing is everything

The timing of a speech is critical and, whether through luck or planning, President Xi’s speech was very well timed, indeed.

First, Europe is slowly emerging from the recent financial crisis, and still struggling economically. Like countries throughout the world, those in Europe are keen to attract Chinese investment. China’s enormous capital reserves allow President Xi to tantalize European leaders with the prospect of investment critical to their future prosperity. They are therefore quite receptive to his message.

In addition, relations between some European countries and the United States made the timing of this tour fortuitous for President Xi. The relationship between China and the United States is complicated. The two countries collaborate in many areas but compete in others; in some cases, the relationship borders on hostile. Nevertheless, both countries have strong interests in Europe. Over the past year, the United States has seen relations with Europe harmed by revelations that its National Security Agency has been listening to the phone calls of European leaders, specifically German President Angela Merkel. The relationship between the United States and Europe is extraordinarily strong, and always will be. But the Europeans undoubtedly welcomed the opportunity to explore closer relations with China as a way of sending a message to the United States; and it is strategically smart for China to take advantage of that attitude. The timing of this trip was helpful in achieving goals of both China and Europe – at America’s expense.

Content is king

Although setting and timing are important, in the end, it is the content of a speech that matters most. This is where President’s Xi’s speech truly shines. His clear goal was to bridge the cultural divide and help Europeans understand China’s approach to international relations. He did this by clearly explaining China’s long history and its current challenges.

The heart of President Xi’s speech can be found in two of the most efficient sentences I have read about China. In one, he combines the long history of China in a sequence designed to help his audience “understand China properly.” He says, “The 5,000-year long Chinese civilization, the 170-year struggle by the Chinese people since modern times, the 90-year plus journey of the Communist Party of China, the 60-year plus development of the People’s Republic, and the 30-year plus reform and opening-up should all be taken into account.” He also puts his audience slightly on the defensive when he says, “The memory of foreign invasion and bullying has never been erased from the minds of the Chinese people and that explains why we cherish so dearly the life we lead today.” (As a good diplomat, he does not explain to this audience of Europeans who did the bullying.)

Even more powerfully, President Xi explained the challenges he faces as the leader of China – again, in one sentence. “In China,” he said, “over 74 million people rely on basic living allowances; each year, more than 10 million urban people will join the job market and several hundred million rural people need to be transferred to non-agricultural jobs and settle down in urban areas; more than 85 million people are living with disabilities; and more than 200 million people are still living under the poverty line set by the World Bank – roughly the population of France, Germany, and the UK combined.”

The scale of these challenges is unimaginable to leaders in the West. It is understandable when President Xi says, “Economic development remains the top priority in China.” Implicitly, he is saying to Western critics that, whatever thoughts you may have about China, consider these challenges before you judge us.

President Xi Jinping is in the first of what is likely to be a 10 year term leading China. In that short time, he is has quickly secured his leadership within China in ways that make him the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping. His performance in Europe shows that he will also be a force to be reckoned with outside of China for many years to come.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bill Black is senior partner and global China practice lead at FleishmanHillard.

 

[Pakistanisage]

 

[somsak]

I don't know if Xi is a great communicator or not.
But Mr Black, the author, I think you are not.

After reading your article, I cannot find how Xi is a great communicator.
Those you highlighted in red is important. However, this is not the first time people know. We know already for long time.
This is not Xi's special words, it just so so.

I don't feel cry/hate or even get new knowledge from what Xi said in your quote.

 

[Aepsilons]

The market will eventually solve this problem, and some taxes to account for externalities like pollution can help speed the process. I sincerely hope there are no wide-scale efforts to promote electric vehicle usage through government involvement in drafting standards or constructing charging grids, which is a recipe for crony capitalism and thievery from the taxpayers.

A very well said point. One thing that I have been quite interested in is the interventionalist policies of the CCP when it comes to their market sector. Well, its too early to say anything or to give any prediction(s) on my part. I wish them the best of luck and their strategy is to be admired.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

Speak of the devil... get this man a US passport:

Chinese man builds his own Tesla-charging network - MarketWatch

Caixin Online

July 14, 2014, 1:47 a.m. EDT

Chinese man builds his own Tesla-charging network
By Wu Jing

BEIJING ( Caixin Online ) — Disappointed by a lack of recharging facilities for electric cars made by Tesla Motors Inc., one of the first Chinese owners of the company’s Model S took matters into his own hands.


ABOUT CAIXIN
Caixin is a Beijing-based media group dedicated to providing high-quality and authoritative financial and business news and information through periodicals, online and TV/video programs.
• Get the Caixin e-newsletter

Guangdong-based businessman Zong Yi started a campaign to build what he said is the first “electric-vehicle charging road” in the country, with recharging facilities in 16 cities from Beijing to Guangzhou. He paid for every recharging station along his indirect, 5,750-kilometer (3,570-mile) route himself.

What began as a way to get his car home from the dealership became a demonstration of the power of Internet-based organizing and a grassroots alternative to government-backed charging-facility projects.

When Zong, 44, took delivery of his vehicle in Beijing in the spring, he faced a problem: With recharging facilities absent outside of Beijing and Shanghai, how could he drive home to Guangzhou? His first idea was to bring a charger with him and ask to use power outlets at the hotels he stayed at along the way.

Zong quickly changed his mind. He didn’t just want to drive back home once, he wanted to set up a route that could be used by future drivers of electric cars.

Zong contacted Wu Bixuan, the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) executive in charge of China operations, and told her that he wanted to buy 20 recharging facilities to give away along the road to Guangzhou. He also posted notices on popular networking site Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) , and through the popular messaging app WeChat, seeking property owners along the route with a spare parking space near a heavy-duty electrical outlet.

Zong would then donate and install the chargers in the space and mark it on an online map of his “China Electric Road.” The owners of the parking spaces could decide whether to charge a fee or offer the service for free.

“If we install at hotels, we can handle everything on our own and avoid dealing with property management, power companies and the government,” Zong said. “Seven hours of charging costs the property owners about 30 yuan [about $5] in electricity. But if the driver has a meal or spends the night at the hotel, this can become a profit model.”

Zong got over 500 responses to his social-media campaign, so he added more conditions: four-star hotel, free parking, locations that were easy to find. He then chose spots in 16 cities.

Zong admitted the network is not without its problems. The recharging facilities can handle Tesla cars and electric cars from other companies, but their spacing — from 100 kilometers to 400 kilometers apart — is too much for most electric cars. Tesla’s Model S can travel 500 kilometers per charge.

Moreover, Zong installed slow chargers, not the newer rapid-charging stations
that both Tesla and the government are focusing on. A full charge for a Model S at one of Zong’s stations takes at least eight hours, requiring overnight stays at every stop.

Despite these shortcomings, Zong is optimistic. “If I can get through this meandering trail from Beijing to Guangzhou, I think it won’t be hard for more daring entrepreneurs to get into action,” he said.

When asked what his network cost, Zong gave an indirect answer, saying it was twice what he paid for his electric car. A new Tesla Model S costs at least 730,000 yuan.

Zong started his trip from Beijing to Guangzhou on May 25. Another person driving a Qin plug-in hybrid, the newest model from domestic car maker BYD Auto Co. (SHE:CN:002594) (HKG:HK:1211) (OTC:BYDDF) , joined him. As Zong’s car passed Tiananmen Square, it sported a banner reading: “I don’t use any gas!”

In Qingdao, a port city in Shandong about one-fourth of the way to Guangzhou, Zong parked his Tesla on a public square in the city center, attracting a crowd of curious onlookers. Later, in the central city of Wuhan, he delivered a speech at a university promoting free charging services for electric cars.

“I think I’m the best sales manager Tesla has,” he said. “There was just so much interest along the way. I must have sold at least 150 cars.”

 

[terranMarine]

See there's no need to worry about unfair practices. Without government subsidies electric cars aren't gonna be promoted heavily. Once this is getting more support i believe subsidies will decrease eventually.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

A very informative video, and I agree with the analysis and prescription.

 

[TaiShang]

I don't know if Xi is a great communicator or not.
But Mr Black, the author, I think you are not.

After reading your article, I cannot find how Xi is a great communicator.
Those you highlighted in red is important. However, this is not the first time people know. We know already for long time.
This is not Xi's special words, it just so so.

I don't feel cry/hate or even get new knowledge from what Xi said in your quote.

Thanks for the input.

This article is obviously not to give certain scientific information but share an observation. FleishmanHillard specializes in public relations and integrated marketing and the author seems to be impressed by how the whole state visit was packaged and presented.

It is only relatively-speaking since there must not be a uniform way of presenting diverse interests in diverse contexts.

 

[TaiShang]

A very informative video, and I agree with the analysis and prescription.

1. This has been talked about for ages now: Transform the economy in terms of the value each unit of production creates.

2. Distribute the created wealth more evenly and efficiently across the social strata.