Page 24 - My FlipBook
P. 24
South China Business Journal
HIGHLIGHTS Back to Business
Economist - Private Business to Deliver China’s Economic Success
By: Peter Fuhrman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, China First Capital
With exquisite timing, the Economist magazine this The survey pays particular attention to accelerating innovation
weekend publishes their in-depth survey of business in cycles in China’s hardware industry. He spent a few days in
China. I couldn’t recommend more highly taking the time to Shenzhen including attending a kind of hacker forum for
read it in full. You can find it on the Economist website (www. hardware geeks. He calls Shenzhen “the world’s best place to
economist.com) or download the PDF by clicking http://www. start a hardware firm” and visited my favorite example of this,
chinafirstcapital.com/en/ChinaBusiness.pdf 18-month-old mobile phone brand OnePlus, a company likely
to sell $2 billion worth of phones in the coming twelve months,
It appears at a time when the English-language media is mainly in the tough US and European markets.
brimming with stories, often in my view overblown, about
China’s economic problems and challenges. The Economist While overall highly positive about China’s economic prospects
survey provides light where there’s been way too much heat and the ambitions of its vast pool of private sector entrepreneurs,
of late. The Economist survey includes nine separate articles, the survey sounds a note of caution. It argues that the less
each offering a banquet of analysis, ideas and insights on where efficient state-owned sector appears more and more like an
China’s economy, both private sector and SOE, is heading. unevolved creature from a foregone era. They are, the survey
warns, sucking up too much of China’s capital and achieving
This is the first Economist China business survey in many too little with it, all the while fighting to maintain the cozy
years. It was certainly no small undertaking. China’s size, monopolies that keep the far more dynamic and efficient private
complexity and ever-morphing business environment make a sector shut out.
comprehensive future-looking summary of this kind difficult in
the extreme to do well. How much market? How much
government control and ownership?
All countries struggle to find a balance.
China stands out because the private
sector has come so far so fast. Thirty-
four years ago when I first set foot in
China there was no private sector to
speak of. Now, in all but the so-called
“commanding heights” of China’s
economy, entrepreneurs run rampant.
1.4 billion Chinese benefit from this
fact every day.
(photos from http://www.economist.com)
22
HIGHLIGHTS Back to Business
Economist - Private Business to Deliver China’s Economic Success
By: Peter Fuhrman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, China First Capital
With exquisite timing, the Economist magazine this The survey pays particular attention to accelerating innovation
weekend publishes their in-depth survey of business in cycles in China’s hardware industry. He spent a few days in
China. I couldn’t recommend more highly taking the time to Shenzhen including attending a kind of hacker forum for
read it in full. You can find it on the Economist website (www. hardware geeks. He calls Shenzhen “the world’s best place to
economist.com) or download the PDF by clicking http://www. start a hardware firm” and visited my favorite example of this,
chinafirstcapital.com/en/ChinaBusiness.pdf 18-month-old mobile phone brand OnePlus, a company likely
to sell $2 billion worth of phones in the coming twelve months,
It appears at a time when the English-language media is mainly in the tough US and European markets.
brimming with stories, often in my view overblown, about
China’s economic problems and challenges. The Economist While overall highly positive about China’s economic prospects
survey provides light where there’s been way too much heat and the ambitions of its vast pool of private sector entrepreneurs,
of late. The Economist survey includes nine separate articles, the survey sounds a note of caution. It argues that the less
each offering a banquet of analysis, ideas and insights on where efficient state-owned sector appears more and more like an
China’s economy, both private sector and SOE, is heading. unevolved creature from a foregone era. They are, the survey
warns, sucking up too much of China’s capital and achieving
This is the first Economist China business survey in many too little with it, all the while fighting to maintain the cozy
years. It was certainly no small undertaking. China’s size, monopolies that keep the far more dynamic and efficient private
complexity and ever-morphing business environment make a sector shut out.
comprehensive future-looking summary of this kind difficult in
the extreme to do well. How much market? How much
government control and ownership?
All countries struggle to find a balance.
China stands out because the private
sector has come so far so fast. Thirty-
four years ago when I first set foot in
China there was no private sector to
speak of. Now, in all but the so-called
“commanding heights” of China’s
economy, entrepreneurs run rampant.
1.4 billion Chinese benefit from this
fact every day.
(photos from http://www.economist.com)
22
