[LINK] China Consul on industry at ATP, Sydney

[Tom Worthington]

The last Friday of each month the Australian Technology Park in Sydney has 
a free ICT breakfast talk (I help organize them). The speaker for June was 
Zhou Xiaoming, Consul, People's Republic of China 
<http://www.chinatradeonline.org>. Below are some informal notes from the talk.

The Consul said China has taken measures to slow down the economy. The 
government has moved to restrict money supply to create a "soft landing". 
He says the car market was up 50% last year and will be the second largest 
car market by 2007 (COMMENT: Having seen Beijing booming first hand in 
November <http://www.tomw.net.au/2003/bws/> it must be a daunting task to 
slow it down.).

The Consul said Motorola invested $US3B in China with 30 joint ventures and 
10,000 employees. He emphasised that such investments are profitable. 
Australian Bluescope (steel) is making "aggressive" investments in China.

The Australian company Clipsal have become a heavy investor in China 
(COMMENT: Clipsal make electrical plugs and sockets. What the Consul didn't 
mention is that it is a little known fact that Australia and China use the 
same wall plugs. This might provide a natural advantage for our electrical 
industry.  ;-)

Last year China imported $US120B in hi-tech goods, with a 40% annual 
increase. New companies get a two year tax holiday and three years of 50% 
corporate tax rate (normally 15%). "You can leverage your technology by 
setting up a joint venture in China". There are more then 500 R&D centres 
in China and 53 technology parks similar to the ATP. They employ 500,000 
scientists and engineers.

The Consul had some advice for Australian companies investing in China:

1. GET INVOLVED: Companies which held back from China in 1980s got left behind.
2. DO HOMEWORK: The Chinese market is different, you need to do research 
about the local needs.
3. USE LOCAL EXPERTISE: Use local professionals, such as  accountants and 
lawyers, with experience in the local market.
4. TAKES SOME RISKS: Ventures will not be without risk and commercial 
ventures should be prepared for this. The Consul criticised Australian 
ventures as being too conservative and not prepared to take risks "sitting 
on your hands does not make much of a difference".

The Consul also put in a plug for their trade web site, with help for 
investing: <http://www.chinatradeonline.org>.

ps: The ATP will have a meeting about strategies for hi-tech business with 
China in early July. For more details contact <mangrai at shfa.nsw.gov.au>.

Australian Technology Park talks are on the last Friday of each month at 
8am, with a free breakfast. To book a seat contact 
<mangrai at shfa.nsw.gov.au>. Planned talks are:

July:      Daniel Philips, Macquarie Bank, Business Investment.
August:    Tony Hill, President of the Internet Society of Australia.
September: John Brown, IBM Innovations.
October:   Senator Lundy, Shadow Minister Information Technology
November:  Alex Zelinsky, Director CSIRO ICT Centre.



Tom Worthington FACS tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
http://www.tomw.net.au PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617