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ENTERING
into a relationship now with the fifth generation of
China’s Communist Party would help ensure long-term
opportunities for Philippine business eyeing to profit
from the world’s second-largest economy.
“These
are the leaders who are just starting their five years
of being in junior power, and who they deal with now
would be the same people they would bring in when they
rise into senior positions in the politburo,” W. John
Hoffmann said in Manila Tuesday.
Hoffman,
author of the book
China into the Future:
China Mindset
for Success to 2023,
advised Philippine business to get to know the young
leaders of China as Chinese business moves outside the
borders and expands to the global market.
Hoffmann, an Australian, wrote the book based on his
more than two decades of working and living in
China.
“The
national imperative for ‘going global’ has focused new
attention on emerging international ‘Chinese enterprise
champions,’” Hoffmann said, adding that the latter is a
key policy imperative of China’s leadership, composed
mostly of the fourth- and fifth-generation Chinese.
Hoffmann
said the
Philippines
has experienced this with the controversial national
broadband network (NBN) project with Shenzhen-based
telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Co.
He told
reporters after his 30-minute speech that he doesn’t see
that stopping the NBN-ZTE deal would have a long-term
impact on the future relations of Philippine business
with Chinese leaders.
“I think
the ZTE deal’s impact is more domestic. Mind you, the
Chinese, as they explore doing business in the
international arena, are also just starting to discover
the things involved in going global,” Hoffmann said in
reply to a question from the BusinessMirror.
He added
that he is lending his expertise to Philippine companies
here that are eyeing entry to the
China
market.
He said,
“China’s companies also want to go into business here.”
Hoffmann, however, declined to name the companies as
well as the industries involved in these negotiations,
except that they would be clinched within the year.
“You
have to have a time frame [of 25 years] because they’re
going beyond the short term,” Hoffmann added.
Other
types of Chinese enterprise champions that he cited
include the China National Petroleum Corp., China
Telecom, Haier, TCL, Huawei, China Minerals and Metals,
and China’s major oil companies.
However,
Hoffmann said there remains a “gap” between the
aspirations of China’s leaders for these enterprises and
the enterprises’ “limited capabilities.”
The gap
“provides an important opportunity for MNCs
[multinational companies] to exploit,” he said.
The
opportunity is apparent since, Hoffmann said, the
Chinese leaders “want to get to know you. . . . The last
time we had an opportunity like this was in 1992,” he
added. That was the time China opened its doors to
foreign investors.
Hoffmann
maintained that as China transforms itself from a
centralized socialist to a decentralized market economy
with Chinese characteristics, it would take two more
generations before the political system to support such
economy “becomes stable.”
“Despite
its complexity,
China
brings the biggest threats and opportunities for global
businesses of this century,” Hoffmann said.
One such
threat that the
Philippines
should take seriously is the 350 million Chinese
studying English on a state grant.
“Be very
nervous about this,” Hoffmann said. |
