On June 13th, Honeywell Investor Week welcomed 20 Wall Street investors to China for a week-long visit to meet with government officials, business leaders, and other financial authorities for discussions about the country’s evolving business climate. Attendees at the investor conference included John G. Inch, the managing director of Deutsche Bank; Stephen Tusa, the managing director of J.P. Morgan; Nigel Coe, the managing director of Morgan Stanley, and many other distinguished guests.
The event, “Wall Street Investor China Week,” aimed to give investors a better understanding of what China’s economic development means for western investments. This first-look into which companies are leading technology and product development for the world’s hottest sectors, highlights just how much opportunity is being created in these high-growth regions across China.
With the Shenzhen 100 event just around the corner, CSOFT’s Founder and CEO, Shunee Yee, was invited to speak at Honeywell Investor Week to the Wall Street investors to share her unique insight into how China’s “new normal” is impacting future business around the world. She talked in depth about the role Shenzhen will have in driving China’s future economic growth, particularly as the country adjusts to a “new normal” of economic development. Shunee emphasized that Shenzhen, the unrivaled hub for Chinese innovation and entrepreneurship, will be a central player in upgrading China’s economy and manufacturing industry for a new era of global business.
“The city of Shenzhen sends you a message: you could do more; you should try harder,” said Yee, citing Paul Graham, the programmer and entrepreneur behind Viaweb.
Shunee has a deep understanding of what is needed to make partnerships between China and western investors profitable for all involved. Furthermore, as CSOFT continues to thrive in foreign markets, Shunee knows first-hand what it takes to build a business for the global economy.
Shunee pointed out the key indicators illustrating Shenzhen’s proven economic promise. Its research and development investment as a percentage of GDP (4.05%) is nearly twice that of the United States (2.7%). The results are clear: Shenzhen companies hold more technology patents than other cities in China, and the city has incentives in place to attract and retain the country’s most talented people.
The Honeywell Investor Week conference also featured panels with experts and business leaders from the Chinese side. A panel discussing the “New Economy” of China featured Dele Liu, the president of Youku Tudou, one of the world’s largest video hosting and streaming platforms, and Julian Ma, the corporate vice president of Tencent, the maker of popular app WeChat. In their remarks, they highlighted the power of China’s fast-growing middle class: a consumer class that would demand new types of services and high-tech industries and push forward a globally competitive and technologically cutting-edge economy. Zhang Xinguo, the vice president of AVIC, one of China’s most important state-owned enterprises (SOE) commented on the need to modernize the more inefficient aspects of China’s economy by integrating technology and interdisciplinary management practices with traditional business operations.
“Previously, SOEs were large but they were not healthy…we need to capitalize our creative value and profit,” said Zhang.
Zhang also cited the “Made in China 2025” initiative, which aims to modernize China’s manufacturing sectors by integrating the Internet of Things and automated manufacturing into existing operations as a promising opportunity for strengthening China’s economy.
At the Honeywell Investor Week event, Shane Tedjarati, President of High Growth Regions at Honeywell, spoke on the importance of understanding the full scope of opportunity in China. It is crucial that investors go beyond the politics of a region, and look into the actual innovation and change occurring within the country. When entering a new market, it’s easy for a business to have preconceived notions that will shape their expectations. In order to truly understand the risks and rewards of foreign markets, we need to first examine the biases of those beliefs. In China, the new strategies being put into place are a joint effort between rising companies and policymakers. This, combined with the new social awareness being led by the next generation of industry leaders and innovators, the fostering of a better, stronger economy is rapidly emerging.
Written by Brittany Gasparaitis Assistant Marketing Manager at CSOFT
[dqr_code size="120" bgcolor="#fff"]