American businesses are doing well in China. The front page of the China Daily business section reads, “US firms upbeat on China.” The article says that most US businesses operating in China reported increases in annual revenues last year, as reported in the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in China’s “White Paper 2005 American Business in China.” Almost all of the businesses surveyed were equally divided between being “optimistic” or “cautiously optimistic” for the next 5 years.
Some interesting stats on their no. 1 goal:
62% – produce goods or services in China for the China market
14% – Produce good or services in China for the US market
11% – Export to China
5% – Produce good or services in China for other markets
5% – Serve as regional headquarters
In another front page article James Green (AmCham Shanghai’s director of government relations) says Shanghai’s biggest business challenge is human resources. “Finding, training and keeping management,” Green said. “It’s a hot labour market and people are in high demand.” Seems like their question is along the lines of “How do we attract, recruit and retain talent?”
Intellectual property rights protection remains a prominent problem (in both Beijing and Shanghai). The article says that “Many companies don’t expand beyond a representative office for fear of losing proprietary information and technology.” Seems like going the Open Source way – with both people and information – is a plausible solution.
