| |
 |
Fortune Global Forum
|
HUNDREDS of corporate chief executives and chairmen are trying to get a better picture of business opportunities in China at this week's Fortune Global Forum.
The conference on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is expected to draw more than 600 executives and is headlined by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and former US President Bill Clinton.
World eyes China
Titled "Next Generation Asia," the focus will largely be on China, whose competitive landscape is expected to drastically change after its entry to the World Trade Organization, now expected late this year or early next.
"China is such a dominant and interesting part of the growth of Asia, with the backdrop of WTO and everything else that's gone on politically and economically, it's hard to not have China pop up as the first thing everybody wants to talk about," said John Chen, president of US e-commerce software firm Sybase Inc.
The speakers list also features a star-studded cast of Chinese ministers and executives, including People's Bank of China governor Dai Xianglong, Ministry of Information Industry chief Wu Jichuan and State Development Planning Commission chairman Zeng Peiyan.
The Fortune Global Forum was last held on Chinese soil in Shanghai in September 1999.
At that time, China was struggling to maintain its forecast growth rate and markets were consumed with worry about loan defaults and the temptation to weaken the yuan to boost exports.
"Now the story is WTO, the growing role of the consumer and the evolution of a fourth generation of party leadership. There will be a lot of talk in private circles about how the leadership will evolve and how the military will fit into it," said Ray Jovanovich, head of the institutional group at Credit Agricole Asset Management.
Guangdong's participation
Guangdong has sent Governor Lu Ruihua and mayors of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, the three most important cities in the Pearl River Delta region to the forum. Insiders say they will seek opportunities to highlight the topic of co-operation between the province and Hong Kong, traditionally regarded as a launch pad for overseas investments into inland China.
The governor has reportedly said he would raise the issue of starting 24-hour border-crossing service between Guangdong and Hong Kong. Insiders said that he might make the suggestion to regularize top-level meetings of Guangdong and HK when meeting with Tung Chee Hua, chief executive of Hong Kong SAR. The discussion on the integration of the two sides' infrastructural facilities, environmental protection, high-tech and tourism co-operation will also be on the governor's agenda.
Shenzhen Mayor Yu Youjun is expected to talk about an economic integration of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Earlier reports said Yu is proposing the setting up of a "Shenzhen-Hong Kong" economic zone" to combine the two cities' complementary strengths and increase the region's comprehensive competitives in the global economy.
Executive networking
The forum also is expected to provide a prime networking opportunity for participating executives.
Among top international names are Microsoft president Steve Ballmer, Qualcomm Inc CEO Irwin Jacobs, Yahoo! Inc co-founder Jerry Yang and William and Victor Fung, the brothers who head Hong Kong sourcing group Li & Fung Ltd.
Changing fortunes
When more than 300 executives representing the top tier of global business gather in Hong Kong, much of the internal discussion is expected to focus on how Asia's fortunes will play out during the turbulent economic waters ahead.
Faced with a slowing US economy and the prospects of anaemic global growth, the question of how Asia's emerging generations will shape the future is hot talk.
Terry McDevitt, vice president of communications for the Fortune Group, said her top picks are discussions centred around themes exploring the next generation in the mainland, Taiwan and Japan.
Emphasis is given to the role of mainland entrepreneurs and the development of China's emerging western region, which the central government has earmarked for accelerated development. Foreign investor participation is being sought in a variety of sectors, including infrastructure, in the region which is rich in energy and mineral resources.
A global meeting of minds
THE FORTUNE Global Forum brings together the people who make things happen. Each year they gather in a different location to swap the intelligence, forge their relationships, strike the deals, and shape the strategies that will move world business into the future.
This ongoing discourse moves to Hong Kong to focus on Next Generation Asia. Within the framework of a dynamic program developed by FORTUNE's editors and against the backdrop of an exclusive, intimate setting, the heads of major multinationals, world leaders, and influential thinkers confer about the issues, challenges, and opportunities driving today's global economy. What impact will Asia have on global business in the next decade? How is the Asian business landscape changing? What technological and cultural changes are driving innovation across the region? How can the world's largest multinationals tap into this rich and growing marketplace?
Participation in the forum is limited to chairmen, CEOs, presidents, and top managing directors of major multinational corporations. Top-caliber participants, global representation, a strategically focused programme led by the editors of FORTUNE, and meaningful, peer-level dialogue ensure that the forum is the meeting of the best minds in world business.
Theme: Next Generation Asia
“Next Generation Asia”is the focus of the 2001 FORTUNE Global Forum in Hong Kong on May 8-10. Global CEOs will converge along with leading members of Hong Kong's business community and with Tung Chee Hwa, chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Forum participants come from all over the world, but share the challenges inherent in running complex global corporations. This combination of shared purpose and geographic diversity generates productive discussion and fosters new business relationships. Previous FORTUNE Global Forums have been held in Paris, Shanghai, Budapest, Bangkok, Barcelona and Singapore.
“Hong Kong will be the perfect setting for heads of major international companies to talk about how quickly business is changing in Asia,” said John Huey, Managing Editor of FORTUNE. “With Next Generation Asia as the theme, we’ll focus not only on the leaders driving Asia into the next century, but also the styles and emerging trends shaping business in the Pacific Rim. The Global Forum will provide a unique interactive setting for the world’s most important business leaders-including CEOs of the world’s largest corporations and the hottest dot-coms-to talk face to face about these issues.”
Among the topics to be discussed at the forum are:
Emerging Technologies
New Leadership
Asian Conglomerates in Transition
Youth Culture
Consumer Trends
The Outlook for Capital Markets
The Rapidly Evolving Changes in China and Beyond
New movers and shakers
IN its "Next Generation" story package, FORTUNE takes a look at the men and women who will, in the coming decades, be the movers and shakers of not just business, but science, technology and industry.
The individuals profiled in the "Rising Stars" story--25 in all--come from all over the world, including China, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Britain, Greece, Taiwan, France, Hong Kong, Russia, India, Mexico and the US Ranging in age from 28 to 40, these people will inherit a world of almost limitless technological potential and prosperity.
Included on the list are Li Yifei, 37, of MTV (China); Andreas Schmidt, 40, of Bertelsman (Germany); Mark Fields, 40, of Mazda (Japan); Ben Horowitz, 39, of Loudcloud (US); Anne Asensio, 38, of General Motors (France); Martha Lane Fox, 28, of Lastminute.com (Britain); Hanson Cheah, 36, of AsiaTech Ventures (Hong Kong); Martin Werner, 38, of Goldman Sachs (Mexico); Navin Chaddha, 30, of Rivio (India); and Ruben Vardanian, 33, of Troika Dialog (Russia).
In "The New New World Order," his introduction to the profiles, FORTUNE Beijing bureau chief Bill Powell reports on the challenges facing the next generation of global business leaders. The Next Generation leaders will have to make business choices as well as ethical and moral choices that will change the world for better or for worse. According to Powell, their world will be dominated by three issues: technology, and the life sciences and biotech in particular; demographics, and the idea that not everyone is going to get rich in ever-rising stock markets; and the emergence of a single--albeit very, very large--nation onto the world stage, China.
Key to all this will be the Internet, which will prove to be the most important technology during the lifetimes of the Next Generation leaders. Says Powell, "A mania is what has passed, that's all; but an era has only just begun."
Addressing the Next Generation leaders, Powell offers some advice: "If you get the basics right, if you harness the technology now coming to the fore and let it generate rip-roaring growth, if you keep trading regimes open and make sure the rich world does not get away with pursuing 'ladder-up economics'--protecting our current wealth at the expense of those trying to get rich too--the rest will fall into place."
|
|
|
|
