Great time at China Day

Yesterday evening I was out for the China Day, the final event of the year-long Project China 2004, an cooperation between fellow students from the Royal Institute of Technology (go KTH!) and the Stockholm School of Economics. Its objective is to raise the mutual awareness between Sweden and China, so as to contribute to drive up the economic and cultural exchanges between the two countries. In cooperation with many large Swedish companies (AstraZeneca, Electrolux, SKF...), the project hold a "Sweden Day" in April at Fudan University in Shanghai (one of the top Chinese University, along with Tsinghua and Jiao Tong) to promote Swedish companies among top Chinese students and encourage them to get into an international professional track.

Moreover, the three weeks spent in eastern China were an opportunity to conduct field studies through interviews of the general climate and trends in China, concerning the business opportunities, challenges and overall opening of the Asian giant to western exchanges. The resulting analysis has been compiled in a printed book and outlined yesterday: a major aspect is that, in many aspects, China is quickly growing beyond being merely the "cheap factory of the world" or an emerging but still distant "threat". Quite the opposite, and as already underlined by Loic at the World Economic Forum Weblog, "we do not realize the impact of China's growth and we are totally unprepared because of the speed at which the change happens", both in terms of end-consumer demands, needs and purchasing power (Shanghai is nicknamed the New-York of China not only for its striking skyline, but also for its new young generation that is a real driver for the local and national economy) as well as B2B exchanges.

One of the cornerstone of this new development phase is the deep changes in the educational systems and values promoted in front of what will eventually be the country's leaders of tomorrow: one cannot see Chinese studying abroad as a mere "brain-drain" from the Occident, but as a manifestation of the increased dialogue and cooperation in science, technology and business: and as noted by Ambassador Lu Feng Ding, such knowledge transfer contributes to more balanced and extensive bilateral relations.

While this does not smooth down all the challenges, it nevertheless opens up our eyes to look at a New China, with highly-educated and entrepreneurial graduates willing to take on driving the transforming Dragon. That is why, as much as China is striving to change and progress, we, as comfy Europeans, have to get prepared for China's growth, "a tougher event than anything we faced since World War Two" (Jeffrey E. Garten, Dean, Yale School of Management)!