China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog reports that Chengdu, the capital city of China’s southwestern Sichuan Province, will host the Fortune Global Forum 2013, a conference for world leaders and business elites running from June 6 to 8, 2013.

This will be the fourth time the forum is held in China, but the first time for it to take place in the western region, whose development will be one of the focal points of the forum, the Shanghai Daily reported.

With the theme of “China’s New Future,” the 12th session of the conference will also take a close look at the evolution of China’s domestic economy and its emerging role in the global context, discussing the “China century,” resource solutions, innovation and technology, global finance and economic recovery.

“At a time when China is at the forefront of global business, Chengdu is the ideal venue for the next Fortune Global Forum,” Andy Serwer, managing editor of Fortune magazine, said at a press conference in Beijing today.

He described the city as a dynamic magnet for multinational companies and a leader in a wide range of industries from automotive and logistics to technology and services. Up to 212 Fortune 500 companies have set up their operations in Chengdu. And thirteen foreign banks have opened up branches there, the most among China’s central and western cities.

In 2010, Forbes magazine predicted Chengdu would be one of the world’s fastest-growing cities in the next decade. Citigroup and a think-tank with The Economist listed the city as the most competitive in central and western China.

Ge Honglin, mayor of Chengdu, said the forum attendants will see how a Chinese inland city coped with the world’s financial turmoil and accelerated its economic transformation.

“It will be an opportunity for the world to better understand Chengdu, and Chengdu to further integrate into the world,” Ge said.

China Watch Blog has learnt that over the last two decades a new artificial intelligence paradigm has enabled vast brain-like neural assemblies to build themselves.

In turn, these synthetic minds have generated both ideas and strategies that have exceeded both their direct experience and the talents of those who have enlisted their help.

Detailed analysis of how these synthetic brains originate such brilliant concepts and strategies reveals what may be the grandest notion of all: how ideas themselves are formed within the biological neural networks of the brain. Widespread use of this ultimate idea could have an astounding effect upon the world. Yes, it is for real!

While hordes of futurists are predicting such a form of contemplative artificial intelligence, one man already has it. It is The Creativity Machine® Paradigm by Stephen L. Thaler, Ph.D., and it brings new hope through the most advanced form of artificial intelligence in the world.

The benefits are staggering. Economically alone, there are myriad new industries this technology can either originate or accelerate, creating endless new projects for “techies,” while indirectly spawning non-technical careers in support of each commercial effort. At the macro-economic level, machine intelligence based upon this paradigm could generate a model of national or even global financial contentedness and subsequently optimize the planet’s overall fiscal and sociological health.

This momentous accomplishment has such an immense impact on all aspects of our lives that it deserves headline status; making it difficult to understand why there are forces at work in government, academia and industry, attempting to hijack this technology – slowing its deployment in a world starving for its capabilities. There are always those willing to take credit for what someone else has already succeeded in doing, namely the creation of free-thinking, contemplative, creative, and even conscious artificial intelligence.

In terms of answering the really big questions that have perplexed humanity for millennia, the Creativity Machine Paradigm excels. Simulate its death and it spells out our inevitable fate in no uncertain terms. Drive it to protect itself and it develops all the attributes we commonly attach to human consciousness.

Carefully study how this neural architecture attains such self-awareness and we suddenly understand how a cosmic consciousness can arise from inanimate matter, space, and energy. Most importantly, in the wake of these amazing revelations we see an enormous opportunity for the preservation of human consciousness beyond death through our union with this highly advanced form of sentient machine intelligence.

Dr. Thaler is President and CEO of Imagination Engines, Inc., a company founded upon key scientific and engineering breakthroughs in the area of artificial neural networks, and In Its Image, a non-profit corporation that is dedicated to extending lives and philosophical exploration of The Creativity Machine® Paradigm. Dr. Thaler graduated Westminster College and obtained a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Thaler is in the process of writing a book on The Creativity Machine® Paradigm, at the heart of which will be his invited talk at the World Future Society meeting in Boston, along with his article “Thalamocortical Algorithms in Space! The Building of Conscious Machines and the Lessons Thereof.”

He is also inviting technically-oriented business thinkers to join him in the bootstrapping of new prosperity-generating industries based upon this bleeding-edge AI paradigm. To this end he is currently completing work on an informative and thought provoking web site at http://imagination-engines.com and its philosophically-driven sister site http://initsimage.org. He will also be holding a series of open houses at his St. Charles Missouri Headquarters. Watch the imagination-engines.com web site for details.

China Watch Blog has learnt that an entrepreneur Steve Tebon has published a book Game On: The Power of the Sports Marketing Deal (Tebon Publishing) which claims to offer winning strategies For Business, Sports And The Business Of Sports, and he is targetting entrepreneurs, business executives, athletes and those who practice or study the business of sports.

Yours truly has not read the book, but for those interested, it might have a tip or two, and for all you know, it might end up with you (the reader) making a financial gain from Tebon’s tips.

As Tebon points out, the first step for anyone is to find your target market and be creative. For example, ask somebody about sports marketing and they’ll tell you it’s all about the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and major college sports. But not Tebon. He quickly realized there was a niche out there that offered big opportunities for a young entrepreneur.

“Recreational sports, lifestyle sports. The grassroots, participant market is the fastest growing and potentially biggest market out there,” he says. At some point, virtually everybody will shoot hoops, spike a volleyball, hop on a bike or lace up a pair of running shoes. Tebon shows his clients how to pursue this virtually untapped revenue stream, and now he’s sharing it with his readers.

You may not have given it much thought, but just how did that race to benefit a local charity happen? Who’s behind last month’s hugely popular beach volleyball tournament? There’s a good chance it’s Exclusive Sports Marketing or a company like it. It takes a specific skill set to create, promote and run successful events, and Tebon knows those skills inside and out.

A diehard recreational athlete, and 7-time Ironman finisher, Tebon has studied the industry intensely. Like many other experts, he’s bullish on the growth of grassroots sports. “The U.S. is experiencing a serious health crisis, and events like running, biking, and competing in triathlons are playing a huge role in helping people get back into shape, and focusing on a healthy lifestyle for them and their families.”

The keys to making sporting events and business in general profitable are easily understood through the informal and helpful pages of Game On. One of these is strategic alliances. Before Tebon sold his multi-million dollar business, Exclusive Sports Marketing developed long standing sponsor partnerships with industry giants such as Anheuser-Busch, Nike, Coca-Cola, Pepsico, Gatorade, Nestle’s Brands, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Club Med.

Tebon’s strategies for closing the deal are clearly laid out in Game On: The Power of the Sports Marketing Deal. Creating and maintaining relationships is one important aspect. Providing “5-Star” Customer Service is another. Using these techniques and more, Tebon connected influential businesses with the audiences they targeted at more than thirty events every year, such as The Publix Family Fitness Weekend/Sprint Triathlon Series, The Bud Light Beach Volleyball Series, The Toyota Tundra Adventure Racing Series, and the Ft. Lauderdale A1A Marathon and ½ Marathon, just to name a few.

After selling Exclusive Sports Marketing in 2006, Tebon has been working as a consultant to the growing business of recreational sports marketing. His consulting services also include event/ athlete management, development of strategic programming and the creation of print and electronic marketing strategies. He will also be teaching a Sports Management course using Game On as the text, at Lynn University, (Boca Raton, FL), beginning with the Spring 2012 semester.

For those interested, join in the crowd. You may have everything to gain, that is, if you are into sports and the sports business.

China Watch Blog has learnt that in face of the severe survival predicaments, China issued its first nation-level special plan for small and medium-sized enterprises last Thursday.

According to NewsGD.com, the Growth Plan for SMEs in the 12th Five-Year Program period (2011-2015) was released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology at the 8th China International SME Fair held in Guangzhou.

A group of key projects and action plan will be launched, including building the public service platform network and improving SMEs’ capacity, according to Zhu Hongren, chief engineer at Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

According to the plan, the number of China’s SMEs will grow steadily in the next five years with an average annual growth rate of 8 percent.

There are five primary missions in the plan. First, to improve the capacity of establishing business and creating jobs; Second, to optimize the structure of SMEs; Third, to boost the development of the “new, distinctive, specialized and sophisticated” industries and the industrial clusters; Fourth, to upgrade enterprise management level; Fifth, to refine the service system of SMEs.

SMEs contribute to 60 percent of China’s industrial output and create 80 percent of the country’s jobs.

They are experiencing the greatest hardships this year and are at great risk of debt disputes. Shortages of electricity, capital and labor have led them to this predicament, and the soaring costs have made things worse.

Among the 60 small businesses and 10 industry associations interviewed by Xinhua in July in the costal provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, as many as eight out of ten companies said they are suffering from operating difficulties more than ever before.

Thinner profits have made business owners reluctant to take orders, while a labor shortage, tightened electricity and money supply are impeding production. Many small businesses said they are faced with “the toughest time in the history.”

The Chinese government has made substantial efforts to support SMEs while simultaneously tightening its monetary stance to curb inflation this year.

To square the circle of curbing inflation while sustaining economic growth, the central bank and the National Development and Reform Commission have highlighted the necessity of encouraging financial institutions to support small and medium-sized enterprises while controlling total credit.

Hopefully, this newly released growth plan will get SMEs out of the predicaments and help SMEs to establish a modern enterprise system and credit system.

China Watch Blog has learnt that small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Guangdong province received a boost, for what it is worth, with the launch of a new business alliance today (Sep 22), amid worries of increasing problems for them to stay afloat in the global economy.

The alliance, which co-founders include IT giant Intel China Ltd, the Guangdong SME Informatization & Innovation Service Center, China Minsheng Bank’s Guangzhou Branch and Chinese bank card group China UnionPay’s Guangdong branch, helps businesses in the province gain access to much needed financing as they face growing difficulties to remain competitive.

Guangzhou building

Under the arrangement, SMEs will be able to use a high-tech payment system that links them to a network so that banks can determine their credit history and business activities to help them gain better access to loans and funds.

“Intel hopes this is the beginning of a much broader effort across China … SMEs are a crucial part of China’s economy. Helping SMEs grow and innovate for the future is important to all of us,” said Douglas Cougle, managing director of Intel China. “Intel and our partners are taking a step in that direction by collaborating together in this alliance to connect SMEs into the financial system … SMEs will be able to gain access to funding they so desperately need.”

Huang Yuezhen, head of the Guangdong SME Informatization & Innovation Service Center, said the new alliance will provide a platform for businesses in the region to use better technology to boost their efficiency and use IT to stay competitive in the new business environment.

“We hope this platform offers one solution to SMEs’ problems,” he said.

Many SMEs in Guangdong, an economic powerhouse of the Chinese economy fueled by low-cost manufacturing, have been faced with rising overall costs and a widening gap in their working capital. Authorities have refuted claims of SMEs experiencing bankruptcies in the province and maintained that their general situation is stable.

China Watch Blog has learnt that China may rein in plans to invest heavily in seven new strategic industries, including high-speed rail and wind power, particularly those industries suffering from old-fashioned problems such as corruption and overcapacity.

High speed rail

The central government originally planned to invest up to US$1.5 trillion over the next five years in the seven sectors, hoping they would grow into a pillar of economic growth and help shift the world’s second largest economy away from one centered on manufacturing cheap goods, the Shanghai Daily reported.

The size of the retrenchment is still under deliberation. While high rates of fixed-asset investment have helped maintain strong growth, some economists, such as Nouriel Roubini, have argued that China’s current levels of investment are unsustainable.

These days, China is more concerned about taming inflation and managing debts piled up by local and provincial governments that the country’s state auditor estimates at 10.7 trillion yuan (US$1.65 trillion).

The strategic industries cover high-end equipment manufacturing, alternative energy, biotechnology, new generation information technology, alternative fuel cars and energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies.

China Watch Blog has learnt that the official overseeing Guangdong’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) denied on June 23 that sweeping SME bankruptcies are taking place in the province, although the businesses are confronted by a number of problems.

“SMEs in Guangdong are facing increasing difficulties in their production and operation, with rising overall costs and a widening gap in their working capital,” Zhang Wenxian, director of the Guangdong SME bureau was quoted as saying by China Daily.

SMEs are facing new difficulties, including a shortage of capital and rising costs for fund-raising,” Zhang said.

The situation meant that some SMEs dared not accept orders and some industries are seeing a decline in profits or the suspension of business, Zhang said.

However, the general situation for SMEs in Guangdong remains stable, without significant bankruptcies.

Media reports have been painting a gloomy picture for SMEs in both Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, claiming that the situation is even worse than in 2008 when the global economic downturn hit, and has been using the phrase “sweeping bankruptcies,” although no official statistics are available.

Difficulties have arisen from the continued appreciation of the yuan, the rising costs of labor and raw materials, a shortage of capital amid credit-tightening measures, and power shortages in some areas, according to the reports.

Earlier this month, China News Service reported that Li Jinhui, chairman of Dongguan Lianying Non-woven Technology Co in Guangdong, predicted that bankruptcies could become prevalent in the city of Dongguan in the second half of the year, with only innovative players remaining fully operational.

Zhang said the number of non-State-owned businesses in Guangdong grew by 3.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, while privately held domestic firms rose by 14.7 percent year-on-year.

SMEs in the province posted double-digit growth in industrial added-value in the first five months, which was more than 11 percentage points higher than the provincial average.

They also reported growth in imports, exports and tax contributions.

China Watch Blog has received an article “How to Design Powerful & Productive Sales Meetings” by John Treace which we think is good for readers.

Designing a powerful sales meeting is not an easy task, but it is one of the most important aspects of building and maintaining a high-velocity sales organization.

The objective of all sales meetings should be to increase sales—period. That’s why we call them sales meetings. Entertaining the participants and having them leave full of enthusiasm is a good thing, but it should never overshadow the need to produce sales.

It is the sales management’s responsibility to be a good shepherd of corporate resources, so spending money without expecting a measurable return is not good business. Every high-performing salesperson who attends a meeting will be thinking, “Is this meeting making me money, or is my time being wasted?” A company’s high performers will usually produce at least 60 percent of the company’s revenues, so when sales managers waste top salespeople’s time with poorly designed meetings, they send several negative messages: (1) that management is not considerate of employees’ time (high performers know that time is money), and (2) that management does not understand the business, does not know what needs to be done to increase sales, and is wasting corporate resources.

If the sales team begins to suspect that management doesn’t know how to increase sales, morale will be negatively affected and team members will question their choice of employers. Additionally, salespeople are conscious of the way management spends its money, so seeing waste during ineffective meetings degrades their confidence in the company and makes them less considerate of protecting the corporate resources under their control.

Unproductive meetings also signal to salespeople that management is not committed to excellence—and powerful sales people don’t want to work for companies like that. They want to make money, they want to focus their attention on that goal, and they want to work for managers who are committed to being the best.

With so much at stake in a sales meeting, how can we ensure that the meeting will bring value to the sales team and produce sales? The answer is simple, but the implementation is not: Managers need to develop a statement of strategic intent for the meeting, along with defined, time-sensitive metrics that will be used to measure the meeting’s success. For example, we might say that the strategic intent of our meeting is to train reps to sell X product, with the goal of 80 percent of them exceeding quota within thirty days of the meeting and maintaining that performance through the end of the year.

The challenge in developing a statement of strategic intent is in knowing what needs to be accomplished in the meeting to reach the required performance goal. The specifics must be laid out, and an aggressive but realistic performance goal must be defined. Carrying out this process takes a deep understanding of the business, the sales force, and the competition.

Because managers who can’t write these strategic statements and goals generally do not understand the business, this process can also be used by executive management to evaluate the effectiveness of managers charged with designing the meetings. In other words, this statement of strategic intent is useful for ensuring powerful results meetings and as a management evaluation tool.

Powerful sales meetings driven by statements of strategic intent and clear objectives are at the core of powerful companies. Management teams that hold them regularly will always stay on top.

John R. Treace has over 30 years experience as a sales executive in the medical products industry. He spent over 10 years specializing in the restructuring of sales departments of companies that were either bankrupt or failing. Investor groups and venture capital firms hired him to manage turnarounds of pre-IPO companies.

In 2010 he founded JR Treace & Associates, a sales management consulting business. He is a member of the National Speakers Association and earned a BS in Psychology from the University of Memphis. Treace is the author of the new book, Nuts & Bolts of Sales Management: How to Build a High-Velocity Sales Organization.

China Watch Blog has learnt that an increasing number of China’s rich are snapping up properties overseas in the expectation that domestic inflation will continue to rise after the consumer price index reached a 34-month high in May.

According to Colliers International, a real estate service provider, the proportion of Chinese buyers in Vancouver’s property market is on the rise. At the end of the first quarter this year, it increased to 29 percent of all homebuyers.

In the past six months, Chinese spent 1.3 billion yuan ($200 million) through Colliers’ international property department, with Canada, the UK and Australia topping the buying list.

“We are expecting a clear increase in the extent of mainland buyers’ purchases of overseas properties this year because of the government’s rigorous restraint on the number of homes a family can buy in key cities,” said Alan Liu, managing director of Colliers International (North Asia).

Due to the latest financial push from China, the average price of a home in Greater Vancouver rose 12 percent in 2010 and is expected to rise another 3 percent this year, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Demand from mainland immigrants now accounts for 29 percent of all new homes in Vancouver.

The situation in London is similar. Last year, overseas nationals purchased 28 percent of all resale properties across all prime London sites and 54 percent by value in the prime central London area in the more than 5 million pound ($8 million) price bracket, according to a recent report by Savills research.

“If the money from China were to start flowing into London at the same rate it does from billionaires in other countries, we would expect the value of ultra-prime London properties to grow by as much as 15 per cent,” said Yolande Barnes, head of Savills residential research. “The issue at present is that Chinese buyers aren’t taking, or can’t take, their money out of China.”

China Watch Blog reports that you can win HK$200 department store gift voucher and a souvenir by nominating us (GCTL8.com) for the Meritorious website nominations which open today (June 7), if you (the reader) think we (GCTL8.com) are a good website. Click on (http://www.merit.gov.hk/) to download the nomination form and do the necessary. Contact us: js@GCTL8.com for assistance.

The Meritorious website nominations open today(June 7) until July 7.
Now in its 12th year, the contest is part of the campaign to enhance understanding of the Control of Obscene & Indecent Articles Ordinance.

With the theme “Surf smartly. Spend our time wisely”, the contest aims to encourage young people to visit healthy websites and recognise website producers’ healthy contributions.

Contests nominations are divided into two categories, namely, individual nominations and organisation nominations. Each participant may nominate up to two websites. Winning entry nominators may be awarded a $200 department store gift voucher and a souvenir.

The contest is jointly organised by the Television & Entertainment Licensing Authority, Education Bureau, Committee on Home-School Co-operation, Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association and Radio Television Hong Kong. Click here (http://www.merit.gov.hk/) to download the nomination form.

Public participation is also welcome in associated activities which offer prizes, including the “My Favourite APPS” nomination, an online game and a crossword puzzle.