China's Silk Road continues to thrive
Simone Lee, WG'05
Issue date: 4/5/04 Section: News
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With an abundant pool of human resources, rapidly improving technology, and a growing consumer base, China is an international force with enormous potential. The theme "Global Crossings: Paving the New Silk Road" resonated with the 400 business executives, professionals, academics, experts, and students across the nation who converged at the second annual Wharton China Business Forum last Saturday.
The first keynote speaker, Rodney Ward, Chairman of UBS Asia, discussed the reform of the Chinese banking sector and highlighted its short and difficult history. Though the sector has made dramatic progress in the last 25 years, non-performing loans (NPL) have been a major setback. The problem stems from excessive government interference, high liquidity growth, misallocation of resources, and poor internal governance. However, the decline in government interference in recent years, which has led to a reduction in state-owned enterprises (SOE) but an increase in unemployment, has helped alleviate the NPL situation. The China Banking Regulatory Commission was formed in 2003 with the goal to further resolve the NPL crisis by bringing Chinese banks to the international market. Mr. Ward's lively delivery engaged an entertaining debate among the academics in the audience on when the first Chinese bank was formed. The jury is still out.
After an interactive case study on Asia Optic where the participants had
the opportunity to interact with the CEO and the Chief Marketing Officer of one of the most profitable publicly traded companies on the Taiwanese Stock Exchange, two panel discussions ensued. The Healthcare in China panel - "Capitalizing on Healthcare for Tomorrow's China" - comprised an impressive list of panelists, ranging from a professor of Economics at Princeton University to the Managing Partner of China Healthcare Consulting. While SARS no longer threatens China's modernizing market economy, a shadow has been cast on the relic that is China's antiquated healthcare system. Experts predict that China's total pharmaceutical market will become the largest in the world by 2020. The panelists analyzed the tremendous opportunities, developments, and difficulties in establishing a healthcare system for China's 1.3 billion person population.
The first keynote speaker, Rodney Ward, Chairman of UBS Asia, discussed the reform of the Chinese banking sector and highlighted its short and difficult history. Though the sector has made dramatic progress in the last 25 years, non-performing loans (NPL) have been a major setback. The problem stems from excessive government interference, high liquidity growth, misallocation of resources, and poor internal governance. However, the decline in government interference in recent years, which has led to a reduction in state-owned enterprises (SOE) but an increase in unemployment, has helped alleviate the NPL situation. The China Banking Regulatory Commission was formed in 2003 with the goal to further resolve the NPL crisis by bringing Chinese banks to the international market. Mr. Ward's lively delivery engaged an entertaining debate among the academics in the audience on when the first Chinese bank was formed. The jury is still out.
After an interactive case study on Asia Optic where the participants had
the opportunity to interact with the CEO and the Chief Marketing Officer of one of the most profitable publicly traded companies on the Taiwanese Stock Exchange, two panel discussions ensued. The Healthcare in China panel - "Capitalizing on Healthcare for Tomorrow's China" - comprised an impressive list of panelists, ranging from a professor of Economics at Princeton University to the Managing Partner of China Healthcare Consulting. While SARS no longer threatens China's modernizing market economy, a shadow has been cast on the relic that is China's antiquated healthcare system. Experts predict that China's total pharmaceutical market will become the largest in the world by 2020. The panelists analyzed the tremendous opportunities, developments, and difficulties in establishing a healthcare system for China's 1.3 billion person population.