This issue we bring you a slightly different cover story as it doesn’t focus directly on the air cargo industry, but rather on China and the foreign multinationals that have both been instrumental in China’s economic development and of course in growing their own global business.
The cover story focuses on a survey titled ‘European Union Chamber of Commerce in China’s Business Confidence Survey for 2014’, which clearly has implications for the air cargo sector. The annual survey is noteworthy this year for revealing the most pessimistic outlook of European companies operating in China, in the survey’s decade-long existence.
While the survey details a diminishing environment of returns for the companies, it rightly points out that the China market is none-the-less still to big and too important to be written off, despite the pessimism. An interesting facet of the survey, although not developed in the report itself – which is freely available for download from the Chamber’s website – is the fact that it is the so-called ‘veteran’ companies who feel the least optimistic compared with the newer entrants.
These more recent entrants to the Chinese market probably come with a different expectations and likely different business strategies which may partially explain why they see things in a more positive light. But why is it the veterans feel so cynical about doing business in China now? Is it simply because now that it is that much harder to earn good money, it’s also harder to ignore the environmental and structural problems that have always been an issue? Not to sound cynical myself, but it occurs to me that making healthy profits has simply made it much easier to swallow the bitter pill of market challenges.
At any rate the survey is food for thought in so much as it has revealed very clearly the sentiment of the MNCs in China, their potential strategies going forward and the problems – both old and new – that continue to dog the Chinese economy. Certainly efforts to address many of the issues would be healthy for the Chinese economy in the long term, but it remains to be seen whether there is the deeply held sentiment to undertake such steps.
One thing is for sure, China’s strategy and implementation of economic reform will be watched very closely because of the impact it has on the global economy, just as China’s increasingly aggressive stance geo-politically, not least of all in its relationship with its South China Sea neighbours. And on a slightly different topic, I would like to take a moment to highlight to everyone the annual Payload Asia Awards and Conference 2014. At the time of print the nominations – over 80 in total – for the various awards categories are locked in and voting is set to begin from 1 July.
Please do go online and cast your vote for the most deserving company in each category. Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming conference programme which will precede the Gala Awards Dinner on 29 October, here in Singapore. The Payload Asia team invites you all to the conference and awards and for more information please visit the website at www.payloadasia.com and select either the awards or conference tabs.
