I just saw a ideo about the commercial and trade situation in Liuzhou, and thought it would be a good one to share with all of you out there. Nearby Guilin is predominately focused on tourism, and since Nanning is the capital of Guangxi Province, it has a necessarily broad focus. Not so in Liuzhou.
Liuzhou has a much more specific focus on industry and commerce. As the video says, it is much more than a regional hub, but key to the trade in all of Southwest and Southern China, with wholesale and retain network cooperation reaching to East China.
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I do not know if I am right, if it is isolated to this area, or what, but I am noticing a death of foreign products around here. For a while, the Dove chocolate bars (in many delightful variations), Nabisco cookies and crackers, and other foreign food products were always on the shelves. At first, I thought they were only disappearing from selected stores (the unenlightened), but now I see that nobody is restocking and few stores have any of those food products left.
Now, keep in mind, when I say I live in a small town hidden away in Southwest China, I do not mean a small city. I am not counting using the inflated sense of size usually used in talking about China's cities. One million people is a small city around here. This little town, though, is about 30,000 people...a little different. Just keep that in mind.
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An almost identically named article from Reuters talked about the gains coffee is making in China, not only in the amount of coffee consumed, but the production of coffee beans as well. Chinese homes are increasingly drinking coffee (albeit overwhelmingly instant in the home) and Chinese coffee producers are a strengthening presence in the world coffee trade.
I have talked about the coffee culture in China before, but I was very interested in what this article had to say about China's coffee production. Though only briefly, they did hint toward the same conclusions I see for China's coffee beans.
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I have heard the idea suggested here and there that coffee was either partially responsible for the Enlightenment. Basically, the theory goes that many gave up several helpings of beer a day, switched to coffee, and the resulting lack of dulled senses replaced by that caffeine edge allowed for or encouraged a flowering of great thinking.
I, of course, was not there, and could not say for sure. Did Michelangelo drink coffee? I don't know. He is Renaissance, but if you ask me, he and his peers got things going in the direction of the Englightenment. He is Italian, at least, so maybe he was a coffee guy. But I digress.
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What is going on with education in China's countryside? Since I live and work here, I thought I would make a few comments on a very interesting article I just read on the Washington Post's website.
Western nations' governments, researchers, and reporters often blast China for this and that policy. And clear statistics of the illiteracy rate among China's massive rural population is of great concern for the Chinese government. In this matter, though, there are a great many factors at play. This is not a matter that more money or better drafted government resolutions are going to solve. I would say the biggest factor is cultural.
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What is the most effective way to advertise in China? In most cases, I would have to say television, whether national or local, because surprisingly more than even Americans, Chinese are absolute TV addicts. Beyond television, though, what media best communicate to Chinese people?
I live in a small town, and more to entertain myself than to provide information directly appilcable for all of you readers, I want to relate the simple and effective advertising methods used out here in China's smaller towns. And, I am not talking about China's second and third tier cities, but actual small towns, with populations below 100,000.
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I had previously commented on a Liuzhou government video encouraging foreign investment, and just watched another on the state of agriculture in Liuzhou and the surrounding areas.
The video states that the primary base of agriculture in the Liuzhou area is in Liuzhou surburban areas and in two outlying counties. That confuses me a little, because all six of Liuzhou City's counties have strong agricultural bases, though they do produce a wide variety of agricultural products.
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How viable are foreign businesses in China's small towns, especially at a county level? A couple days ago I was talking to a friend about restaurants, travel service firms, and guest houses in these small towns. Some of these ideas are working and some are not.
These small towns are a completely different business environment from the cities and even prefectures. On one side, because they are smaller, the lack of volume or traffic is an issue. On the other side, a foreign business may be able to provide the only such service or product without any fear of competition.
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The broken fiber optic cables connecting Asia and the Americas has some interesting effects. I have read various reports (all from Asian news servers, since Western sources are all offline for us) about different Southeast Asian, Central Asian, and East Asian countries making it back online since the earthquakes, and that may well be true for some, but things are a little different out here in the less-connected parts of China.
The China Daily article states that Chinese connections are back up to 15%. Sources from India, Singapore, and others have said their connections are almost back up to normal. That is great for them! But here, American servers are basically non-existant and European servers are slow, but accessible.
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Long ago, walking through a Chinese village, I noticed some of the residents digging an enormous hole next to their house. Ever since that day, when I saw my first methane system put to work in a rural village setting, I have thought methane could help out many more of China's villages.
Today, when I walked into a local copy and print shop here in town, I noticed they were typing up a chart of all the methane projects for the entire county. The government is willing to pay for the resources (concrete, sand, etc) if a household is willing to provide the labor to dig and build the tank. Why do they give out such a good deal?
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Rural companies can easily understand how their products can be developed to generate more profit and marketed direct to end buyers. However, the average guy on the street around here just cannot figure out what our company does, though. There are very strong preconceptions of what resources they have and what resources have the strongest potential. All they seem to talk about is "tea oil."
I have never been too keen on trying to develop what locals call "tea oil" because (having never heard of it) I doubted its use outside the local area, but tea oil is most certainly the big resource locals expect our company to help develop. It has nothing to do with tea bushes or tea we drink, but comes from a completely different bush (tree) altogether. The folks around here sing its praises. I tend to wonder if there is a decent product worth development or not.
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I wrote a few days ago about simple ways technology can greatly improve farmers' everyday lives. The China Daily article I had read mentioned a couple national Agriculture Bureau sites, but I wanted to take a look at the more local sites that farmers in my local area would be able to take advantage of.
I wanted to get a quick look at Liuzhou's Agriculture Bureau website, but it was something like the one afternoon I had many moons ago to take a quick look at the Lourve Museum. There is nothing quick about it. It has loads of information, so I decided to find what I could about the area tea business.
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China is striving to provide tuition-free schooling for children through middle school. This is all a part of the "new socialist countryside" they aim to create. Whatever they call it, it is a good move, but some questions still remain.
Tuition is not the only money students need to pay; they have additional costs that go along with schooling. Plus, many of the rural students must be boarded since schools, especially schools beyond primary level, are far from home villages. And, as it relates to this blog, this move for free tuition will have dramatic affects on the rural economy.
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It looks like the Chinese government is giddy to technologically advance the countryside, but from the sound of it, all they have is more flowery language to throw at the idea. Sure, I am all for using technology to aid China's farmers, but all I see is another speech from the government that is all show.
In the past week, I have seen both good and bad articles in China Daily about development in China's rural areas, one which would most likely exploit China's minority cultures and another using simple technology to bring great benefits to farmers. It seems to be a week for China's farmers in the news, with China's Vice Minister for the Information Industry jumping in to give the world his two cents.
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How does Guangxi and its booming city of Liuzhou compare with other Chinese cities and regions in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and the ability of residents to afford products and services?
For foreign businesses looking to invest in China and trying to find the most suitable region and city for that investment, market opportunity and costs of running a business are obviously going to be the most important factors in any enterprise, and those differ widely from city to city in China.
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When reading about a program to equip China's farmers with computers and IT training to improve their ability to track markets for their products and search for new technology to help crop quality, I was skeptical. After reading through the report in China Daily, I am quite interested in how simple technology can greatly help agricultural development in China's rural areas.
I think one main difference in this program is the origins of the idea. This is no inefficient plan from the halls of some global organization. This program comes from the Unlimited Potential Project, initiated by Microsoft China. Leave it to a business to create a simple and effective program which has much better chance of sustainable development.
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Maybe it is just Chinese journalism, maybe overly formal policy, or maybe just a plain, old bad idea, but reading through an article about some of the government's plans to alleviate poverty in China's rural areas, the plan seems terribly simplified. Maybe it is just me.
I read a short article in the China Daily about a joint plan between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Chinese government to develop the local economies of the countryside, especially in minority areas. There may be a good plan hidden away somewhere, but the article was an over simplified idea restated in five slightly different forms, cramming one paragraph of content into a ten or so paragraph article.
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Southwest China has attracted a multitude of non-profit organizations, and in the past few months, the Chinese government has stopped renewing the registrations for these organizations (at least the smaller ones). Many of them are turning to business. What is going to happen with the non-profit minded folks flocking into the business world?
Many plan on continuing very similar activities, but start a business to do so. Is it just me, or does that not make much sense? Sure, organizations often use businesses to actually complete some projects, but can a strategy which is funded become a strategy that brings in money? Non-profits tend to have money flowing out, not in.
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Yes, I know that is contradictory. And so are the reports. It is a bit hard to figure out what is happening to China's farmers if all you read is reports. The best thing I know to do is evaluate what I am seeing from my point of view working here in an agriculturally-based town in Southwest China.
Sure, first hand accounts can be deceiving because I am only one person. My statistics may not be as accurate as the World Bank or the Chinese government, but much of the time, more usable information can be drawn from experience than can from numbers. So, what is really happening with China's farmers' incomes?
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For those who have been around China for a while, this is nothing new, but applied to business, this is a trait that China desperately needs: creative problem solving. Without it, China will never be able to come up with new and better solutions, but can only continue to copy what the rest of the world does.
Creative problem solving is the foundation for development and innovation. This is not only the solution to help China move from low-tech manufacturing to more advanced. It is also the key factor in whether China can truly exceed the world's perpetually developing nations. This is not a division between developing and developed, but rather between those who copy and those who creatively come up with new ideas.
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The World Bank released a report last month entitled "Governance, Investment Climate, and Harmonious Society: Competitiveness Enhancements for 120 Cities in China." The report has loads of information, and with a specific city-emphasis, it much more applicable to those seeking to invest in China than any country wide report would have been.
The section on Southwest China reveals much useful information to help compare the major cities in the region in areas such as taxes and fees, days to clear imports and exports, government involvement in business, average annual salaries, and more.
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Is tung oil the unsung hero of small counties like Sanjiang? Well, "hero" is still up for debate, but it is most certainly unsung. As I flipped through the county's investment guide, there is not one mention of tung oil. And I really do not understand why.
Of course, I am thinking a bit more globally than the average small town resident. The guide lists products like beef, but I would not touch that one with a ten foot pole for foreign markets, because (no offense) the beef back home in the Great Plains of the United States way out ranks anything I have had in China. Now, before we chase a rabbit trail with the beef, the point is that the investment guide is very China-focused, and marketable resources like tung oil did not even make it in there with cow meat!
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Many foreign individuals and organizations are involved with China's countryside schools to help develop educational opportunities for rural residents. Until this week, I did not think much about methods in educational development, but upon hearing how scholarships are distributed in a nearby minority village, I am beginning to think a little more how the situation could be improved.
Do we want to make sure every child goes to school or the right children go to school? Many foreigners, most of whom are accustomed to free public education for all, would quickly respond that we want everybody in school. Great. Good answer. But until that is practical, what are the steps to bring us to the point where all can go? And when all is not practical, who do you choose? Ah, that is the right question.
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What happens when you are a tea farmer from the Chinese countryside and your buyer receives shipment of your tea, disconnects his phone line, and disappears without paying? That is exactly the situation of a Dong friend of mine right now.
I do not want to suggest this is a common occurance, but once is enough to cause very serious damage. What can a rural tea farmer do when the buyer is half way across the country? What affects will this leave on the local economy? How can crop theft be avoided?
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Tourism or electric power? That is the struggle between residents and officials in the public in Guizhou Province's Xingyi City. The government wants to build a hydroelectric power station that would put scenic spots under water. I cannot say this is the first time I have heard this issue come up.
It is a tough issue, really. Not building a dam preserves the current scenic beauty which brings in tourist money, and building the dam provides tax revenue of around $14 million Chinese yuan (USD 1.7 million) per year. Actually, come to think of it, that sounds like more of an ethical issue than anything else. Those who have the power to say if the dam is built are also the same ones who would profit from the building of the dam.
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Tourism can play a very important role in economic development—we will assume something tour-worthy is available. Southwest China wants to strengthen the tourism industry in small towns and big cities alike, and much of the development for tourism is on a scale for which only the Chinese government can take responsibility.
I want to look lower level needs, though, needs that can be worked on with something less than millions in funding. One big help a small foreign company could provide to help develop small town tourism is English. But not just teaching English, rather going beyond that and teaching foreign cultural awareness.
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When you think of marketing rural resources from China's countryside, you might not think of tourism, but these are changing times, and the local government most definitely classifies the mountains and minorities as travel worthy "resources." Sounds strange to me, but let's look into it.
Regardless of whether you really want to call it a resource or not, tourism is a big thing in these small places. Nearby Guilin is one of China's biggest tourist attractions, and is the best example of the type of tourism most prevalent in Southwest China: scenery and nationalities.
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I have heard foreigners and Chinese minority people alike encourage me to help them develop the sale of local minority fabrics, clothes, and other such handicraft items to foreigners. Is there really a market? A lot of people talk about it. Should I look into it?
For tourists that come to visit places like the greater Guilin and Liuzhou areas, selling minority items is one thing. Tourists come expecting to see natural beauty and ethnic diversity, and very well could be interested in ethnic handicrafts. It is a completely different matter to try to sell local fabrics overseas.
Maybe the items are not the most important part. Maybe there is a skill that could be applied to a different use.
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Living right in the middle of development has positives and negatives. New Frontier Consulting is located in the Chinese countryside to help facilitate economic development where it needs to happen, but somtimes those negatives make you feel anew the need for progress.
We would all love for roads and bridges to go up in a week, but the truth is any development will take time, and that time will pass very slowly for some. Still the benefit of the finished road or bridge is well worth the wait.
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Why is it the poorer Chinese areas need development? They should be able to survive at the same level they have for hundreds of years. They have a house and grow their own food. So, do they really need new ways to earn money?
I wonder about these kinds of things a lot. What did the average Chinese peasant do one hundred years ago without the job opportunities in Guangdong's booming industrial areas or the massive construction across the country? I know all the standard answers, but just a couple days ago, a friend of mine who lives in a village in just such a situation was able to set me straight on a few things.
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So how do you find the resource or product you are looking for in China? If you have tried using the internet with little or no success, you are definitely not alone.
Alternatively, you may have found something on the internet, but you never could make contact with the company. Nobody replies to e-mail and calling would require a Chinese speaker. Again, you are not alone. Just finding the product is not enough, the end goal is buying it, of course.
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My wife and I were recently flying back from Bangkok to Guilin on Bangkok Air, where we repetitively heard, "Bangkok Air, Asia's boutique airline." I had to work my brain around that one and try to figure out what they were talking about.
"Boutique" keeps popping up. Today, I read an article about the positives and negatives of working with global service firms in China. It raises the issue of whether many businesses would not do better to look into China's "boutique expat service firms."
It is all a matter of what job you need done and how you want it done. Sometimes the price tag for the "big guys" is not really worth it.
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If the Chinese economy is booming now, what are the chances it will bust? The Chinese government knows quite well that if they do not intentionally slow down the economy and growth, a devastating bust waits in the near future.
One of the primary forces of growth is construction. Realizing how much of the local and domestic economy is built around the construction industry, I thought a quick round of market research in our small town would provide some interseting results.
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In our research of different materials and products that could be sourced from China, many are ready to export immediately. Some need only a little adjustment and could be ready, but we have found one company that just is not in a good position to export their product right now.
Many businesses are excited about the possibility of cutting out the middle man and increasing their profits by selling direct to the buyers, but some are just not ready for that yet. The desire was there on the part of this company, but the quality of the product was not.
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The United States has now topped a population of 300 million people. The news has been full of talk about America's resources, immigration, and changing demographics. The reliably sensational news sources have been reporting these issues out of the proper context.
A couple days ago, CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed CNN's Lou Dobbs, the author of War on the Middle Class. Mr. Dobbs postulated the future of the United States, feeding a greater number of people, and the use of our precious resources. When compared to China, though, many of his arguments seem much less pressing.
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Governmental intervention is the solution, says a new report out from Oxfam International and Water Aid. They argue that the necessary scale needed to alleviate global poverty lies in the public services provided by governments. They place special emphasis on the role of rich countries and the World Bank.
The report speaks specifically of services such as providing training and salaries for both teachers and health workers and developing national water and sanitation systems. Oxfam's Bernice Romero has an inspiring goal: “Within a generation, for the first time in history, every child in the world could be in school, every woman could give birth with proper health care, everyone could drink clean, safe water, and millions of new health workers and teachers could be saving lives and shaping minds."
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The story is as old as China's development surge. Migrant workers from the countryside move into the big cities to find work, but leave their children behind with grandparents or relatives.
The Deputy director of the China Youth Research Center, Sun Xiaoyun, gave her "solution" to the problem in a China Daily article: "If kids can go out [to the cities to work] with their parents together, many problems will disappear." I sit silent, dumbfounded by such lack of insight.
Of course! But stating generalized, unrealistic, shallow solutions is not going to do anything to actually solve the problem. Moving to understand these problems on a deeper level and come to much more workable conclusions does not take much work. At the very least, we should ask the right questions. Do these rural workers want to leave their children behind? Do they want to travel to some unknown area to toil for meagre wages in hopes of helping their family survive? If not, then why do they?
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China is still a developing nation. That may be hard to tell when roaming the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, or any other developing city center in China. The fact is hundreds of millions of Chinese are in the countryside. Even a cursory look into the rural situation will be more than enough to define it as developing.
The water issues we all hear about in China are usually the big ones, the industrial scale, the major rivers. Those are serious, no doubt, but we always think downstream. We always think of the immediate issue and the immediate effects. We need to think upstream as well.
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Education is certainly needed in China's countryside where local rivers continue to be the rubbish bin of choice for every village priviledged enough to have one. The all-natural bamboo or wooden waste of the past has been replaced by plastic bags of all shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, the method of disposal has not changed.
Now, when tourists aim cameras at the picturesque Wind & Rain Bridges of the Dong people, most shift the viewfinder up a little to ignore the red and white plastic debris caught up in the small village streams. Chinese people gloat on their countryside, "Good air, good water," but little to they realize what the true situation is.
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The Chinese government estimates 300 million Chinese still lack clean drinking water, and in the next five years strive to provide disease and chemical free water supplies for 160 million of those. These are massive projects, but the Chinese government is making great progress to develop the most basic needs of its rural inhabitants.
In much of the Chinese countryside, certainly in the Dong minority areas among whom New Frontier frequently works, water is the core problem behind many local ailments. China’s Primier Wen Jiabao wants to focus primarily on areas tainted from fluorine, arsenic, salt, pollution, and the schistosoma worm (causing schistosomiasis). When these chemicals are present, there is nothing which can be done within the means of the countryside folk themselves.
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Xinhua News Agency reports that a delegation of Hong Kong farming representatives will visit Korea for seven days in order to learn from Korea’s advanced technology and agrculture management. This is exactly what should be happening all over China, not just for relatively developed areas such as Hong Kong.
Agriculturists from the West, from Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, and many other countries around the world have expertise that could be shared. How could these foreign professionals with a desire to help develop rural China help? How do they find opportunities?
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