China has become one of the major destinations for foreign investment in the world today. Statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce indicate that some $60.5 billion worth of foreign investment had been brought to the country in 2005. This large-scale utilization of foreign capital has greatly fueled local economic growth and integrated China even more into the global economy. In contrast to the heavy absorption of foreign investment at home, however, the country’s business investment abroad remains insignificant. Official data show that the combined overseas investment made by Chinese enterprises stood at $6.92 billion last year, accounting for a mere 0.8 percent of the world total of $897 billion. This is incommensurate with China’s status as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
With competition for profits and resources getting tougher than ever, an increasing number of Chinese enterprises are planning to set up their business beyond the home market. For them, overseas business operation may pose as an essential option for corporate development, as it will not only bring more market share and revenue, but also help to make them more adaptable to tougher competition in the global market. Some Chinese enterprises have taken the lead in carrying out their overseas development strategies. Haier Group, a well-known local producer of home appliances, for one, has made successful inroads in some foreign markets, including the United States. The company soon established a good reputation abroad, and now ranks fourth in the global white goods industry, according to a study by Euromonitor, an authoritative industry consultant agency. Lenovo, the nation’s topnotch IT hardware producer, has also acquired the PC section of IBM, which should eventually buttress Lenovo’s branding efforts abroad, although the company has not fully leveraged the IBM name.
Often the journey to overseas expansion has been bumpy and filled with difficulties. Last year, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC, was barred from buying a stake in Unocal Oil Corp., as some people in the U.S. regarded the purchase as a threat to their energy security. Many more enterprises have been unsuccessful in their business endeavors abroad. They are either unfamiliar with local market conditions, or ineffectively compete with local rivals. Take Konka Corporation for instance. A couple of years ago, the TV manufacturing giant launched production facilities in Mexico, hoping it would grab some market share in the local HDTV industry. But due to heavy losses, it had to shut down the plant after only one-and-a-half years of operation.
While the root causes for these failed attempts may vary from case to case, some can roughly be identified. These include lack of understanding and experience in the local markets, a shortage of competent managerial personnel, clear-cut business development strategies, inefficient corporate governance and inflexibility amid intense competition in the marketplace. A growing number of Chinese enterprises are learning from these lessons, much to our delight, and more and more enterprises are preparing themselves for overseas business development. The government is also lending a helping hand, granting them preferential policies, and providing them with investment information and guidance. Chinese firms are already on their way overseas, but it will take a long time before they can fully carry out their global development strategies.

Mahfouz

EGYPT is saying a proud farewell to its most eminent man of letters, not simply because he was the country’s only Nobel literary laureate but because he was also the only person in the Arab world to have won the Nobel Prize for literature. Naguib Mahfouz is to be accorded a military funeral which is expected to be attended by senior politicians, including President Hosni Mubarak. That is quite a turn of fortune for a man who rose to prominence following his portrayal of the autocratic rule of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Few characterize the Swedish-based Nobel institution as anything other than internationalist in its approach to choosing those it will honor. Nevertheless, the fact that the 1988 literary award to Mahfouz remains the only one received by any Arab writer is a disappointment, unreflective of the achievement of Arab letters. Maybe not enough Arab writers make it into translation in the way that Mahfouz did. Through translation, his work came to the attention of a wider public during the closing days of the British occupation of Egypt. His masterpiece. Cairo Trilogy, dealt in part with the struggles of student activists against the British.
A stylish writer with a distinctive voice, Mahfouz chose to deal with great themes by focusing on small canvases, very often the district immediately around his home in ancient Cairo and characters very like his own family or the Nile-sidecafe and literary companions who filled his later life. His greatest achievement was to characterize the social challenges posed to old Egypt by modernity. Even when he was attacking the failures and oppression in the world around him, often in allegorical tales, he was always notable for his moderation. His wide popularity was almost certainly based upon the acceptability of his gently expressed views to all shades of political opinion and social class. However strongly he held an opinion, Mahfouz was never a bigot.
Unfortunately it was a bigot who in 1994 tried to stab to death the then 82-year-old writer as he left his home. The would-be murderer failed. And once again, the pen proved mightier than the sword because Mahfouz, though he lost the use of his right arm in the attack, continued to produce books and articles by dictating to a friend. Nevertheless, Mahfouz maintained a busy schedule well into his 90s. In his final years, he would go out six nights a week to meet friends at Cairo’s literary watering holes, trading jokes, ideas for stories and news of the day. Mubarak described Mahfouz aptly when he a said in a condolences statement, “Mahfouz was a cultural light ... who ... expressed with his creativity the values shared by all, the values of enlightenment and tolerance that reject extremism.” A final testament to this remarkable writer and his victory for moderation will be the republication later this year of the entire body of his written work — 34 novels, five plays, dozens of film scripts and hundreds of short stories and essays. This should ensure that Mahfouz finds an even wider public at a time when his moderation is sorely needed.

—Arab News