China brands to enter world stage
05 November 2007
At the recent Chinese Communist Party conference, the role of science and technology moved up the agenda significantly. Gordon Wong looks at the consequences for the rest of World.
As Hu Jintao, President of China and General Secretary of The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, reported to the Party's 17th National Congress last month, his audience was not only the 2,200 delegates in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing representing the 73 million CPC members. The world was listening, too.
The global PCB industry, along with most others, will be directly affected by the implementation of proposals on: innovation; foreign investment; regional development; and environmental protection. Even before the congress, it was estimated the production value of Chinese PCBs and CCL (copper-clad laminate) will grow to become the largest in the world by 2010, according to the Chinese Printed Circuit Association (CPCA).
In a move signaling the Party's determination to promote more coordinated development, it enshrined the ‘Scientific Outlook on Development’ into its constitution. In particular, it is trying to steer China's huge economic locomotive onto the track toward resource-saving, energy efficiency and protection of the ecology and environment.
Hu Jintao underscored the task of enhancing China's capacity for independent innovation by pledging increased spending on domestic enterprises carrying out international operations of R&D, production and marketing. Put simply, the Party wants to accelerate the growth of Chinese multinational corporations and Chinese brand names in the world market. Hu also vowed to deepen reform of the system for managing science and technology, make the best use of international resources of science and technology, and (rest of the world: take note of this) implement the strategy for intellectual property rights.
In a recent online article, Wang Longji, President of CPCA, wrote, “The product mix of the Chinese PCB industry is gradually moving from low-end technology products to the higher-end. This transition has been supported by the arrival of some of the world’s best PCB producers along with the emergence of a home-grown Chinese PCB industry.
The Chinese PCB industry still lags behind in technology, investment, management and R&D, across the board. High performance and high quality products, as well as green materials, are only in the research and trial productions phases.”
The China government appears to have taken notice of Wang, as its set of initiatives look to address many of the shortcomings he outlined. Industry players worldwide are well advised to take a close look at what the implications of the initiatives derived from this congress will be for their business strategy moving forward.
To know where the country, and to some extent the world, will be heading next, there is no better venue than the CPC's once-every-five-year national congress.
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