A local paper from China’s Zhejiang province has published an article about Chinese traders in southern Iraq. It’s long, so I’ll look at the details over two posts. But the experiences of these traders say a lot more than can be gleamed from the trade data itself.
First up is 50-year old Chan. He sells gowns for 60 yuan (about $10) a piece. He reckons to have made 300,000 yuan ($44,000 in the past month). Not a bad day’s work. The gowns are made in his family’s factory in China, and he changes his stock once a month, to keep ahead of competitors. I’m not surprised given that he claims profit margins are 50 percent.
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It’s not strictly Silk Road. But Andrew Batson, at the Wall Street Journal, has interviewed Mthuli Ncube, chief Economist at the African Development Bank. There’s some chunky quotes and great insights. Its emerging market officials that provide some of the most illuminating views on China, as the rest of us spend too much time debating whether the Chinese renminbi is fairly valued or if China’s property sector will collapse.
The original article is on the Journal’s website. But here’s a few highlights with my own comments in brackets:
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If your “Made-in-China microwave breaks down, it’s probably easier to throw it out and buy a new one. But what about a car?
That’s the problem some Egyptian car owners are grappling with. I read that complaints are piling up, and fingers are pointing eastwards. An Al Masry Al Youm article notes that out of 1,500 complaints filed by disgruntled buyers through until September this year, some 1,269 are related to cars, “especially” those imported from China.
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The world’s largest producer of electronics, Hon Hai, has announced plans to shift its factories to China’s interior provinces. Nearly 70% of its 1 million workforce will work in inland cities within five years, compared to 20% today.
Hon Hai, the maker of products for Apple, Nokia, and Hewlett-Packard, is betting that lower costs in China’s interior will help cut costs. Others will likely follow.
It’s part of China’s gradual drift westwards, away from the coast. It also makes the prospect of overland transport all the more compelling. The longer it takes to deliver goods to coastal ports, the less reason to send goods by sea.
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Boston Consulting’s media relations team has been busy, sending out copies of their recent report on internet trends in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and Russia. It’s worth a read.
The report shows how “wired” China is compared to India. China has twice the number of internet users than does India. They are also online for an average 2.5 hours a day against less than 1 hour in India. It helps that broadband is fast and cheap, while internet cafes have flourished.
There are also other economic benefits, not covered by the report.
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Yiwu is a pin-up for China’s relations with the Middle East. It featured heavily in my book, and the Chinese coastal city continues to amaze visitors with its vast malls.
So here’s an update. I earlier wrote about the upcoming China-Arab Trade Forum due to be held in Ningxia province late September. The website looks spiffy, and it seems that the provincial government is keen to impress their visitors with Arabic-speaking Chinese. But most have since left to work in Yiwu, and other coastal cities, where the Arab traders are concentrated and the money is much better.
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Last week I spotted a sign in Beijing’s metro trying to convince harried commuters to visit Turkey. “Not the same as Europe. Not the same as Asia” ran the advertisements.
They aren’t the only country pinning their hopes in Chinese tourists.
Morocco’s tourist agency has just set up an office in Beijing, after Morocco was added to China’s approved destination status last year, alone with Syria and Oman.
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