35642 Ã Vol. 11 October 15, 2003 Public Disclosure Authorized Recent Business Highlights Business Edge promotion attracts over 300 locals at West China Expo MIGA visits Chengdu to assess potential investment promotion cooperation CPDF works with Israeli venture capitalists to deliver a 4-day workshop Investment Services reach beyond Chengdu to SMEs with financing needs Visitors To IFC-CPDF Gregory Chin, Qingdong Li and Rob Wright People Among Us Ke Hu, the Polo fashion guy working on CPDF’s numbers News From The Region China says its preferential policies for foreign investors unchanged Chengdu main economic indicators best among West China cities Sichuan sets out to be the hydropower supplier for the entire country Taiwanese businessmen rank Chengdu one of the top investment destinations Public Disclosure Authorized Coming Up Soon Peter Woicke will visit Chengdu to meet local government and business leaders CPDF to donate Business Edge workbooks to employment promotion center Sichuan Business Association Management Forum will be held in late October Recent Business Highlights Capacity Building (CB) CPDF promotes Business Edge training at West China Public Disclosure Authorized Expo… CPDF’s SME Management Training Program (MTP) utilized the 4th West China Expo, a prominent Sichuan event attracting more than 2,000 companies annually, to promote the new Business Edge training courses and workbooks to local SMEs. Over the 3-day exhibition held between September 26 and 28, CPDF staff detailed the Business Edge program to numerous exhibition attendees, collected contact information from over 300 interested Sichuan-based enterprises, and distributed MTP promotional materials to 220 participants at a related forum on Financial Innovation and SME Investment. (news contributed by Godfrey Firth, Marketing Specialist with the CB team) First CPDF SME Leadership Forum launched for 31 local Public Disclosure Authorized SME senior managers… The 3-day Organization and Leadership workshop, held between September 27 and 29, was the first in the SME Leadership Forum Executive Management Series organized by CPDF in the West China region. 31 SME leaders participated in the forum, gaining access to world-class executive management training in Sichuan Province. The SME Leadership Forum is a joint project between CPDF and The China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). Following the results of this first workshop, CPDF will deliver further seminars on topics vital to local SME owners and managers, including strategic management and managing growth. (news contributed by Qiyun Yi, BDO with the CB team) Business Enabling Environment (BEE) MIGA expert visits Chengdu to identify assistance to investment promotion agency… Ms. Cecilia Sager, Senior Investment Promotion Advisor of Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), another important member of the World Bank Group, arrived in Chengdu on October 12 to work with CPDF for a one-week-long fact-finding mission. She discussed several possible projects with senior officials of Sichuan Investment Promotion Bureau (SIPB), notably a benchmarking study on investment climates at prefecture-level cities of Sichuan and potential training requirements of local investment promotion agencies in the province. Ms. Sager also visited Sichuan Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, Sichuan Bureau of Statistics, Zigong Municipal Investment Promotion Bureau and other local investment promotion agencies in the region. (news contributed by Yanfei Ye, BDO with the BEE team) Financial Sector (FS) CPDF offers venture capital (VC) workshop backed with Israeli funding… From September 22 to 25, CPDF, together with Sichuan Venture Capital Association and Chengdu Venture Technology Development Center as well, organized Sichuan Venture Capital Workshop, part of an overall “Sichuan VC Project” funded by World Bank Consultant Trust Fund - Israeli Fund. The objective of the program is to provide Sichuan-based SMEs with better access to equity finance by enhancing VC sector capacities and activities in the region. This workshop was dedicated to transferring western successful experience in VC investment to the West China region while concurrently strengthening the working relationship between Sichuan and Israeli VC industries. During the 4-day session, around 50 VC firm officers, SME managers and governmental officials received intensive training on key topics detailing the lifecycle of a typical venture fund, and also discussed practical methods of improving the Sichuan VC activities in the future. CPDF also took the opportunity to deliver a lecture on corporate governance to the audience, which highlighted the benefits good corporate governance practices can bring to the SMEs to attract VC investments. (news contributed by Quan Chen, BDO with the IS Team) Local small business credit guarantee firm receives 2nd phase assistance… A key element of CPDF’s 2nd-phase technical assistance to Chengdu Small Enterprises Credit Guarantee Co., Ltd is the upgrading of its existing five graded risk rating system to a more comprehensive ten grade one. Having utilized the old system for about 2 years, the Chengdu-based small business credit guarantee facility found that it could no longer differentiate the risks in its guarantee portfolio. The new system is aimed at both providing a basis for credit approval and tools for post-lending monitoring and provisioning. The upgrade will strengthen the internal capacity of the credit guarantee firm in risk management, and is a vital milestone in preparations for its planned capital increase. (news contributed by Wenfang Chen with the FS Team) Investment Service (IS) CPDF goes out of Chengdu to help a local carbamide producer in Meishan… CPDF inked a combined investment services and corporate governance improvement mandate with a Meishan-based client on September 16. Sichuan Golden Elephant Chemical Company Ltd is a profitable medium sized enterprise whose main products are carbamide and ammonium nitrate. It was set up in 1970 as a SOE and privatized in 1994. The company turned to CPDF for help to raise finance to capitalize on a key technology upgrade, which will enable it to enhance production capabilities and launch a new product - calcium nitrite. This is the first CPDF IS client registered outside Chengdu. (news contributed by Hui Liu, BDO with the IS Team) Visitors To CPDF Dr. Gregory Chin, First Secretary, and Mr. Qingdong Li, Project Officer, from Canada International Development Agency (CIDA), came to the CPDF office on September 26 to discuss further cooperation with the Sichuan-based IFC SME facility. CIDA has already provided some financial support or CPDF’s corporate governance project. Mr. Rob Wright, Senior Communications Officer from the SME Department at the IFC headquarters, visited Chengdu between September 24 and 26 as part of his Asia-Pacific IFC-managed PDF tour to learn more about the field practices of CPDF in terms of supporting the sustainable development of SMEs in the region. People Among Us Mr. Ke Hu, Finance Assistant, joined CPDF in December 2002. He holds college degrees in Accounting & Principles of Statistics as well as in Computer Application & Management. He worked for Hewlett Packard as internal accountant assistant for three years, and later worked for Agilent Technologies as general accountant for three years. Ke has a sound taste in men’s fashion, and wears all kinds of Polo and other famous name brands. He sings pop songs quite well and is also a good swimmer. News From The Region Government – China pledges no change in preferential policies for foreign investment… Sources from the Ministry of Commerce said that China has no plan to change its preferential treatment policies for international investment in the near future. Since the country’s entry into WTO, many foreign investors have been worried that China might cancel its preferential policies and offer foreign investors the same national treatment as their domestic counterparts. “This is a misunderstanding of what is meant by national treatment,” said a government official. In line with the WTO rules, national treatment means the elimination of policies that discriminate against foreign investment, and it does not necessarily mean elimination of preferential treatment. Business – Main economic indices of Chengdu Municipality top West China cities… The latest Chengdu Municipal Statistics Bureau report made public in early October showed that between January and August, the city realized a GDP of to RMB112.6 billion (US$13.6 billion), up 13% over the same period last year. Chengdu’s economy has maintained a strong momentum of growth and its main economic indicators were the highest of all the cities in West China. According to the report, the city made an investment in fixed assets amounting to RMB45.2 billion (US$5.5 billion), a year-on-year rise of 36%, achieved a budgetary revenue from local finance of RMB5.9 billion (US$715.2 million), an increase of 30% compared with the same period of 2002, and fulfilled RMB49.5 billion (US$6 billion) in total retail sales of social consumables. Business – Sichuan Province to become hydropower base for the entire nation… Sichuan Provincial Government is planning to make the province a national hydropower base in the next 5 years, revealed the recently released The Adjustment Opinions on Sichuan’s Electric Power Layout in the 10th Five-Year Planning period. According to the report, Sichuan will kick off overall construction of Three Rivers hydropower bases and build large scaled thermal power stations, relying on Luzhou, Yibin, Guang’an and Dazhou, which are the main coal production areas in the region. Business – Latest survey says Chengdu favored by Taiwanese investors… Chengdu is among the top 10 Chinese cities on the mainland highly recommended by Taiwanese business executives as places worth investing, according to a survey conducted by the Taiwan Electro-mechanics and Electronics Association and reported by the Xinhua News Agency . The survey, currently in its 4th consecutive year, deals with business ventures and investment in mainland China, and asks executives to select from over 2,000 big- and medium-sized cities on the mainland.