While China gradually opens up its markets to the world in compliance with WTO membership rules, Taiwan should position itself as "a brand manager, technology innovator and value integrator" with expertise in assets management -- in preparation for the region's emerging economic development, pundits said yesterday.
"China is building `assets' such as dams and airports, but it doesn't know how to run them. It needs to buy expertise to run its assets, which creates opportunities for Taiwan," said Tang Ming-je (湯明哲), a professor of strategic management at National Taiwan University yesterday afternoon at a seminar, co-organized by the Epoch Foundation (時代基金會) and the Switzerland-based Evian Group.
Tang said Taiwan's business opportunities lie in China's impending structural change and industrial evolution, ranging from the agricultural sector to the financial and information-technology sectors.
"Take IT development for example. China is reluctant to pay royalties to foreign companies and, therefore, have chosen to use the Linux operating system. Their next move is to develop a Chinese version of the Linux system and when this is successfully developed, a million Chinese Linux programmers will be needed in China," where Taiwanese talent with the advantages of language and culture can then enter easily, Tang said.
Tang expects the region's key business leaders to emerge within 5 to 10 years to dominate China's markets for the next 50 to 100 years.
To give an international perspective, Jean-Pierre Lehmann, a professor of International Political Economy from the renowned International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland, and Marc Laperrouza, deputy director of the Evian Group, also sat on the panel of yesterday's seminar, entitled "New Challenges Facing Global Competition after the Accession to WTO."
Stressing the importance of quality, Lehmann said that East Asian countries should start creating new business thinking that focuses more on consumption than on production -- so that emphasis will be put on increasing the quality of lifestyles in the region.
Regarding the process of economic integration between China and Taiwan, Laperrouza stressed the importance of an open market and value-added management to lead the region's economic development.
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