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BEIJING, Oct. 24: At week-long 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which concluded on Saturday in Beijing, a blueprint for China's future development has been mapped out.
As the world economy is facing a tough situation this year, with probably tougher prospects for the next, China's economic outlook carries global significance. Voicing their confidence in China's future growth, business communities worldwide believe that China's modernization stride and innovation-driven growth will inject more certainty into the global economy.
QUALITY DEVELOPMENT BENEFITS ALL
China will accelerate creating a new development pattern and pursue high-quality development, said Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, while delivering a report at the CPC congress.
"We must fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts, continue reforms to develop the socialist market economy, promote high-standard opening-up, and accelerate efforts to foster a new pattern of development that is focused on the domestic economy and features positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows," Xi said.
Deeply impressed by the remarks, Wichai Kinchong Choi, senior vice president of the leading Thai bank Kasikornbank, said he can see China's future development direction focus more on high-quality and sustainable development. "This is good news for Thailand and other neighboring countries," he said.
In the past few years, many Chinese high-tech enterprises have set up factories in Thailand, which is exactly what Thailand needs, he noted, saying that they have helped the Thai economy to transform and upgrade, and enhance its competitiveness.
Over the past decade, China's gross domestic product has come to account for 18.5 percent of the world economy. It has become a major trading partner for over 140 countries and regions, leading the world in total volume of trade in goods. Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, China, which has managed to coordinate pandemic control and economic development, still maintains a stabilizer of the global supply and industrial chains, and is keeping driving the world economic recovery.
Moreover, its development is not achieved at the expense of the environment. Instead, China is striving to make its development greener and more sustainable. In pursuit of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature, the country has cut its carbon emission intensity by 34.4 percent over the past 10 years, and pledged to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
In the eyes of Chenhong Huang, global executive vice president of the German multinational software company SAP SE and president of SAP Greater China, China's green development will profoundly change the global energy, environment and economic landscape.
"Chinese enterprises are using digital technology to make carbon emission data transparent and quantifiable, and promote a balance between green development and commercial development," Huang said.
Meanwhile, China renewing its commitment in the CPC congress report to promoting a high-standard opening-up also strikes a chord with the international business community. U.S. automaker Tesla's success in China speaks volume for Beijing's determination to further opening-up.
Thanks to the efforts of the Chinese government to facilitate foreign investment, Tesla became the first wholly foreign-owned auto enterprise in China, Vice President of Tesla Tao Lin said, adding that the U.S. company is seeking to further expand its presence in the Chinese market.
German heat exchanger company Kelvion (China) has started operations in China over 20 years ago. Cheng Wenwu, general manager of the company, said doing business in China is becoming easier.
Mentioning an effective market mechanism and a convenient and fast standardized administrative process in China, Cheng said the changes over the past years have lowered the costs of companies, facilitated market access and helped firms to adapt to international rules, benefiting the companies' operations.
CHINESE MODERNIZATION MEANS OPPORTUNITIES
Chinese modernization, a key term defining China's journey to national rejuvenation and another buzzword in the CPC report, has spurred a heated discussion in business communities both domestic and abroad.
It contains elements common to the modernization processes of all countries, but more importantly, it features the Chinese context. It is the modernization of a huge population, of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between humanity and nature and of peaceful development.
For business leaders in many parts of the world, Chinese modernization means more opportunities.
Jose Antonio Hidalgo, former president of the Ecuador-China Chamber of Commerce, said Chinese modernization will generate a positive impact in the global context, especially for the agri-food sector of Ecuador.
"It is an opportunity for us because the middle-class consumers (in China) are going to need excellent quality agrifood and they are going to look for it in countries like ours," he said.
In 2021, China announced that after eight years of strenuous work between late 2012 and late 2020, the country had lifted the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line out of poverty, and removed all 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages from the poverty list. Now the country boasts the world's biggest middle-income group -- 400 million people. That means huge potential for consumption.
Hamdi Al-Tabbaa, president of the Jordanian Businessmen Association, also sees opportunities in the Chinese path to modernization.
China's consistent efforts to improve people's living standards mean a significantly expanded middle-income group and upgraded consumption structure, which will offer more development opportunities for global enterprises, said Al-Tabbaa.
From initiating the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank to taking the lead in implementing the UN sustainable development agenda, China has always been sharing its development dividends with the rest of the world.
Woody Guo, senior vice president and managing director of Herbalife Nutrition in China, said the CPC report underlines the certainty of the Chinese market against the uncertainties of the global market, and makes foreign enterprises feel reassured about their development in China.
The Chinese modernization "will provide more chances and opportunities, not only from the growing of markets, but also from an employment point of view," said Sara Vermeulen-Anastasi, head of group communication at Swiss technology group Oerlikon. "We will be able to attract more engineers and have more choices of new technologies," Vermeulen-Anastasi said.
INNOVATION INSPIRES NEW MOMENTUM
While invigorating its economy, China has made innovation a top priority in its planning. The country rose to 12th place on the Global Innovation Index 2021, up from 34th place in 2012, said the World Intellectual Property Organization. It ranked first among middle-income economies.
"We must regard science and technology as our primary productive force, talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth," Xi said in the report.
"Everything is about innovation," said Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club. China is very forward-looking, as in every sector, China has the dynamic about "wanting to know where the world is going," he added.
Amid the innovation drive, the number of Chinese companies on the Fortune Global 500 list has grown. In 2021, 145 Chinese companies made it to the list, climbing from 95 in 2012 and increasing for 19 consecutive years.
In terms of telecommunication infrastructure, the country has built the world's largest 5G network, with a total of 1.43 million 5G base stations installed across the country by the end of 2021, accounting for over 60 percent of the world's total.
Backed by technological advancement, China has accelerated the construction of high-speed transportation networks. With the world's most developed high-speed rail network, China now has more than 40,000 km of high-speed rail lines in operation.
Oswaldo Navarro from Jalisco, an agriculture-producing state in Mexico, has purchased several pieces of agriculture and farming equipment from China.
He told Xinhua that the seed cleaning machine he imported from China has a daily capacity two to three times that of the equipment from other countries, saving much time and cost.
China's increased efforts in science and education will help turn scientific and technological achievements into productivity, said Navarro.
Hichem Chorfi, an Algerian businessman working for a consulting firm in industrial technology and innovation, said China shares advanced development models and achieves economic complementarity with other countries, improving the well-being of people in various countries through advanced technologies.
Chinese innovation will be featured in many important areas of human society in the future, he said.
LONDON, Sept. 7: Britain's new Prime Minister Liz Truss said on Tuesday that she will prioritize economic growth, tackling the energy crisis and improving access to the health service.
"I am confident that together we can ride out the storm. We can rebuild our economy," Truss said in her first address to the nation as prime minister, outside 10 Downing Street.
Britain is facing a worsening cost of living crisis, as food and energy prices continue to soar. Inflation has kept rising since the winter of 2021.
Official data showed the consumer price index rose by 10.1 percent in July, far above the 2-percent target set by the Bank of England. The discontent over soaring energy bills becomes louder as winter nears.
Earlier in the day, Truss met Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland for the "kissing of hands" ceremony with the monarch, and accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government.
"I will get Britain working again. I have a bold plan to grow the economy through tax cuts and reform. I will cut taxes to reward hard work and boost business-led growth and investment," she said.
Action will be taken this week to deal with energy bills and to secure Britain's future energy supply, she added.
Truss has campaigned to cut taxes, deregulate and prioritize economic growth, but experts doubt that these will be effective enough, given the severity of the situation.
The Bank of England forecast last month that Britain will enter a five-quarter recession beginning in the final three months of 2022.
Truss also said she would ensure that people have access to the health services they need.
"By delivering on the economy, on energy and on the NHS (National Health Service), we will put our nation on the path to long-term success," she said.
Hours after her inaugural address as the country's leader, Truss announced her cabinet.
Therese Coffey was appointed as her deputy prime minister and health secretary; Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor of the exchequer; James Cleverly as foreign secretary and Suella Braverman as home secretary. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace retained his position.
On Monday, Truss was named as the winner of the summer-long Tory leadership race, beating her rival, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
She is Britain's third female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. Truss succeeds Johnson, who was forced to step down in July following an avalanche of ministerial resignations over his scandal-plagued leadership.
China's zero-Covid policy has been among the strictest approaches to tackling the pandemic anywhere in the world.
But a recent surge in infections is forcing it to reconsider how it deals with the pandemic.
How serious is the current wave?
The latest jump in daily cases, widely spread across the country, has been driven largely by the Omicron variant.
Tens of millions of people in China, including the entire north-eastern province of Jilin, and the tech-hub city Shenzhen in the south, have been ordered into lockdown.
Shanghai, China's largest city, has become the latest city to join the list after battling the new wave for nearly a month.
Makeshift hospitals and quarantine centres have been set up across the country.
In the week prior to 24 March, there were just over 14,000 new cases in the whole of mainland China. In the UK over a similar period, there were over 610,000 new infections.
How is China's policy changing?
As more infections are detected across the country, China's strict zero-Covid strategy is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.
However, most of its principal elements remain in place:
-Travel to and from China is strictly limited, and there are restrictions on internal movement
-Travellers from abroad with permission to enter China are screened and sent to government-designated hotels for a mandatory quarantine of at least two weeks, followed by a further period of monitoring
-Regular community testing programmes are carried out and if infections are detected, residents can be evicted and sent to quarantine facilities (along with targeted area lockdowns)
-All non-essential businesses have been shut, apart from food shops and some other essential suppliers
-Schools are closed and public transport is suspended, with almost all vehicle movement banned
-As China's healthcare system is put under increasing strain, some regulations have been relaxed:
-People with mild symptoms no longer need to attend designated hospitals, but they still need to isolate at centralised facilities
-Quarantine-period rules have been reduced
-City-wide testing is no longer being carried out - replaced by local community testing
-Self-testing kits are to be made available in stores across the country and online, but those who test positive will need to take PCR tests
How successful has China's zero-Covid policy been?
China has had remarkable success containing the pandemic prior to the current outbreak.
Since the end of 2019, it has reported just over 4,600 deaths (according to Our World in Data). In the United States, more than 970,000 have died and in the UK, a little over 160,000.
That's around three deaths per million people in mainland China, compared with 2,922 in the US and 2,402 in the UK.
Reported infections in China have also been very low throughout the pandemic.
Concerns have been expressed about the accuracy of the official data, but it seems clear that both infection and death rates have been low when compared with other countries.
About 88% of the population is now fully vaccinated. Despite this, China is almost alone in adhering to strict zero-Covid policies.
Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, relaxed their strict policies in the latter part of 2021 as vaccination rates improved.
Cases did then surge in those three countries, largely as a result of the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants of coronavirus - but have remained relatively low in comparison with countries across Europe and in the United States.
KATHMANDU: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has wished for the success of the national population census beginning from today while appealing to the people
RIYADH, August 8: Energy giant Saudi Aramco's second quarter profits for 2021 have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels due to higher oil prices, nearly quadrupling compared to the same period last year.
The company's success comes after its debts climbed last year, when Saudi Arabia was hammered by the double whammy of low prices and sharp cuts in production triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Aramco said on Sunday its net profit rose to $25.5 billion in the second quarter of the year, compared to $6.6 billion in the same quarter of 2020, owing to a stronger oil market and higher refining and chemicals margins, and with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
In the second quarter of 2019, before global economies were hit hard by Covid-19 restrictions, the company posted a net profit of $24.7 billion.
"Our second quarter results (for 2021) reflect a strong rebound in worldwide energy demand, and we are heading into the second half of 2021 more resilient and more flexible, as the global recovery gains momentum," Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said in a statement.
Aramco -- like other global oil giants, including ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies -- has reported stronger profits this year, riding a wave of higher prices amid recovering demand.
It reported "a 288 percent increase in net income from the same quarter of last year to $25.5 billion and declaring a dividend of $18.8 billion", according to the statement.
Sunday's announcement comes approximately two months after the company said it raised $6 billion from its first dollar-denominated Islamic bond sale, posting earlier this year a 30 percent jump in first quarter profits.
Aramco -- the kingdom's cash cow -- said in May that its net profit rose to $21.7 billion in the first three months of the year.
The energy giant posted a 44.4 percent slump in 2020 net profit, piling pressure on government finances as Riyadh pursues its multi-billion dollar projects to diversify the economy.
The world's leading oil producers agreed last month to continue to modestly boost output from August reaching a compromise after the United Arab Emirates blocked a deal.
An OPEC+ meeting decided to raise output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) each month from August to help fuel a global economic recovery as the pandemic eases.
The results come a day ahead of a UN report on climate change, which will give the international community its clearest ever warning about the dangers of accelerating global warming, according to Britain's COP26 President Alok Sharma.
- Aramco opens up -
Long seen as the kingdom's economic "crown jewel", Aramco and its assets were once tightly government-controlled and considered off-limits to outside investment.
But with the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, who is accelerating efforts to implement his "Vision 2030" reform programme, the kingdom has shown readiness to cede some control.
Aramco previously sold a sliver of its shares on the Saudi bourse in December 2019, generating $29.4 billion for 1.7 percent of its shares.
In April, the company said it had struck a $12.4-billion deal to sell a minority stake in a newly formed oil pipeline business, to a consortium led by US-based EIG Global Energy Partners.
And in June, Aramco "successfully raised $6 billion, following the sale of US dollar-denominated sharia-compliant securities to leading institutional investors", the company said.
Earlier this year, Prince Mohammed said the kingdom would sell more Aramco shares.
Some analysts have raised concerns at past drone and missile attacks on Aramco's facilities in the kingdom -- claimed by Yemen's Huthi rebels.
Aramco reassured on Sunday that it achieved "100 percent reliability in the delivery of crude oil and other products in the second quarter of 2021".
There are also increased fears over cyber attacks, with Saudi Aramco confirming last month that company data had been leaked from one of it contractors. However, the company said it had "no impact" on operations.
When the coronavirus pandemic took hold early last year, oil prices plunged as demand for crude crashed.
They have since recovered, currently trading above $70 per barrel.
Digitization is all about customer experience and building meaningful data in the cloud so that you can understand your customer better and ease their life by providing a seamless and superior experience.
If you really want to figure out the most powerful country in the world, do not get into how many fighter planes it has, or the size of its navy forces or the number of tanks it owns, it’s rather its presence and expansion in space. Yes, those countries who dominate space are the most powerful countries of the world and they all have an eagle eye on all of us. The definition of power is changing as technology is advancing.
Same goes with your enterprise. If you really want to stay competitive and stay in the business for a longer horizon, you should critically analyze and identify the right infrastructure to invest in.
Now, I have a question for you.
Ramping up your physical presence by opening 10 more branches or building infrastructure in the cloud, which one would you prefer if you are in a position to make a decision? Looks like a simple and easy decision to make, right? We can easily follow the majority but trust, this decision is going to shape the future of your enterprise. If you opt for 10 more branches because you believe that you already have a website and you also have a mobile application, you are definitely a guy who has seen success over a number of branches and you must have the perception that digitization does not really work in countries like Nepal.
To make it more compelling, let me give you the fact that you are more in the clouds than on earth (if not all the majority of us). Mark knows you better than your spouses.
If somebody wants to know you, you are not the source, the cloud is the source. You might forget your deadlines but your cloud does not. You might forget what you did the same day some 10 years back but the cloud definitely knows it. You might have forgotten your past but the cloud knows it. The cloud has literally made a slave, you have to ask the cloud when we should celebrate our loved ones birthday. Even your breathing pattern, voices, pulses, everything is there in the cloud. An interesting thing is, it’s all your data but do you really own it? You have already given consent over you to somebody else. Somebody else owns it and you know why? It is because that guy made the decision to build a cloud way long back when we did not even realize, they decided to build infrastructure in the cloud, they invested in it.
So the question is very simple, is your business an exception? Or your argument could be, in countries like Nepal we need that personal touch so rather than investing in cloud and data, opening 10 more upcountry branches will give us more ROI. Well don’t take me wrong here, I am not trying to neglect the importance of physical branches, I am just trying to establish how important it is to invest in cloud and data for long term viability of your business. Be it Bank, Insurance or School or milk processing company or any company you can think of, investing in cloud is not an option if you want to grow.
And I am trying to do nothing but just develop a context in a much understandable way why investing in digital technology should be a priority.
Ramping up Digital Technology
Digitization is not about iteration of your current processes and systems and pasting them in digital platforms. Digitization is all about customer experience and building meaningful data in the cloud so that you can understand your customer better and ease their life by providing a seamless and superior experience.
If you are digitizing by copying and pasting forms on digital platforms and you believe that by doing so you are ramping up your digital presence, then only God can help you. You have to think broadly, the whole ecosystem. And how you can embed everything in the digital experience of your customer is going to shape your future.
And you need to have a strategy around it exactly the same way you have vision and goal on top lines and bottom lines, the number branches you want to reach in 5 years or the portfolio you want to build over the time. As these things are discussed broadly in board meetings, your digital strategy and goal (both long term and short term) and way of achieving them including the investment required to reach there should be discussed robustly.
Financial Institutions can begin to leverage by fostering open collaboration within an ecosystem of development partners and harnessing the power of analytics, open banking, APIs, AIs and Machine Learning. These new technologies can enable Financial Institutions to open up their core system to fintech and other third parties, thus helping to touch the entire ecosystem to better serve customers.
Pandemic impact
2020 and 2021 are the years that tested the resilience of the financial services industry as institutions of all sizes navigated through a year of unprecedented uncertainty. But if we see the other side of the coin, it also has given us opportunities.
According to a report from Next Advisor- for baby boomers roughly those between 55 and 75 years old, the pandemic has been a catalyst for more rapid adoption of online platforms and other financial services.
From financial institutions limiting their branch access and hours, to the fear of coronavirus, the covid-19 pandemic has fast tracked the changing relationship between consumers and their financial institution. You may not deny the fact that what’s taken place over the last few months may have taken place over 5 years or more, one can even say 10 years and that could be right.
The 21/90 rule is also reflective of making significant, and eventually permanent, lifestyle changes, based on research that says it takes 21 days to make a habit and 90 days to stamp it as permanent lifestyle change. We have far surpassed these date markers during the covid-19 pandemic and the financial services industry is not going back to what it once was.
Digital transformation is no longer a nicety but a necessity.
Collaboration is the only way out
Companies like Amazon have made several fintech investments. The company may not build a traditional deposit holding bank, instead it seems to be taking the core components of banking and using them to best support its merchants and customers because of its vast data. CB Insights through its findings summarized that in a sense Amazon is building a bank for itself and that may be even more compelling development than the company launching a deposit holding bank.
With innovations like Just Walk Out technology or Amazon One, it’s indirectly taking away the share of financial institutions. According to CB Insights Industry Analysis Census, the global voice shopping market is poised to grow from $2B to $40B by 2022.
So, one way or the other, companies like Amazon, through its shift from e-commerce to Omni-channel enablement, is likely going to use its vast data to change the way its customers experience financial services.
So the only way forward for financial institutions is not by competing or neglecting but by fostering collaboration to build the digital ecosystem.
Millennials and Gen Z reinventing the Industry
According to 2019 Morgan Stanley Research, millennials (Age: 25-40 years old) are the largest driver of net new loan demand and will continue to be for the next 8 years. And while many Gen Z (Age: 6-24 years) are still kids, they could set the pace for how financial institutions evolve. And the study also shows up to 80% of smartphones carrying Gen Z members are already using mobile applications.
This cannot be false for Nepal also since technology adoption is massive in recent years.
Consumers hopping is going to be rampant
Consumers leaving and selecting a new financial institution based on digital experience is going to be the next trend. If you really want to be the one of customers who choose to stay or switch to you, your digital experience has to be seamless and responsive.
Foresight Research published a survey in October 2020, involving nearly 11,000 financial institutions in 44 markets, suggesting that large multi-location financial institutions will experience significant customer churn over the next two years. In 2 years prior to the pandemic, the number of customers leaving their financial institution for another was 12%, whereas this survey suggests it will jump to 27% for large financial institutions for 2020-2022. Of those who intend to leave their financial institutions, almost three fourths are millennials or Generation-Z consumers.
This fact can give us the roadmap for the future.
What about Physical Branch
We yet do not know the juncture to realize the importance of cloud over physical branches particularly in case of Nepal. But at the moment, finding that right balance might make us agile when we actually reach that juncture. We have to find the balance and build an Omni-channel platform to cater all segments of people. But if we are forward looking, we have to gradually shift the pie towards building a digital ecosystem.
If we look from an international perspective, especially developed economies, as digital transformations continue to rise, we are seeing more brick and mortar branches close their doors forever. This is not a new trend in the world of finance; however the covid 19 crisis crystalized thinking on this matter.
In 2020, UK giant bank TSB announced the closure of over 160 branches, this year Germany’s Commerzbank announced it will close more than 340 branches in the next few years. And these are just some of the stats. Meanwhile investment in digital continues to grow. You might think, how this is linked to Nepal as we are an exception, let me tell you that this is not the ideal way of creating the veil. We cannot be an exception. Just a matter of time.
CEO as catalyst
The CEO is not the expert on everything, he/she is just a catalyst and facilitator. First of all we should not have unfair expectations from CEOs that they know everything and they should also stop acting that way. Letting go of the fear of smarter subordinates is the only way out. Allowing them to blossom with an open mind is the win-win proposition.
When it comes to making strategy on digital transformation through APIs, Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence and a lot of other technologies, it is obvious that we need a team who understands and has the right exposure. So it is always better if we play our role by telling them the end and let the people with the right skill set work and come up with means.
How about that?
Disclaimer: I am not a digital expert, just an enthusiast. The views expressed are entirely personal.
