Insight China Macroeconomic Seminar on Outbound investment Go back »

2010-12-09 | All chapters

Insight China Macroeconomic Seminar on Outbound investment 

Last Tuesday afternoon, the Chamber organised the second part of our Insight China macro economic series examining inbound and outbound FDI. Our speakers, Dr Gary Liu (CEIBS), Alicia García-Herrero (BBVA) and Andre Loesekrug-Pietri (A Capital Asia) discussed patterns and trends in Chinese investment abroad.

Many trends were identified during the course of our discussion. It was noted that Chinese State Owned Enterprises tend to invest in hard assets and resources, while Chinese private firms to invest in high-tech. Our panel also outlined some of the managerial challenges facing Chinese M&A deals with foreign companies such as national stereotypes, different managerial styles and the presence of labour unions in Europe.

Our panel and audience also took a look at the statistics for Chinese companies going abroad. Based on outbound investment statistics, it seems that the Chinese companies tend to invest in large countries like South Africa and nearby countries such as Australia and increasingly Latin America.

In the audience Q&A, questions were raised about how Chinese corporate structures may change as Chinese companies go global, what the EU could do to attract Chinese investment and the effect of visa policies and labour unions on investment patterns.