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Wednesday 17 December 2008
Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew Optimistic on China
Thirty years after the Middle Kingdom threw open its gates and embarked on economic reforms, it will enter a tougher phase of progress, predicts Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
Thirty years after the Middle Kingdom threw open its gates and embarked on economic reforms, it will enter a tougher phase of progress, predicts Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
As China moves into the second stage of its economic development, it needs to upgrade workers’ skills and attract more capital- and skills-intensive foreign investments, he said yesterday.
Eventually, it will have to look at inventing its own products just as the Japanese did. But Mr. Lee is sanguine about its ability to do so, saying China is ‘on the right track’.
‘She did not follow the Japanese and the Koreans in blocking out imports and trying to build champions for the motor cars or the TV screens or electronics.’
Instead, it ‘copied the Singapore model, which was to bring in the multinationals, let them compete among themselves’. He said: ‘I think they have taken the smarter route: open up, I learn from you, I catch up. Then I innovate and I compete with you.’
Mr. Lee was speaking at a dialogue marking the 30th anniversary of China leader Deng Xiaoping’s landmark decision to open up the country to trade, entrepreneurship and foreign investments.
In the previous 29 years, China’s economy was state-planned. Mr. Deng’s move propelled China into becoming the major economic power it is today, with annual growth of 9.8 per cent.
Yesterday’s event was organised by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chinese embassy and networking club Business China.
Over one hour, Mr. Lee fielded nine questions from the audience of 600 academics, businessmen, students and Chinese officials, touching on aspects ranging from China’s greatest advantage (its abundance of talent) to its role in the current financial crisis (a limited one).
And just as three decades ago, when he shared with Mr. Deng his belief in China’s ability to progress, Mr. Lee yesterday remained optimistic about its prospects.
A Chinese journalist asked him: ‘What advice do you have for China, as the largest developing country goes into the next 10 to 30 years of development?’
Mr. Lee said China would have to keep its manufacturing alive to provide jobs for its numerous workers. Thus, it has to upgrade workers’ skills and attract more capital- and skills-intensive investments.
‘Can she do that? I think she can. Can she do that as easily as (in the first phase)? No, it’s not so easy because the second stage is always more difficult.’
Citing the making of flat-screen TVs, he said it ‘will have to explore and find out who are willing to invest and bring these skills and technology to China’.
After that, it will have to go one step further - ‘invent, and like the Japanese, produce new products, innovate’.
Said Mr. Lee: ‘I cannot predict how China will go but so far I believe she’s going on the right track.’
For instance, it did not try to protect its car market, letting in foreign auto makers. ‘And they have to employ Chinese - Chinese engineers, Chinese designers, Chinese workmen and today they are producing a Chinese little car called the Chery. In 20 years, they can produce you a Lexus or a BMW, in 30 years, a Mercedes, because look at the numbers that you have trained in these skills.’
The end result: the Chinese will be as innovative and creative as the Japanese, the Finns or the Americans, producing Nobel Prize winners, Mr. Lee predicts.
China’s economic reforms beg the question of whether social and political reforms will follow. Mr. Lee said its government is adjusting its style step by step, as ‘technology will force a change in the nature of information flows’. For instance, after Beijing forced foreign journalists out of Tibet after riots in March, it got ‘the raw end of the deal’ in publicity.
It learnt its lesson, and during the Sichuan earthquake in May when 69,000 died, China’s top political leaders ‘turned up, carried babies and shook hands... acting as leaders in the West would do because the TV was there’.
Looking forward, Mr. Lee said: ‘Whether it will be one man, one vote for the President of the Republic, I doubt because I think that won’t work.’ But he added that its township elections have been ‘useful’ as they deter corruption.
‘So gradually they’ll move forward. What the end result will be, I don’t know. But they’re not going to rush forward, that’s for sure.’
Speaking to The Straits Times, China’s ambassador to Singapore Zhang Xiaokang said Mr. Lee’s advice on the need to upgrade China’s workers is important. ‘China is moving forward on services but it should not forget it’s a populous country that needs manufacturing for the jobs.’
1 comment:
Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew Optimistic on China
By Li Xueying
17 December 2008
Thirty years after the Middle Kingdom threw open its gates and embarked on economic reforms, it will enter a tougher phase of progress, predicts Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
As China moves into the second stage of its economic development, it needs to upgrade workers’ skills and attract more capital- and skills-intensive foreign investments, he said yesterday.
Eventually, it will have to look at inventing its own products just as the Japanese did. But Mr. Lee is sanguine about its ability to do so, saying China is ‘on the right track’.
‘She did not follow the Japanese and the Koreans in blocking out imports and trying to build champions for the motor cars or the TV screens or electronics.’
Instead, it ‘copied the Singapore model, which was to bring in the multinationals, let them compete among themselves’. He said: ‘I think they have taken the smarter route: open up, I learn from you, I catch up. Then I innovate and I compete with you.’
Mr. Lee was speaking at a dialogue marking the 30th anniversary of China leader Deng Xiaoping’s landmark decision to open up the country to trade, entrepreneurship and foreign investments.
In the previous 29 years, China’s economy was state-planned. Mr. Deng’s move propelled China into becoming the major economic power it is today, with annual growth of 9.8 per cent.
Yesterday’s event was organised by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chinese embassy and networking club Business China.
Over one hour, Mr. Lee fielded nine questions from the audience of 600 academics, businessmen, students and Chinese officials, touching on aspects ranging from China’s greatest advantage (its abundance of talent) to its role in the current financial crisis (a limited one).
And just as three decades ago, when he shared with Mr. Deng his belief in China’s ability to progress, Mr. Lee yesterday remained optimistic about its prospects.
A Chinese journalist asked him: ‘What advice do you have for China, as the largest developing country goes into the next 10 to 30 years of development?’
Mr. Lee said China would have to keep its manufacturing alive to provide jobs for its numerous workers. Thus, it has to upgrade workers’ skills and attract more capital- and skills-intensive investments.
‘Can she do that? I think she can. Can she do that as easily as (in the first phase)? No, it’s not so easy because the second stage is always more difficult.’
Citing the making of flat-screen TVs, he said it ‘will have to explore and find out who are willing to invest and bring these skills and technology to China’.
After that, it will have to go one step further - ‘invent, and like the Japanese, produce new products, innovate’.
Said Mr. Lee: ‘I cannot predict how China will go but so far I believe she’s going on the right track.’
For instance, it did not try to protect its car market, letting in foreign auto makers. ‘And they have to employ Chinese - Chinese engineers, Chinese designers, Chinese workmen and today they are producing a Chinese little car called the Chery. In 20 years, they can produce you a Lexus or a BMW, in 30 years, a Mercedes, because look at the numbers that you have trained in these skills.’
The end result: the Chinese will be as innovative and creative as the Japanese, the Finns or the Americans, producing Nobel Prize winners, Mr. Lee predicts.
China’s economic reforms beg the question of whether social and political reforms will follow. Mr. Lee said its government is adjusting its style step by step, as ‘technology will force a change in the nature of information flows’. For instance, after Beijing forced foreign journalists out of Tibet after riots in March, it got ‘the raw end of the deal’ in publicity.
It learnt its lesson, and during the Sichuan earthquake in May when 69,000 died, China’s top political leaders ‘turned up, carried babies and shook hands... acting as leaders in the West would do because the TV was there’.
Looking forward, Mr. Lee said: ‘Whether it will be one man, one vote for the President of the Republic, I doubt because I think that won’t work.’ But he added that its township elections have been ‘useful’ as they deter corruption.
‘So gradually they’ll move forward. What the end result will be, I don’t know. But they’re not going to rush forward, that’s for sure.’
Speaking to The Straits Times, China’s ambassador to Singapore Zhang Xiaokang said Mr. Lee’s advice on the need to upgrade China’s workers is important. ‘China is moving forward on services but it should not forget it’s a populous country that needs manufacturing for the jobs.’
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