China Advises to Maintain Quality Instead of Blindly Pursuing Profit

As to stimulate its frail brand value, one of China’s business heads said that while entering the ASEAN market, the Chinese enterprises should abide by local industry regulations and establish sound reputations for quality and service instead of blindly pursuing profit by any possible means. Xu Ningning, executive secretary general of China-ASEAN Business Council (CABC) told this on Wednesday to entrepreneurs of machinery, auto mobile and steel sectors at a symposium held to evaluate the China-ASEAN FTA (CAFTA).

Xu said the Chinese enterprises should conduct adequate market research and give punctilious care to the latest policy changes of individual ASEAN member states to improve the quality and efficiency of bilateral trade. The CAFTA will likely begin from Jan 1, 2010, with zero tariffs on 90 percent of the products traded between both sides, and the services trade market is expected to follow suit on a significant scale.

Xu also observed that the Chinese enterprises should be prepared for the competitions brought by zero-tariff product imports through the forthcoming FTA with the ASEAN region. According to sources, several Chinese enterprises have already been able to prepare for the new market reality as they enjoyed zero tariffs for various merchandises through other free trade zones set up since the preparation of the framework for the FTA with the ASEAN region was signed in 2002.

Once the CAFTA comes into force, it is expected to create huge business opportunities for the Chinese enterprises by providing access to the ASEAN market with 600mn population. It is set to become Asia's largest and the world's third largest FTA with a trade volume of $4.5 trillion and a combined GDP of $6 trillion, after the North American FTA and the European FTA.

Nonetheless, it will be the largest FTA in the world by means of the sheer size of the population at about 2bn people it represents. The two-way trade between both sides have grown exponentially since the negotiations began for the FTA in 2001 from about $41.6bn to $231.1bn.

By Jose Roy