Moving from de-globalization to di-globalization – Alvin Wang Graylin

 

The next ten, twenty years are going to be the most interesting, argued Alvin Wang Graylin, China President, HTC, at the Singapore conference AWE Asia this week, as technologies to virtualize almost all in our lives become mature. “And our generation is the first to see that happen,” he says.

Alvin Wang Graylin is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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Trump is making China great again - Jim Rogers

Jim Rogers

Trump is making China great again, argues super-investor Jim Rogers, author of Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets, at Nasdaq. Trade wars have always failed in the past, he says, and wonders if Trump is going to be the only exception in history.

Jim Rogers is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on the ongoing trade war between China and the US? Do check out this list. 

Prices luxury goods in China rise - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

The luxury consumer price index (CPI) went up 4.1% in the first five months of 2018, the highest rise since 2012, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report, according to the Global Times. 

The Global Times:

Prices of luxury goods are increasing in China, an industry report showed, with the luxury consumer price index (CPI) surging by 4.1 percent so far in 2018, double the growth rate seen on the general CPI from January to June. 

The 4.1 percent luxury CPI increase is the highest growth rate since 2012, Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report, was quoted as saying in a statement sent to the Global Times over the weekend. 

Luxury CPI is an index released by Hurun that measures the change in consumption prices every year regarding how much consumers pay for a total of 108 luxury goods and services, including properties, private healthcare and education, travel, weddings, watches, jewelry, accessories and skincare. 

Among the categories, high-end alcohol and tobacco lead the luxury CPI gains with an average price rise of 12 percent, followed by jewelry, accessories and skincare as well as leisure, with a growth rate of 7.2 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, according to the report. 

Meanwhile, jets and yachts as well as weddings bottomed the list with a price decline of 5.9 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.

More at the Global Times.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on luxury goods at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

VPN access key for innovation - Andy Mok

Andy Mok

Panic struck when media reported China would ban all VPN activity in February 2018, allowing to circumvent China's internet censorship. That was a shock for many, and seems to have been confused with a business licensing system for VPN's. Whatever is going to happen, innovation and startups need unfettered access to VPN, says innovation expert Andy Mok to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg:

China’s government plans to allow businesses to keep using VPNs for access to the outside world -- if they obtain approval for corporate lines and register their usage. But it’s not clear how easily businesses will get VPNs approved and, even if they do, employees may be out of luck when they work from home or from their smartphones on the road. Ambitious entrepreneurs and startups may be hardest hit. 

“VPNs are absolutely critical and foundational to almost any businesses in China, large or small – and especially important for innovative businesses,” said Andy Mok, Beijing-based managing director at Red Pagoda Resources, which advises startups and other companies in China. “Denying access to VPNs in China would demolish the entire stack of the startup ecosystem here.” 

Chinese regulators for now are trying to assuage fears of a wider crackdown. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a statement Wednesday in which it emphasized its original January notice governing VPN use should remain the main point of reference, and promised not to sever legitimate means of accessing the global internet. Yet frequent users are mindful of the country’s spotty record on that front. 

Many software developers in China rely on overseas code libraries, which may be inaccessible without VPNs. For instance, the popular developers’ site Github was briefly blocked in China in 2013. 

“Despite all the advances that China has made, there’s still a lot of product innovations that happen abroad that entrepreneurs in China can and need to learn from, and they often learn through overseas news sites,” Mok said.

More in Bloomberg.

Andy Mok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch of fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.