Asian businesses see Chinese mainland as main growth source

Over 60 percent of business executives attending a Business Week forum Tuesday said the Chinese mainland's economy contributed greatly to their companies' growth.

Among over 200 regional business executives who gathered to discuss latest trends, opportunities and challenges within their business, only 16 percent said the mainland factor acts as a small attribution to their future growth.

"Asia is becoming a more internal-related economy," said Donald Hanna, managing director of Asia Emerging Markets of Citigroup Global Markets.

The survey also showed that executives attach more importance to the mainland factor than US factor in their companies' future growth.

"Undoubtedly our next growth platform is in the mainland," said Ronald Chan, executive director of Towngas, Hong Kong. He said the company invested 30 joint ventures in the past 10 years in the mainland, and all are running smoothly.

"To achieve further development, we have to move forward outside Hong Kong, and the best place is the mainland ," he said.

His view is shared by Mark Clifford, publisher and editor-in-chine of the Standard, an English newspaper based in Hong Kong.

Clifford said the newspaper will take full advantage of the tremendous economy growth of the Chinese mainland to achieve own success.

Under the theme of "financing the further: leading change, leveraging growth," business leaders said that with the economies resurge, companies are moving beyond the old days of cost cutting and resource rationalization. They predicted that the interest in strategic alliances, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions will be renewed in the region.

Source: Xinhua