Overseas Chinese
Investors Meet in Seoul
8th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention concluded with $1 bil. MOUs signed

The 8th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention concluded its three-day run at COEX in southern Seoul with participants including 2,500 Chinese and 500 Korean businesspeople and President Roh Moo-hyun attending its opening ceremony.
The overseas Chinese business executives signed MOUs worth $830 million during the convention with trade negotiations amounting to $450 million along with talks on investments, which would jack up total business effects from the convention to around $3 billion.
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Lee Hee-beom and Chairman Chong Siak-ching of Singapore Ascendas signed a memorandum of understanding for $500 million, Wi Harper Group, a Chinese-American business group, also signed an MOU to invest $30 million in Korea's IT and BT industries. China's Jungchang Telecom submitted a Letter of Intention to invest up to $300 million in the Incheon Free Economic Zone to the zone's authority.
Reflecting China's economic prowess, Chinese entrepreneurs from 27 countries around the world including China converged in Seoul to strengthen and build their global networks. They attended various seminars aimed at promoting economic growth throughout the three-day event. Participants also included 70 business-related umbrella organizations from 20 countries. Ian Fok Chun-wan, chairman of the Hong Kong-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said he hoped this year's event would help further improve relations with the host country.
Noting Korea's achievements in the information and technology sector, as well as the field of science and technology, Ian Fok Chun-wan said Korea could play a leading role in helping China advance in these areas.
President Roh Moo-hyun, in his speech at the opening ceremony, stressed the importance of cooperation for future success. "If Korea's technological expertise and excellent human resources can be combined with your capital and global network, the ensuing synergy effect will be quite substantial,"said Roh.
Korea, which won an intense competition to host the event dubbed the "economic Olympics,"seeks to build closer ties between local and Chinese entrepreneurs. It hopes to also attract investors and learn ways of successfully doing business in the world? fastest-growing economy. "I hope that this convention will provide a precious occasion to help bring Chinese business leaders and Korea closer together so that both sides shall grow hand-in-hand in the global community,"said the president.
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, an organizer and key supporter of the convention, said the occasion would feature diverse and practical programs designed to promote business exchanges between Korean and Chinese entrepreneurs.
The government, thinking that crucial momentum in economic relations between Korea and the overseas Chinese business community has been established, will seek to set up a strategy to cement that relationship in the coming days. The government will have the trade and investment talks that took place at the convention and they will continue to be followed up including 18 projects concerning local autonomous entities in the country.
The government will set up a task force to deal with those Chinese business communities at the MOCIE and the Korea Trade and Investment Agency (KOTRA). The government will hold investment road shows in overseas Chinese communities with high chances of making investments in Korea. Most participants in the convention said the lack of understanding for Korea and the conservative policies of Korea have been one of the reasons for slackened Chinese investment in Korea. With the convention as the occasion, Korea would no longer be a country without a Chinese community in the world and implant the image that Korea is a good friend to the overseas Chinese.
MOCIE officials felt that the event took place at the right time when the Korean wage or Hallyu has been sweeping Japan, China and southeast Asia, giving the overseas Chinese business executives direct chances to experience the Korean entertainment fad.
Chairman Liu Chuanzhi of Legend Computer Co. in China, who has become famous after his firm took over the personal computer division from IBM, said he enjoyed watching "Merchant's Way" a Korean TV series taking place at the dawn of the 20th century. Another high-ranking overseas Chinese corporate executive said he has been impressed by the fact that the Korean government went that far to prepare for the gathering, which showed the importance it placed on overseas Chinese communities.
In follow-up moves to the convention, the government plans to build a database network of important overseas Chinese companies for a systematic management. The government sees it appropriate to attract their investment in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea if the inter-Korean economic cooperation moves ahead in good shape.
Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of the Legend Computer Co. in China, said his company has not been planning to down the price of computers and rather it wants to upgrade the quality of its computers to compete with its rivals. The company has been focusing on its R&D efforts because of this strategy, which is like Samsung Electronics in Korea about a decade ago, he told a local press in an interview in Seoul. He said his company's ultimate aim is to grow to become the third largest computer maker in the world after Dell and Hewlett-Packard. He stressed during the interview over many times that positive effects have been rising out of the takeover of IBM's PC business. Despite some concern over the takeover, its been going rather well with good performance records and management and labor relations; Some thought that the company's operation would incur losses in the next two years from the merger, but the company has been making progress. He said the company's sales increased about 6 percent in the first quarter with management and labor relations going smoothly. There has been no layoffs, rather the company hired more workers. Management made sure that conflicts that may arise among former IBM employees and Lenovo people would be avoided.

He acknowledged, however, that the stigma of "China discount"is still there, which is one of the reasons why the company relocated its head office to New York to make itself more global. He firmly said the "China discount" stigma doesn't apply to his company's products. As a proof, he reminded that the company's sales in China increased more than 50 percent because Chinese customers buy products for their quality not caring whether they are imports or domestic make. Dell computers swept the Chinese computer market two years ago, he said, but not any more.
Liu said Lenovo has been able to spur its growth because it did not receive government support in any way; The company has not been one of those firms operating under the government planned economic system. He recalled that he started the company with $30,000 in capital with 11 employees in 1984 and he had to sell his wrist watch to tide over the difficulty in managing the company in the process. Most firms that started business at the same time with Lenovo have failed to survive due to difficulties to do business, especially in the 1980s.
In the evening of Oct. 10, a special event was provided to overseas Chinese businessmen, featuring a string of entertainers from South Korea and China. At the opening of the show, MOCIE Minister Lee Hee-beom proposed that the convention should be an opportunity for Korean and overseas Chinese businesspeople to create a win-win strategy of cooperation down the road.
Korean entertainers included a quartet of singers made up of four women singers, who sang "boomerang"in Chinese, Lexi, Bin, JK and Kim Dong-wook, with all of them getting very good reactions from the mainly Chinese audience. Both MBC TV in Korea and Beijing 1 TV are scheduled to broadcast the show at a later date nationwide. Beijing 1TV will air the show through its 46 substations all across China. nw

President Roh Moo-hyun delivers a speech at the opening of the 8th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention in Seoul.

A scene of six booths including those by Seoul Metropolitan Government, Gangwon Province and the Incheon Free Economic Zone.