At the end of 2008, nobody would have anticipated that the widespread global financial crisis could actually save China’s property developers who were heavily affected by government's tightening policy. With the strong recovery of the real estate market in 2009, China’s housing prices surged to record high, leading to a new round of tightening measures by the government in 2010. While it’s apparent that the government’s regulatory policies are becoming more effective as its focus is shifting from supply to demand, the tightening measures are always followed by a stronger rebound of the real estate market, and even more aggressive regulatory measures by the government to stabilize the market.  The cycle is seemingly repeating itself over and over again.

Meanwhile, the market fluctuation has forced some residential property developers to seek for a business model that may generate more stable returns through venturing into the development of commercial properties. However, the success of the new business model is not guaranteed yet, and has to be tested by the market cycles and further macroeconomic adjustments.

It’s apparent that the landscape of China’s real estate is facing profound transformation both at the policy and business levels. Our forum will invite all stakeholders including government officials, property developers, bankers and investors to discuss the emerging trend of the industry to embrace the future change. 

The dawning of the post-crisis era is not assuming the end of the global recession. While it’s being debated whether the economic recovery will amount to a w-shaped rather than a v-shaped recovery, it’s apparent that a reliable recovery is still some way off and many economies are still in a fragile state. To combat the economic slowdown, the Chinese government unveiled an ambitious 4000 billion RMB stimulus package and adopted a massive plan to adjust and reinvigorate the country's ten key industries. While it’s important to support the growth of emerging industries, how can the Chinese government facilitate the impact of emerging industries on the existing ones? Especially for the manufacturing industry that has long been at the bottom of the value chain, how can it realize the transformation to scale economy and high value added products? For enterprises, how can they innovate to transfer technologies into marketable products? On the other hand, how should the government build an environment that supports innovation and entrepreneurship? Forum 2010 will probe into these key issues from the perspectives of government officials, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and renowned academics.

 

Year 2009 is extremely difficult for all countries across the globe. With the world economy mired in deep recession, there is a resurgence of Keynesianism. Questions are being raised about both monetary and industrial policies of different nations. There is a universal decline in confidence, and the entire world ? enveloped in this heavy fog ? is grappling to determine where to begin the vital task of restructuring.

China, a high-growth yet still emerging economy, thus faces comparatively high expectations of its role in restructuring the world economy. All eyes are fixed on China, at a time when the country faces some of the greatest challenges in its history: the relationship between the RMB and U.S. dollar or Euro, the gap between China’s foreign exchange reserves and America’s tremendous debt, and China’s new role on the world stage. One thing is clear: the challenges faced by China are also the challenges of the entire world.

On October 31st, 2009 (Saturday), CEIBS and CBN will invite government officials, business leaders and renowned academics to share their perspectives on restructuring in an unpredictable world - a bright future seems to be just ahead, but for now we are marching in a heavy fog.

The financial tsunami which erupted in 2008 did not turn out to be the ‘coldest winter’ for world renowned luxury brands that had already withstood the test of even the Great Depression. In fact, even before the challenges brought by the global downturn that spilled over into 2009, these brands had successfully dodged market saturation through conglomerate diversification. Now, more importantly, they are increasingly turning to China to cushion them against the collapse in demand from other countries. Fuelled by a three-decade-old economic boom that created a still-growing urban elite, China's appetite for luxury goods is surviving one of the sharpest ever global economic slumps and propping up weaker growth elsewhere. However, in a dynamic market with 50 million potential consumers eager to spend on luxury items, China has very few brands of its own. Will China, with its fascinating culture rooted in thousands of years of history, be moving up the global supply chain to luxury goods that can compete in quality, style and prestige with anything from Paris, Milan or New York? Attend the 2nd Prestige Brands Forum for your front-row seat as some of the world’s most influential trend-setters participate in a frank and informed discussion of the critical challenges facing the industry and offer their solutions.

As the post-crisis era is dawning with the moderate recovery of the world economy, the fragile banking sector that has survived the financial upheaval is confronted with new challenges. It has to accomplish the vital but tricky tasks of healing its wounds on the one hand, and playing an important role in the economic resurgence on the other hand. Also, under the new global financial structure and regulatory system, the banking industry is struggling to rebuild its business models, risk management mechanism and corporate governance structure. At the same time, as one of the markets with the greatest potential, China’s banking sector is faced with the critical issues of how to choose between universal and specialized banking, and how to take an active role in reshaping the global financial landscape by leveraging its capital advantages. Forum 2010 will explore these issues and more as it probes the future of the global banking industry from the perspectives of government officials, renowned economists and bankers.

Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China has witnessed the birth and growth of domestic media industry. With the deepening of China’s market economy reform, the power of capital also keeps on penetrating into the media industry, triggering continuous system innovation and activating industrial integration. In the past decade, new media technology revolution, represented by the Internet, has significantly changed the industry layout. Capital, technology and system innovation are becoming the key words of China’s media industry in the 21st century. This year’s Forum is aimed at studying the interaction between capital, technology and media innovation, facilitating multi-party communication and cooperation among government, the media industry, academia, marketing agencies and investment institutions in a joint effort to speed up the media industry’s development.

Better Management, Better Care
The Chinese government has demonstrated great courage and determination in its effort to launch the ambitious health care reform aiming to provide universal coverage. However, policy ambition has to compromise with the constraints of budget, medical technology and capacity. Improving the coverage, which has been successful in China, should not overshadow the more important task of improving the care. The forum will examine how managerial innovation, in combination with technological innovation, could strive to provide effective and efficient health services that are affordable to the society, and achieve consumer and provider expectations in China. At this year’s Forum, European Experiences on management and innovation and technology in health care will contribute to extending the knowledge base and identifying possible areas of China?Europe collaboration.

China, since 2009 the largest auto producer in the world, is also the country with the fastest and largest urbanization process ever seen in the world. China is expected to have 60%, or over 800 million, of its people living in cities by 2020. Cars and commercial vehicles will play a key role both in intra- and inter-urban transport, but with increasing scale and sustainability requirements, new approaches should be explored both in terms of urban planning and development of urban facilities and in terms of products and services provided by the car industry and the many industries around it. While for China this might currently be quite a new issue, given the scale and speed of its urbanization, within 5 to 10 years the country could well be at the forefront of developments in terms of new approaches and concepts for coexistence and interaction between car and society. How well automotive companies adapt to their changing role in society will determine their survival and their success, and again here China could be a source of new business models for the industry. The efforts China is dedicating to the development of electric vehicles indicate a possibility it might just be in a position to leapfrog the development of this technology and not only to become a large market for these products, but also to become a global point of reference in terms of technology and industry practices for the industry.

On Octorber 23, Forum 2010 will provide a platform ? from the perspectives of government officials, industry leaders and renowned academics ? for understanding the complex forces influencing the interaction between society and vehicles, governmental involvement in this process, and its impact on the development of the car industry, both within China and abroad.