By Yin Ping  
25 October 2005
China Daily
Copyright 2005 China Daily Information Company. All rights reserved.  

SHANGHAI: The country's leading international business school is joining with Harvard Business School and Barcelona-based IESE Business School to create a global CEO programme.  

It is the first time business schools from three continents have co-operated on a common programme for training top managers, Zhang Weijiong, vice-president of Shanghai's China Europe International Business School, said.  

"Harvard is very interested in China's economic development and management, and China's business cases," Zhang said yesterday.  

Starting next year, the global CEO programme is expected to attract foreign CEOs and faculties who want to know more about the Chinese market, he said.  

Also yesterday, Zhang announced that the school's EMBA programme had jumped from 20th to 13th in the yearly Financial Times business school rankings.  

The Shanghai-based joint venture between the Chinese Government and the European Union has seen continuous progress in the newspaper's annual ranking; 42nd in 2002 and 34th in 2003.  

"China's robust economic growth has given rise to increasing demands for top management education. This is the major reason for our higher ranking," Zhang said.  

He said the reform of State-owned enterprises, localization of multinationals and the mushrooming of private businesses all helped create a huge demand for capable managers with a global vision.  

Angela Watkins, Financial Times' marketing director in Asia, thinks the market is ripe for executive MBAs in China.  

"The rate of economic growth in China and the speed of change in business in the Asia-Pacific region, mean that the executive model is well suited to this country," she said.  

Mao Zhongqun, general manager of Ningbo Fontile Kitchen Products Co Ltd, is a typical alumnus.  

"I joined the business school when I felt my business was limited by my poor knowledge of management," he said.  

He studied hard during his two years at school.  

"I put what I learned during and after the programme into my company. Now, Fontile is doing very well," he said.  

China Europe International Business School opened its EMBA programme in 1995. So far it has trained 2,344 students, with 1,000 more currently studying. It is the largest school of its kind in the country.