China has developed into an irreplaceable part of global manufacturing and trading system after three decades of reform and opening up progress.

Nevertheless, there are some major problems lingering along its path of growth, like over-fast and over-heated development, and low added-values, which have been emerging more and more with negative influence on the future growth of Chinese economy.

Standing at the crossroad of today, how should we position ourselves correctly with answers for where to go with China’s industrial edges and sustainable development.

To locate the answer, the school joined hands with the China Management Center in Management School at Lancaster University and Brunel University, both from UK, to host an international academic workshop, titled “Chinese industrial competitiveness and sustainable development against the backdrop of globalization” on April 16 in the school.

During the opening session of workshop, school Dean LU Xiongwen and Chair of Department of Industrial Economics RUI Mingjie delivered the welcome speeches.

It was a high-ranking academic event, as many heavyweight professors and scholars from home and abroad were present and shared their research upgrades about sustainable development of Chinese industries.

In the speech of “The Triple Bottom Line of Industrial Development: Toward a Framework for Social, Economic and Environmental Sustainability”, Professor Gary Gereffi, who is director of the Center on Globalization, Governance and Competitiveness at Duke University, and one of creators of Theory of Global Value Chains, explained the interactive relationships between economic, social and environmental sustainability, as well as how to develop a framework as for their such relationships.

While in the speech of “Are Indian Industries Internationally Competitive”, Professor Anthony D’Costa, who is director of Asia Research Centre at Copenhagen Business School, illustrated the characteristics with three sectors of steel and iron, auto and IT, as well as the complex interactive relationships between domestic enterprises, multinationals and Indian government.

His insightful research on India’s industrial development is said to prove valuable for industries of China.

The workshop also saw some other scholars attach their attention to the industrial effects of mergers and acquisitions of Chinese companies by foreign firms and policy implication.

They agreed that, M&A by foreign firms is “a double-edge sword”, meaning it will help improve technical and management skills of domestic firms on one hand, but will possibly lead to market monopoly and the shrinking of domestic brands’ market share.

They also discussed how the government should react with correct policies to direct foreign firms’ M&A behaviors.

The successful workshop has not only provided information about latest movements in international business arena, but offered paths for Chinese enterprises to upgrade their industrial framework, so that they are able to go further on the road of sustainable development.

April 20, 2009