From January 21 to 23, Ning Gaoning, Chairman of ChemChina, at the invitation of the World Economic Forum (WEF), attended the WEF2019 Davos held in Switzerland. On many occasions, he expressed his views on such hot topics as global and industrial issues, global trade and investment trends, technological innovation and development, and China’s reform and opening-up, which received wide attention and favorable comments both inside and outside the meeting.
On the morning of January 22, local time, as the principal discussant, Ning Gaoning attended the public meeting on “Building a New Market Structure” and talked about the opportunities and challenges facing the global market in the future with Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman of Blackstone Group, Brian T. Moynihan, Chairman of Bank of America, and Ruth Porat, Senior Vice President and CFO of Google. Ning Gaoning pointed out that at present, the integration of many industries in China has not formed monopolies. Competition still exists and is more intense, thus creating a lot of value. Meanwhile, for enterprises, the initial driving force of investment is not the pursuit of scale, but the factors of market, resources, technology, brand, management, and competitiveness. This is a business model. If you want to survive in the Chinese market, you must follow this model because the Chinese market is relatively open, and competition is everywhere. Ning Gaoning also stressed that the application of digital technology could enable enterprises to manage larger companies with simpler methods because digital technology makes information and communication more convenient and helps to create a more comprehensive industrial ecosystem and promotes internal and external coordination in the industrial chain.
On the evening of January 22, Ning Gaoning was invited to attend the “China Business Night” and delivered a keynote speech. Ning Gaoning said that China had encountered various degrees of misunderstanding from the outside world in many aspects. For example, some people accused China’s state-owned enterprises of enjoying special subsidies or bank loans and compulsory technology transfer without any data and information support. All these are inconsistent with the basic business logic and totally deviate from China’s actual situation. How to strengthen mutual trust between China and the outside world and eliminate the outside world’s established misconception of China is the current situation faced by all parties, which is the premise and foundation for China to communicate with the outside world and strengthen understanding.
On the afternoon of January 23, as the main discussant, Ning Gaoning was present at the China Business Council Meeting to discuss with participants the role, path, and impact of globalization of Chinese enterprises. Ning Gaoning believed that globalization is the path and business model for enterprises to achieve growth. It is an economic issue rather than an ideological one. Also, globalization has also brought some negative effects, causing some degree of polarization between the rich and the poor. Globalization does not benefit all people, but perhaps 90% of the people have benefited from it. The process of Chinese enterprises “going global” and globalization began with the trade in raw materials and bulk commodities. People buy raw materials for rough processing from other countries and gradually expand their business abroad, combining domestic and foreign businesses. At present, due to various reasons such as strict supervision, financing difficulties, and management, it is also challenging to purchase enterprises in North America or Europe. Facing this situation and changes in the environment, Chinese enterprises involved in overseas operations should be more cautious in their operations and be fully prepared to overcome difficulties and deal with problems. Also, China will continue to deepen its reform and opening-up in the next 3 to 5 years, which is the determination and idea of several generations of Chinese people.
During the annual WEF meeting, Ning Gaoning attended the opening ceremony and a special meeting of Chinese leaders, listening to a special speech and on-site questions and answers from Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan. In addition, Ning Gaoning was invited to participate in the WEF’s management meeting, the 2019 Winter Symposium of International Business Council, Bill Gates’ dialogue with global agro-chemical industry giants, and other closed-door meetings such as governance meetings of chemical and high-end materials industry. He also met with Mark Tucker, Chairman of HSBC Holdings, Urs Rohner, Chairman of Credit Suisse, Jean-Sébastien Jacques, CEO of Rio Tinto Group, Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer Company, and Steve Koltes, Co-Chairman of CVC Capital Partners, respectively. Ning held fruitful discussions with all parties on issues such as the global economic and industrial situation, business and development strategies, and cooperation.