Philip Tang Of GVA Integral

Philip Tang has been in China for 11 years. During that time he has witnessed a lot of changes, and a lot of growth. For example, during the first nine months of 2004, average property prices increased by 13%, the fastest pace since 1996. Meanwhile, property investment reached $100.7 million during those same nine months, a 28.3% increase on the year. Now, as managing director GVA Integral–a member of GVA Worldwide since August 2003–Tang speaks with GlobeSt.com on what he sees as he crisscrosses China.

GlobeSt.com: What type of interest are you seeing in China from businesses outside the country?

Tang: Besides the traditional manufacturing, automotive, petrochemicals and electronics, in the past five years China has opened its doors to financial services. Before that it was a very closed-door and protective society. Now the Chinese government has opened its front gates, so to speak, to the insurance and tourism industry. We see names like Marriott International, Accor and Carlson Hotels. There are also call centers in Dalian for companies such as SAP, Bearing Point, GE, Accenture and IBM. Overall, foreign companies committed more than US$28 billion in service-company investments in 2003, a 49.7% year-over-year increase compared to the 36.2% increase in contracted foreign investment targeting manufacturing. This change in foreign-investment trends is being driven by companies wanting to capture opportunities generated by China’s fast-growing middle-class consumer market. People are getting paid better and have more disposable cash.