VV o n g B a
06-11-2003, 12:19 PM
China's tech gold rush
By Nick Mackie
West China
Once China's Sars crisis has abated, authorities throughout the country expect the renewed return of bright, Western-trained Chinese to their homeland.
Last year, as the global economy stagnated, over 18,000 qualified scientists and executives returned from the West - double the number coming back in the year 2000.
Most of these returnees take up top jobs or set up companies in the main commercial centres along the eastern seaboard.
In Shanghai, there are more than 25,000 returnees - many holding doctorates from abroad - in top jobs or actually running businesses.
And the city's authorities expect this number to grow to over 100,000 within a decade.
New frontiers
As China's economy develops, pioneers are also moving further inland - where overheads are even lower.
Charles Jin cashed in his Microsoft options and returned to Chongqing in 2000 after 14 successful years in the US.
He left the west of China in 1989 when he was 23 to major in Computer Science at the University of Florida.
Charles - whose Chinese name is Jin Chun - went onto be a Project Leader at Microsoft, working on the Hotmail service.
He earned a six figure salary. But he began yearning for Chongqing's winter smogs.
The Chinese dream
And so, after returning for a family visit three years ago, he decided to cash in his stock options and invest in rapidly developing "New China".
He admits that his first time back was quite a culture shock.
Maybe, it's time to look for another dream - I call it my Chinese dream
Charles Jin
"We talk about the American dream. Well I realised my American dreams," explains Charles, chief executive of Jinou Science & Technology Development Company.
"I had my house, my fancy car, whatever I have here. But I think that right now, maybe, it's time to look for another dream - I call it my Chinese dream."
And in China, big dreams are affordable. Charles is building his own Bluetooth Technology business.
The wage bill for his 40 engineers here would only cover two salaries in the US. In China, the talent pool is huge and cheap.
Charles says that if he can't make his venture work, he'll lose money. But if he doesn't try, he'll lose his dream.
Painted in big letters on one of his workroom walls are the words: "GO BIG OR GO HOME".
Hi-tech boost
Charles' other overheads are lower here in Chongqing than in China's developed centres like Shanghai, 1700 kilometres away, where most returnees head for.
But this region is growing up fast.
China's central government has a policy called "Go West" to boost the economy in regions far away from the eastern seaboard.
It's spending $200bn on new roads, services and communications.
Talented Chinese abroad are cottoning onto this and returning to cities like Chongqing to establish their own hi-tech companies, taking advantage of grants, secured finance, cheap property and an inexpensive workforce.
Incentives
Isoft is a returnee-owned company, developing firewalls for corporations and China's security services.
It benefited from a whole package of incentives.
Annual rent is only $6 per square metre; there was a start-up grant of $100,000; and the local government provides bank guarantees of up to 40% of borrowings.
"For our company, we get some money - financial support from the government," says Du Jiang, chief executive of Chongqing Isoft Technology.
"And from the central government. It's very important for a new company, especially for an IT company."
'Culture shock'
But although governments are keen to attract returnees, China's private investors still want to get rich quick.
"We have to educate people, educate investors to realise that this is an opportunity that we are offering long term," stresses He Jiang, chief executive of Chongqing Biopharmaceuticals.
I didn't realise that China had changed so much and there were so many opportunities
He Jiang
"And this is going to be very competitive in the long run but shortly you have to just watch us burning the cash."
For his company - developing AIDS, cancer and heart drugs - getting rich quick is a major challenge.
Jiang is another one of China's returnees who had been 10 years out of the country before returning to see how things had changed.
"I visited China in 1997, which was 10 years after I left. And it was a big culture shock. I didn't realise that China had changed so much and there were so many opportunities," says Jiang.
Although a well-respected researcher at the US National Institute of Health, he wanted to develop his own drugs company.
He now has joint ventures in China plus a partner in the US.
Funding currently comes via China's government, local private investors and the Gates Foundation.
Home alone
But Jiang is also paying a personal price. Each morning, around 10 o'clock in Chongqing, he calls his wife and children - they're getting ready for bed in Washington.
Jiang's wife didn't want to give up a well-paid job and they didn't want to take their children out of a US school.
An estimated 80% of the families of China's returnees, prefer to stay in the West, despite generous subsidies for housing, schooling and healthcare.
Nevertheless, after decades of exodus, China's brightest are returning. Incentives are fuelling a gold rush.
But like pioneers throughout history, they must be single-minded.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/busi...ess/2968508.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/2968508.stm)
By Nick Mackie
West China
Once China's Sars crisis has abated, authorities throughout the country expect the renewed return of bright, Western-trained Chinese to their homeland.
Last year, as the global economy stagnated, over 18,000 qualified scientists and executives returned from the West - double the number coming back in the year 2000.
Most of these returnees take up top jobs or set up companies in the main commercial centres along the eastern seaboard.
In Shanghai, there are more than 25,000 returnees - many holding doctorates from abroad - in top jobs or actually running businesses.
And the city's authorities expect this number to grow to over 100,000 within a decade.
New frontiers
As China's economy develops, pioneers are also moving further inland - where overheads are even lower.
Charles Jin cashed in his Microsoft options and returned to Chongqing in 2000 after 14 successful years in the US.
He left the west of China in 1989 when he was 23 to major in Computer Science at the University of Florida.
Charles - whose Chinese name is Jin Chun - went onto be a Project Leader at Microsoft, working on the Hotmail service.
He earned a six figure salary. But he began yearning for Chongqing's winter smogs.
The Chinese dream
And so, after returning for a family visit three years ago, he decided to cash in his stock options and invest in rapidly developing "New China".
He admits that his first time back was quite a culture shock.
Maybe, it's time to look for another dream - I call it my Chinese dream
Charles Jin
"We talk about the American dream. Well I realised my American dreams," explains Charles, chief executive of Jinou Science & Technology Development Company.
"I had my house, my fancy car, whatever I have here. But I think that right now, maybe, it's time to look for another dream - I call it my Chinese dream."
And in China, big dreams are affordable. Charles is building his own Bluetooth Technology business.
The wage bill for his 40 engineers here would only cover two salaries in the US. In China, the talent pool is huge and cheap.
Charles says that if he can't make his venture work, he'll lose money. But if he doesn't try, he'll lose his dream.
Painted in big letters on one of his workroom walls are the words: "GO BIG OR GO HOME".
Hi-tech boost
Charles' other overheads are lower here in Chongqing than in China's developed centres like Shanghai, 1700 kilometres away, where most returnees head for.
But this region is growing up fast.
China's central government has a policy called "Go West" to boost the economy in regions far away from the eastern seaboard.
It's spending $200bn on new roads, services and communications.
Talented Chinese abroad are cottoning onto this and returning to cities like Chongqing to establish their own hi-tech companies, taking advantage of grants, secured finance, cheap property and an inexpensive workforce.
Incentives
Isoft is a returnee-owned company, developing firewalls for corporations and China's security services.
It benefited from a whole package of incentives.
Annual rent is only $6 per square metre; there was a start-up grant of $100,000; and the local government provides bank guarantees of up to 40% of borrowings.
"For our company, we get some money - financial support from the government," says Du Jiang, chief executive of Chongqing Isoft Technology.
"And from the central government. It's very important for a new company, especially for an IT company."
'Culture shock'
But although governments are keen to attract returnees, China's private investors still want to get rich quick.
"We have to educate people, educate investors to realise that this is an opportunity that we are offering long term," stresses He Jiang, chief executive of Chongqing Biopharmaceuticals.
I didn't realise that China had changed so much and there were so many opportunities
He Jiang
"And this is going to be very competitive in the long run but shortly you have to just watch us burning the cash."
For his company - developing AIDS, cancer and heart drugs - getting rich quick is a major challenge.
Jiang is another one of China's returnees who had been 10 years out of the country before returning to see how things had changed.
"I visited China in 1997, which was 10 years after I left. And it was a big culture shock. I didn't realise that China had changed so much and there were so many opportunities," says Jiang.
Although a well-respected researcher at the US National Institute of Health, he wanted to develop his own drugs company.
He now has joint ventures in China plus a partner in the US.
Funding currently comes via China's government, local private investors and the Gates Foundation.
Home alone
But Jiang is also paying a personal price. Each morning, around 10 o'clock in Chongqing, he calls his wife and children - they're getting ready for bed in Washington.
Jiang's wife didn't want to give up a well-paid job and they didn't want to take their children out of a US school.
An estimated 80% of the families of China's returnees, prefer to stay in the West, despite generous subsidies for housing, schooling and healthcare.
Nevertheless, after decades of exodus, China's brightest are returning. Incentives are fuelling a gold rush.
But like pioneers throughout history, they must be single-minded.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/busi...ess/2968508.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/2968508.stm)