"We are Matsushita's pupils"

In 1984, the city of Dalian in northeast China began encouraging foreign investment. The city government recruited Wang Yongguan to visit Tokyo and invite Japanese firms back to Dalian. Dalian is now the most popular area in China for Japanese investment. Wang said China needs to look to Japan not o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forbes 1994-09, Vol.154 (7), p.95
Main Author: Eisenstodt, Gale
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Cities
Employees
Factories
Foreign investment
Geographic profiles
Joint ventures
Management training
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Summary:In 1984, the city of Dalian in northeast China began encouraging foreign investment. The city government recruited Wang Yongguan to visit Tokyo and invite Japanese firms back to Dalian. Dalian is now the most popular area in China for Japanese investment. Wang said China needs to look to Japan not only for technology and capital but also to learn management techniques. In 1993, Dalian's economy grew by 16%, versus 13% for all of China. Dalian's industrial production was up by 42%. When Japanese companies such as Toshiba initially invested in Dalian, they were primarily interested in producing goods there to ship back to Japan or elsewhere in the world. Now they are beginning to target China's increasingly wealthy consumers. Matsushita is part of a Chinese government project to produce videotape recorders. The production lines are highly automated, with computers and robots everywhere. Some 400 Chinese employees who work at the plant were sent to Japan for training.
ISSN:0015-6914
2609-1445