Haiyan Wang

China 2030: What Lies Ahead

China is changing rapidly on all fronts – internally, its role on the global stage, as well as in terms of its relations with the leading Western powers. While economic growth will be slower than in the past, the average Chinese will be significantly richer, and China will be on the verge of joining the ranks of high-income countries. The population will be older, creating both challenges (rising social security and health care costs) as well as opportunities (rapid deployment of new technologies such as telehealth for the elderly and automation in factories). China will be greener, given the government’s enormous push towards both energy conservation as well as new forms of energy. China will also be technologically much more powerful, especially in fields such as artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and aerospace. At the same time, China will also need to navigate growing tensions with many of the leading Western powers, especially the United States. In this talk, Haiyan Wang will present her analysis of China’s evolution over the coming decade and its implications for multinational companies and investors.

China and the West: Competition or Cooperation

2020 will likely go down as an inflection point in China’s relations with the rest of the world, especially major economies such as the U.S., Canada, Japan, the U.K., France, India, and Australia. Internally too, China is changing as indicated by President Xi’s recently announced “domestic circulation” strategy suggesting an accelerated shift towards greater reliance on the domestic economy. With President Biden largely echoing Mr. Trump’s view of China as a competitor, adversary, and partner all at the same time, what will be the likely trajectory of the US-China relations over the next four years and in the long term? Facing a colder (more hostile) world, how might China chart its path in the 14th Five-Year Plan period covering 2021-2025? Haiyan Wang will share her analysis of the new geo-economic developments and their likely implications for multinational companies and investors.

Global Game Changers: Mega-Trends Reshaping the Global Economy

In the early 1990s, China was a relatively small economy which had just built its very first highway. Mobile phones were a luxury purchased mainly by rich Europeans. And, social media meant walking over to your neighbor to borrow his/her newspaper. How the world has changed over the last 25 years. Look ahead to 2030. Notwithstanding how much change we have witnessed in recent years, it’s a certainty that the quantum of change this decade will be even greater than over the last twenty-five. In this talk, Haiyan Wang will discuss the six megatrends that will drive this transformation: • Restructuring of the global economy • Digitization of everything • Growing geo-political risks • Climate crisis • Growing inequality, and • Transformation of jobs and work. Haiyan will also discuss what these megatrends mean for countries, companies, investors and individuals in terms of who can expect to thrive in the new era.

The Future of Globalization – Connected by Bits, Not Atoms

The echo chamber of analysts and observers, including some from the world’s leading media, is reverberating with cries about the end of globalization. This is akin to a hypothetical observer in 2000 looking at declining sales of camera films and lamenting about the supposed end of photography. People need to go back to first principles. Globalization refers to connectedness among nations – be it via trade in physical goods, trade in services, flows of capital, or flows of data. What’s happening today, indeed has been going on for the last 30 years, is the phasing out of the old globalization which rested primarily on trade in physical goods. Haiyan Wang argues that today’s era is defined by the rapid rise of ‘digital’ globalization which is far more powerful and is already contributing more to global GDP than the old globalization. She also discusses the implications of digital globalization for companies and investors.

Asia’s Next Chapter: Implications for Multinationals

Asia’s move to the world’s center will be one of the defining game changers for the global economy in the 21st century. Asia today accounts for about 35 percent of the world’s GDP as compared with less than a quarter each for the U.S. and Europe. Since Asia continues to grow faster than the other two continents, by 2030, Asia’s GDP will be as large as that of the US and Europe combined. Asia’s impact on the global economy is multidimensional. It is not just a mega-market, it is also a rising hub for global R&D, as a source of capital, and as the springboard for the rise of new global champions. This talk will examine the forces propelling Asia’s rise and discuss a number of related questions including: • What are the risks? What could derail Asia’s rise? • What are the implications of China’s slowdown for corporations and investors? • What lies ahead for India and Indonesia, the two largest Asian emerging economies after China? • How should MNCs prepare themselves to benefit from Asia’s rise? • Implications for investors? And, for young managers?

Getting China and India Right

Based on solid data and rich examples, Wang illustrates that China and India are the only two countries in the world that simultaneously constitute four game-changing realities: mega-markets for almost every product and service, platforms to dramatically reduce a company’s global cost structure, platforms to significantly boost a company’s global technology and innovation base, and springboards for the emergence of new fearsome global competitors. This talk outlines how companies can leverage the market and the resource opportunities presented by the China and India phenomenon to achieve global dominance within their particular industries.

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