In May 2010, the director of CPA Mr. Alain MAINGUY and I took the team of year 2009 CPA to go to China for an economic mission. During a couple of weeks in China, the 20 participants of year 2009 learnt about the development and tendency of Chinese market and visited Chinese companies in different sectors.

The first 3 days were dedicated to the case study of Chinese and international companies implanted in Asia with leaders in formation (teaching?) from one business School Chinese ( Shanghai Tongji University, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business). Apart from this, we had several economic missions from French to China.

• SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT –PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS

It is known that China is the first Manufacturer of photovoltaic panels in the world. Since a long time, in the zone European, Italia and Spain have been important customers for China in this domain.  Recently, the French market needs for panels is increasing. We were thinking about buying solar panels directly with China. That’s why we went to China with a mission for sourcing the panel photovoltaic for our client, a French installer. We looked for a future partner for our French client. Our EMBA participants also participated the SNEC 4th (2010) International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference & Exhibition in Shanghai. During the 3 days of the conference, they met several excellent panel photovoltaic Chinese manufacturers and distributors. We found the good partner for our French client. We found that the Chinese manufacture market is becoming bigger and stronger these years and we are sure that our French client made a good decision to go to china.

• EXPORT OF FRESH FRUITS AND FRUIT JUICE BIO

The south of France is famous in the world for wine and foie gras. Because of the excellent climate and the high quality of local soil, the country is also rich in natural fruit juice, particularly natural organic fruit juices. With this program, this year our EMBA students went to China to examine China's imports of natural organic juice market. We met some Importer in the Shanghai International Food Festival SIAL SHANGHAI 2010. We saw in this international food show all the excellent food around the world. That was a wonderful experience. We also interviewed some Chinese importers and distributors. We introduced our catalogue of production to Chinese customers who were very interested in it. Now, our French juice producer is preparing samples to be sent to these future Chinese partners. We hope that soon the Chinese consumer will drink a great juice of southwest of French.

• SOURCING OF MATERIALS FOR THE TRANSPORT SERVICE AND STORAGE

In our economic mission, we worked with the largest transportation logistics company in the French Southwest, to help them find the moving transport blanket and packing tape in China. We visited the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, several factories, we discovered the Chinese moving blanket have a excellent quality, even though they are different from the ones which are used in France. Actually, in France transport blankets are mostly from. We found wonderful Chinese product which could replace the Turkish product at a cheaper price. That is a great news, when we returned to France, we contacted our client transport logistics company, and they are satisfied. Currently, they are actively contacting the Chinese factory and discussing the detail for the first purchase.

• BALL BEARINGS FOR BALL OPTRONIC

Toulouse is the center aerospace of the world. There are many companies in the aeronautic industry, electronic technology…and so on. So, we had a client, who wants to find the manufacturer of ball optronic, and introduce them for optical penalties or other electronic equipment detectors, the ball bearing (civilian or military). In China, we visited some aviation electronics industry institute. We found that they are currently using major equipment which use the rolling made in French. Our client is satisfied about the market information what we get from China. They will come back to China in September to meet Chinese electro-optical manufacturer companies.

In addition to business visits in China, we all went out for fun, after the work, we visited the city by night, we enjoyed the Chinese food. In Beijing, We climbed the Great Wall, visited the Forbidden City and Summer Palace. We also went to Beijing HuTong, trying to see how  the old Beijing is as well as the old Beijing life. In Shanghai, we walked to Huangpu River, we enjoyed the Shanghai food, we danced in the bar area in Shanghai.

What a fabulous business trip made by the fabulous EMBA of CPA! We started to develop the economic mission since last year, we worked together, and we sheared our idea and our energy. Finally, we made them succeed.

Honglin WU

Development Asia