Prioritizing Innovation

China’s employment landscape looks sparse right now as many private enterprises that absorb much of the country’s workforce are succumbing to economic stagnation. While the Western world is caught in a tailspin, numerous private enterprises, and exporters in particular, have no place to hide. Their orders are declining to a trickle, and the supply chains of many also have broken down because of a lack of cash. In such a time of gloom, how can they weather the storm through innovation and industrial upgrading? Beijing Review reporter Hu Yue interviewed several economists and entrepreneurs about this issue at the 2008 Dialogue Between Chinese Private Enterprises and Global Fortune 500 held last December in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.

See what Wang Zhentao (President of Aokang Group Co. Ltd., a Wenzhou-based shoemaker)means when he says, "It’s time now for private enterprises to join forces in weathering the storm and draw some strength from self-restructuring and innovation."