| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | Lack of English language skill costs China high-speed contract
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| | Balasubramaniam L. 
India
Local time: 16:37
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | The economics of it | Jan 11, 2015 |
Peter Simon wrote:
My other problem is with "any business that seriously wants to gain a foot hold in India should place its bets on Hindi". I have a strong feeling (supported by your earlier remarks about a lot of Indian businessmen doing business in China, which I've also experienced there) that it's the Indians who'd like to get a foothold in China rather than vice verse, except perhaps in the Kashmir region. And it stays a huge obstacle for Chinese that they lack the kind of multi-language (and English-teaching) culture India could still have, though could quickly lose if the trend you've pointed out goes on too long.
Not only Indians, but everyone else is scrambling to get a toehold on China, which is quite understandable as it happens to be the largest economy in the world and is the factory of the world. The Indian businessmen you find in China are there to source Chinese products for resale in India. Some are also looking at setting up manufacturing units in China to take advantage of the superior infrastructure and business-friendly atmosphere they find in China when compared to India.
But there are also clear signs that the China story may be changing due to many reasons - (1) the ageing Chinese population due to their decade-old one-child programme, which is creating a labour shortage in China; (2) the increasing affluence of the Chinese and the concomitant rise in wages; (3) China gradually changing from an export-oriented economy to a consumption-oriented economy where most of what it produces is consumed by its own increasingly affluent population; (4) and the Chinese economy itself moving up the value chain from merely manufacturing to innovating and producing intellectual products itself, rather than manufacturing the patented products of other countries.
All this means that China's many advantages of an earlier time such as low wages are diminishing.
India happens to be an economy of comparable size to China which affords reasonable possibilities of a good return on investments. With the decline of Europe and the throes of its unification, and the stagnation in Japan, India is the only large economy left in the world for the investment of world capital. This is the reason why India is of enduring interest to world businessmen, including Chinese businessmen (the train technology of this thread being an example). So it is not only a case of Indian businessmen seeking out China, but also the other way round - of Chinese businessmen looking to India as a suitable place to profitably park their huge surplus capital.
My thesis is that these businessmen need to adopt a more nuanced approach to India which should factor in more of Hindi and less of English, as the changing political scene in India demands such a correction.
The earlier methods of doing business in India through English-speaking intermediaries may no longer yield the expected results as more and more decision-making levers are moving into the hands of Hindi-speaking politicians and bureaucrats. The use of English by foreign businessmen in India could lead to a communication gap with these decision-makers, which can only be resolved by harnessing Hindi to the cause.
| | | | Peter Simon
Netherlands
Local time: 13:07
English to Hungarian
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Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
India is the only large economy left in the world for the investment of world capital. This is the reason why India is of enduring interest to world businessmen
Almost ...
China is not the largest economy as yet. Besides, it is still developing faster than India, which is far from being comparable in the size of its economy with China, or the US. A recent estimate (published somewhere like The Economist, but I'm not sure) estimates that in about 30 years or so, India is probably going to be the 3rd largest, but it's far from being there, Germany, GB and probably Russia are still bigger. But in the long run, it's a correct analysis for a situation in the near future. Alas, the overall size comes from the large population in Ch and In, which spell long-term problems for most of the related populations. That may also have a large impact on the productions possibilities, prices achievable etc. in the respective countries, but the population of China, let alone India, in general is very far from the buying power of most Americans, which means also that however much China is turning to its inland market for boost, is a long way to go in that direction.
One more thing, speaking of the future. ALL fast developments are to slow down after a while - so did the US, Japan, Russia earlier, so does China now, and so will India later. It's a platitude. So, "enduring interest" is not going to be enduring forever either.
[Edited at 2015-01-11 17:26 GMT]
| | | | Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 16:37
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | That is nitpicking | Jan 12, 2015 |
Peter Simon wrote: Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
India is the only large economy left in the world for the investment of world capital. This is the reason why India is of enduring interest to world businessmen Almost ... China is not the largest economy as yet. Besides, it is still developing faster than India, which is far from being comparable in the size of its economy with China, or the US. A recent estimate (published somewhere like The Economist, but I'm not sure) estimates that in about 30 years or so, India is probably going to be the 3rd largest, but it's far from being there, Germany, GB and probably Russia are still bigger. But in the long run, it's a correct analysis for a situation in the near future. Alas, the overall size comes from the large population in Ch and In, which spell long-term problems for most of the related populations. That may also have a large impact on the productions possibilities, prices achievable etc. in the respective countries, but the population of China, let alone India, in general is very far from the buying power of most Americans, which means also that however much China is turning to its inland market for boost, is a long way to go in that direction. One more thing, speaking of the future. ALL fast developments are to slow down after a while - so did the US, Japan, Russia earlier, so does China now, and so will India later. It's a platitude. So, "enduring interest" is not going to be enduring forever either. [Edited at 2015-01-11 17:26 GMT]
When you run out of arguments you beging nit-picking! In the long run we are all dead (as I think Winston Churchill said).
| | | | deleted. (X)
Australia
Local time: 08:07
English to Chinese
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| Just like dairy farmers | Jan 12, 2015 |
There was a report in the news last week that many small Chinese dairy farmers are pouring fresh milk down the drain or using the milk to 'water' plants because they cannot sell the milk in the market. Meanwhile, there is a huge demand for milk/milk powder/infant formula from Chinese consumers that has to be met with expensive imports.
This is because Chinese consumers have lost their trust in the safety of milk products produced in China after a series of food safety scandels invol... See more There was a report in the news last week that many small Chinese dairy farmers are pouring fresh milk down the drain or using the milk to 'water' plants because they cannot sell the milk in the market. Meanwhile, there is a huge demand for milk/milk powder/infant formula from Chinese consumers that has to be met with expensive imports.
This is because Chinese consumers have lost their trust in the safety of milk products produced in China after a series of food safety scandels involving milk products a few years ago.
Under this situation, it does not matter how safe the milk produced by one or two individual farmers is, the consumers have lost their faith and they are unable to tell a safe product from an unsafe product, so the whole industry is punished.
This is just like the translation industry. There are too many bad translators out there, and it is difficult for clients to tell a good translator from a bad translator, just like it is difficult for Chinese consumers to tell a safe milk product from an unsafe one.
Chinese state-owned companies purchase translation in the same way that they purchase other capital equipments - asking potential suppliers to submit bids. The bids will be evaluated by a committee against some preset criteria. This mechanism is designed to keep out corruption, but this methord has not been known to succeed in selecting suppliers that offer top quality even at reasonable price.
I know top translators will never succeed in winning bids because the selection committee has no way of telling who are top translators, their selection criteria (which usually includes pricing and potential suppliers' self-proclaimed track records) is of no help in this regard. ▲ Collapse
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Rachel Fell
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:07
French to English
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| Interesting comment, he-li | Jan 12, 2015 |
- slightly off-topic, but incidentally British milk farmers are also experiencing problems selling their milk for different reasons.
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