Multinational Companies Accelerating the Sales Strategy Rearrangement

　　There is a new trend in the investment by multinational enterprises: to shift their businesses and technical transformation to establishing production bases, the core strategy is first to occupy the huge Chinese market.
　　Reviewing the short-term investment history: in 1992, most multinational companies merely set up representative offices in China and mainly engaged in trade.
　　But since 1995, they have shifted to establishing production bases, especially the share holding companies (such companies are the highest form of foreign investment, besides investment and reinvestment, their responsible also includes product agency, the training of personnel, providing information and supplying funds). Such multinationals include Omron, Hitachi, Panasonic, Sanyo, Fujitong, Toshiba, Isuzu of Japan, Siemens, Bayer, Henkel of Germany, General Electric, IBM, Motorola, and Dell Computer of America.
　　In recent years, multinational companies have accelerated their large investment in China. McDonald's alone has built 52 factories in China. ABB Group established 20 joint ventures. Volkswagen AG set up four large joint ventures and one solely-invested enterprise with a total investment of U.S.$ 2 billion. In addition, Boeing has three large joint ventures, and the key components of 3100 Boeing planes now flying worldwide were made in China. Moreover, with the relocation fever, multinational companies are intensifying their localization strategy of the "root in China".
　　According to employment records, foreign-funded enterprises favor local professionals. The director of human resources for Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd. says, over 500 their employees are Chinese, and most of them are masters and doctors. To our surprise, more and more senior posts are being taken by Chinese. In the ABB (China) Group, of 5000 employees, nearly ten general managers are Chinese, while foreign senior officials are very few.
　　In order to ensure that their products keep up with the changing market, multinational companies lay special emphasis on the localization of R & D and the expansion towards the intellectual service field. Some powerful companies have increased their R & D investment and established research institutes in China. A "China fever" has been started by foreign IT magnates.
　　Notes
　　multinational adj.多國的, 跨國公司的
　　accelerate v.加速, 促進
　　sale n.出售, 銷路, 銷售額
　　strategy n.策略
　　rearrangement n.重新整理
　　trend n.傾向, 趨勢
　　multinational enterprise跨國企業(yè)
　　shift vt.轉移, 改變
　　technical transformation技術轉讓
　　transformation n.轉化, 改革, 轉換
　　representative offices辦事處
　　establish vt.建立, 設立, 確定
　　production base生產(chǎn)基地
　　core strategy核心戰(zhàn)略
　　core n.果核, 中心, 核心
　　occupy vt.占領, 占據(jù)
　　share holding companies持股公司
　　product agency產(chǎn)品代理
　　training of personnel人員培訓
　　supply funds提供資金
　　joint ventures合資企業(yè)
　　solely-invested enterprise獨資企業(yè)
　　key components關鍵零部件
　　relocation n.再布置, 變換布置
　　fever n.狂熱, 高度興奮
　　intensify vt.加強
　　localization strategy本地化戰(zhàn)略
　　employment n.雇用, 職業(yè)
　　foreign-funded enterprise外資企業(yè)
　　favor vt.照顧, 喜歡
　　professionals n.專業(yè)人員
　　director n.主任, 主管,
　　human resources人力資源
　　master n.碩士
　　doctor n.博士
　　senior posts高級職位
　　general manager總經(jīng)理
　　senior officials高級官員
　　intellectual service field智力服務范圍
　　research institute研發(fā)機構
　　"China fever""中國熱"
　　magnate n.巨頭, 富豪
　　At the end of last year, Microsoft invested U.S.$ 80 million in a China Research Institute specializing in essential research. It also declared recently that U.S.$ 50 million investment will be made in the Microsoft Asian Technology Center in Shanghai, the highest level research institute of Microsoft in China.
　　Siemens intensifies the localization of key technology. After a century of introducing track communication technology into China, vice president Mr. Burt said, "a century's experience persuaded us that a key factor securing the successful operation is the localization of key components.
　　In November 1999, Motorola (China) Electric Co., Ltd. built the "Motorola China Research Institute" in Beijing. It now has altogether eighteen R & D centers in China (including Hong Kong), 650 research personnel with a investment of RMB 1.3 billion, covering advanced semiconductor materials, micro-controller, CDMA, Will system, and chips for mobiles and software. By the year 2001, there will be 25 research centers and 1000 research personnel with a total investment of RMB 1.8 billion.
　　Northern Telecom International Ltd., IBM, Intel, Du Pont Holding Co., Ltd., P & G, Ericsson, Nokia, Panasonic and Mitsubishi have all established research centers, technological development centers and laboratories in China. AT &T even plans to open the first "Bell Lab". A French company will build "technological zones" in Beijing and Shanghai, including a chip factory and four application labs.
　　Thanks to the acceleration of component localization brought about by the establishment of R & D institutes by multinational companies, costs are reduced and the competitiveness is increased.
　　Notes
　　declare vt.宣稱, 宣布, 宣告
　　China Research Institute中國研究學會
　　institute n.協(xié)會；學會；學院
　　Microsoft Asian Technology Center微軟亞洲技術中心
　　Siemens西門子（公司）
　　intensify vt.加強
　　localization n.地方化，本土化
　　key technology 關鍵技術
　　track communication technology跟蹤通訊技術
　　track n.軌跡, 跟蹤
　　persuade v.說服, 勸說, (使)相信, 勸某人做(不做)某
　　factor n.因素, 要素,
　　component n.成分 adj.組成的, 構成的
　　Motorola (China) Electric Co., Ltd摩托羅拉（中國）電器有限公司
　　Motorola China Research Institute摩托羅拉（中國）研究學會
　　research personnel研發(fā)人員
　　advanced semiconductor materials先進的半導體材料
　　micro-controller微型控制器
　　chip n.集成電路片
　　software n. 軟件
　　Northern Telecom International Ltd北方電訊國際有限公司
　　zone n.地域, 地帶, 地區(qū)
　　application labs應用實驗室
　　competitiveness競爭力(性)