Have you ever wondered why a country would want to host the Olympics? They are expensive to host, hard to bid for, and, in general, extremely pesky to pull off. Yet, everyone wants to host one. Beyond the general tourist buzz, the Olympics are a great opportunity to showcase a country to the rest of the world. China wants the world to view it as bold, high-tech, creative and international.

Chinese entrepreneurs are using the Olympics as an opportunity to create global Chinese brands. “We want to be another Samsung, another Sony,” said Feng Jun, CEO of Aigo, a Chinese electronics company. Feng, who started the company with $26 from his mother in 1993, is one of the Chinese entrepreneurs who are striving to break with the current image of China as a cheap place to mass manufacture goods. These entrepreneurs are trying to make their enterprises into one of the global elite consumer brands, just like Samsung and Sony.

Feng has taken another step toward his goal by inviting international media to visit his company in Beijing during the Olympics. As an entrepreneur, he does not ignore the great opportunity that the 2008 Olympic Games are bringing to China. He signed an agreement with the Olympic Museum in Switzerland, making his company the first Chinese high-tech brand to enter the Olympic Museum.

Chinese entrepreneurs have worked hard to change the perceived views of their country. Unfortunately, China’s comparative advantage is still lower labor costs and not creativity. Although some nation companies have been successful internationally, 60 percent of China’s overall exports are not produced by Chinese-owned companies neither are 89 percent of it’s high-tech exports. In order to achieve sustainable growth similar to that of the Asian Tigers, public and private sector leaders in the sleeping giant must work to foster an environment where entrepreneurs are allowed to flourish and drive economic growth.

Tags: Aigo, china, Feng, Olympic Museum, Olympics

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Innovators, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.