From: J.Ainikkal@massey.ac.nz (J. Ainikkal)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Learning from the OVERSEAS CHINESE.
Summary: Learning from the OVERSEAS CHINESE
Keywords: soc.culture.Indian
Date: 31 Jul 92 01:39:07 GMT
Organization: Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
X-Reader: NETNEWS/PC Version 2c

Excerpts from "The Overseas Chinese"

The 55m overseas Chinese are one of the world's great economic
engines. They will become greater still as they pull forward
China itself.

As early as the 17th century, European travellers described the
Chinese living in South-East Asia as being like Jews. The
parallels are many: Long exile from a mother country to which a
deep cultural attachment nonetheless persists, apartness at best
and genocide at worst in many of the adoptive countries, a strong
commercial bent. The difference is the mother country. Israel
matters only because it slots into the interests of greater
forces. China is a giant that could dominate the 21st century.

If so, THE OVERSEAS CHINESE - ETHNIC CHINESE LIVING OUTSIDE CHINA
- will have a GREAT HAND in the proceedings.......

A study of Indonesia in the mid-1980s reckoned that , of assets
owned neither by foreigners nor by the government, 70-75%
belonged to the ethnic Chinese...

An observer of Thailand in the mid-1970s reckoned that ethnic
Chinese, 8-10% of the population, owned 90% of commercial and
manufacturing assets, and half the capital of the banks
(Singapore, Malaysia, Phillipines are other examples deleted)

The Chinese are prodigious savers and investors. In Chinese parts
of Asia, savings rate run at 25-45% of GNP. (Reasons for savings
deleted). The result is one of the world's deepest pools of
liquid capital.....

Worldwide, the overseas Chinese probably hold liquid (not
including securities) worth $1.5 trillion - 2 trillion. For a
rough comparison, in Japan, with about twice as many people, bank
deposits in 1990 totalled $3 trillion........

Western and Japanese firms can only watch enviously as the
overseas Chinese exploit their contacts to snap up the safest and
best of their opportunities which, by the estimate of one Hong
Kong banker, yield average returns of FOUR times higher than
investments in South-East Asia. China, for its part, enjoys a
development resource that Russia, with essentially no ethnic
Russian businessment overseas, can only dream about, and India
(with 11m overseas Indians) can only partially copy. If the
recent enthusiasm of the overseas Chinese is anything to go by,
the transnational Chinese economy, which in some ways already
rivals Japan as a business influence in Asia, is poised for a
great leap forward.

"The Overseas Chinese", The Economist, July 18th-24 1992, pp21-
24.

A good rationalisation for living overseas and getting the best
out of these foreign countries and doing our bit at home. Lets
hope we can save and invest as much at home as the overseas
Chinese. Lets hope we can get as high a return at home as quoted
by the Hong Kong banker. We could learn a lot from the Chinese.
We could live in our comfort and still help improve lives of
people we care about:)


John Ainikkal
'Aotearoa' - Land of the long white cloud
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian