IDEAS Insights EY Strategic Growth Forum (Shanghai) | Page 3

The Strategic Growth Forum (SGF) did not formally commence until the 11th, but having
arrived on the 10th, the opportunity to join the pre-conference trade delegation meeting
was too great to pass on. Here, we heard from representatives from the Hangzhou,
Ningbo, Shandong and Guangdong bureaus of commerce, each of whom pitched the
merits of investing, working and visiting their provinces to a small room of government
members, investors and business people from around the planet.

In the afternoon, our delegation was bused out to the Shanghai International Automobile
City Group, a high-tech electric vehicle plant. We were walked through their Public Data
Collection, Monitoring & Evaluation Centre, which displayed a large, wall-sized interactive
panel of all electric vehicle hubs in the city, and learnt about the business model
underpinning this new industry: the price model here is partly derived from a calculation of
savings made per minute.
Following this, we visited the adjoining Test-Ride and Drive Centre. The red Tesla was
particularly fun!

The conference kicked off formally the following morning, with a networking breakfast and
subsequently energetic keynote from Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive of Alibaba. Mr Zhang
explained that Alibaba’s main driver is the company’s aim to serve 2 billion global
customers. He described this as being part of a far broader trend of ‘consumption
upgrading’ occurring in societies and cultures everywhere.
The next panel dovetailed well with this, entitled ‘China’s bold pursuit of innovation’. A
major takeaway here was the suggestion that 65% of children today will ultimately have
jobs that do not currently exist.
The Chinese government is improving the capability of banks to support start-ups, by
reducing capital requirements. Incredibly, $1.4 trillion was invested in R&D in 2015, of
which only 30% came from the government – 70% was derived from businesses. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, IPO valuations in Asia are now 37% higher than in Hong Kong (HK).
The day concluded with a snapshot of EY’s ‘Asia-Pacific Entrepreneurial Winning Women’,
an amazing set of entrepreneurs supported by EY, many of whom were extraordinarily
inspirational.