On the morning of October 9th, 2012, Guo Yile, editorial board member, director of Economic News Department and senior journalist of Nanfang Daily, led a group of three to GDUFS for an exclusive interview to Professor Sui Guangjun, GDUFS party secretary and executive vice president of GRIIS. Two main themes of the interview are how to improve the internationalized and legalized business environment in Guangdong and how to promote the international school-running strategies of GDUFS. Professor Sui gave witty repartee to the journalists’ questions and it turned out to be a well-knitted and lively interview. Hu Wentao, head of Publicity Department of GDUFS Party Committee and Liu Jisen, deputy secretary general of GRIIS, also attended the interview.
Professor Sui interviewed by senior journalist of Nanfang Daily
Adjusting Business Environment to Maintain Leading Advantage
Why is it necessary to improve the business environment in Guangdong? Professor Sui pointed out that Guangdong Party Committee and Provincial Government proposed “industrial transformation and upgrading to build happy Guangdong”, which indicates the importance of business environment. In the 30 years of reform and opening-up, Guangdong has followed this policy and taken the lead of economic and social development in China, which stimulated the whole country’s economy. However, it has also produced some negative effects, among which the most serious one are the market and economy dominant theories. It is necessary to focus on economic interests at the beginning of reform and opening-up. But now it is high time that we made adjustments to the business environment. The market is not almighty and should be regulated. If we pursue economic profits blindly, some issues like justice and environment protection will be ignored. Therefore, when dealing with foreign affairs, we should improve our economy and trade strategies by enhancing capacity and affinity. In domestic aspects, we should connect with the world market and establish an internationalized and legalized business environment in order to maintain the leading advantage of Guangdong.
Building Internationalized and Legalized Business Environment should be Systematic
In response to the question about how to establish an internationalized and legalized business environment, Professor Sui frankly described it as a huge systematic work. It involves economy, administration, law and international relationship, taking into consideration the whole nation instead of Guangdong. As the forefront of reform and opening-up, Guangdong has a long history of building foreign market and is experienced in establishing business environment. The business environment is established basically on economy, but it also concerns cultural and legal aspects, which makes it a long term task. In addition, internationalized and legalized business environment is closely related to the citizens’ quality, which could be improved in Guangdong especially in terms of humanistic quality and legal consciousness. Professor Sui took his visit to Poland as an example and laid emphasis on the importance of improving citizens’ quality. The Polish government sets museology as a compulsory subject from the kindergarten education, which well explains why this disaster-ridden country has nurtured masters like Madame Curie, Chopin and Copernicus. It is essential for China to lay good foundation for business environment so as to win the world’s respect.
Be the Pioneer: Simplify Administration System and Decentralize Power
When asked about what should be improved on business environment, Professor Sui took Hong Kong as a reference system and showed the shortcomings of the mainland including the Chinese tradition of “guanxi (relationship)”. Actually, mechanism and ideas are the greatest advantage, without which the government won’t dare to decentralize power and individuals and enterprises won’t take more actions in economic operation.
Speaking of the function of the government, Professor Sui assumes that the previous mode has come to its end and Guangdong is in the right direction. Next is to further administration simplification and power decentralization. We should maintain courage and vigor, regard the 30-year achievements as a driving force, further emancipate our mind and be the pioneer.
Strengthen the Attractiveness of Guangdong and Introduce More Talents
Why is Guangdong less competitive than some developed regions when joining international economy? Professor Sui thought that Guangdong was losing its advantage in talents, the most important factor except for ideas, mechanism and regulations. It is essential for Guangdong to strengthen talents introduction and cultivation. The colleges and universities should take the responsibility of training international talents. Moreover, Professor Sui introduced the advanced talents introduction and joint research with foreign countries of GDUFS, taking the “Yunshan Scholar” Project as an example. The joint research owns an international horizon and standard since the beginning.
Attached is the Nanfang Daily news report on the exclusive interview--
