ENGLISH-SPEAKING SKILLS OF MANY MAINLANDERS ARE VERY IMPRESSIVE

In his letter to these columns on January 2, Vic Krishnan predicted that not only the citizens of the SAR but also the rest of the world would soon be having little choice other than to learn Putonghua, in order to deal with businesses on the mainland.

I think the opposite is true. As one of the so-called entrepreneurs he mentions, involved in often complex product development and manufacturing in China, I have built a substantial (and thriving) business with the mainland, without speaking a single word of Putonghua (and employing very few staff that do). Over the course of 15 years, I have personally experienced a quite phenomenal improvement in English-language standards on the mainland, spoken and written by the people on the front line of China's export drive. The standards and quality today are, by any measure, exceptional. As any visitor to China's biannual export showcase, the Canton Fair, will know, the English spoken by mainland entrepreneurs and their staff means that buyers who once had to do business with China through Hong Kong exporters (due to communication concerns) no longer have to. On the mainland it is common to hear English being spoken with the tell-tale Australian, British or American accent of a recently returned overseas graduate. Many of our clients today simply bypass the Hong Kong trade shows and go directly to the mainland. Yet, I am unable to think of a single overseas buyer, major or minor, most of whom work exclusively with the mainland, who has even an elementary grasp of Putonghua.

Mainland manufacturers, exporters and importers realised long ago that the key to their long-term success was in being able to offer not only low labour costs, but the absolutely essential, and much less tangible, 'service' element of business, including clear and effective English communication, something that had always set their Hong Kong counterparts (and their higher middle-man pricing) apart. For many years they had no idea. Better or worse, Hong Kong's English standards seemed excellent in comparison to their northern counterpart. This is no longer the case. The gap between the two has narrowed to nil and with the mainland's endless supply of graduates with highly proficient English entering the workforce, I doubt there will ever come a day when Western businesses are having to scramble to educate their human resources in Putonghua and are installing Chinese word-processing software in order to correspond with mainland partners.

China is instead bringing itself to the world. It is pro-active, confident and aggressively taking steps to meet the requirements of whatever its global buyers might demand of its 'world factory'. Its people participate in ever increasing numbers in international trade shows and showcases, both in China and around the world. And they come speaking some exceptional English.

This is something an all-too-often complacent SAR should take very serious note of.

DAVID GRANGER