Breaking the glass ceiling
Entrepreneur Zhang Hongwei says barriers stopping private firms from investing in industries dominated by the state sector must come down
Zhang Hongwei, one of the mainland's self-made billionaire entrepreneurs, rarely gives interviews.
But today, he has a clear message to deliver: the "glass ceiling" holding private enterprise back from investing in industries dominated by state-owned firms must be broken - and soon.
The low-profile entrepreneur is also a vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, which represents private enterprises.
It's been seven years since policies to let private firms play a bigger role in the economy were first spelt out in a circular. A lack of detail about how the policies would be implemented has kept the private sector at bay but the central government set a firm June 30 deadline for the mainland's top ministries and government agencies to map out private investment in sectors from railways to telecommunications.
The fact that media-shy Zhang, 58, is willing to discuss such a sensitive topic says a lot about his and other mainland entrepreneurs' eagerness for the government's stranglehold on certain industries to end. With the world economy weak, the issue has taken on a greater sense of urgency. The export-oriented manufacturing industries that the country's private enterprises rode for three decades are sputtering, thus the need to diversify into lucrative domestic industries that have been sheltered from competition.
Zhang's opinion on the mainland's economic reform is seen as having weight because his business flagship, Orient Group Investment Holding, set up in 1978, was part of the nation's adoption of capitalistic ideas from the beginning. The company was among the first four on the mainland to turn itself into a new so-called shareholding firm. That was followed by a listing on the Shanghai stock market.
"We are the first listed enterprise that does not have a single state-owned share … the first one whose parent company is also a shareholding company, and the first A-share listing which employs a foreign accounting firm [for audits]," he told the in 1994. Orient Group, which consisted of 13 companies hived off Orient Group Investment Holding, was listed that year.
