Asian connection

Woon Tai Ho, managing director of Singapore-based MediaCorp News Pte Ltd, is not cowed by big names in media such as CNN or CNBC.

The director, who devotes 80 percent of his time to running Channel NewsAsia (CNA), believes his station is just as good, if not better. "We can be a credible alternative!" he says in an interview with China Business Weekly.

Woon,also CNA's managing director, believes CNA, an English language TV news channel he launched in 1999, could be a credible alternative to the established Western media offerings for viewers keen to know more about Asia, and especially China, the region's most dynamic economy.

"We're trying to tell people around the world what China is really like, from an objective perspective, not in a sensational way like some Western media do," he says.

Born in Singapore, Woon is half Chinese; his mother comes from Hainan Province of South China.

He frequently visits China, a nation he believes is culturally fascinating. He often returns from his trips laden with Chinese-style paintings and the newest Chinese films.

During this most recent trip, however, Woon's focus was different. He was in town for the CNA sponsored China Real Estate 2007 Forum.

It's the first event CNA has held in China, and Woon says the reason is because "we want to engage as many countries in Asia as possible, and there is no more important country than China There are many hot issues (taking place in China) that we would like to look at deeper and make more comprehensive, and real estate is one of them."

In recent years, investors here and abroad have been injecting money into China's real estate sector, which has pushed up property prices and dented Chinese consumers' confidence in owning a house.

"The (real estate) industry is really an interesting topic," Woon says. "CNA wants to see the whole picture, to understand what the sector is really like and the Chinese government's approach to solving problems."

The Chinese government has been trying to curb speculation by issuing a series of rules and regulations in the past three years. In January, it announced a land appreciation tax on real estate developers that will likely hit both domestic and foreign companies.

Tough press

But the government's continuous efforts have not seemed to impress Western media, which is still skeptical when it comes to reporting on China's real estate sector, among other areas, Woon says.

"They (Western media) are trying hard to cover the Chinese economy, but in a sensational way," he says. "Actually, the local government is trying to control the growth (of property prices), and I suppose the Chinese government has the advantage of regulating growth more than any other part of the world."

Western media has been critical of China's rise, says Zhang Guoqing, an international affairs expert from the China Academy of Social Sciences. He says reports in Western media often vilify the country.

But this situation is changing, Zhang says, partly because China's economy has grown steadily since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Now, outsiders are more willing to look at China in a more comprehensive and balanced way.

"It's easy to produce sensational stories saying China's economy is growing at an unexpected rate, that pollution is incredibly serious, that Chinese peasants are being driven out of the city, to name a few problems," Woon says, "but we should not ignore the fact that the government is also actively doing something."

"At CNA, we care about the most important news happening in China, and we also care about what is inside the story, behind the headlines and what China has contributed to making things better," he says.

Unlike Western media conglomerates that cover the globe, CNA can focus on the Asia-Pacific region alone, Woon says. "Asia is our universe."

Woon also believes cost cutting by Western giants has meant less resources in Asia, and therefore less detailed reporting. "When accidents happen in some Asian nations, they dispatch correspondents in Hong Kong or Tokyo to do the report, but we have reporters around Asia and can have them on-the-spot wherever and whenever things happen."

Focus key to growth

CNA's Asia-focused efforts are paying off. As a latecomer to the media scene in 1999, it says it has taken the lead in business news channels over CNBC and Bloomberg. CNA has a market share of 16.1 and 12.5 percent among business decision makers and the affluent, according to the firm, while CNBC has 15.5 and 10.3 percent and Bloomberg is even lower at 3.8 and 4 percent.

Around Asia, CNA has reporters in 13 nations. But unfortunately, in China, CNA only has two reporters and two bureaus in Beijing and Shanghai.

"We want more," Woon says. "But foreign media are not allowed to have as many reporters as they want in China due to the government's restrictions we will expand our team when the time is okay for us to do so."

CNA's programs are available in 58 nations worldwide, and they began operating in China from 2004, reaching three- to five-star hotels in the nation's major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. But the group is small compared to stations such as CNN, Woon admits, claiming the company will reach more cities, particularly secondary cities, in the future.

CNA says it will hold more forums in China, such as the one on real estate, in the future. "Besides its economic side, China has a very long cultural history that has come along with modernization but has been ignored by many," he says.

CNA has also engaged in program exchange and program participation with local television stations such as China Central Television, Shanghai TV, Chongqing TV and Hangzhou TV.

"The partnership will be ongoing," Woon says. "China has many splendid things yet to be covered and it can never be ignored. We love to show more of China."

(China Daily 01/27/2007 page3)