EU managers now eager to grasp Chinese business culture

Editor's note: With the fourth of the EU-China Managers Exchange and Training Programs (METP) now underway, the initiative is now seeking its fifth intake of candidates. The program has seen an increasing number of applicants due to a number of factors, including the current economic situation. Xu Liang, program director of METP, spoke with China Daily reporter Wang Danna about the METP and its current plans in China.

Q: A fifth 10-month training period has been added to the initially planned four. What were the reasons for making this decision?

Xu: With its highly professional team members and its integrated approach to the program, METP has successfully enrolled 300 participants since it launched in 2006. Interest in the program has grown considerably over the last years.

Through careful selection, unique intercultural training and subsequent management instruction, both Chinese and European participants have been extremely satisfied with the content of the scheme.

More and more potentially talented managers are now looking for training opportunities in this sector. In order to cope with this additional demand and train more professional Chinese and European managers, we decided to extend the initially planned four training sessions into an additional fifth term.

Q: What percentage of applicants is accepted on the program? What factors affect an individual's chance of being accepted?

Xu: All together, in the four METP intakes, we've received about 900 applications from both Chinese and European managers, and we've selected about 300 out of them - meaning about one third of all applicants have been accepted. So the odds are not bad, I would say.

A well-developed business plan plays the most important role in the success of an application. The independent selection juries are typically most impressed if an applicant and his or her company can demonstrate a clear commitment to EU-China business and have a viable business plan, one that ideally goes beyond the simple desire to export to the respective opposite market.

Of course, both Chinese and European applicants must also have good command of English, otherwise, they are unable to benefit from the program in the first place.

Q: Do you think Europe has anything to learn from the way the global international downturn has been tackled in China, particularly with regards to the government stimulus package?

Xu: With a strong impact on the underlying global economy, the financial crisis has damaged countries all over the world. As one of the major economies, China had no way to avoid that reality. However, China is now gradually recovering, due largely to appropriate measures being taken at the right time by its government.

Firstly and most importantly, government leaders have continually boosted economic confidence and have paid considerable interest to the concerns of everyday life.

Secondly, the economic stimulus plan and the financial investment plan of 4,000 billion yuan, made by the government, produced crucial effects in terms of the stimulation of domestic demand expansion and the stabilization of economic development.

Thirdly, in light of the economic turndown, the government has implemented a more active financial policy and a moderately easy monetary policy, as well as increasing its supervision of financial institutions.

Although the national conditions and economic structures vary from country to country, and the routes taken to tackle the economic downturn have varied, the great importance attached to the situation by the Chinese government and its timely and effective counter-measures are well worth learning from.

Q: Has the state of the economy in Europe seen more candidates keen to engage in the METP program? Has this changed the nature of the individuals applying to enlist on the program?

Xu: Due to the economic downturn in Europe, many European managers have started to reconsider their career development options and have realize the need to improve themselves through certain training initiatives to retain a competitive edge.

They have been particularly impressed by the exemplary performance of China's economy during this period of global financial turmoil, and, therefore, have sought to learn more about China.

Against such a background, more and more European managers have shown an interest in joining METP, which has brought us an increasing number of applicants. However, our criteria and procedure for the selection of participants has stayed the same, so there have been no essential changes in the nature of our European participants.

(China Daily 08/17/2009 page12)