EP 2

From the article “Learning from China During Covid-19 Pandemic, EP.1: Chinese Life on Coronavirus Lockdown”, that shows the direct experience from the Chinese business expert. It is the lesson since the pre-COVID-19 crisis than the whole country lockdown and resulting ing Chinese behavior changes. In this EP.2, K.Manop Sangiambut, Executive Vice President for Chinese business at SCB and K.Thanamon Sutheerapak, Business relation manager at SCB (Shanghai branch) will talk about the government measures to support the economy and how is the opportunity of Thailand in the post-COVID-19. Also, how to apply these Chinese Covid-19 lessons in other situations. 

The first measure from the government to alleviate the SMEs

While the crisis happens, the impact on small businesses is the most powerful, likewise in China where the economy relies on SMEs for about 60%. Normally SME business owners have cash flow less than 3 months. Hence, the Chinese government and the local provincial authorities announced the measures to support the economy and the mains are giving the support money to increase consumers buying power via electronic wallet, issue the public loaning bond for lending to entrepreneurs with a low-interest rate and many financial measures; tax measure, permission requests step reduction. However, in K.Manop’s opinion, he thought that these remedial actions compared to the Hamburger crisis are not the urged one but they only prolong, alleviate, and stop the economy bleeding. Besides, the powerful means are coming right up to strengthen and maximize the economic limit in this Dragon land.

The most powerful medicine is the Mega Project system injection

As the Chinese way always finds chances during any crisis. Once the Hamburger crisis, the Chinese government was throwing a large amount of money to build the fundamental systems which were the high-speed train around the country and have become one of the world leaders of rail technology and be able to export it to other countries. Likewise, for this Covid-19 pandemic, China is planning to find opportunities to expand the 5G network to put enormous money into the economy and maximize the country's ability. Also, building a new fundamental system is one of their plans; however, we have to wait for the government policy announcement. “5G is not only internet speed but also the latest information transferring that can build personalized customer experience. So, every Chinese business must adapt itself and prepare for the 5G processes. Then AI will come after 5G which China is planning to be the leader by the next 10 years.” K.Manop said.

K.Thanamon told us that Chinese government measures are so effective that could help and support the entrepreneurs' survival whether loan, marketing, and taking care of employee's temperature screenings to ensure customer safety. Moreover, the government also gave support to low earning citizens such as lifting the support measures, increasing selling rates of agricultural products, and elderly support money. Online businesses have been dramatically growing up in every country during the Covid-19 pandemic as also in China. Most Chinese people are already familiar with online shopping. K.Thanamon told us that this pandemic caused the big step to the E-Commerce business and entrepreneurs have to learn online marketing to reach those customers and the first-come is the first serve. 

Thai business opportunity after Covid-19 

As there is an opportunity in every crisis, therefore, how can Thai entrepreneurs find these opportunities? K.Manop told us that the first opportunity after China’s lockdown easing is the investment from China since the FDI of a few previous years shows that Chinese investors are the number one ranking of investors. So, we expect that after Covid-19 and trade war, China will look for an international manufacturing base and Thailand sits in the center of Southeast Asia whether in the terrain and international investor base. We believe that money from China will be increasing because they intend to invest and find opportunities in Thailand. The second one is the Chinese tourists. If we can control the Covid-19 situation and as soon as we can get back to normal, Thailand is still in the first tourist destination for Chinese. So Thai tourism strategies need to be prepared for welcoming Chinese, standardize the sanitization, and be ready for the new norm of Chinese behavior. The third one is selling Thai goods opportunities in China. We are good at agricultural products and processed food, so this is one of the best opportunities to expand an online business because the Chinese consumer number is growing. Also, Thai is good at health business, therefore, Thai entrepreneurs should find more opportunities in Health Technology which has become more popular and got support from the Chinese government.

K.Manop also said that apart from food export to China, Thai entrepreneurs should study the Chinese consumer behavior who tend to buy online international goods such as mom-and-child products, fashion goods, or daily essential goods, etc. This is the opportunity for Thai companies to find favorable circumstances from this crisis.  

Learning from the Dragon land

What have we learned from the Covid-19 pandemic in China? K.Thanamon told us that most Chinese people found no difficulty even though they have to stay home and did not get paid because there is a saving culture in China society from generation to generation. Thus, the crisis happened, Chinese people were not affected or lacked emergency money. Also, China’s fundamental groundworks are ready whether Cashless Society, Development-Alipay technology, Tracking-WeChat-Pay, and also effective government support measures. Also, Chinese people have the fighting nature in every crisis. Meanwhile, K.Manop told us that China will become the leader of the world in every aspect after the Covid-19 pandemic. So, Thai companies should follow-up China’s market because China will become the super-macro influencer and affect every Thai business. 

 Since China is the first encounter of the Covid-19 pandemic which made the whole world find them as a strong country that can deal with adversity by the effective and strong leader to rebuild the economic system, therefore, China is already known as the next world economic leader. So, Thai people should learn from them whether in the business adaptation to be ready for the new normal and also their saving discipline, their fighting habit as they will get up no matter how difficult they face. The Chinese dragon is always back to the sky. 

Reference: SCBTV, Learning from China, lived broadcast from Shanghai via Facebook SCB Thailand on May 5, 2020