Internationalization of home appliances needs more policy support

Yuan Liqun, deputy to the National People's Congress, Midea Group and senior vice president, said that the current international economic situation is becoming increasingly complex and changeable. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for Chinese companies. He hopes that the country can further increase its financial, fiscal, taxation, talent, information and other aspects. Corresponding policies to support and improve services to help companies better "go global", participate in international competition, and achieve global operations.

The demographic dividend weakened: The “Lewis turning point” on the Long March Road labor force in the internationalization of home appliance companies has quietly arrived, and at the same time, the demographic dividend has begun to weaken. This has led people to question whether China can hold on to the “world factory” status. Does “Made in China” stand? Has it evolved into a synonym for the end of the manufacturing industry chain?

According to data from the white goods in home appliance market: Household Appliances Trend Analysis and Forecast in 2013 published by China Yikang Market Research Corporation, from January to October 2012, the total scale of domestic home appliance market retail sales was 982.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.6%. This is also the first decline in the size of Chinese home appliance sales since 2007.

In the absence of domestic demand, home appliance companies are increasingly looking to the development of the international market.

In fact, for a long time in the past, most household electrical appliance companies in China had gone out of their way, namely, "mainly OEM-based, brand-assisted". As a whole, self-owned brands accounted for less than 20% of exports, for Chinese manufacturing companies. Said that the establishment of international brands such as a long journey.

It is difficult for China's home appliance independent brands to develop overseas. In particular, the product quality of some no-name brands cannot be guaranteed, and the impact on the market at low prices will cause damage to the Chinese product image and will have a great impact on large companies.

Yuan Liqun, deputy to the National People's Congress, Midea Group Director and senior vice president, stated that over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, under the support of a series of industry supporting policies of the state and the government, China's home appliance companies have deepened their transformation and upgrading, enhanced their independent innovation capabilities, and strengthened their anti-risk capabilities. Ability also accumulated rich experience and lessons on the road to "going out".

In fact, Chinese enterprises are faced with some real difficulties in the “going out” process. For example, global capital pooling and financial resources are synergistic. Chinese companies’ domestic foreign-funded financial channels cannot timely mobilize global funds according to global operating dynamics. Interest rates, There are risks such as exchange rates and overseas liquidity and security. In the process of product export, it is often subject to various restrictions such as anti-dumping, technical barriers, and green barriers. There is a relative lack of talents with global operational capabilities, and there are also deficiencies in the efficiency and convenience of high-end international talents.

Yuan Liqun said that for “going global” industries and enterprises, it is hoped that the country can give corresponding policy support and improve services in finance, taxation, talent, and information.

The export situation is picking up: Midea Group’s internationalization speed Chen Deming, Minister of Commerce, is cautiously optimistic about the export situation this year. He predicted that if the external environment does not undergo major changes, exports this year may be better than last year. At the same time, there is still a need to focus on and guard against external systemic risks.

According to the analysis of the Ministry of Commerce, the situation of China's foreign trade in 2013 remained severe, mainly in the external environment. The U.S. economy has recently recovered and the European debt crisis has eased. However, the unemployment rate is still high and financial risks are continuously accumulating. The global monetary easing competition also has great risks, which may push up commodity prices and make hot money flow to emerging economies. International trade investment protectionism has been strengthened and high-end industries have been particularly prominent.

In the first year of 2013, the United States, Latin America, and the European Union occupied the top three export markets for Shunde household appliances. In January of this year, Shunde exported US$ 92.551 million and US$ 77.687 million to the United States and Latin America respectively, an increase of 6.4% and 10.2%. Compared to last year's sluggish export situation, Shunde’s export of household appliances to the EU in January was US$71.137 million, a significant increase of 22.9%.

According to Guangdong Shunde Customs data, in January 2013, Shunde household appliances exported 410 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 19% over the same period of last year, and the overall export market is gradually picking up.

Located in Foshan, Guangdong, Midea Group is one of the largest white goods production bases and export bases in China. Midea Group acquired Toshiba Macro in Japan in 1998 and has since taken its internationalization.

Nowadays, Midea has successively completed its operations in Vietnam, Belarus, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, India and other countries and regions by means of overseas acquisitions, increasing the strength of overseas market private brand building, establishing overseas production bases and overseas sales companies. Layout. Vietnam radiates ASEAN, Belarus radiates Europe, Egypt radiates Africa and the Middle East, Brazil and Argentina radiates Latin America, the internationalization of the United States touches every corner of the world.

On January 6, 2012, Midea Electric announced that it intends to invest in the expansion of the Indian air-conditioning market and reached an agreement with Carrier Corporation. Both the production and sales of home air-conditioners in India and the production and sales of some light commercial air-conditioners in Midea will be completed. Integration into a company, where Midea invests about 20 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 60% of the company's shares. This also means that over the years, the global strategy of electric appliances has once again accelerated. As early as the United States is not satisfied with the export of simple products, it is necessary to establish a modern multinational corporation integrating production, research and marketing.

In the past ten years, overseas sales accounted for about one-third of the Group's total sales. With the development of the home appliance industry entering a mature period, more and more home appliance companies should pay attention to domestic demand while seizing the opportunity of international development. Both markets must pay attention to it.

The “two sessions” on Premier Wen Jiabao's government work report pointed out that the target for economic growth in 2013 is 7.5%, and it is estimated that there will be more incentives to stimulate domestic demand, such as encouraging manufacturers to produce smart home appliances with higher technological content, and digital home appliances. Subsidies such as going to the countryside to promote the combination of other forms can not only promote industrial upgrading, but also promote consumption.

“We have to adapt to the environment and adjust ourselves.” Yuan Liqun suggested that some foreign practices can be used to establish a unified management organization, such as “Japan International Development Organization” and “Overseas Business Adjustment Committee”. Leading the formulation of relevant strategic plans, guidelines, policies, and management measures for cross-border direct investment.

Focus of the two home appliance industry proposals:

Five Measures to Strengthen the Protection of National Brand Trademarks At the two national conferences in 2013, Yuan Liqun suggested that China’s household electrical appliance industry should vigorously go abroad to “strengthen the protection of national brand trademark rights” and “improve the national standardized management information system platform” It is hoped that the government can give attention and support to create a better international competitive environment for enterprises and help our enterprises win global competition.

Yuan Liqun believed that deepening financial reforms and innovations should establish targeted fiscal and taxation policies for enterprises that “go global”, moderately relax talent introduction policies, promote two-way flow of globalized talent, quickly share unpredictable dynamic business information, and avoid investment risks.

In Japan and Europe and the decline of home appliances, the most dynamic power of the current global household appliances comes from China and South Korea. However, the international economic situation has become more complex and changeable. Chinese enterprises still face three major difficulties and risks in the “going out” process: difficulty in global fund pooling and financial resources coordination, barriers to product export restrictions, and global operational capabilities Lack of talent.

In response to the above situation, Yuan Liqun expressed that he hopes that the country can give corresponding policy support and improve services in finance, taxation, talent, and information. Yuan Liqun proposed to consider setting up "overseas investment funds" and "overseas resources development funds" to provide foreign-funded enterprises with preferential interest rate loans and other policies to support enterprises to go global.

In terms of specific operations, reference can be made to the "special financing subsidy policy for offshore investment funds" to provide special support policies for the investment of independent brands and independent innovation. In the aspect of talent introduction policies, when introducing industry experts, the existing 60-year-old age limit is relaxed, visas are simplified in terms of policies, and visa procedures for optimizing talent introduction are optimized.

In the aspect of dynamic management information sharing, the government takes the lead in integrating various information platforms, such as news agencies, embassies, industry associations, and chambers of commerce, etc., to provide timely and accurate information sharing for multinational corporations in China and reduce their operational risk.

On January 12, 2011, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Independent Brands in China's Household Appliance Industry", proposing that by 2015, the proportion of home appliance self-owned brands should not be less than 30%, and the R&D input intensity should not be less than 3%. 3 to 5 independent brands with high influence and competitiveness in the international market.

With the development of the home appliance industry entering a mature period, while focusing on domestic demand while seizing the opportunities of international development, the cultivation of brand trademarks is particularly important. Take Midea Group as an example, from the OEM OEM to the participation in the international brand and then to the brand operator, its internationalization has gone through three stages.

In the international competition, Chinese enterprises must see that the over-reliance on OEMs has a clear restriction on the development of the enterprise. Because of the lack of brand support, the international market has great uncertainty, and once the foundry customers are lost, the market is likely to be the entire military. Overwhelmed.

Yuan Liqun of the United States suggested that the protection of brand trademark rights can be strengthened in five ways. First, in the case of discretionary compensation, increase the compensation standard; second, strengthen the protection of trademark rights by the Customs; third, clarify the rules of evidence for the protection of intellectual property rights in the network; Fourth, strengthen the "highly counterfeit “The crackdown on unlawful acts; Fifth, strengthen the investment in resources for administrative enforcement departments and judicial departments of intellectual property rights, and strengthen administrative law enforcement and trial strength.

Improve the national standardization system Formulate targeted fiscal and taxation policies The global economy is in post-crisis adjustment period. From the aspect of external demand, the economies of Europe and the United States have not yet clearly improved, and emerging economies generally face transformation and upgrading. China's home appliance industry to be international, what are the resistance and risk?

In fact, the policy context is clearly visible in the appliance market in recent years. From the "home appliances going to the countryside" in 2007 to the "new ones" in 2009 and the "energy-saving subsidies" in 2012, the home appliance industry has received a lot of attention from policies in the past five years. At the end of the policy dividends and breastfeeding period, some household electrical appliance companies in the country have fallen into the “lost way” of layoffs, fraudulent subsidies, reduced exports, and declining performance.

Household appliance companies urgently need to actively adjust the product structure and make full use of multi-channel three-dimensional operations. Yuan Liqun believes that for China's household electrical appliance industry to rise, it must implement a national standardization system. “The national standardization system is the yardstick for product quality control. It is of great importance to manage and publish a national standard system, which can effectively reduce the company’s operating risks and improve enterprise product upgrades and industries. The speed of the upgrade will enhance the competitiveness of products in domestic and foreign markets."

Yuan Liqun proposed to improve the national standard management and publication platform, and coordinate the management of foreign standard information, national standard information, industry standard information, and local standard information inquiry and update, so as to ensure smooth standard information. Enterprises can, in the form of membership, pay annual fees and can check all the latest standard information and standard texts in the national unified website.

For a specific standard release model, we can consider the implementation of electronic rapid publishing such as PDF, leaving the transition time for enterprises to implement new standards. At the same time, she also proposed to increase investment in policy resources and encourage domestic enterprises to participate in the drafting of important foreign standards so that Chinese enterprises can respond to new international standards in advance.

In terms of other proposals, such as the difficulty of global fund pooling and financial resources synergy, Yuan Liqun expressed the hope that the country will continue to deepen financial reforms and innovations, increase reforms in cross-border capital operation policies, moderately relax restrictions on cross-border capital flows, and create conditions for support. Companies use global resources for offshore financing and carry out multinational capital operations.

For example, expand the scope of trials for foreign exchange funds centralized operation by multinational corporations, increase the scope of trials for companies issuing debt directly to overseas markets, and simplify examination and approval procedures. At the same time, we will accelerate the internationalization of the renminbi by increasing the number of overseas renminbi investment channels and clearing channels, and reduce Corporate cross-border transaction costs and avoiding exchange rate risks.