Ding Jianyong Of Dongchang Group Talks About Business Environment: Great Changes

“As an enterprise, it is very sensitive to the business environment. Over the past few years, we can feel that the business environment has undergone tremendous changes. The government has continuously simplified the examination and approval process, made some service commitments to the public, and greatly improved its efficiency, which makes us feel very gratified. "- Ding Jianyong, Dongchang Group

[We know that China’s reform and opening-up has come to the 40th year. At the same time, a great many of excellent enterprises and entrepreneurs have emerged in China. We want to know how Dongchang Group has grasped the good policies and opportunities brought about by the reform and opening-up. ]

Dongchang Group emerges at the right time of China's reform and opening up. In the early 1990s, I went to Shanghai to set up this company, and the address I chose is now Pudong New Area. In the past ten years, Pudong, as the front line of reform and opening up, has continuously issued attractive policies and created a good business environment, attracting many large state-owned enterprises, multinational companies and the world's top 500 enterprises to settle in Pudong.

Through joint ventures and cooperation with these excellent enterprises, we have learned a lot of advanced management experience and also introduced and cultivated a group of high-quality talents with international vision. It is precisely because of these factors that we can promote the sustained and healthy development of our enterprise to this day.

Inspiration from a road

As China's economic center, Shanghai has changed every corner of her in the past 40 years. However, people have to admit that the biggest and most shocking change undoubtedly belongs to Pudong.

The place name of “Pudong” first appeared in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. The name “Pudong” (“dong” for east and “pu” for Huangpu) is after its location of east of Huangpu River. In 1930s, Shanghai had no concept of administrative division of “Pudong” or “Puxi” (west of Huangpu). At that time, the so-called "Shanghai" mainly referred to the present Puxi.

Lacking of connection through bridges and tunnels acrross Huangpu River in history, Pudong is only a river away from the bustling Bund and Nanjing Road in Shanghai, but its economic development lags far behind the old urban areas of Shanghai. While Puxi has developed into a prosperous metropolis, enjoying the reputation of “ten miles of foreign land” and “Paris in the east”, Pudong, which is separated by the river, is still a desolate scene. “I'd rather have a bed in Puxi than a room in Pudong” is a phrase that Shanghai people are familiar with, which directly outlines Pudong's history before development and opening up.

There are quite a number of world metropolises built on both sides of a river, such as New York, London, Paris and Budapest, they are thriving on both sides of the river. It is rare that there is such a sharp contrast in economic and cultural development between the two sides of Shanghai's Pujiang River. In fact, over the past century, the planning for Pudong development had been proposed from time to time. From Dr. Sun Yat-sen to Huang Yanpei, a famous democrat, thru to the Kuomintang government, there were programs or proposals to develop Pudong, but none of them came true.

Until April 18, 1990, the Chinese government announced the development and opening up of Pudong in Shanghai, proposing to further open up the cities along the Yangtze River with the development and opening up of Pudong as the leader, to build Shanghai into one of the international economic, financial and trade centers as soon as possible, and to drive a new leap in the economy of the Yangtze River Delta and the entire region of Yangtze River Basin. On October 11, 1992, the State Council approved the establishment of Pudong New Area in Shanghai. Officiall kickoff of Pudong development.

For more than 20 years, Pudong, as a beneficiary of the reform and opening up, has seen rapid economic development and dramatic changes in the city's outlook. Pudong has become a new hi-tech and modern industrial base in Shanghai, a new economic budding point in Shanghai, and a key and symbol of China's reform and opening up in the 1990s.

I am here to share such a short story with you.

In the early 1990s, it was not easy to register a company in Pudong. At that time, Pudong was a piece of farmland. Dongchang Road here was a bustling commercial street. I think the road name, Dong (East) and Chang (flourishing) has a good meaning of predicting prosperity of Pudong. Therefore, I took Dongchang as the name of our company and it has been used to date.

Looking back now, with the development and opening up of Pudong, Dongchang Road, once a bustling commercial district, is a far cry from the current CBD of Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone. At the same time, our former Dongchang Company has also grown into Dongchang Group nowadays. From this perspective, Dongchang grew up with the rapid development of China's reform and opening up. Dongchang is also the witness and beneficiary of China's reform and opening up.

As we know and are very concerned, Shanghai Dongchang Enterprise Group Corporation Limited is a large comprehensive enterprise group engaged in modern service industry. It has been listed by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Statistics as one of the top 50 enterprises in the comprehensive strength of Shanghai enterprise groups. It is among the first batch of enterprises that have passed the certification of SEDEX, the enterprise social responsibility system in China, and has been rated as an outstanding model enterprise that takes the lead in performing corporate social responsibility. Meanwhile, Dongchang is a well-known trademark in China.

Social responsibility is the internal demand of the enterprise

[We would like to invite Mr. Ding to talk about how you have lead the enterprise to make so many outstanding achievements and receive honors. ]

Like the torrents of spring, China's reform and opening up brings every industry boundless opportunities for development. Grasping this development opportunity can enable enterprises to go fast in a short time, but how can you make progress in a long run term and keep stable growth? This is another question I have been thinking about.

So in the process of development, I was very impressed by one thing. Among our partners are the world's top 500 companies and very good companies. In dealing with these companies, I found that they all have one thing in common, that is, they all attach great importance to social responsibility. Therefore, in the business contract we signed, they asked us to add such clauses as the rights and interests of employees, environmental protection and social responsibility. Truly enough, they not only voluntarily assumed this social responsibility, but also asked our partners to jointly assume this social responsibility.

This incident has gradually made me realize that the enterprise itself is a living individual. Only when the enterprise actively handles the relationships among employees, customers and partners can it strengthen the foundation for long-term development. Therefore, more than 10 years ago, when we learned that Pudong New Area authority was planning to launch the construction of a corporate social responsibility system, we Dongchang Company, as a private enterprise, took the initiative to join the program. Under the guidance of the government, Dongchang teamed up with Shanghai's state-owned enterprises, multinational companies and the world's top 500 companies as sponsors of the program. On this basis, we formed a local government-led corporate social responsibility standard assessment system.

It can be said that along the way, I fully realize that the corporate social responsibility is not only the internal demand of the enterprise, but also an important reason why Dongchang can develop smoothly up to date.

Jobs being lost

[We know that enterprise management is actually very sensitive to the business environment. What are your most urgent expectations for reform and opening up in the future? ]

[The process of China's reform and opening-up is that of liberating and developing productive forces, as well as a process of changing the government's own ideas and improving its capabilities. Representative among them is the change of business environment.

The business environment includes social, economic, political and legal factors etc. that affect enterprises’ activities. It is a systematic project involving many fields of economic and social reform and opening up to the outside world. A good business environment is an important manifestation of a country's or a region's economic soft power and an important aspect of improving its comprehensive competitiveness.

As we all know, private enterprises are the most sensitive to the business environment. From a small spark in the early stage of reform and opening up to the current trend as a prairie fire, private enterprises have made great contributions to China's economic development, and benefited from the continuous improvement of the business environment. ]

As an enterprise, it is very sensitive to the business environment. Recent years have witnessed great changes, in particular, the business environment has undergone tremendous changes. The government is continuously simplifying the approval process, making some service promises to the public, and its efficiency has been greatly improved, which makes us feel very gratified.

I can give an example of our company here. In the past, Dongchang had a special post called “industrial and commercial post”. Why should such a post be set up? Because we have to register a company in the industrial and commercial bureau, its process is rather complicated, and today you may go to this window to handle some affairs, and tomorrow you have to go to another window to handle some other affairs, the standard it holds is not uniform enough, so if you want to set up a company quickly and put it into operation quickly, you will have to make your own efforts by appointing a special person to match with the formalities of industrial and commercial bureau, even you may have to entrust acquaintances for backdoor deals.

It's different now. Industrial and commercial administration related affairs can handle by submitting materials directly online. Its process is transparent, fast and efficient, saving valuable time and cost for the enterprise. Therefore, the industrial and commercial post that has been there for so many years is now cancelled.

Of course, from an enterprise's point of view, I hope that the government departments would take a bigger step and carry out management through legal and intelligent means to create a better business environment for us and further stimulate the power and vitality of the enterprise itself.

The demographic dividend is decreasing and deteriorating.

[So, in this forum activity, is there anything that impresses you particularly, or what is your greatest gain in this forum? ]

The theme of the 2018 annual meeting of the 50-member Economic Forum is from high-speed growth to high-quality development. Experts, scholars and entrepreneurs shared their views at the meeting and brought me a lot of inspiration. Let me think about this question. In this round of changes, how should enterprises seize this opportunity and find the right direction?

From a macro perspective, I believe, China's reform and opening up has experienced nearly 40 years of rapid development and created the miracle of China. However, everyone has seen her problems. The demographic dividend is decreasing, and the resources and environment are deteriorating. (This) really requires us to take the initiative to slow down the economic growth and make room for the development of a high-quality economy.

From a microscopic point of view, every enterprise in it will be faced with the problem of how to deal with this change. It can be predicted that the round of change from high speed to high quality will bring about further social division of labor and emerging of a series of supporting service industries. While participating in the market competition, enterprises need to identify their core business and make it better and stronger. At the same time, they need to outsource non-core business to well-chosen companies to provide support for you, and to continuously improve their own ability of resource integration.

One who can focus on its own sub-sectors in this round of industrial chain evolution and achieve perfection will surely stand out in this round of transformation. An excellent and competitive enterprise will take the initiative to participate in and integrate itself into this round of reform. If more enterprises are aware of this problem and participate in this round of reform, China's economy will have more vitality and competitiveness.

Then it comes back to Dongchang Group itself, who also encounter such a problem, how to tap its core business through its own advantages.

While improving our ability to integrate resources and seizing the opportunity of this round of reform, we will continue to explore such a proposition (of tapping core business through own advantages).

(Source: Sina Finance)