(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-01-09 19:05

Bohigian chats with Chinese citizens- audio (I)

 

 

 

China Daily: Um so can I ask you to make a comparison between your first trip and your trip now. As I remember last April, it was still the issue of energy was still hot and one of the hottest issues that everybody was talking about it, especially it was the time the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel of scientists still to release their report about climate change. But now everyone is talking about the global warming, about the energy issue, about the emissions, and … China – the entire business of the environment has been changing. Do you see that? And you can feel the reaction from the Chinese not just officials but the Chinese companies to buy or to at least look at the clean tech roofing that you have brought along.

Bohigian: Well to the present President Bush's credit, one of his first acts in office over seven years ago was to put energy at the forefront of his administration's policies. And asked his vice president to ensure that we develop energy policies that allow the world and the United States to have affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Importantly the Chinese in the last Five-Year Plans realized the long-term implications of energy, security, affordability and reliability. But the present work on climate change isn't new; the Asia-Pacific partnership for clean development and climate for instance was set up between our countries in 2005. The manifestation of that in a trade mission is new. And I think that's an important new chapter in our relationship to have our companies working together to deploy these technologies. Because there are enormously important debates happening in the United Nations framework that the President wants to be a part of as part of the major economies process. He also wants to ensure that the US Congress is doing things that look to innovation for energy security and reliability in the future. But we hope these clean energy trade missions only serve to increase the pace of our ability to deploy these technologies and work together to develop policies that will help the world.

China Daily: Are you expecting that the initiative that you have already taken to continue after 2008 and the January election on the level of the Department of Commerce and also hopefully in a smooth way the two countries can continue to work together.

Bohigian: I really do expect that will continue in 2009 under a new president and beyond. Because it really has become a generational issue. That this generation of policy makers and more and more voters understand the importance of these issues. So I believe it is bipartisan, both Republicans and Democrats seek to develop cleaner resources of energy and energy that doesn’t have the same sort of carbon footprint we’ve had in the past. So I expect that to continue on a bipartisan basis. The difficult issue in this presidential election from a foreign policy issue is working with China and showing that it's a cooperative relationship. Because there are many in the United States who don't believe that the benefits of free trade outweigh the costs. And China in many respects has become a focus point for that discussion. So it’s important that we show cooperation on trade and on clean energy and all the areas that we have a tremendous relationship to be able to ensure that also is a bipartisan consensus that working with the United States and China and the world continues in a way that's helped make our two economies two of the greatest in the world.

China Daily: Thank you very much for your comments. Uh, we have some other questions, not necessarily regarding energy. One is that our netizens also understand that you are one of the US officials in charge of trying to get more investment into the United States. You're the key person for the Invest in America initiative. Can you give us a brief introduction about the information that you have regarding the Chinese companies investment activities in the United States.

Bohigian: Yes. We launched the Invest in America initiative last year in March to highlight for the world that the United States remains the most open economy in the world when it comes to investment. There are over 5 million Americans who depend on their jobs from everyone from Haier to BMW in the United States. And we want to continue to attract that capital from around the world to the United States. It’s one of our real economic strengths. And certainly China, with its enormous reserves, is an important part of that conversation. We'd like to highlight the fact that while many people focus on a review mechanism that the United States has for national security, that more than 90 percent of deals, nine out of 10 deals in the United States never go before that committee. And we'd encourage countries like China not to have lists of "encouraged" or "prohibited" or other transactions. We like to see that sort of open environment for the investment climate throughout the world.

China Daily: Do you have any figures of last year and the year just passed in which investment come into the United States and from various countries and various industries? I heard that the number of mergers and acquisitions in the United States was something like a record from the previous number of years mainly because of the price of the dollar is coming down and makes the United States more attractive to investors from the outside.

Bohigian: Well 2007 figures aren't in yet because we're just in the early part of January. But 2006 was a record year for foreign direct investment in the United States. And we expect that investors around the world did take advantage of opportunities to invest in the United States in an even greater rate in 2007. So whether that's been in the aerospace industry all the way through every other industry in the United States, the amount of deal flow we expect will be up and we'll be number one in the world again.

China Daily: And also in this event we see a lot of business delegations from the United States. You may have noticed that China is right now in the middle of, you can call it a city building campaign. And everywhere cities, people are building new cities, big ones and small ones. And also old cities are building new parts, new sections. Um, they're just starting and also public infrastructure, public services they are going to provide to the residents. And in this particular area do you think there is any possibility for the US mayors or city planning specialists, companies and services and consulting firms to share their views and experiences with Chinese cities?

Bohigian: Well there are enormous opportunities for US and Chinese companies to work together on the urban planning that you are undertaking. It truly is one of the enormous opportunities in the world. I've had the chance to talk to the American Institute of Architects that have been able to partner with their Chinese counterparts to develop that sort of city planning and I expect that will continue. I also would like to highlight what I said before when you put this urban infrastructure in, it's going to be there for decades, so it's important to get right. And when you look at the efficiency arguments, really getting building insulation right is one of the most cost effective things that any country can do. So we hope that China will be developing global standards that allow building efficiency as well as appliance efficiency when they’re working on these cities that we’ll be able to work with you together on developing these standards.

China Daily: And also many of the clean tech companies from the United States perhaps haven't had much of a presence in China or they're just coming to look for opportunities. What kind of local environment that they may look forward to? What kinds of services do they expect China to provide? What kind of regulatory conditions and business environment supporting the networks, looking forward to in China?

Bohigian: Well, US Chinese and global companies will all benefit from some of the policy changes that China is undertaking. I will just highlight a few for you. One would be market-based pricing for energy. The ability for people to pay what is the appropriate rate, the global rate for energy is probably the most powerful force to being able to create energy efficiency and new innovation opportunities in China. Second, I would highlight rule of law issues. The ability for companies to understand what they bargain for and to be able to be supported by the court system is absolutely crucial. And third would be intellectual property rights. And when I talk about the innovative technologies that US companies bring to China and around the world, we hear stories about them not wanting to bring their best technologies to China because they are afraid that somebody will steal that technology. So those are the three opportunities that I would highlight. But in closing, I do think that China remains an enormous opportunity for both countries. We are going to take a bus ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong tomorrow. And on that bus ride we are going to see one out 20 of the factories in the world developing products. And we want to make sure that the Chinese people and the American people and people around the world are able to use that prosperity to be able to help cleanup the world for their children and our countries. So it's an enormous opportunity that our partners here and the Chinese government, and with CCCME, have provided and it's a tremendous opportunity you have provided me today so I want to thank you for the opportunity.

China Daily: Thank you very much.

Bohigian: Xie xie. Thank you.