Lesson Twenty Seven
International Transportation (II)
Bingzi: If I understood you correctly, you have been talking about sea freight shipment. However, cargo is transported to China by other means as well. What about air freight ?
Hart: The same basic principles would apply. However, with air shipments, speed of delivery is a much more critical factor. Therefore, generally air shipments will consist either of relatively valuable goods or cargo that is urgently needed at destination. So time becomes a much more important factor. The freight forwarder has to expedite both the documentation and the communication. Weight and size are also important considerations. Airplanes are much smaller than ships and have smaller openings. So we have to take these limitations into account for the size and weight of the package or pieces.
Bingzi: I understand that you have worked in transportation in several countries： the United States, the Philippines, Japan, and now China. I am sure that the situation is not the same in every country. What are some of the particular problems you have encountered in China?
Hart: What you say is certainly true. There are many problems common in transportation everywhere. But each working enviroment also has its unique characteristics. Most importantly in China we face the basic limitations of the infrastruction. China desperately needs better and larger seaport and airport facilities, more rail lines, more highways, more rail cars, more trucks, additional telephone and telecommunications capability. Lack of these certainly makes movement of both exports and imports more difficult, most especially to and from inland cities and towns where much of the industry is located. Another problem area is perhaps more conceptual in nature in its roots, but the impact is definitely operational. When China began its current economic modernization program, there was heavy emphasis on manufacturing industries but there was not enough recognition of the need for a concomitant growth in the area of service industries such as transportation, communications and electric power, to support that industrial base. As a result, factores too often found themselves unable to meet production and export goals because of a lack of these vital services. I think we have all read of factories forced to close down because of shortages of raw materials for manufacture or coal for electric power generation. This was because of the chronic shortage of rail cars to transport coal and raw materials from other places. In a similar vein, foreign buyers of Chinese products have sometimes complained of delays in delivery. This is for the same reason and because of what I understand are certain bureaucratic(官僚作风的) obstacles. Fortunately, the Chinese Government has recognized these past oversights and deficiencies. The new Five Year Plan strongly stresses the areas of transportation, communications and power generation development. This is a step in the right direction.
Bingzi: I am sure that you must have found doing business in China not exactly the same as in your own country. Could you describe for us some of the differences you have observed?
Hart: What comes to mind immediately is that one needs a lot more patience. The Chinese do not make snap decisions. They usually want to study any major proposals very thoroughly, and they will most often come back many times with a lot of different questions. So anyone seeking to do business in China should really have done his or her homework. But I guess that should be true anywhere if you are going to be successful. My own personal experience in China has been that it is more difficult and takes longer to develop close business relationships. However, once such tries are successfully established, they are generally much stronger than what you might find elsewhere. But we also have many things in common. Both in China and the United States, as well as elsewhere throughout the world, mutually beneficial and enduring business relationships are always founded on mutual trust and good faith.
Bingzi: Since you have already been
there for five years. I suppose this may be something of a
rhetorical question, but I will ask it anyway. Do you enjoy living
and working
Hart: Very much.
Bingzi: Thank you very much, Mr. Hart, for a thought-provoking discussion. I am sure that our listeners can learn a lot from what you have told us. I hope we will see and hear you again on a future programme.
Hart: It was certainly my pleasure to be here.
Notes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
顶