16 Years away from Cheap China – Shaun Rein

When business analyst Shaun Rein arrived in China in the 1990s, all was cheap. For the rthk he recalls, based on his book The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends that Will Disrupt the World in half an hour how China no longer is the cheap country where he started off.

RTHK:

When Shaun Rein first arrived in China in the 1990s, the word “cheap” summed it up. Not just his life as a graduate student but just about everything about the country.

“Land prices and salaries were low and the quality of China’s production was inferior,” said Shaun. “It was still difficult to find a decent job. When walking outside the gates of factories, you would run into swelling crowds of unemployed workers with cardboard signs touting their skill sets in the hopes of finding a job.”

But that landscape has changed in the last decade due to the job creation spurred by multinationals investing billions of dollars. Now the biggest obstacle to growth in China for most firms is finding talent even with China’s large population.

Has the era of cheap China come to an end?

You can listen to the program here at the RTHK.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.