Firm vows big increase in China presence
By Sun Min (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-05-20 08:40

Leading US information services provider McGraw-Hill yesterday revealed it will dramatically increase its presence in the Chinese market.

Company Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Harold McGraw III said that the move was in response to the "tremendous changes in the Chinese market."

McGraw-Hill will expand its presence in China in financial and rating services, information, media, publication and education.

China's booming economy and rising demand for good information services have lured massive multinationals like McGraw-Hill Companies to expand here.

Following the launch of a McGraw-Hill representative office in Beijing on Tuesday, McGraw revealed that more of the group's firms, including Standard & Poor's and energy information service provider Platts, are expected to set up offices this year in coastal Chinese cities such as Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

This will not only improve the companies' co-ordination with local partners and governments, but will also help them to better meet customers' needs, he said.

McGraw added that the corporation will also develop online educational services and a Mandarin publication business in China, with more joint ventures expected to be launched.

China will offer great opportunities as it becomes "the world's second largest economy over the next two decades," said McGraw.

This will produce an increasing demand for transparency, information services and consumer education, he said.

In the financial sector, for example, both the equity and bond markets in China remain underdeveloped, but they offer a great growth potential, given the huge amount of savings and the nation's emergent middle class.

That offers good opportunities for Standard & Poor's, the financial brand of the McGraw companies.

Standard & Poor's is expected to expand its China-based operations by opening new offices and enhancing its risk assessment, rating and research work for Chinese companies.

It is currently helping a number of Chinese banks, including the Bank of China and some other State-owned banks, to undertake risk analysis, said McGraw.

And it has also launched local equity indices in China in conjunction with CITIC Securities.

It is hoped that these indices will lead to the introduction of some new products on the market soon, such as exchange traded funds.

But McGraw said that the Chinese capital market still requires more transparency, sounder corporate governance, a better credit culture and improved investor education.

Co-operation with experienced foreign companies is expected to accelerate domestic firms' learning processes.

Foreign investors think that Chinese companies are evolving quickly, McGraw added.

And he dismissed the assertion that this development was making Chinese firms a "threat" to foreign companies or economies, insisting that they are good partners.

"In a market economy, competition will rule," he said.

And competition is good, if it is based on a level playing field.

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