Wei Jiafu, chairman of COSCO, receives the Shipping Industry Leadership Award at the 2012Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference on Monday. [Photo/China Daily]

Chairman of shipping giant confident, industry can boost economy, trade

Wei Jiafu, chairman of China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), promoted a stronger economic partnership between China and the US — the West Coast in particular — in his keynote speech at the 2012 Trans-Pacific Maritime conference.

Wei said on Monday that he held high expectations for the industry this year based on the economic performance of China and the US.

He said the Chinese economy has steadily grown, and pointed out that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has set the goal of GDP growth for this year as 7.5 percent in his recently released government work report. The US GDP growth has been set at 3 percent this year.

China and the US together can push the global economy onto a restoring and growing path, he said.

Peter Tirschwell, senior vice-president of the Journal of Commerce said: "COSCO's contribution to the US economy is much appreciated. Chinese maritime and shipping companies are certainly helpful to the US economy and the China-US trade."

COSCO has been the largest shipping company in China and the second largest in the world in terms of total shipping capacity. Fortune magazine first listed COSCO among its global 500 in 2007, and in 2011 COSCO ranked 398th on the Fortune Global 500 list. Wei received the Shipping Industry Leadership Award at the conference.

Currently, COSCO has 19 liner services calling at the US ports, 14 of which are bound for the western part of the US. At UCLA Anderson School of Management, Wei delivered a speech titled: China and the US West Coast: Golden Business Opportunities.

Having long been recognized as a charismatic speaker with a confident and ebullient personality, Wei took the center of the stage instead of standing behind the podium. He recalled the humble beginning of China-US trade.

"In 1979, soon after the diplomatic ties between China and US were restored after the 30 years' suspension, to break the ice in trade between the PRC and USA, COSCO's bulk ship M.V. Liu Lin Hai was the first Chinese ship arriving at a US port," said Wei. "That ship arrived at the port of Seattle, carrying no cargo from China, and then carried grains from the US back to China. "When the diplomatic relations were established, the bilateral trade value between China and the US was less than $2.5 billion.

"In the year 2011, the bilateral trade climbed to a new high, indicating a growth of over 180 times in the past 33 years. China has become the fastest-growing market for the US export, the second largest trade partner to the US, while the US has become China's largest trade partner."

The same year, China became the second-largest economy after the US. By this year, the China-US bilateral trade volume is expected to exceed $500 billion.

"The number one opportunity is the rise of economies in the Pacific Rim region," Wei pointed out. "The Western United States is the nearest region and the gateway of the US towards China. It just takes a container ship 10 days from China to the West Coast of the US. The top five container ports in the US are all on the West Coast. This reflects the important role of the West Coast in the economy of the Pacific Rim region and their close connections."

The Chinese embassy in the US started a Guide to Investing in the United States section on its website last month. According to the Ministry of Commerce, Chinese companies invested $6 billion in the US last year about 10 percent of the country's total overseas investments.

But the investment was not always welcome. When COSCO started a new shipping line to Boston in 2002, slogans were hanging by the local workers' union at the port, saying: "COSCO go home!" Wei then promised not to bring a single worker from China.

Ten years later, COSCO created 9,000 jobs in Boston. Last week, in celebration the 10th anniversary of COSCO's direct service to Boston, Wei received the award of International Business Leader from Massachusetts, and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) awarded Chinese Premier Minister Wen Jiabao "Best Friend of the American Workers".

Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping visited the US last month. Wei commented big State-owned businesses like COSCO should take the opportunity and set the model to work on the common ground that the visit has achieved to bring more Chinese business to the US and vise versa.

Based on his decades of experience, Wei gave three pieces of advice to better the business relationship at the practical level. Communication comes first. He suggested Chinese businesses learn the US culture, and communicate in the way that Americans can understand; at the same time, US businesses that go to China will benefit from the same practice.

The second point is obeying laws. And the third and equally important suggestion is to emphasize job-creating. "Do as Romans do", is our principle in overseas management. We select local talent as our employees and we hire local senior management members," Wei said. "If you do the same, there's no way that the American government and people don't welcome you."

Quoting former US President Thomas Jefferson's line, "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past," Wei said, "We are here today not only to recall the glorious past but rather to create a brilliant future."

Contact the writer at wangjun@chinadailyusa.com