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China: The Land Of Software Opportunity
by William New
Robert Holleyman, president of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), is convinced that China wants to do business with the United States more than anything else.
Holleyman was in China on a high-level business visit with government officials during the recent crisis over a U.S. surveillance plane that made an unauthorized emergency landing in China. But the tragedy never came up in his meetings, and officials never strayed from the discussions about creating opportunities for U.S. companies to sell their software and hardware in the country, he said.
"It was an interesting time to be there from a practical level," Holleyman said. "But in meetings with Chinese officials, it was business as usual." The U.S. business delegation and Chinese officials discussed everything from software piracy to partnerships with the government, he said.
Even the U.S. ambassador to China met with Holleyman, emphasizing his wish to conduct his usual business as much as possible. Holleyman said the ambassador was "very optimistic" that the issue over the plane and its crew would be resolved and as a result was focused on long-term issues.
A Full Policy Plate
The biggest issue for the BSA is the level of software piracy in China, which has been decreasing but is "still too high," Holleyman said. Government officials were responsive to concerns, he said.
He added that China represents "huge market potential" for U.S. industry, with the packaged software market expected to reach $5 billion by 2003. In 2000, the market was $3.3 billion, of which 52 percent was from foreign software makers, largely from the United States, he said.
When asked about human rights issues in China, Holleyman said U.S. companies doing business there "are engaged in setting the right examples" and provide the "right kind of employment opportunities." "We're extremely pleased with the role we're playing," he said. "But there are clearly issues to be resolved."
Top BSA priorities in the coming months are China-focused. They include ensuring congressional passage of an annual measure granting normal trade relations to China and China's entry into the World Trade Organization.
Holleyman's trip extended beyond China to other key Asian and Pacific countries, such as Japan, Thailand and Australia, which are some of the biggest markets for U.S. firms. Holleyman said BSA members are in 65 countries worldwide.
In every country Holleyman visited, he met with government officials and found a trend toward the adoption of e-commerce measures, including intellectual property protection, digital signatures and licensing issues. BSA lobbies on those issues. It also provides model e-commerce guidelines for governments to follow, Holleyman said.
News From The Nomination Front
In other China-related news, President Bush announced his intention to nominate Clark (Sandy) Randt to be the U.S. ambassador to China. Randt has spent most of his professional career in China, working in the foreign service and doing business. He is currently a partner resident and head of the China practice for the Shearman & Sterling law firm.
Bush also announced his intention to nominate Alexander Vershbow as the next ambassador to Russia and David Welch to be ambassador to Egypt. Both are career foreign service officers.
Meanwhile, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved several key Bush appointees, including two former committee staffers -- Grant Aldonas to be the Commerce undersecretary for international trade and Faryar Shirzad to be assistant Commerce secretary for import administration. The committee also approved four Treasury Department nominees.
The committee has not yet voted to approve the nomination of Kenneth Juster to be the Commerce undersecretary for export administration, whose name was before the panel the same time as Aldonas'. In his written testimony, Juster strode the difficult balance between national security interests and promoting U.S. exports. He emphasized his experience in the State Department as giving him a solid perspective on national security issues.
Juster vowed to work to enhance multilateral cooperation to control the proliferation of critical technologies. He also stated his commitment to critical infrastructure protection, including promoting public-private partnerships and assisting federal departments in assessing their reliance on the critical infrastructure. Juster favors continued funding for the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, which was included in the Bush budget proposal.
Global E-Commerce Group Coalesces
The World E-Commerce Forum, which is working to develop e-commerce worldwide, has announced the formation of a founding executive committee. The committee gives it global representation in a broad range of professions involved in e-commerce. It includes senior executives from the European and Middle East E-Commerce Associations, the Asia Oceana Electronic Marketplace Association, the U.N. Committee for International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and the International Society of Professionals in E-Commerce (iSPEC).
Bush, Mexico's Fox To Meet Again
Bush will meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox at the White House on Thursday. The visit will be their third meeting, including last week's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City and Bush's earlier trip to Mexico, since Bush took office in January.
E-Commerce North Of The Border
The Canadian government, the United States' other North American Free Trade Agreement partner, has released the results of a "mini-survey" of e-commerce that shows that some 37 percent of Canadian firms consider e-commerce extremely important, or essential, to their export strategies.
More than half of the respondents said they used the Internet for export activities -- 91 percent for e-mail communication with clients and staff, 77 percent for global marketing of their firms, 76 percent for market research, 63 percent for selling services to foreign clients, 56 percent for delivering services to foreign clients, and 55 percent for working with partners in other markets.
Of those polled, only 13 percent said they use the Internet to receive payment from clients for services provided. When asked what change would increase their export opportunities most, 38 percent said increasing the speed and lowering the cost of Internet access abroad, while 22 percent said lower telecommunications costs in Canada.
Firms also said they want regulators to focus on e-commerce in order to protect privacy and customers' interests. They said they would like common standards or principles negotiated in the areas of privacy of information (78 percent), security of financial transactions (77 percent), intellectual property protection for copyrighted material on the Internet (58 percent), and dispute-settlement procedures (56 percent), according to the government.
On a separate note, Canada has pledged $20 million toward the creation of a "connectivity institute" to support the Summit of the Americas' goals of increasing information and communications technology in the hemisphere, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
Garbage In, Garbage Out?
In a clever scheme to use existing facilities to better mankind, the city of Vienna, Austria, has signed an agreement with Maryland-based CityNet Telecommunications, allowing the company to use the city's sewer system to build last-mile fiber-optic networks.
Vienna thus will become Europe's first city and the fourth city overall to sign such an agreement. Vienna joins Indianapolis, Albuquerque, N.M., and Omaha, Neb., with deployment expected in the fall. CityNet is negotiating with 26 other U.S. and European cities, it said.
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