I think this post is going to stray somewhat from the topic of China visas, and the great service that you can expect from Chinese Visa Direct (thought I would get that plug in early!). However, something occurred to me last night – the vast number of Audi A6s on the roads in Beijing – the capital city in a so called developing country which either still (or was until recently) a recipient of UK aid. How is this reconciled?
Now bear in mind that I am no economist and what follows could all be wrong, but don’t be fooled by the low per capita GDP figures for China. Remember that this is as an average across the population and encompasses the vast areas of land where the population depends upon agriculture. The fact that per capita GDP is a poor indicator is probably economics 101 (as our American friends would say) but one that is easily forgotten when thinking about lands as vast and populous as China.
I would bet (not much though, as I live in London!) that if you took GDP per capita figures across the metropolitan areas of China alone and excluded the agricultural areas from the calculation, you would get a figure which would surpass a similar calculation here in the UK. And this is going to get worse. If I think about all of the rags to riches stories I have heard about ordinary Chiese people making it big in their own country, it is because they have made their money in industrialising those agricultural areas. In other words, they have become rich in the process of making China richer. Given that there are an awful lot of areas which have potential to be industrialised, it follows that China has much capacity for growth, constrained only by the availability of natural resources (which, I would argue, should extend to food, water, air etc)
Anyway, before I get egnrossed in economic arguments about whether the cost of development in China reflects the true cost taking into account all peripheral economic factors, the message is that if we want to get out of our current economic rut, we need to be part of that process – be part of industrialising China. In the process, we should be able to reduce the impact on the environment by exporting tec
I think this post is giong to stray somewhat from the topic of China visas, and the great service that you can expect from Chinese Visa Direct (thought I would get that plug in early!). However, something occurred to me last night – the vast number of Audi A6s on the roads in Beijing – the capital city in a so called developing country which either still (or was until recently) a recipient of UK aid. How is this reconciled?
Now bear in mind that I am no economist and what follows could all be wrong, but don’t be fooled by the low per capita GDP figures for China. Remember that this is as an average across the population and encompasses the vast areas of land where the population depends upon agriculture. The fact that per capita GDP is a poor indicator is probably economics 101 (as our American friends would say) but one that is easily forgotten when thinking about lands as vast and populous as China.
I would bet (not much though, as I live in London!) that if you took GDP per capita figures across the metropolitan areas of China alone and excluded the agricultural areas from the calculation, you would get a figure which would surpass a similar calculation here in the UK. And this is going to get worse. If I think about all of the rags to riches stories I have heard about ordinary Chiese people making it big in their own country, it is because they have made their money in industrialising those agricultural areas. In other words, they have become rich in the process of making China richer. Given that there are an awful lot of areas which have potential to be industrialised, it follows that China has much capacity for growth, constrained only by the availability of natural resources (which, I would argue, should extend to food, water, air etc)
Anyway, before I get egnrossed in economic arguments about whether the cost of development in China reflects the true cost taking into account all peripheral economic factors, the message is that if we want to get out of our current economic rut, we need to be part of that process – be part of industrialising China. In the process, we should be able to reduce the impact on the environment by exporting technologies to China which we did not have when we went through our period of industrialisation. In order to do this, you need to get out there -which is my tenuous link to say that none of this can happen without a Chinese Visa! That’s right folks - Chinese Visa Direct makes the process of getting a visa for China easy – especially China business visas and Chinese multi entry visas for 6 months, 12 months or 2 years (I would add that these are getting mroe difficult to obtain so do speak to us about them should you wish to apply for them). Didn’t think you were going to get away completely from the marketing spiel, did you? Click here to return to the Chinese Visa Direct main site.
