Unforgettable First Day

by Nobu Komoto, 1 June 2009

1st June 2009 became unforgettable for us, students in MA Globalization. This day was the first day of the first field trip in China for the first candidates for MA Globalization. Through this two-week trip, we are going to witness the dynamic and emerging power of this country and their great challenge for development. Interestingly this day clashed with the bankrupt of General Motors, the symbol of the USA’s mass-production industrialization. This gives us sense of how and where the transformation for next global order is being shaped.

This day will be very memorable for me personally. Last time I was in Beijing was1999, 10 years ago. At that time, I studied Chinese here for one year and I haven’t returned to China since. I still clearly remember how much I was surprised on the first day in 1999 by the very organized city with wide roads (the main road in Beijing had 10 lanes in one side) and a lot of Western companies’ advertisements. This time, to the same extent if not more, I was also very amazed at expanding of the city and the number of high-rise buildings. Not only the appearance of buildings amazed me but also the level of organized infrastructure gave me sense of how intensively this city has achieved development. In almost all the streets I visited today I couldn’t recognize it from the old appearance. This city has virtually changed into completely new city.

Let’s get back to what we did in the first day. The first destination is Tsinghua University, one of the most well-known universities in China and an Alma mater of the President Hu Jintao. The department that we visited is the School of Public Policy Management (SPPM). This school was established in 2000 and currently has around 50 faculties and 700 students including international students. They offer not only higher education for Chinese but three international programmes for students all over the world. In SPPM, we had a workshop on development studies, looking at issues such as the relationship between China and Africa that is becoming alarmingly important for both continents, the financial linearization and regulation in developing countries after the current global turbulence. In the workshop, we had six presentations, three from IDS and three from SPPM. We had very exciting presentations and active debates on each issue. In the closing speech, a coordinator of the workshop, Prof. Wu Yongping summarized that we had very simulating presentations and discussion and it will help to strengthen the relationship between our two organizations.

After the workshop, we had a lunch with participants from the workshop, joined by the delegation from Harvard Kennedy school of Government. During lunch we had very interactive and intellectual talks with students of both universities and this gave us great opportunity to touch various perspectives.

In the afternoon, we visited the Tsinghua science park (TusPark) that is minutes away from the campus. TusPark is a science cluster developed by the Chinese government and Beijing city since 1994 to create a competitive Research and Development cluster and foster entrepreneurship of the University. It covers an area of 69ha and currently has more than 500 enterprises and 25,000 employees, both are growing rapidly. This facility attracts huge investments from foreign companies such as Google, P&G, NEC and Sun Microsystems. This park is recognised as one of the most successful national science parks of which there are now around 50 in China.The secret of success is, according to TusPark Co. Ltd, the management company, the strong tie with Tsinghua University and the high-quality service the TusPark provides. TusPark provides great opportunities to be able to intellectually interact with the University and their graduates. It provides support to various resident enterprises such as circulating the information on government policies to promote of R&D (how to apply subsidies, tax deductions, etc.) as well as chance to receive investment from various venture capital funds. TusPark has its own fund, too. Therefore it acts as “a stage for gathering intelligence, a cradle for innovation and pioneering, and a rich soil for a dream to become true” to many ambitious entrepreneurs, through both of hard and soft infrastructures. From this visit, we could understand the importance of platforms for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship as one of the government’s roles.

As such, our first day of Chinese field trip ends up very stimulating and fruitful. Even only in the first day, we had enough feeling on the dynamism and energy of the city and people.

Images: East gate of Tsinghua University and main buildings of TusPark, both by Nobu Komoto