China Businesses Suffer Least Impact of Energy Cost in the World But Are Proactive to Manage Energy Cost Pressure

China Businesses Suffer Least Impact of Energy Cost in the World But Are Proactive to Manage Energy Cost Pressure

May 08, 2007

    HONG KONG, May 8 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- According to
the latest findings from the Experian(R) Grant Thornton
International Business Report (IBR) 2007, fewer Chinese
businesses in the three places across two shores experience
any energy cost pressure among the 32 countries/regions
surveyed (see table 1).  And yet businesses in the mainland
and Hong Kong are ahead of many of their counterparts in
western countries in managing energy cost.  

    Among the 7,200 respondents in the 32 countries/regions
in the survey, 24% of Hong Kong businesses do not expect any
cost pressure caused by energy cost, making Hong Kong the
least energy cost affected place.  Mainland China and
Taiwan are just behind Hong Kong, with 23% and 22%
businesses respectively unaffected by energy cost. 

    Although not seriously affected by energy cost, on the
other hand, businesses in mainland China appear to be
proactive to take action in managing their energy costs and
minimising cost pressures.  In the management of energy and
environmental issues, mainland China takes the 3rd place in
the survey with a score of 341 out of a maximum of 600*,
just after the Philippines (410) and Brazil (360) (see
table 2).  Hong Kong achieves a score of 292 (in 8th
place), while Taiwan occupies 27th place with a score of
just 207 -- showing that Taiwanese businesses have done
relatively little to manage their energy costs with little
perceived future impacts.

    "The effective control of energy usage by
businesses is not just instrumental to tackle the problem
of global warming, but also important for businesses as
that can have a direct impact on bottom line profitability.
 Those proactive businesses on energy and environmental
issues are probably driven by the need to address high
energy input costs in essentially manufacturing-dominated
economies.  It has helped prevent energy prices having a
major impact to the markets in the case of mainland China
and Hong Kong," said Dr. William Thomson, Experian's
global economic director.

    The survey has studied six actions which can be taken
by businesses to reduce energy cost pressure: (1)
undertaken energy review, (2) reduced energy consumption,
(3) IT and electrical equipment turned off when unused, (4)
investing in energy saving equipment, (5) investigated
fuel/energy supply and (6) considered relocation.  For
these six actions, mainland China businesses appear to have
done much to manage their costs, more than the
service-oriented economies of the western Europe, North
America and Australasia.

    "Mainland China businesses realise that they need
to address the energy issue not just because of the impact
it has on the environment but more immediately it drives
directly as the heart of their own performance. Unless they
take action to reduce their impact on the environment, it
will harm their long-term competitiveness," said
Desmond Yuen, partner and head of China Services at Grant
Thornton.

    Table 1. 
    Businesses expect no impact of energy cost (%)

    1    Hong Kong           24 
    1    Sweden              24 
    1    Greece              24 
    4    Mainland China      23 
    5    Taiwan              22 
    5    India               22 
    7    Australia           21 
    8    Luxemburg           19 
    9    Netherlands         18 
    10   Singapore           16 
    11   Turkey              15 
    11   Poland              15 
    11   Brazil              15 
    11   France              15 
    11   Italy               15 
    11   US                  15 
    17   Russia              14 
    18   Canada              12 
    18   Mexico              12 
    18   Japan               12 
    21   Argentina           11 
    21   South Africa        11 
    23   Botswana            10 
    23   New Zealand         10 
    25   Malaysia             7 
    25   UK                   7 
    25   Armenia              7 
    25   Thailand             7 
    25   Germany              7 
    30   Spain                6 
    31   Philippines          4 
    31   Ireland              4 
         Global average      15 


    Table 2.
    Management of energy and environmental issues league
table*


    1    Philippines         410 
    2    Brazil              360 
    3    Mainland China      341 
    4    Malaysia            307 
    5    Germany             306 
    6    Turkey              303 
    7    Poland              298 
    8    Hong Kong           292 
    9    Mexico              283 
    10   India               282 
    11   Armenia             271 
    12   UK                  258 
    13   Ireland             253 
    14   Spain               248 
    15   Greece              243 
    16   Italy               235 
    17   Australia           233 
    17   Canada              233 
    19   South Africa        230 
    20   US                  229 
    21   Russia              223 
    22   Netherlands         217 
    23   Luxemburg           214 
    24   Argentina           213 
    25   New Zealand         212 
    26   Sweden              208 
    27   Taiwan              207 
    28   Japan               205 
    29   Botswana            191 
    30   France              186 
    31   Thailand            178 
    32   Singapore           143 

    Source: Experian Grant Thornton International Business
Report (IBR) 2007

    Notes: *Respondents were measured by whether they had
undertaken six energy and environmental initiatives: 

    -- if they had undertaken an energy review
    -- reduced energy consumption
    -- put measures in place to turn off electrical
equipment
    -- invested in energy saving equipment
    -- investigated alternative fuel/energy supplies
    -- considered relocating to reduce transportation
costs.  
    
    Each country in IBR was given a score based on the
percentage of businesses who had carried out each of the
criteria.  For each of the six criteria, the highest score
a country could receive was 100, with a total maximum score
for the management of energy and environmental issues league
table of 600.

    Notes to editors 

    About the Experian Grant Thornton International
Business Report (IBR)     Entering its 5th year, the
Experian Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR)
was carried out among 7,200 owners of medium to large
privately held businesses from 32 countries/territories
during late 2006. Among them, 300, 250 and 150 medium to
large privately held businesses were surveyed in mainland
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively.  IBR began in
2002 and builds on the European Business Survey (EBS) which
Grant Thornton ran from 1993 to 2001.  In 2007, the survey's
name was changed from the International Business Owners
Survey (IBOS) to the International Business Report (IBR).
The research was conducted by Experian Business Strategies
Limited and Harris Interactive. For more information,
please visit http://www.internationalbusinessreport.com .  
 

    About Grant Thornton

    Grant Thornton is one of the leading accounting, tax,
and business advisory firms dedicated to serving the needs
of growing companies.  In Hong Kong and mainland China,
Grant Thornton has offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou and Shenzhen, employing in excess of 650 people.
Grant Thornton in Hong Kong is a member of Grant Thornton
International - one of the world's leading organisations of
independently owned and managed accounting and consulting
firms providing assurance, tax and specialist advice to
independent businesses and their owners. Firms operate in
110 countries in 520 offices with more than 22,600
employees.  For more information, please visit
http://www.gthk.com.hk .

    About Experian

    Experian provides an unrivalled understanding of
consumers, markets and economies in the UK and around the
world, past, present and future. The business is a market
leader in consumer profiling and market segmentation,
economic forecasting and public policy research, supporting
businesses, policy makers and investors in making tactical
and strategic decisions. Experian's economic forecasting
arm, Business Strategies, has operations in sixteen
countries: UK, France, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Sweden,
Finland and Hong Kong - China, Germany, Czech Republic,
Ireland, Greece, USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. 
For more information about Experian go to
http://www.experian.com.hk/ebs/ .


    For further information, please contact:

    Grant Thornton
     Desmond Yuen                  
     (Partner and head of China services)    
     Tel:   [phone]           
     Fax:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]
                                     
     Estella Tsui                  
     (Senior marketing manager)    
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     Email: [e-mail]          

    Experian
     Dr William Thomson
     (Global economic director)      
     Email: [e-mail]                
      

     Bruno Rost                 
     (PR manager)
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