|
BAD FOR BUSINESS: Restrictions on vehicles entering the capital (above) have resulted in Beijing truck rentals skyrocketing, while companies face
a pile-up of imports into China due to tighter Customs checks. -- PHOTO: AFP
|
NO BUSINESS BOOM
IN BEIJING - MADAM Zhang Xinhua used to sell hundreds of pearl necklaces a day to foreign bargain-hunters who flocked to her stall in Yaxiu Market.
As the Beijing Olympics approached, she had expected business to soar, but profits have dipped by 80 per cent instead.
'Where have all the foreign tour groups gone to? Last year, we were expecting a boom. We thought many tourists would come for the Olympics. Instead, I'm having a hard time, selling fewer than 50 strings a day now,' said the 40-year-old Zhejiang native.
Her fellow stallholders, selling everything from bedlinen to suitcases at the popular clothing and goods market in eastern Beijing, also complained of lacklustre sales two weeks before the Games.
Officials had estimated last year that at least 500,000 foreign tourists would be in town for the Games, which is on from Aug 8 to 24. However, recently released data suggests a lower figure of some 450,000.
Tight security measures implemented by the authorities have been blamed for the drop in visitor arrivals. As a result, businesses which had expected to make a windfall during this period are hurting instead.
The curb on tourist and business visas, for instance, has led to cancellations of hotel bookings, as well as big events such as seminars, exhibitions and concerts.
Companies in the shipping and manufacturing sectors are also affected by strict controls and checks on imports and exports. Several interviewed by The Straits Times said they had incurred revenue losses of more than 50 per cent in recent months.
Mr David Tan, a Singaporean who works for a multinational shipping company in Beijing, said cargo shipments now face drastic delays.
As much as 70 per cent of fruit and vegetables exported by Mr Tan's company, for example, have been barred from leaving the country after failing food safety tests, he said. There were previously no such problems, he added, asking that his company not be named.
Mr Tan reckoned China was trying to minimise the possibility of any controversy related to unsafe food exports during the Olympics.
'The last thing they want is for other countries to kick up a fuss,' he said.
Imports into China are also facing a pile-up at Chinese Customs due to stringent quality checks, with some retailers complaining that goods meant for sale during the Games will arrive only after it ends.
Mr Tan said his company failed to foresee such problems and has incurred 'losses of hundreds of thousands of US dollars' in the past three months.
Another Singaporean, Mr Andrew Loo, who has a factory making insulation boards in Beijing, said logistics costs have shot up astronomically.
Restrictions on vehicles entering Beijing have led to a dearth of goods trucks. Beijing companies that rent out such vehicles have raised their prices due to demand for such vehicles.
Mr Loo, whose firm supplies contractors in China and countries such as Canada, said rental for a 40-ft container truck from Beijing to Tianjin, for example, has leapt from 2,000 yuan (S$399) to 12,000 yuan a day.
Mr Gilbert Van Kerckhove, an analyst with Beijing Global Strategy Consulting, said economic growth in Beijing is likely to slow during the Olympics, before picking up again in the aftermath.
'It will boom after the Games, as people will come back to play 'catch-up' for all the time lost,' he told The Straits Times.
Meanwhile, businesses said they were left with only one choice: ride out this period and hope that it will be business as usual after the Games.
Madam Zhang, the pearl seller, spoke for most when she said: 'There is nothing much we can do, except hang on, and hope that things get better come September.'
vincec@sph.com.sg
tracyq@sph.com.sg
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FENG YUN
|
