외국기업들은 왜 중국에서 떠나나 When Foreign Companies In China Start Packing Up
중국 산업 공동화 위기
가장 큰 이유는 비용 상승
source worldcrunch.
외국기업들이 중국을 떠나는 이른바 '중국탈출'이 러시를 이루고있다. 세계의 공장으로 전 세계의 기업들이
몰려들어 각종 상품을 생산해왔던 중국에서의 외국계 기업 이탈은 중국의 장래를 위협하는 큰 변수가 되고있다.
한치 앞을 분간하기 어려운 황사만큼이나 어지러운 형국이다.
edited by kcontents 케이콘텐츠
중국에서 사업을 벌여왔던 외국기업들이 최근 들어 잇달아 중국공장이나 현지기업을 철수하고 있다. 이른바 탈 중국의 중국 엑소더스 러시가 일어나고 있는 것.. 세계의 공장으로 간주되어왔던 중국에서의 이 같은 기업탈출 바람은 중국은 물론 세계경제에도 큰 변수가 되고 있다. 중국 경제보는 24일 ‘중국을 흔드는 외국계 기업의 탈출러시’라는 제목의 특집기사에서 “그동안 중국에 진출해 있던 외국 기업들이 잇달아 중국을 떠나고 있다”고 지적하면서 “특단의 대책을 세우지 않으면 조만간 중국 산업이 공동화될 위기를 맞고 있다”라고 보도했다. 이 언론은 "중국을 철수하는 기업은 숫자를 이루 헤아릴 수 없는 지경"이라면서 "중국전역에서 하루에도 수백 개의 기업이 중국을 떠나고 있다"고 밝혔다. 중국 경제보는 특히 "마이크로소프트가 중국 노키아폰 공장을 폐쇄한데 이어 일본 파나소닉과 샤프 등 세계 유수의 IT 기업들이 잇달아 중국을 떠나고 있다"면서 "이같은 세계유수의 대기업들이 중국을 떠나는 것은 중국에 큰 손실"이라고 강조했다. 세계 최고수준의 시계제조업체인 일본 시티즌도 춘제 설 연휴 기간 중 광저우 공장을 전격 폐쇄했다. 춘절 연휴기간 중에 문을 닫은 외국계 공장이 수백 개에 이른다고 이 신문은 지적했다. 외국계 기업들이 중국을 떠나는 가장 큰 이유는 비용 상승에 있다. 인건비와 부동산 값이 올라 더 이상 중국 생산으로 타산을 맞출 수가 없다는 것이다, 여기에다 최근 들어서는 중국의 경제성장률마저 급속한 속도로 떨어지면서 중국 내 내수 판매도 기대하기 어렵게 되었다는 지적이다. 또한 인도와 베트남 그리고 미얀마 등 인근 동남아 국가의 외국기업유치정책도 탈중국 바람을 부채질하는 한 요인이 있다. 미국과 일본 그리고 유럽 등 선진국들의 자국기업에 대한 환류유인 정책도 ‘탈 중국’의 주요 변수이다. 미국의 오바마 대통령은 7년 전 취임직후부터 해외에 나가있던 미국 기업들의 귀환을 독려하면서 강력한 지원정책을 펴왔다. 중국에 진출해있는 일본 기업들은 계속되는 엔저 때문에 중국보다는 일본에서의 생산이 더 유리한 국면을 맞고 있다. 일본 기업들은 더구나 중국현지에서의 반일정서까지 겹쳐 탈 중국 유혹을 더 강하게 느끼고 있다. 유로 존 국가의 기업들도 3월부터 본격 시행될 예정인 양적완화를 앞두고 중국철수와 본국으로의 귀환을 저울질하고 있다. 글로벌이코노믹 김대호 대기자 |
Shen Jianyuan (2014-01-06) Chinese companies like Lenovo have been doing significantly better over the past three years BEIJING — Winter has come to the capital, and Wang Jie (a pseudonym) feels particularly cold. The multinational communication equipment company where he’s worked for 20 years has just announced widespread layoffs in the marketing, sales and service departments. Wang’s name was on the list. When he joined the firm in 1994, he was part of the first batch of Chinese university graduates majoring in telecommunications. Like many of his classmates, he’d originally planned to go abroad for further study, but was persuaded to stay home by all the multinationals recruiting Chinese staff at high wages. Not only was his first monthly salary — 3000 RMB ($495) — considered a very generous one at the time, he also climbed the ladder quite rapidly, moving from a technical support engineer to manager for the pre-sales technical service. Meanwhile, his company’s China branch also grew from a dozen of workers to nearly 60,000 today. The cold wind blows The downturn started three years ago. In the second-tier city where he is responsible, profits have continued to fall. “The company has comprehensive compensation algorithms, and has agreed to give me a generous package,” Wang says. “It’s the psychological shock that is hard for me to take.” Over the past two decades workers such as Wang Jie represented the symbol of an era. They had injected Chinese-style vitality into the foreign companies based here, while also introducing Western technology and vigorous management into China. But more and more multinationals are now downsizing their Chinese operations. Some of them lay off the staff of an entire department, while others fire people a few at a time every week so as to spark less public attention. Motorola laid off more than 700 Chinese staff in 2012. Nokia had announced total cuts of 10,000 people worldwide through 2013, of which a high percentage were Chinese workers. Meanwhile, Chinese employees at IBM, which itself may lay off up to 8,000 this year, complain that while the workload has grown heavier, benefits have been reduced. It used to be cool in China to be able to say you worked for a foreign company. Now that halo is replaced by a sense of helplessness. A month ago, Lin was fired by Hewlett-Packard China. “After only 20 minutes of an individual meeting, and despite my years of service in this company,” he said. The American company’s layoff news brought quite a shock to China’s IT industry. Though not confirmed by Hewlett-Packard, an insider said the layoff affects around 20% of the company’s China workers. Compared with Lin’s situation, Wang Jie’s superiors took a much more human approach. They tried hard to make the painful process of his exit as transparent and friendly as possible, even if he still feels bitter. Where to go? Moving from a foreign company to a Chinese one can be a rude shock. Take Chen, who used to work for IBM as a sales manager, where sharp suits, five-star hotels and leisure were a given. “IBM was always behind me,” he recalls. “Anytime we couldn’t quite convince the potential customer, I just called and our foreign service support specialist would be right there. The company provided incredible resources.” Now working for a Chinese company, “to get any customer, I have to deal with everything all by myself,” he complains. It’s undeniable that multinationals are at least 10 years ahead of Chinese enterprises in technology and services, and in particular at the core technology level. There is no sign yet that Chinese firms will overtake the multinationals in China in the near future. But multinationals also have their limits. “The multinational leaves too little flexible control for their Chinese workers,” a business executive notes. He cites the example of Yao, a mid-level manager who used to work for Motorola before joining Lenovo, China’s top computer maker, where he did not last long before being fired. “In general, Chinese staff who worked for multinationals only have to follow the directions of what is designated at headquarters,” the source notes. These local workers don't have the experience following the entire process of a project, including budgeting and execution. This comparison is confirmed by another technical worker who had stints for both SAP and IBM. “In the multinationals, a worker tends to learn only the one thing in his post. They don’t provide local workers the chance of raising their self-worth,” he explains. “This is probably a major disadvantage that multinationals are facing in China.” For those Chinese IT geeks who are recharting their career path, hanging on with foreign companies risks turning into a dead end. According to a survey conducted by Lenovo, younger Chinese people no longer see foreign companies as their first choice. Even though Microsoft China offers a 30-40% higher salary, many of these recent graduates say they’ll choose to work for a company like Lenovo. Zhu Shaokang is one of those who chose to leave his multinational job when it was still early enough to switch career paths. As the general manager for the cloud computer and mobile Internet business services of IBM Greater China, he suprised those around him when he left a seemingly plum job for his age. “I realized that when my team and I were in contact with all walks of life, even those who are looked down upon as provincial, I found my world of champagne and speaking in English is so out of touch with the pulse of Chinese clients.” |
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