Understanding China – expert Thomas Holenstein in demand
February 10, 2018
Thomas Holenstein, founder of Sino-Swiss consultancy Generis AG, has been doing business in China for 15 years, acquiring knowledge and experience which today makes him a recognised expert on China. Invited to address the 2018 New Year’s Reception held by the Informationskreis der Wirtschaft, a thought-leadership forum for the business community, in Marktoberdorf (Germany), Thomas Holenstein gave the audience of 200 guests an insightful and thought-provoking talk on China as a global economic power.
China is one of the largest economies in the world and by 2030 is expected to have replaced the USA as the largest economic power. However, the image of China within Europe is still characterised by western attitudes including the belief that social welfare can only evolve in a democracy. Yet China is undertaking a kind of ‘global experiment’: the combination of communism and capitalism is a global first. It is vital, as Thomas Holenstein set out in his speech to the thought-leadership forum in Marktoberdorf, that we maintain a realistic view of this far eastern country, however different the values may be, and do not judge it according to engrained prejudices or our own wishful thinking.
200 guests were invited to the event by Peter-Josef Paffen, Chairman of the Board of agricultural machinery manufacturer and exporter AGCO/Fendt. The guests included Wolfgang Hell, Mayor of Marktoberdorf.
In his hour-long presentation, Thomas Holenstein, who lives in Peking and Schaffhausen, Switzerland, outlined China‘s rise to become a global power and how the combination of communism and capitalism have turned China into a flourishing economic power with strong urban centres. The journey has seen China not simply catch up with Europe and the USA but surge past many countries, for example in the field of digitalisation. The expertise Holenstein has acquired, as a result of the many successful projects he has undertaken with Generis AG in China in recent years, provided a new and, for many guests, surprising view of China, with whom Europe will only be able to keep up if it pursues a common course, he set out. The audience showed its appreciation of this unconventional portrayal of China in its resounding and extended applause at the end of the speech.
