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/ .
