Mr. Craig Pepples, chief operating officer of Global Sources is delivering a key-note speech at a management forum in Beijing on Wednesday. [Photo: Courtesy of Global Sources]

A recent online survey has found that over 78 percent of 4,131 Chinese companies surveyed remain optimistic about their sales growth forecasts for 2009. Xu Liuliu has more about the survey.

Launched by "Chief Executive China", a leading business management magazine in late October, the survey aims to collect information about Chinese managers' predictions for 2009 and their concerns for the next 6 to 12 months.

According to the survey, nearly 3,500 companies predict their sales will grow over the next year and even 30 percent of those surveyed say they are confident they will achieve sales growth of over 25 percent. Here is Mr. Craig Pepples, chief operating officer of Global Sources, a leading B2B media company and also the publisher of the magazine - "Chief Executive China".

"We did one survey of all the Chinese enterprises in 'Chief Executive China'. We have millions of users online and we have a large basement response of over 4,000. And I was surprised they all felt pretty optimistic about sales growth in 2009."

To avoid low-price and low-quality competition, they will intensify competition in quality and production. They site their major concerns as how to improve production efficiency. For instance, they are mainly concerned about reducing costs and improving productivity by producing high-value products. Another concern is how to improve product quality. They recognize that many buyers are concerned about this. Mr. Craig thinks it's urgent for them to increase quality and develop more new products.

"I think that it's encouraging if they are focusing on these issues. They are the right things to focus on. And surely the future for Chinese enterprises is not to sell a low price but to find a way to sell high valued products."

Every coin has two sides. Although the global market is suffering from the financial downturn, there are still many opportunities for Chinese enterprises. Craig advises those exporters to focus more on the new booming markets like South America, Eastern Europe and the Middle-East and promote products there.

"Use this opportunity to do some promotion. Because at a time of great change we see this in every metro that we followed, both buyers and sellers are aggressively looking for new partners. So at this kind of time when you do your promotion, actually you will get much better results, you have a much better chance being exposed to more people. Of course you have to be more careful when you choose who you work with. But I think it is a very good opportunity to reach more people."

With more and more central government's policies to stimulate the economy, Chinese enterprises are expecting a promising spring for 2009.

Xu Liuliu , CRI News.