Horizon in 'State of the World'

What: Mini Learning Circle during 'State of the World' organised by AIESEC AUTH.
When: 26-3-2008
Where: class 212, NOPE
How many?: 9 people, within them 2 members of the OC, 6 that had never participated in an AIESEC event before and 1 that had participated in another Learning Event of Horizon.

Issues discussed:
How do we see the chinese minority that has been created the last few years in Thessaloniki.
Do we think it is a threat to Thessaloniki's markets and shop owners?
Would we ever buy chinese products?
Is this minority assimilated in Thessaloniki's society?
What are our every day relationships with each other? Are there any?
Have we had any experiences on the chinese culture due to our living together with this minority? If not, why?
We also played a small game about stereotypes.

About the food at Hong Kong

This video is about the Hong Kong cuisine, covering street food, street side stalls (dai pai dong), and Chinese tea restaurants.




Double award winning documentary at Think Again Awards.
Shown on the National Geographic Channel

2nd Learning Circle – Agenda

2^nd Learning Circle – Agenda

16:15 – 16:25 Game

16:25 – 16:30 Designation of moderator and minutes keeper. Announcement of the suggested agenda

16:30 – 16:40 Presentation of 1^st Learning Circle’s minutes

16:40 – 16:55 Reading of the suggested articles

16:55 – 18:30 Discussion

Topic: ‘China: An Opportunity Or A Threat?’

We tried to answer this question by thinking of the effects of China’s growth on the Greek enterprises, as well as the individuals.

17:30 – 18:00 Presentation on the growing Chinese market in the city of Thessaloniki by Mihalis.

18:30 – 18:40 Reflection/Feedback

18:40 – 18:50 Planning for next time (topic, time and date, presenter)

2nd Learning Circle's Outputs

Date: 15 / 2 / 2008

Topic: "China: An Opportunity or a Threat?"

Type of meeting: Study meeting, research findings presentation

No of participants: 9

Roles:

Creator of the Agenda - Elpida Theodosiadou

Presenter – Klio Douka

Moderator – Nikos Moustakas

Recorder – Marios Perdiou

Agenda: click here

Articles found by Elpida Theodosiadou

Notes taken, by the given articles:

- 8 barels of oil per person , that’s why there is a huge amount of oil import

- Request for luxury goods is rising

- China is the first country in the world in air pollution
- But the average income per capita is 200 euros/ month
- Average income is 2.000 US dollars

- China is considered as a communistic country, but adopts capitalistic practices

- China and India together form the 40% of the glopal youth population.

- 1 billion of workers have been added to the global market. This is a threat for some part of the “western world”.

- 2000 china has been accepted to the world trade organization (WTO)

- The European Union tries to block the unlimited import of chinese products, especially clothing products.

- Greece is doing business with china mainly in the marine and tourism sectors.

- Before their accession in the WTO, there was no problem with the cheap chinese products.
- On the other hand EU countries’ economies somehow needed this kind of products.
- Talking about Greece, it’s also the greek mentality that merchants are nagging about the new situation that has been rised.

- The sales of branded goods in china are rising, the same happens with the luxurious lifestyle.

- When chinese students are immigrating into European countries they try to adopt the local lifestyle of dressing and also of manners.

- Western world is the main exporter of luxury goods in China.

Presentation Of Mihali’s research findings in the local “chinatown”, in Thessaloniki.
Statistical research on the stores, owned by chinese.

- Aisopou str. Many of the responders speak better Italian than English

- Only the 20% of the questioned persons responded

- There are only 58 registered stores from a total of 200.
- The responders where 80% employees.
- During their first 4 years here, they knew that they live in “Macedonia”. (Confused it with Greece or Skopje).
- The most of the employees were greeks or Albanians
- During the last 8 years the number of the stores has been rised.
- Most of the products are shipping to Thessaloniki, through Italy.
- Customers profile: biggest part are greeks, the rest are foreigners, mainly from Skopje.
- Customers say that they prefer these kind of stores firstly because of the low prices and secondly because of the quality.
- There are some rumors that when a chinese factory makes an agreenment with a western company to produce a good quality branded product, then they have the know-how and they extend the production to double for example. Then they have noname quality products which they can sell to whoever they want.
- Most of the stores sell shoes
- There are greek stores which operate in the same area, without selling chinese products at all.
- The greek store owners are not protesting as much as it is being said, for the dominance of chinese products.
- The responders’ age was between 25-49. and the average income of the customers was between 5.000-10.000 euros.
- The customers who buy from Chinatown, are not frequent buyers there.
- When it comes for an accusation or complaints in general, the Greek Center of Customer Protection doesn’t take into consideration the product’s country of origin.

-----end of the Presentation. We continued the discussion -----

• Expensive Chinese restaurants in Thessaloniki
• The Chinese stores is like having discounts “all around the year”, not only in certain periods, like the greek ones do.
• Chinese people were not interested for the brands, but now they do.
• It seems natural to the Chinese to buy products made in their country, but lately they prefer buying the branded ones.
• The larger is the greek company, the easier is to invest in the Chinese market

General Conclussions

• The rising Chinese economy is a positive fact, thinking globally. New chances for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, cheaper workforce.
• There is no antagonism between China and Greece. Adaption . we can win or lose.
• USA depends on china. China "pays the debt" of the western world .
• China does not take a position on several matters which are rising because of the country's fast development. Doesn’t care for the moment.
• Sustainable development
• In Greece, it seems that we don’t have well established sea ports, as a large part of the shipments from china, are being delivered first to Italy(adjacent country to Greece). And we import them from there.
  

Personal Conclussions:

Anna

Consumers: have gain from the cheap products.

On the other hand there is a threat, when it comes to the shortage of the final product specifications.

Greek companies: find china as a threat or an opportunity, depended on which sector they belong.

Greek economy: doesn’t produces the same kind of products as china does, so we are not competitors at the moment.

China=massive production <-> Greece = smaller quantities

Employees: China=labor <-> Greece = knowledge workers

Giorgos ec

Opportunity for the consumers, threat for the companies that produces the same products

Giorgos eu

Threat for the Greek employees and for Greek economic development. We shouldn’t think of our country only when we are buying goods.

Klio

Opportunity for the consumers. For companies: there are more chances other than cheap clothes.

Marios

Adaption to the new realities is the key.

Mihalis

It depends on us. China one way or another will develop, no matter what we do

Nikos I.

It’s a cheap solution. The Chinese people in Thessaloniki, could have brought more products other than clothes, for example good quality electronics. reverse engineering

Greek employees could work in Chinese companies

Cloned Cities - Paris in China!

How the city of Hangzhou in China, is being build as an exact copy of the city of Paris!

Cloned Cities - Blogopoly
(Greek article)

Here are some of the fotos in Reuters.com