China PR Says Everything Is Fine And That Ain't Just Spin.
Interesting though admittedly somewhat unscientific poll up on the Capital Record blog (a consistently thoughtful blog which I just added to our blogroll), in its post, "Poll portends positive for China PR." The post is on a poll conducted on the blog finding that 75% of 56 respondents see a positive year ahead for PR in China:
Sure, it’s not a statistically valid sample size, but we assume all those who took part in the survey are China PRO’s – that is China-based public relations officers. In this sense our poll has quality over quantity. We are confident that those who responded were “in the know” on next year’s PR budgets. We cannot guarantee this but the consistency of the responses throughout the poll suggests the respondents were credible.Since we started the poll we have had near consistent ratings of 70 to 75% of respondents anticipating no impact on local PR budgets in 2009 from the crisis. At the time of closing the poll 75% said they expected no impact while 18% expected some reduced funding for projects. Importantly, only 7% of voters anticipated projects being placed on hold and/or the possibility of staff cuts in 2009.
That bears out much of what we have been picking up anecdotally from others in the industry. While there is some concern about what might happen into 2009, the overall sense is that projects are continuing and China PR budgets are not being impacted. Indeed, from the perspective of AC Capital, we are currently experiencing our busiest fourth quarter since opening shop five years ago. That certainly portends well as we end a tumultuous year.
I mention this poll because it reinforces what my law firm has been seeing when it comes to China: no slowdown in the service sector. What are you seeing?
Comments
That's strange.
See this:
http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2008/12/02/were_almost_the.html
Posted by: anonymous | December 2, 2008 10:45 AM
Surely it's too early to tell?
My gut feeling is that these numbers are optimistic. I suspect the slowdown in China is still mainly confined to the export and construction sectors, to which the PR industry has relatively little exposure. That could change quickly.
Posted by: NT | December 2, 2008 6:10 PM
The effect I have seen is only from my company's point of view. We are an American company that has a factory in China as well as America. They have been cutting back on the expensive things like foreign engineers and consultants in China. The idea of nationalizing has come into play. As far as production, I have not seen any effect yet, but my suppliers love using the "economic crisis" for payment terms. "唉呀， 经济危机“ (Jingji Weiji). Payment terms have been becoming rather tight and people are looking to collect past balances using this excuse above. It seems the Economic Crisis is becoming a catch-all phrase to explain any hardships that come past. Yet, my suppliers still keep cranking stuff out without any difficulty.
Posted by: J Y | December 3, 2008 1:10 AM