ABSTRACT
China's fast-paced economic growth never ceases to amaze and simultaneously worry both the Chinese, and rest of the world's economists, politicians and business people. Hovering around 10% growth over the past 5 years, there seems little doubt that the Chinese economy is poised to surpass the United States in terms of purchasing power (Economist 2007) and has already become the world's second largest exporter behind Germany, but ahead of both Japan and the US. While these statistics have gained the attention of global corporations for several years (e.g., over 400 of the Fortune Global 500 are doing business in China), there is increasing concern among Chinese leaders, and with outside investors, whether such a booming economy can be sustained, let alone continue to grow. Most of the concern and focus has been on keeping up with advancing technology and the need for financial capital and some passing interest in environmental protection and transparency. Very little attention has been devoted to the virtually unlimited human resources of China. Instead of concentrating only on the obvious technological and economic challenges and trying to fix the weaknesses such as pollution, transparency and piracy, the time has come to take a positive approach by recognizing and leveraging Chinese human resources for contribution to sustained growth and competitive advantage.
