With sales dropping at home, Yum! Brands Inc, owner of the Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut brands, is planning to expand its business in the Chinese market, which could make the country its biggest source of profit within a decade.

KFC was the first foreign fast food company to move into China, opening its first outlet in 1987. Since then, Yum has become China’s biggest restaurant chain with $2 billion of annual sales and over 2,500 KFC and Pizza Hut outlets.

But like many foreign firms in China, the US fast food giant has discovered it can’t just rely on a foreign brand name for growth and must instead adapt to local tastes and lifestyles. By offering a menu with dishes similar to the food that tens of thousands of Chinese have every day, Yum boosted its sales by 12% in the first quarter, while those in other international destinations and the US were 5% and 3% respectively.

And now Yum intends to increase its lead and plans to add 425 restaurants in China this year while McDonald’s, its nearest rival in the country, has said it aims to open at least 125 stores in the country in 2008.

Yum CEO David Novak has said he envisages eventually having over 20,000 restaurants in China. “We’re in the first inning of a nine-inning ball game in China,” Novak said recently. He also has predicted China’s contribution could reach 40% by 2017, exceeding 30% for the US by then.

So far, investors are welcoming the China strategy. Operating profit of Yum’s China division surged 30% to $375 million last year, accounting for over a quarter of the firm’s total operating profit of $1.36 billion, which rose 8%.

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Data recently released by Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that China has become Australia’s largest two-way trading partner (imports and exports of both goods and services) in 2007.

Total trade with China in 2007 grew 15% to 58 billion dollars (54.8 billion US dollars). Australia’s exports of goods to China rose 17% to 23.8 billion dollars, while services exports grew 18% to 3.9 billion dollars, given the strong growth in Chinese student enrolments.

Simon Crean, Australian Minister for Trade, said that the trade figures are a milestone in the development of Australia’s trading relationship with China.

“These figures show there is much potential for our trade to grow even further, which is why we are working hard to negotiate a free trade agreement with China,” Crean said in a statement. “We have made good progress in negotiating that agreement over the past month, and I look forward to further progress at our next talks in June.”

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Software giant Microsoft announced its plan to invest $280 million to build a research and development center in Beijing and significantly expand its research team in the country.

Microsoft started its first R&D center in China as early as 1995. And the company now has research facilities in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Last year, Microsoft invested about $280 million in its R&D activities in China and recruited 1,000 new employees to its China R&D Group.

At present, the company has 3,000 research staff in the country, with 1,500 full-time employees and another 1,500 working on a project basis. And it will double the number of its full-time research employees in China to 3,000 in the next three years.

The new R&D campus will be able to accommodate 5,000 employees, making it Microsoft’s largest research center outside the US when it is completed in 2010.

These investments are said to have helped Microsoft win support from the Chinese government and boosted sales in the Chinese market. Fortune Magazine estimated last year that its revenue from China would exceed $700 million last year, about 1.5 percent of Microsoft’s global sales.

China also has the world’s largest number of Internet and mobile phone users, offering what is believed to be huge opportunities for IT companies.

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At present, a growing number of US firms look forward to listing in Shanghai and working with the Chinese authorities given that such feasibility exists.

“More and more of our companies are asking us to show them the way to considering a listing in Shanghai,” NYSE Euronext Inc CEO Duncan Niederauer told the Reuters Exchange and Trading Summit in New York.

Such a prospect of major US companies eager to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange reflects a drastic reversal of the flow of top Chinese companies going to list on US and other foreign exchanges in the past 15 years.

When asked whether it is possible for a series of leading US companies to eventually list in Shanghai, Niederauer said: “I think it is possible. I think it depends on how easy or difficult it is to do that.”

Over the next 6 to 12 months, NYSE Euronext will be working with the regulator, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange to find out whether the feasibility of listing exists.

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According to official statistics, almost 480 of the Fortune 500 companies have made investment in China during the past 30 years.
From 1978 to 2007, the country’s total utilization of foreign investment exceeded $760 billion, ranking the first among developing countries and the second largest across the globe.

In 2007 alone, China’s foreign direct investment, which was less than $20 million in 1978 when the country implemented its reform and opening-up policy, reached $83.5 billion and outbound investment stood at $18.7 billion.

Furthermore, China’s foreign trade has also registered a rapid growth, soaring from $20.6 million in 1978 to $2.17 trillion in the previous year.

“By using both the markets and resources from home sand abroad, China has improved its international competitiveness remarkably,” an official said.

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Online clothing retailer PPG said it has plans to list in the US toward the end of this year or in early 2009, either on the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ.

Relying on the Internet and call centers, the company applies an e-commerce and traditional retail business model, which helped PPG to save the cost of maintaining retail outlets and attract $80 million in investment from TDF, JAFCO Asia, KPCB, and San Shan Capital Partners. Like Dell in the computer industry, its strong point lies in direct sales and 80% of its orders are over 250 yuan.

PPG’s biggest expense is advertising. The retailer spent 230 million yuan on advertising last year—about a third of its 700 million yuan in sales revenue. Its advertisement covers almost every possible channel—newspapers, TV, magazine and direct mail. Last year its ad budget shrank when management deemed market recognition was satisfactory.

“Now, we’re focusing our marketing strategy on branding,” said David Lee, its chairman. “We want to be another Gap.”
Instead of opening retail outlets, the company will strive to expand its business to second-and-third-tier cities through an intensive ad campaign in those markets. “We want to reach most cities across the nation in the next two years,” said Lee.

Besides, PPG is also looking for opportunities to explore the overseas market. It has set up a US subsidiary in late March and next stop will be Europe and beyond.

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Ping An Securities, the securities arm of Ping An (Group) Co, plans a joint venture fund management company with Singapore-based UOB Asset Management.

As a unit of Singapore’s United Overseas Bank, UOB Asset Management is the largest asset management company in Singapore.

Ping An, China’s second largest insurer, has been planning to enter the fund management business after it expanded its business to securities, banking and trust. Last year, it acquired a 9% stake in Hong Kong-based asset management firm Value Partners, becoming its strategic investor.

“This move by Ping An proves its commitment to be a financial holding company,” said Luo Yi, an analyst with China Merchants Securities. “Ping An’s existing marketing channels will be the new company’s strong back-up. Meanwhile, the fund management company could also sell Ping An’s insurance policies.”

In addition to Ping An, the country’s largest life insurer China Life is also actively preparing a fund management company.

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Despite earlier reports suggesting that an increasing number of foreign-funded enterprises in the Pearl River Delta region and other parts of South China are moving elsewhere, a survey, conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China (AmCham South China) in partnership with Hewitt Association Consulting (Shanghai) Co Ltd, shows that most foreign-funded enterprises in South China plan to increase investment substantially.

The 419 firms polled are companies in which members of AmCham South China have invested and joint ventures and representative offices in South China.

The survey demonstrates that the foreign-funded enterprises plan to increase investment by at least $16 billion over the next three years, part of which will come from profits of on-the-ground operations. And 90% of the firms polled said they have been making profits or would become profitable within two years.

“The results indicate a high level of satisfaction with and optimism in the business environment in South China,” said Harley Seyedin, president of AmCham South China.

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Foreign investment in China continued to surge in the first quarter of this year. Realized foreign investment reached $2.74 million during the first quarter of the year, up 61.26% on an annual basis and in March alone foreign investment was $9.28 billion, up 39.6% year-on-year.

The number of newly set up enterprises declined. From January to March, government-approved foreign-invested enterprises numbered 6,949, down 25.26%, which means that large enterprises are increasing investment in some large projects. Commerce Minister Chen Deming said that the number of projects with an investment of over $30 million for the first two months increased 2.5 times the number of the same period last year.

In spite of worries that corporate income tax law that came into effect this year might impede the FDI flow, “the latest figures show the investment strategy of large enterprises were not influenced by these policy changes,” said Wang Zhile, director of the research center for transnational corporations under the Ministry of Commerce.

Experts said that the sustained increase in FDI indicates that China is still attractive for foreign investors despite the tax increase for foreign enterprises. “It shows that China remains an attractive market for multinationals” because of its large market, vast manufacturing capacity and relatively low costs, said Wang.

China now encourages foreign investors to participate in reforming State enterprises through mergers and acquisitions and expects more high-tech enterprises and restrict projects in heavy energy-consuming sectors.

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According to the Ministry of Industry and Information , by the end of February the number of netizens in the country has reached 221 million, overtaking the US and coming to rank the first in the world. A year earlier the figure was 210 million.

This year will not only see the internet come into full play but also its development environment consistently be improved. The country endeavors to improve its fundamental guarantee work on internet management, establish a management mechanism integrating internet development and security guarantee and solve problems regarding intranet management among core networks.

Currently, the emergence of new technologies and new services such as VOIP, P2P, IPTV, Instant Messaging and search engines, has placed harsher demands on internet management.

Given the current situation, James Huang, founder and CEO of BPOVIA Ltd based in China, expects a robust potential market for his business. “With the number of internet users increasing in China, we are in a position to get an easier access to our clients, old and new alike, and offer our personalized services to them.” At present, about 40% of BPOVIA’s clients are seeking help with their personal to-do lists. Among the more common requests are ordering supplies, groceries, online shopping, comparing prices and planning vacations.

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