There may be many ways of killing a cat, but so far as learning is concerned, a site visit involving visualizing real economic and business model in action complemented by a seminar is a better way of learning and gaining deep insight about economic development. This, of course is the underlying motive of the academic excursion for which MSc and PhD students of ISSCAD as well as other postgraduate students of National School of Development (NSD) were participants.

 

 

The one day tour, led by Prof. Zhang Xiabo on the 22nd of October 2016, students toured 2 family workshops and one bag manufacturing enterprise. Also, students visited the popular 3-Birds Company, Daimilun Company, Tiande Logistics Centre, E-Commerce Innovation Park and Hedao International Trade Center for Cases & Bags in Baigou, Hebei Province.

 

 

With the visit to the 2 village households and bag manufacturing center, students saw first-hand how farmers have been able to combine farming with skilled vocational business activities. The production of bags and other items has contributed to the income stability of these households and thus their living standards. Historically, the production of bicycle saddle cover was transformed in an innovative manner to producing bags and suite cases which they consider as essential materials.

 

The whole supply chain of Bags and Cases has now been fully developed, integrated and modernized by the highly sophisticated international business model. Hedao has advance logistics, E-commerce, exhibition center and malls with coverage reaching 80% of the China’s city and about 1.5 million employees. The Hedao cluster is a typical example of business clustering.

 

Key lessons learnt are:

• Small family businesses with the use of simply technology are key nucleus of industrial growth. Cauterization of industry is an effective way of promoting industrialization.
• Carefully designed linkages between the manufactures, accessories providers, logistics, Information Technology, sellers, components and other specialists along the value chain.
• Private companies can effectively oversee economic transformation, supervise and manage the provision of public services with government regulations.

 

This tour is indeed an important practical learning approach as it involves witnessing the village economic transformation, visualizing the production process involving mix of machinery and labor and most importantly interacting with the management team behind the expansive yet very organized business activities.

 

Reported by Omole and Gift