CKGSB Economics Professor Li Wei, creator of the CKGSB Business Conditions Index (BCI), tells a Knowledge Series audience that China must accelerate its planned economic reforms to put manufacturing resources to better use as the nation’s debt and overcapacity problems worsen.

CKGSB Professor of Economics Li Wei is featured in a China Daily article that looks at how China’s manufacturing sector is adapting to new global realities, as the country advocates scientific and technology-oriented new enterprises to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Having delayed serious structural reforms, China faces eye-watering overcapacity in heavy industries. Steel production volume is more than double that of the next four leading producers combined: Japan, India, the United States and Russia. Aluminum production capacity reached 40 million tons last year, exceeding global consumption by 9 million tons. Most remarkably, between 2011 and 2013 China produced more cement than the US did during the entire 20th century—6.6 gigatons, compared to the US’s 4.5. What can China possibly do about this excess capacity that is weighing on the balance sheets of debt-ridden firms reeling from China’s economic slowdown?

How do Chinese companies view the next few months? The CKGSB Business Conditions Index registered 59.3 in April, falling slightly on March’s overall index of 59.7. This shows that for the survey’s sample firms, of which the majority are relatively successful in China, the next few months are being viewed with some optimism. The CKGSB Business Conditions Index comprises four sub-indices for corporate sales, corporate profits, corporate financing and inventory levels. Corporate sales fell slightly from 74.5 to 73.1, while the profit index rose from 58.9 in March to 61.5 in April. With the sales forecast falling and the profit rising, this shows that cost expectations are improving.

Employment figures and commodities prices in the US and the Bank of Japan’s recent rate decision are among the topics discussed by CKGSB Professor of Economics Li Wei during an in-depth studio discussion with CCTV’s ‘Global Business’ anchor Tracey Chang.

30 visiting students from Costa Rica’s INCAE Business School spent a week at CKGSB’s New York office, during an insightful “Specialization in Finance” program, which included lectures, panel discussions and visits to three New York companies – Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg and the New York branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China’s largest bank.

The CKGSB EMBA on China Business for Korean Leaders has successfully completed its first module in Beijing under the heading ‘China’s Macro Economy and Big Picture.’ All sessions and programs in the module received enthusiastic feedback from the students due to the extraordinary insight they had gained about China’s latest issues.

The Wall Street Journal’s sister company Dow Jones Newswires publishes a dedicated article on Prof Li Wei’s Business Conditions Index, a monthly survey that takes the pulse of some of China’s leading entrepreneurs and executives.

Everyone in the world is concerned about how the Chinese economy is faring and understandably so. China’s linkages with the world mean that the health of the Chinese economy has a bearing on other economies as well. The CKGSB Business Conditions Index, based on a survey conducted each month, gauges business sentiment about the macro-economic environment among successful Chinese business executives. In January, the Index showed that for most relatively successful firms in China, optimism about business conditions over the next six months is waning, and executives are at best cautiously optimistic.

The heady days of double-digit economic growth rates are now history in China, and even achieving 7-7.5% growth is unthinkable. The stock market has been on a roller coaster ride. The Renminbi has fallen dramatically and the trade numbers are down too. Li Wei, Professor of Economics at CKGSB, feels that to solve this China must implement structural reform. The downside: it will be painful. The upside: the Chinese economy will be better off in the long run.

Liu Ling, a managing director at New China Capital Management, the investment manager for Cathay Funds, told a CKGSB Knowledge Series event that China’s stock-market gyrations are the growing pains of a “healthy and solid” economy, highlighted by China’s middle class overtaking America’s to become the biggest in the world.

Knowledge sharing between Chinese and US scholars in leading business and policy schools produces fascinating discussion as unique partnership continues to bear fruit.