WUHAN, CHINA -- International business gurus visited Wuhan CBD to diagnose the future business opportunities. Last December, Scott Wang, VP, Asia Pacific, of World Trade Centers Association (WTCA), and Jerome Toulemonde, Chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee of WTCA, and General Manager of WTC Lille, visited Wuhan for the groundbreaking ceremony of WTC Wuhan. After one-year’s preparation, the WTC Wuhan project—which is introduced by Oceanwide Real Estate Group—is launching at Wuhan CBD. Now, the 438-meter-high WTC Wuhan CBD tower will soon be built as a landmark of the city. In the near future, it will link the world's 100 countries, more than 300 cities, and numerous business members into a giant net, and become the most dynamic international business hub. This year must be the busiest year for Scott Wang as there are 6 or 7 WTC projects in China launched in succession that shows the desire to international opportunities of China, the world's second largest economy. Just in this afternoon, we have the opportunity to interview the global business experts about the present and future of Wuhan CBD.

CBD life: Many people are interested in the WTCA and its network of members. Can you tell us more about the WTCA? 

Jerome Toulemonde: The WTCA was born more than 40 years ago, when our positioning was to promote peace through trade. But the organization has evolved in the past decades, WTCA is now focusing on global trade growth with worldwide WTC network and a unique value proposition of facilities, services, network, and brand. At present, the WTCA has members in more than 300 member cities. And these 300+ member cities connect together through their WTC facilities, which form a huge network and provides a variety of activities in support of international trade.

CBD life: For the interested enterprises members, how to understand that a WTC facility is the information sources and incubators of international business promotion? During this process, what substantial benefits companies can obtain? 

Jerome Toulemonde: From the history of our Association, each WTCA member would bring a great boosting effect to the local economy. The rise of Twin Towers in New York not only changed the city landscape, but also stimulated the development of the region. This is also the case with Lille. Although it is not so big as Wuhan, it’s a transportation center as well. Lille is located in the north of France, where is the heart land connecting the UK, France and Belgium. After WTC Lille was established, everything, such as the finance, new industries, R&D, has developed very well. We even feel a little regret that we did not make the project larger. The core value of our Association is reciprocity. When a WTCA’s members business members travel, they get service all over the world and they would enjoy equal treatments as members of local WTCA member. Take the clothing enterprises in Wuhan as an example. If they want to enter into the South American market, we can provide them with various information through WTC Sao Paulo in Brazil, including the local trends of clothing market, the most updated supply/ demand information service, and local policies and regulations and so on. We are here to make businesses understand the market easily, eliminate the costly manpower and resources of enterprises used as reasearching abroad and collecting information, and make more advised decisions.

CBD life: The initial positioning of WTCA was to leverage the WTC network to promote the growth of international trade. At that time, trade was more dependent on personel connections. With the constant development of technology and e-commerce today, more and more business oppertunities can be generated on Internet and other business platforms. How does WTCA deal with the new challenges? 

Scott Wang: This is a topic we have been discussing. I recently have learned new terms called “ online” and “offline”. We all know Alibaba’s B2C business is red hot now. Everybody is talking about Taobao and Alipay now. But I guess not everybody knows that Alibaba started from a B2B platform, which was far less successful than its B2C platform. This is not that Alibaba didn’t work hard, nor is Jack Ma not smart enough; it’s that B2B needs more combination of “online” and “offline”, requiring the involvements of interpersonal interface, which is the advantage of our global network. Of course, we also need to strengthen the link of “online”. But generally speaking, online-first and offline-second, interpersonal-first and technology-second are easier than the reverse direction.
Looking back to history, the WTCA was actually one of the pioneers of online business with “WTCA Online”. But after 911 when the online business started to boom, we had some catch-up work to do. Our current online strategy is to build a digital platform which provides an information highway for our WTCs and their business members. Getting our WTCs and numerous business members connected through technology will greatly enhance the capability of the network.

CBD life: What are your suggestions to our WTC Wuhan project on this challenge? 

Scott Wang: WTC Wuhan CBD is a node of link of our global network. After the project is finished, it can help the Wuhan business community to distribute product information, seek business partners, and carry out B2B and M2M (market-to-market) trade activities on a global basis. Not only the WTC Wuhan CBD but also all the international trade complexes in Wuhan can get access to international market through WTC Wuhan. As for international trade, the major issue right now is not the availability of information, but the quality. As a matter of fact, we have a major issue of overflooding of information now. We believe the combination of online technology and offline human interface is a better alternative.

CBD life: Throughout the world, many WTC projects have huge retail facilities, so does Wuhan CBD. In the era of e-business, the profitability of physical stores are under question and many facility owners are very concerned about the business models moving forward. 

Scott Wang: This has been another hot topic in recent years. We believe the right approach is to integrate the real estate facility with cultural , creative and business contents, which K11 in Shanghai offered a very good example. With the combination of creativity and culture, the user experience is greatly enhanced. Contents are the king. It is the same thing with real estate business. We need to think how the physical facility can enrich people’s life.

CBD life: Your point about “offline” just reminds us of another relevant topic. Exhibition facilities and services are one of the core service offering of WTCA network. Several years ago, Wuhan municipal government has positioned exhibition as a key industry to develop. In the future, the exhibition economy will also be an important sector for Wuhan CBD. We believe this is a major area where WTCA can help. What do you think? 

Jerome Toulemonde: Based on our estimate, one dollar of investment in exhibition can generate nine dollars of economic output. How can that happen? Exhibition brings people to the city and everybody needs to spend much more than just exhibition participation. Many of the WTCA members have their own international convention & exhibition centers. We see a great synergy can be developed through reciprocity.

CBD life: We visited WTC Taipei earlier. It is very successful . But it has unique business model with government support. How do you think a private-owned facility like us can duplicate the success? 

Scott Wang: You are right. WTC Taipei is like a work of art. You go to art museum to see some of the master piece and appreciate. There pieces tell you how good an art work could be. It doesn’t mean you are required to generate a master piece at the same level. It is really how you could learn and apply. Despite the support of government resource, WTC Taipei is actually quite market-oriented. For example, Most trade shows organized by WTC Taipei are very professional and industry-specific. One good example is Computex. It has became the world’s second largest computer exhibition thanks to its quality and popularity in the industry.

CBD life: In Wuhan, there is an established convention and exhibition center with nearly 120 thousand square meters. Also there is a modern convention and exhibition center with 180 thousand square meters in Dunkou Development Zone. What are your suggestions to differentiate the exhibition facility of Wuhan CBD? 

Scott Wang: I am not quite sure I know the Wuhan exhibition industry enough to make comments. However, no matter how new a facility is, it will eventually become old. “Software” remains as the core competency. I can say that with the WTCA global network joining hands with CCPIT, we’ll have a unique opportunity to make the WTC Wuhan exhibition facility a success. CCPIT is a major player in international exhibition industry, where Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou have been at the forefront.

CBD life: As so far, the world’s most expensive office market is London West End and the financial institutions are the major group of tenants. Just before you came here, we have visitors from the Headquarters of Wuhan Branch of China Merchants Bank. The Oceanwide International’s SOHO City is our star project, where 500 enterprises have signed in, many of them are financial institutions. What do you think about the role of financial institutions in office space market? 

Jerome Toulemonde: The financial service industry is the core of modern service industries. The development level of financial sector to some extent reflects the development level of service industries in a city. Looking at the proportion of financial practitioners accounting for the working population, New York is 13%, London is 8%, Tokyo is 7%, while Shanghai is only 1.9%, which means the potential for China. 

CBD life: Talking about the future, say five years from now, locating on the other side of Mengze Lake, the twin towers of Wuhan CBD — World Trade Center Wuhan and Wuhan Center will start to operate. What do you think about their competitiveness by that time? 

Scott Wang: In fact, in the second and third tier cities, the high-end facility market will become increasingly saturated. One of the good examples is Chengdu. Properties will have to compete by differentiation. I am optimistic about our WTC Wuhan project due to our unique value proposition and differentiation. We also have the city exclusivity model which means there isn’t any competition from peer WTCA members. As a result, the investment in WTC project will be well protected.