For more than 20 years, there have been great expectations for the future in China, after the country joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Year on year ever since, there has been massive growth in trade and wealth across the country, with megacities emerging, many with populations of more than 10 million, from Chongqing and Chengdu to Harbin and Tianjin.
Studying the development of China since those days has been fascinating. For example, IT spending in China’s banks increased 32% annually from 2004 to 2007, rising from $10.1bn to $23.2bn, which is faster than anywhere else in the world. Seeing this trend, I forecast that half of the largest banks in the world would be Chinese by 2010.
