According to the latest findings from the Experian(R) Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) 2007, fewer Chinese businesses in the three places across two shores experience any energy cost pressure among the 32 countries/regions surveyed. And yet businesses in the mainland and Hong Kong are ahead of many of their counterparts in western countries in managing energy cost.

Among the 7,200 respondents in the 32 countries/regions in the survey, 24% of Hong Kong businesses do not expect any cost pressure caused by energy cost, making Hong Kong the least energy cost affected place. Mainland China and Taiwan are just behind Hong Kong, with 23% and 22% businesses respectively unaffected by energy cost.

Although not seriously affected by energy cost, on the other hand, businesses in mainland China appear to be proactive to take action in managing their energy costs and minimising cost pressures. In the management of energy and environmental issues, mainland China takes the 3rd place in the survey with a score of 341 out of a maximum of 600, just after the Philippines (410) and Brazil (360. Hong Kong achieves a score of 292 (in 8th place), while Taiwan occupies 27th place with a score of just 207 - showing that Taiwanese businesses have done relatively little to manage their energy costs with little perceived future
impacts.

"The effective control of energy usage by businesses is not just instrumental to tackle the problem of global warming, but also important for businesses as that can have a direct impact on bottom line profitability. Those proactive businesses on energy and environmental issues are probably driven by the need to address high energy input costs in essentially manufacturing-dominated economies. It has helped prevent energy prices having a major impact to the markets in the case of mainland China and Hong Kong," said Dr. William Thomson, Experian's global economic director.

The survey has studied six actions which can be taken by businesses to reduce energy cost pressure: (1) undertaken energy review, (2) reduced energy consumption, (3) IT and electrical equipment turned off when unused, (4) investing in energy saving equipment, (5) investigated fuel/energy supply and (6) considered relocation. For these six actions, mainland China businesses appear to have done much to manage their costs, more than the service-oriented economies of the western Europe, North America and Australasia.

"Mainland China businesses realise that they need to address the energy issue not just because of the impact it has on the environment but more immediately it drives directly as the heart of their own performance. Unless they take action to reduce their impact on the environment, it will harm their long-term competitiveness," said Desmond Yuen, partner and head of China Services at Grant Thornton.