As China enters an exciting new phase of development, Harvard China Review would like to welcome you to our decennial conference, "China, Inc. - Build on China's Boom."

No longer just a lumbering threat for the West, China has grown to become a nation with a clear mission of playing a major role on the global geopolitical and economic stage. According to recent National Bureau of Statistics estimates, GDP growth is expected to exceed ten percent once again. Four consecutive years of growth at over 10% have seen China pass Britain to become the world's fourth largest economy. In 2006, China also surpassed Japan as the world's greatest saver, amassing foreign exchange reserves of over US$ 850 billion. Despite accounting for only 5% of the world's GDP, the world's fastest growing economy is set to continue on its recent trajectory of development.

With a rising commodity boom, China contributes roughly one-third of its demand for iron ore, coal and steel. It has become an increasingly attractive destination for foreign capital and net foreign direct investment figures have continued to climb over the past year. While foreign press gives much attention to such FDI figures, our conference would like to shift focus to domestic industries with our Chinese Enterprises panel. Chinese companies have been busy pushing ahead with their own strong foreign investments and the fierce local competition that has led to the robust growth of indigenous companies.

China has continued financial sector reform and hundreds of investors lined up to get a stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC) as it opened the retail portion of its initial public offering in the middle of October. The first simultaneous dual listing by a Chinese company in Shanghai and Hong Kong was an enormous success and having raised over US$ 19 billion, was one of the largest IPO's to date. In other news, Wal-Mart Stores made headlines with the successful $1 billion acquisition of Trust-Mart, a Taiwanese superstore operating in China. Although the initial acquisition only consists of 31 of Trust-Mart's 100 stores in China, it intends to buy over the remaining stores over the next three years as they seek to eclipse French competitor Carrefour in the consumer goods market.

With the major events of the five-yearly Communist Party Congress in late 2007 and the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008, it is an exciting time for China and for the world. Join us to recap the major happenings of 2006 and discuss of the future outlook of 2007.