The subject of the lecture given by Prof. Wang Shuguang, who is from Takushoku University in Japan, is: how to carry out corporate governance in Japanese enterprises with declining competitiveness.

1. The status quo. Compared with international corporations, especially American enterprises, Japanese enterprises have undergone a decline in competitiveness. While not able to compete with America, Japan envy those countries, including China, which are newly emerged industrial countries. Although the few Japanese elite enterprises such as Honda are still competitive enough, most of the enterprises are at a disadvantageous position in the market. It is a fact that Japan is not able to catch up with other countries, but other countries have almost caught up with Japan. An important reason of Japan's declining competitiveness is that the Japanese enterprises in China have gradually brought to China their products, techniques and talented people. The bosses are quite in a mood of pessimism. What lessons have been drawn from the lost 10 years? Nothing really significant. The present reformatory measures cannot actually solve the problem. Junichiro Koizumi took office and asked people to bear the pain…，however; it is soon found out that some people would not bear it. Vested interests are obtained as usual. Civilians are suffering. Everybody is possessed by uneasiness. Such famous study studios as Yecun Study Studio can contribute nothing valuable to solving the problem. Nowadays Japanese undergradutes do not try to hunt jobs because they could not successfully find one, while in the past, they would buy suits as early as in the spring vacation of the third year at college in order to be interviewed by the company's personnel director. That is a once-in-a-life-time matter. Now, the personnel-awarding system is no longer operating. What is lost is not only 10 years but even longer than that. It has a great impact on the Japanese society. Take for example people in the finance and insurance companies, their morale is seriously low. At one time, we considered the Japanese to be respectfully responsible at work, whereas they were not so efficient even at the peak of their fame. They are so inefficient that nobody would move. A Chinese working in a Japanese company once suggested the boss to move every 15 minutes, and he got a prize in the first year, though not much had been improved. In the second year when he put forward the same suggestion, he lost his job…It happened many year ago, when we thought it high. The elites in Japan are mainly those high-rank officials and the entrepreneurs who built their business from nothing. Foreign affairs officials are regarded as elites, but they usually commit stupid mistakes…The overall social quality is declining. The education quality, which we thought to be high, is falling. There is something pretentious in it. The educational reform which was carried out two years ago presented an interesting example:πis 3. Wang Dai's students came to China, and found it was distorted.

The basic quality-education is problematic. Dalian Science & Engineering Institute studied the same problem as the Japanese students did, but the Japanese information is useless. The reform itself imposes a burden on Japan. Junichiro Koizumi's consuming market is shrinking, but that does not mean people would buy nothing. In Japan, there are the most famous shops and clothes, but in actual life, the shoes people buy are the cheapest. The consuming conception has changed, and only China has the exporting capability to consume and produce in large quantity. Chinese cheap commodities have taken the place of the Japanese high-grade products. Many Japanese enterprises have closed down, while Chinese exportation has increased. There are also fake commodities in Japan: putting on a native brand on the Chinese commodities, and selling them like high-qualities, or pretending that the imported beef is that of high grade produced in Japan.

Junichiro Koizumi has carried out reforms in the civil-run companies to increase their competitiveness, but he came across too many obstacles. He is anxious to account for his deeds to the people, in order that he could still gain their support. Viewing separately, the single policies in his reform are quite a success; however, those obstacles make it hard to solve the problems concerning interests. At the present time, the credit of the enterprises has gone down.

There are quite a few problems: the mechanism, the employers' working spirit, the worsening of the credit, the spilling of techniques and talented persons. The education problem is one of lacking in talented people. Although it has attempted to introduce in foreign elite people, the policy-maker himself has to admit that it is out of Japan's capability. Japan is not the only country where many underdeveloped fields remain to be developed. The entrepreneurs in Osaka Club and Tokyo Club, etc. has realized the importance of entrepreneuring conception by appealing strongly. They replaced the board of shareholders with one which was the same as the former one, unconscious of entrepreuring conception or competitiveness. Nobody is clear about his own responsibilities, because neither the company nor the officials has ever thought about it. Shanyi Negotiable Securities' closing down is a good example. Nobody asks why, or considers changing the status quo. Just let it be. In America, things are quite different.

2. Solutions. It is hard to find any. Nobody would sacrifice himself to change the status quo.

Questions:
1. What to do? Looking for a new world of opportunities and breaking the restrictions of Japanese markets, as well as that of Chinese markets. Honda has created good markets in America and China, while its native market is not satisfactory. And very few companies that remain in Japan are operating satisfactorily.

2. How to treat the glories during WWⅡ? In the 1980's, it was the Japanese enterprises, not the American ones, which were at the top rank of the world's top 500. Its awarding system had a positive influence at that time. It had plenty of resources, and without rivals, it was really strong, though it is hard to say in the case of rivals. Their advantages have almost been kept to the present time. But many problems have emerged, including credit declination.

3. Problems concerning the economic nature of human. What is to be changed, human or the system? In what way will the new system come into being? Many people are engaging themselves with those problems.

4. A comparison between China and Japan. Bad debts are increasing in Japan, what about in China?

The subject of the lecture given by Prof. Zhang Rende, who is from the Economics Department, Nankai University, is: human resources and entrepreneurs' holding shares.

When productivity and the economic system have developed to a certain extent, human resources would change to human capitals. This historical process is a considerably long one, and the key point is to gain profits. There are two kinds of human resources in the modern enterprises: general ones and particular ones. The two are distinguishably different from each other. The knowledge content and investment of the general human resources are less than those of the particular ones, and also there are different in terms of their positions, functions and contributions in an enterprise. It is because of these differences that we cannot deal with the issue of their holding shares in the same manner. It is advisable that we gradually build our own consummate share-holding system, on the basis of referring to that in the western countries. And to build such a system is to resume on a higher basis the classic situation wherein the ownership and operation of an enterprise were combined together.

Comments and questions: how to define a Chinese entrepreneur; the problem of property right; whether MBO is viable or not?

The subject of the lecture given by Prof. Sun Guoqiang, who is from Shanxi Finance & Economics University, is: a tentative approach into network governance.

Network economy is one type of economic form. The competition in Chinese competitive trade is becoming more and more acute, as a result, more and more enterprises have found themselves in a hard situation: whether to take the risk to carry out reforms in the structure, or to just sit and wait for the eventuality of being washed out of the market. However, an enterprise, as an organic mechanism, is anything but a number of randomly combined parts that can be replaced at will. In this sense, any attempt at reorganizing an enterprise requires a panoramic investigation and survey, other than a simple collection of the best managing techniques in the traditional sense. As a brand new type of economic form, network economics has displayed rules different from those of the existing economic forms, and consequently, the enterprise vector quantities perform differently. Under the condition of network economy, it is for the benefit of the enterprise to have an accurate knowledge of the rules of network economy and the corresponding characteristics of enterprise structure and performance. The pain and shocks accompanied with reforming enterprises are not China unique. The similarities and the possibilities to surpass the former ones during the enterprises' reorganization have provided a reference for the reforms in the structure as well as in the concept of the Chinese large and medium enterprises.

Different economic forms have different rule structures. That is the case with network economy as a brand new economic form. Consequently, the concept in enterprises' organizing performance is different.

Comments and questions: what are the differences between network economy and the traditional economic forms? In what way is network governance relevant to corporate governance?

The subject of the lecture given by Prof. Sun Banjun, who is from Shijiazhuang Economics Institute, is: a case study of the corporate governance in the 30 large enterprises in Hubei Province.

This study concerns with the status quo and the problems in the corporate governance of the 30 large enterprises in Hubei Province, the premises of the positive study, and analyzing the source and circulation of data, etc. The conclusion is that it is a must to strengthen corporate governance, and it is advisable for the large enterprises in Hubei Province to take action as soon as possible, especially when taking into consideration the problems in the American large enterprises.

Comments and questions: what is the orientation of the corporate governance of the 30 large enterprises in Hubei Province? How to make improvements from the main conclusions of the positive study?

The subject of the lecture given by Dr. Wu Lidong, who is from the Corporate Governance Study Center, Nankai University, is: a study of enterprise group governance.

It defines what enterprise group is, and analyzes the development and the status quo of the Chinese enterprise group. The initialization process of Chinese enterprise groups was one of administration; the later development process was one of stock; the present governance is performed through two approaches: one is on the administrative level and the other on the network system level. The two are different from each other.

Comments and questions: is there any difference between the initial holdings of the developing process of the two approaches? What is the status quo of the Chinese enterprise group? What are the emphases of governance?

The subject of the lecture given by Prof. Cao Tingqiu, who is from the Economics College, Shandong University, is: the corporate governance of the financial enterprises.

The making of a financial enterprise is different from that of the average one, so its emphasis should be put on combining both the internal and external governance together. It also deals with the governance structure of the financial enterprises.

Comments and questions: Chinese commercial banks are faced with the arrangement of WTO rules; how to solve the problem of brain drain into foreign banks?

The subject of the lecture given by Dr. Li Kewen, who is from Shandong Construction Bank, is: the corporate governance of Chinese commercial banks with special reference to the case of Enron.

The real reason for Enron's failure is an inner problem. We must strengthen the governance of the bad properties in Chinese commercial banks.

Comments and questions: the crises of Chinese commercial banks is the same as the failure of Enron, and in certain cases even more serious, then why haven't the Chinese commercial banks gone bankruptcy? What are the emphases of governance in Chinese commercial banks?