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Opinion / You Nuo

Northeast must not let us down
By You Nuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-05 05:35

There was an eerie calmness following the revelations about the poisoning
of the Songhua River, a major water resource in Northeast China.

Then the nightmarish news broke from Qitaihe, also in that part of the
country, of the death of at least 169 coal miners in an explosion on
November 27.

The toxic spill in the Songhua River, caused by serial blasts in a
chemical plant upstream on November 13, caused the city of Harbin, a city
of 4 million, to suspend its water supply for four days and is still
threatening Russia, China's neighbour further downstream.

While in Qitaihe, where a major investigation is just beginning, central
government inspectors have already reported they have been given
different versions of the number of miners at work by the management when
the accident took place.

Both catastrophes have dealt heavy blows to the two-year-old central
government business revitalization drive in Northeast China, and to the
nation's confidence in its rusty industrial machinery from the era of the
planned economy half a century ago.

They reveal an even larger-scale disaster. It is not that the factories
are too old, that people are too poor, or that rebuilding the economy
requires more money than anticipated. It is failure in management.

On almost a daily basis, Chinese press columns like to talk about the
dichotomy between the rich and the poor, especially that between the
relatively more industrial coastal cities and the rest of the country, as
if this is the most daunting challenge facing China today. But they have
not paid enough attention to another dichotomy, that between good
management and bad management.

For the last two years, the central government has kept shaping policies
and allocating funds for the northeastern provinces for them to speed up
development in material wealth.

But the problem of poverty is not just a money issue, and cannot in any
significant way be alleviated by lavishing financial support, as can be
seen so vividly from the two recent northeastern tragedies.

If managers of local companies could not enforce due operation standards,
and as in the case of Qitaihe, did not know about the central
government's emergency instructions on mining safety and could not even
tell how many workers were dispatched at one time. And if, as in various
cities along the Songhua River, public administrations did not want to
report the truth at such a dangerous time and act to control its
consequences, then the problem in the Northeast is surely not just slow
development.

The lack of honest and effective management has the potential to suck up
billions of yuan in public funds and still result in no significant
change.

Development will be unsafe, whether in poor places or rich places,
wherever the sense of responsible management is eroded, or even worse,
the norm of management is reduced to just not raising alarm, not losing
face, and not taking action to protect lives.

The Chinese press columnists may also take note of the events in the
Northeast and learn that by focusing on the income dichotomy alone they
may actually lead readers to forget more important things, most
importantly who is managing their money, and who is protecting their
lives. How can the talk about quality of life have any substance without
having a basic quality of management and governance?

It may also be of help to remember what Peter Drucker, the management
scholar who recently died, once said, that there is no such thing as an
under-developed economy, only on under-managed economy. And we really
don't need to collect further evidence that under-management is an
important reason why the northeastern economy has kept gathering rust.

Officials and managers of the Northeast must avoid letting the nation
down. So after cleaning up the river, paying due compensation to the
miners' families, and bringing those legally responsible to trial, what
they have to do is to strengthen the management of their teams, including
themselves. Only in this way can they help rebuild confidence in the
region's business partners and investors.

The nation cannot afford to forget the lessons from the Northeast. The
lawmakers of the National People's Congress, in their annual meeting
scheduled for early March, may also find it necessary to develop more
laws and ways to prevent similar management failures.

Email: younuo@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/05/2005 page4)

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