July 16, 2001; Page 3B

U.S. firms see Olympic opportunity in China

Billions will be spent as Beijing readies for Games

By Steve Friess
Special for USA TODAY

BEIJING -- The Chinese are exuberant about winning the race to host the Summer Games, certainly. But so are many U.S. companies in China that now stand to profit in the years leading up to 2008.

From U.S. tourist businesses and American English teachers to construction companies and souvenir vendors, a long list of Western entrepreneurs view the long wait until Beijing lights that Olympic torch as a gravy train.

China promises to spend about $22 billion to upgrade roads, improve the air and water quality and build sports facilities. Many U.S. companies will vie for shares in that bounty.

''A lot of money will be spent,'' said Emory Williams, president of the Chicago-based construction materials maker Sureblock. Sureblock has 200 employees in China.

China is a bigger bonanza than past Olympic cities because the nation acknowledges it has a lot to fix in 7 years.

''This is different from other Olympics, because China is such an underserved but fast-developing market to begin with,'' said Gong Hao, an economist from Fudan University in Shanghai. ''There's more for foreign businesses to do here than there might have been in Toronto or Paris.''

Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka, Japan, lost the vote to Beijing in Friday's decision by the International Olympic Committee. Airlines and tour agencies also see profits taking off. Tourism rose 3% to 5% beyond the usual annual increases in the years leading up to the 2000 Summer Games in Australia.

That could translate into an additional 45,000 Americans visiting China each year, says John Watkins, Northwest Airlines' vice president and general manager for China. That could pump $180 million more each year into China's economy.

''The number of Americans who have visited China is relatively small, only about 8 million who have ever been here,'' said Watkins, chairman of the Tourism Forum of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. ''This will naturally create a surge.

''And, if the Games are successful and they see all the sites on TV in Beijing, the potential is enormous and incalculable.''

By 2008, thousands of Beijing workers, from taxi drivers to waitresses, will need to learn English. American teachers in China see the already high demand for language classes about to skyrocket. They cost $30 to $120 a month per person.

''The atmosphere is going to have to change,'' said C. Parsons, a Maryland native whose FriendlyEnglish.com language school already features courses in ''Olympic English.''

''They'll have to have more English places, they'll have to make sure that cabbies will pass a English test. That's a lot of students who need teachers.''

Also salivating at the prospects is Oregon-based sports apparel maker Nike, whose presence in China has grown dramatically in recent years as it sponsored basketball and soccer teams and players. The company scored $45 million in sales in China in 2000.

''The Olympics will bring huge opportunities for development,'' Nike's China spokeswoman Nancy Pan says. ''Beijing's successful bid will increase the market for us and for many other companies.''

However, the U.S. government's outspoken criticism of China may cost businesses in some areas. Beijing is far more likely to grant contracts for air and water cleanup efforts and seek expertise from countries that have offered help to China in the past, says Husayn Anwar, chairman of the Pennsylvania-based environmental consultant firm Sinosphere.

Anwar, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in China's environmental health and safety forum, notes that the U.S. has provided virtually no financial aid to China for environmental projects since the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. U.S. officials also tried to block World Bank funding for the planned Yangtze River dam, which environmentalists vehemently oppose.

''There is a lot of business to be created by the Olympics, but I'm not sure that many American companies will get any of it,'' Anwar said. ''A lot of countries give bilateral aid to China, and their companies will have a stronger chance of getting those contracts.

''This is an area where the U.S. is very, very weak,'' he says. ''It has worked terribly against U.S. companies. If one wants something good to happen in China, one must be a participant in that process. But we've sat out.''

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