“La sabiduría de la vida consiste en la eliminación de lo no esencial. En reducir los problemas de la filosofía a unos pocos solamente: el goce del hogar, de la vida, de la naturaleza, de la cultura”.
Lin Yutang
Cervantes
Hoy es el día más hermoso de nuestra vida, querido Sancho; los obstáculos más grandes, nuestras propias indecisiones; nuestro enemigo más fuerte, el miedo al poderoso y a nosotros mismos; la cosa más fácil, equivocarnos; la más destructiva, la mentira y el egoísmo; la peor derrota, el desaliento; los defectos más peligrosos, la soberbia y el rencor; las sensaciones más gratas, la buena conciencia, el esfuerzo para ser mejores sin ser perfectos, y sobretodo, la disposición para hacer el bien y combatir la injusticia dondequiera que esté.
Chinese
investment is pouring into Europe. It's one reason why Premier Li
Keqiang, during a visit to Brussels this week, called for a strong euro
and united Europe as the region grapples with the latest chapter in the Greek debt saga.
From
Cyprus to Sweden and almost most everywhere in between, Chinese
companies are buying European assets like never before. Europe is
increasingly popular for China's corporate titans as they shift from
buying in resource-rich developing countries to advanced economies.
Here
are the numbers: Annual investment by Chinese companies into European
Union member states has surged from around zero in the mid 2000s to 14
billion euro in 2014, according to a new report by Rhodium Group and the
Mercator Institute for China Studies. And it's set to grow as China --
with almost $4 trillion in foreign currency reserves and $21 trillion in
savings -- opens its capital account.
In
the period from 2000 to 2014 there were more than 1,000 Chinese
greenfield projects and acquisitions in the EU worth more than 46
billion euro. The most sought after sectors include food, real estate,
energy and automotive.
"We are entering a new era of Chinese capital," said the report's authors Thilo Hanemann and Mikko Huotari.
Demand
is being driven by private companies and investors from China's east
coast provinces, a departure from times past when government-owned
conglomerates dominated foreign investment. That shift reflects broader
changes as China makes room for the private sector and encourages
companies to expand overseas.
The European investments are spread
across the region with more than 50 percent having gone into the UK,
Germany and France. Asset purchases in Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece,
Spain and Cyprus have risen from 10 percent of the total before 2011 to
over 30 percent between 2012 and 2014.
The
wave of cash will pose a challenge for European politicians as they
balance receiving much needed investment with likely criticism of
China's political system and lack of transparency, the report's authors
said.
The investment "boom will be the first test case for EU
leaders’ ability to respond to the new era of Chinese capital," said the
report's authors.
