Cisco is planning to pour $16 billion into China over five years, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. (Earlier this week, it announced it will invest $1.1 billion in India, too.) Just to give you an idea of how enormous a sum of money that is, $16 billion is more than the 2006 gross national product of developing countries like Jamaica (GNP of $9.2 billion).
Cisco will be using that money to establish a green technology center, the story reports. It will also increase its investment with Chinese partner, Alibaba Group, to collaborate on services and applications for small- and medium-size businesses. Plus, Cisco gets its fingers into Alibaba.com, an e-commerce site that will go public next week in one of the largest, buzzi-est global IPS since Google, the story says.
The agreement also includes increasing local procurement of parts, joint investments with the China Development Bank in high-growth Chinese companies engaged in green technologies, growing Cisco’s 200 networking academies with an addition 300 centers in three years, plus increasing by up to $400 million the fund that helps Chinese customers finance Cisco-gear purchases.
With all the emphasis on green, blogger Greenbang.com wants to know if this means that Cisco will also cut down on its packaging. (Good question. The answer is: We’ll see.)
Cisco currently has 2,300 employees in China and has already invested $8.5 billion since 2002 in China. (And rightly so. It is an ENORMOUS potential market for the company.) On the other hand, Cisco has also suffered dearly from Chinese counterfeits. By pouring in enough funds to finance a small country, the company not only moves to capture a growing market, but creates a potentially excellent if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em” tactic to slow counterfeits.
