Surprise, Surprise for 2009!?

As if 2008 did not hold enough surprises (!!) McKinsey’s Gordon Orr is now looking forward to those that might be on offer, in China, in 2009 – Seven ways China might surprise us in 2009:

“Here’s a list of some realistic possibilities for the next year. Will all of them come to pass? I doubt it. But any one of them could, and each might make us see China and its future in a new light. What do you think?

China announces that by 2020, half of the cars in the country will be electric. It invests tens of billions of dollars in R&D toward achieving that goal…

The Chinese government buys a 50-year lease on an entire geographic region of Mexico, enabling Chinese companies to build factories there to supply the North American market more easily…

A major office block collapses in Chaoyang, Beijing’s central business district…

A leading Chinese company tries to buy an iconic US technology firm (or two)…

A restructuring of China’s telecommunications industry turns into a complete consolidation…

The English Premier League football association buys its Chinese counterpart, the Chinese Super League…

Warming cross-strait relationships lead to a merger between the mainland’s Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Taiwan’s Chinatrust Commercial Bank…”.

Follow the link for more thoughts on these surprises. Thinking the unthinkable has, perhaps, become a rather more interesting pastime given recent economic and political news. And my be some of these are not so unthinkable after all…