Business and education are the twin foci of the Fujian New Huadu Charitable Foundation and the New Huadu Business School is the Foundation’s main project. I am very happy to be a part of that project. What is the importance of business life and business education? From one perspective, the function of business is finding new production methods and new products to produce with the aim of reducing costs or adding to revenues.In a national economy with a well-functioning business sector, this business activity accounts for much – even most – of the growth in the productivity of the nation’s labor and thus the growth of national income. The future of productivity depends crucially on government policies, of course. Yet the decisions – momentous decisions and all the everyday decisions – taken by the people in the business sector are no less crucial.

The purpose of business education is to help prepare young people for successful careers in business. To be useful, a business school must therefore convey to students some sense of the functions they will have in enterprises -- the challenges and opportunities that individuals have in the business world.

Business life contributes to this human development by offering a continual source of fresh problems to solve, new mountains to climb and new experiments to conduct. Business people have to exercise their imagination in solving problems, navigating around obstacles and imagining the possibility and benefit of new ways to produce and sell.

Yet human beings are not just problem-solving, obstacle-surmounting machines. We also identify puzzles, imagine the future, conceive new journeys into the unknown and find fulfillment from our long voyage into the unknown and our becoming someone we could not have dreamed of. With a good background and a favorable business environment, we can t least be “masters of our ship,” even though we cannot entirely determine our route and destination. And, collectively, we will be engaged in creating, for good or ill, the future of the world.

To conclude: Education is the key to this economic inclusion – inclusion in the world of business. Moreover, the spread of higher education in the population makes it possible for business to be even more interesting, engaging and fulfilling.