From right, China Business Seminar speakers Steven Gu, Rengen Li and Sunil Ghatnekar answer students’ questions following their presentations on the global influence of the Asian market. (Photo by Bill Roa)

Students at Georgia Perimeter College got an in-depth look at how to do business in China and India, as well as the long-term economic growth of these markets, thanks to the perspective of three business leaders with personal experience in the region.

Steven Gu, Sunil Ghatnekar and Clark Li spoke at Dunwoody Campus as part of the China Business Seminar series, focusing on the business, history and culture of Asia. The brainchild of GPC Foundation Trustee Henry Yu, the China seminar series is sponsored by the GPC Foundation, the National Association of Chinese-Americans and the GPC Chinese Club.

“These speakers are great, because they’re coming from the real world and doing business on an international scale,” says Fred Bounds, GPC economics professor and Chinese Club advisor. “They help our students connect the theories they learn in the classroom with what’s really going on in the world,”

Moderated by Rengen Li of Coca-Cola Company, the speakers laid out the history and economic growth of the region, as well as future projections.

Gu, president of the National Association of Chinese-Americans and KMPG manager of mergers and acquisitions, gave the audience a historical perspective of Chinese economic growth, from 1,500 years ago to the present. Ghatnekar, chief financial officer for the Coca-Cola Bottling Investment Group, spoke about India’s influence on the world economy. Li, director of Global Investment Research at Balentine, an investment firm, spoke about China’s influence on the world market.

Students also learned how inflation affects the Chinese market and how trade continues, despite political unrest in a region.