Article: From public relations to corporate public diplomacy

A central issue that corporations face in the host country of investment is the public
opinion. An essential part of the process of foreign investment is the negotiations between the
investing company and government of the host country. However, even if the government goes
for a favorable agreement, the investor may have to deal with locals and non-governmental
organizations that may impede the implementation of the investment project.
The article brings to light the importance of corporate public diplomacy for the
successful implementation of an investment project in a foreign country, by considering a case
study. The case study refers to China Power Investment, a state-owned Chinese company, of
which hydropower project in Myanmar was suspended because of lack of effective corporate
public diplomacy.
Through the lecture of the article I found three main ideas that I strongly agree with, as
follows:
a) The lack of engagement with the locals of Myanmar was clearly a decisive factor, that
lead to the failure of the Chinese investment project. Especially, considering the
perception of the locals towards the Chinese.
b) Chinese relied to much on past public relation strategies and on hard power. However, it
is worth mentioning that during the latest years, China has seen an evolution at corporate
level ,and especially at government level in terms of the use of soft power and diplomacy
in international relations.
c) People will not support investment project that they believe to be a threat for their
cultural belongings and values. As the case shows, the locals were very attached to the
preservation of their local habitat as it was, no matter how many potential benefits would
the dam provoke.
However, there are several ideas expressed in the article, that I do not agree with. One of them is
that, as referred in the article, the Myanmar Government rejected the investment project, for
strategic reasons, meaning that it wanted to form a closer relationship with the Western countries
and also to gain domestic trust. I believe that the Government could not plan such a strategy
considering the implications of rejecting a Chinese investment project after millions of dollars
have been already spent.
Throughout this article I have learned very interesting things about the Kachin society,
their culture, their customs and their deep roots in their ancestral land.
Overall, I consider the lecture of this article to be useful for my language skills because I
have learned new terminology referring to the hydroelectric domain. Also, the article is a good
lesson of how important is to implement effective corporate diplomacy practices when dealing
with foreign countries.