IBM defines itself as a globally integrated enterprise, Toshiba a company in the world and ABB as a global company, which is home everywhere.

The transformation of more transnational firms into global corporations helps to promote China's sustainable development, according to the 2008 report on transnational corporations in China released in Beijing on Friday.

"When half the company's assets are overseas, half the income comes from overseas markets and half the employees are based overseas, it's natural to have an overseas tilt more pronounced than the early transnationals. Their strategy, management structure and philosophy are bound to shift," Wang Zhile, director of the Multinational Enterprise Research Center, which published the report, said.

"In the research on transnational corporations' practices in China, we found that they are now playing an important role in promoting energy conservation and environmental protection, improving innovation and shouldering corporate social responsibilities."

Transnational enterprises in China have become a major force in the country's technology imports, the report said.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, technology imports by foreign-invested companies in China stood at $11.3 billion in 2006, accounting for more than half of the country's total.

And transnationals have established around 1,000 research and development institutions in China.

Wang said, "The move not only accelerates transnationals' technology transfer to China but enhances China's position in the companies' innovation system."

The report said that transnational corporations are taking increasing social responsibilities in China because they transplant their principles in corporate social responsibilities overseas to China.

It said many transnationals require their plants in China to take more social responsibilities at the same time as they take shareholder responsibilities.

They also improve the management on their supply chains, attaching more importance to the suppliers' social responsibilities rather than simply focusing on quality and prices.

(China Daily, February 23, 2008)