Farrari marks 10 years in China

Farrari marks 10 years in China

Italian Motors Ltd. celebrated 10 years of business in China
last Sunday with a parade of sleek Ferraris through the streets
of central Beijing, as company officials predicted China's luxury
car market will grow in coming years.

"China is a country which is developing its economy very fast.
For luxury cars or sports cars like Ferrari, this is the right
moment to be in the market because many Chinese customers love
Ferrari and they're ready to buy," Piero Ferrari, son of Ferrari
founder Enzo Ferrari, told AFP.

"We're looking with a lot of interest to this country. I think
the market can be a very important market for Ferrari."

The lavish celebration at the Great Hall of the People, the
setting for top level official meetings, also marked the launch
of the Maserati Quattroporte, a new high-performance sedan
combining sports car functions with luxury sedan features.
Maserati is developed by Italian Motors' sister company
AutoItalia Ltd.

Since Italian Motors first introduced the top-tier sports car
brand to the Chinese market in 1993, close to 70 Ferraris have
been sold to mainland Chinese owners, company officials said.
And nearly 30 Maseratis have been purchased by Chinese in the
past 10 years.

"Most of the cars have been sold in the last four years. It's
because of China's rapid economic growth," said Robert Yang, a
sales manager for Ferrari's China distributor.

Each vehicle costs an average of 3 million yuan (US$361,000),
a large portion of which is taken up by import tariffs, said
Harold Chung, head of Ferrari's dealership in Beijing, the
Beijing Tengfei Motor Service Ltd.

"The portion of Ferrari and Maserati owners who are Chinese
will be greater and greater in the future," Chung said.

The event was to have lured approximately 20 Ferrari owners
from Hong Kong and another 20 from mainland China to show their
cars in the parade, but most of the participants were Hong Kong
owners.

Mainland Chinese owners refused to be interviewed and Ferrari
officials hesitated to point them out.

"Of course they don't want their money to be seen," said a
Hong Kong Ferrari owner surnamed Feng. "In the mainland, you
can't be sure how the money was made."

Some of China's wealthiest men have been jailed for tax
evasion and illegal business practices after becoming high
profile. Most mainland Chinese owners were businessmen, said
Chung, who refused to elaborate.

In a stark display of the widening gap between the rich and
poor in China, crowds of onlookers gaped as some two dozen shiny
black, red and yellow Ferraris parked outside the Great Hall.

Among them was Yang Ke, 25, a migrant worker from neighboring
Tianjin city who could not imagine being able to afford such an
expensive car in his lifetime but who did not resent China's
nouveau riche.

"The gap between the rich and poor is inevitable. It exists in
other countries too, but the rich in China should pay more taxes
and donate to the poor like they do in the West," Yang said.

"If they work hard for their money, then it's OK, but many of
them do not make their money honestly. Chinese society is not
fair like in the West."