For years, students in the Chinese public education system studied English as a second language. In September of 2017, new standards for studying other languages in school were proposed and to take effect in September 2018. It is anticipated that French will become a popular language for both school students and professionals who are working abroad in French speaking countries. SHANGHAI LISI EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED (‘LISI’), is a new company with an initiative to capture this new education market.

China is engaging with the world in different stages. In the late 1980s, was the start of the export of goods to the world. The next stage is when we saw large numbers of students in China deciding to study abroad at non-Chinese universities. Now we are seeing, through the BRI proposal, the possible living abroad of many Chinese workers. This last ‘migration’ will require anyone thinking of working outside of China to learn a second language. English will be the dominant foreign language in the near-term but other languages, French in particular, will become much more important.

As a result of the above, there are two distinct markets for French education. The first will be school age students who want ‘extra help’ in their French studies. The second is the professional market where employers or individual employees will look for primary French language education. LISI intends to target these two market segments. The Team is led by four persons, two with extensive French language teaching experience and others with IT, operations and management experiences; a well-balanced group.

SEIML is providing business consulting services to LISI and will help the company to raise its initial seed funding.

John D. Evans, CFA

Founder of SEIML

26 July 2019