To ensure the transition is successful, Bischoff says maintaining social cohesion is the most important element when it comes to preventing China from falling into the so-called middle-income trap. "In the countryside and the cities, there are skilled workers and not-so-skilled workers. They need to be in harmony."

Bischoff first visited China in 1973, stopping off in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou, as well as Shandong province. He remembers the country as "very primitive" back then, and says it has since changed beyond recognition.

"For example, (one morning) we were given fried eggs for breakfast," he recalls. "Our hosts had made them the night before and put them in the fridge. They wanted to please us, but ice-cold fried eggs are not very nice. Nowadays, in Chinese hotels, you can get the most wonderful Western or Chinese food. (The country) has opened up."

Born in Aachen, western Germany, in 1941, Bischoff was educated in Cologne and Dusseldorf before graduating from Johannesburg's University of Witwatersrand in 1961 with a degree in commerce.

He started his career in the international department of Chase Manhattan Bank and, in 1966, joined the British asset management company J. Henry Schroder & Co. It was this job that led him to Asia.

He says he was asked to go to Hong Kong to launch the company's merchant banking division, and at first he was hesitant. "I said I didn't want to do that because I was traveling every second week to the US for my law school studies."

What changed his mind was a book, The Year 2000 by Kahn Herman and Anthony J. Wiener, published in 1968, which he received from a colleague. Kahn founded the Hudson Institute and was one of the preeminent futurists of the latter part of the 20th century.

"The book put forward the idea that Japan would grow so fast that it will overtake the US in per capita GDP, and that the centrifugal effect Japan will have on other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore would be significant. I got to page 65 and then agreed to go (to Asia). It was the right thing to do."

Looking back, Bischoff says Hong Kong was the "greatest place" for people of his generation. He enjoyed exploring Asia during those years, as he found it to be diverse in terms of ethnicity, religion and geography.

He eventually became managing director of Schroders Asia Ltd, based in Hong Kong, and was later appointed group chief executive of Schroders Plc in 1984 and then chairman in 1995.

He credits Hong Kong with playing an important role in his career and believes the city and the Chinese mainland are irrevocably linked.

"I've been to China many times, and I think Hong Kong would not (be so important) if it were not useful to the mainland," he says. "The Hong Kong economy grew substantially between 1970 and 1982, but not in a straight, uninterrupted line. That resulted - in 1973 and 1974, for example - in periods of no growth.

"The experience of growing a business during ups and downs stood me in good stead later in life."

cecily.liu@mail.chinadailyuk.com