A key duty of a business reporter at the NPC is to get a great scoop from some of China's top company executives.

If you are lucky, you might get a great story if you follow your target into the washroom.

But this year, there was no need for any washroom antics has I scored a fair share of face-to-face exclusives, just for being patient.

And the interview requests granted to me often took place at night after my subjects finished all day, exhausting discussions and meetings.

While I felt somewhat sympathetic for bombarding the red-eyed entrepreneurs with "serious" questions at that time, I was impressed by their conscientiousness as NPC deputies and members of the National Committee of CPPCC.

It was already 9 pm when I met Zhou Xiaoguang, chairperson of Neoglory Group, in her hotel room last Wednesday. I was surprised when she asked me how the weather was outside.

She had not stepped outside of her hotel during the past four days, except to go to the Great Hall of the People on March 5 to listen to Premier Wen Jiabao's government work report.

"There are a lot of things to do," Zhou, who founded Neoglory, a leading Chinese costume jewelry manufacturer, said.

Sure enough, she was busy preparing for her 42 motions and 24 proposals to the NPC.

She has a host of proposals including setting up a national standard on the manufacture of costume jewelry, establishing customs in Yiwu, which exports most of China's small commodities, adopting laws against hostile buyouts, and solving housing problems for immigrants in Yiwu, a bustling city in Zhejiang Province.

"I am the only NPC deputy representing Yiwu," Zhou said.

"It makes me very proud. But more importantly, it is a great responsibility."

A businessperson only thinks about how to land a successful deal and make profit, she said. But an entrepreneur "cares more about a brand's sustainable growth and its social impact".

Zhou is just one of the few entrepreneurs who stressed "sustainable growth" during my interviews. To my surprise, a common phrase many raised was "building a 100-year-old business".

These fast-growing companies, now in their teen years, are entering a second phase of development seeking stable growth. The people that run them hope their brands will continue being successful after generations.

China is not short of time-honored brands that were established more than a century ago. Some are still flourishing, but others are withering.

Will these "teenage" brands founded by China's new generation of private entrepreneurs still be remembered in the next century?

Well, they have my best wishes.

(China Daily 03/15/2007 page6)