Archives September 2008

Financial planning & controlling director (fi189sh)

Job Title: Financial planning & controlling director
Job Description:
Company introduction:
Our Company is the first European life insurance joint venture established in China. The company is jointly invested by the German financial service conglomerate.
Report To: Head of A & F
Location: Shanghai
Responsibilities:
1. Develop and build a professional team
2. Be responsible for managing and controlling cash resources including cash flows, foreign exchange, banking activities and other treasury functions
3. Be responsible for monitoring and identifying individual product/project costs in comparison to targets and recommending areas for cost improvement
4. Be responsible for budget modeling setup, foundation system build up (by channel, in multilevel) and regular supervision etc
5. Be responsible for preparing, submitting, and presenting annual budgets
6. Be responsible for monitoring the national-wide cash management and budget controlling
7. Be responsible for monitoring actual expenses vs. budget
8. Understand current finance management procedures and find problems, lead related projects to solve the problems
Requirements:
1. Minimum bachelor degree with major in accounting, finance related, CPA or ACCA preferred
2. Minimum 5 years working experience in big 4 audit firm or 8 years accounting experience in financial service company
3. At least 3 years finance controlling experience and 3 years people management experience
4. Good speaking & written English skills, good computer skills
5. Sound knowledge of IFRS /GAAP reporting requirements.
* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English to: ‘topjob_fi189sh@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject MUST you plus the position name ?in either En or Ch ?

Plant Manager (eo153sh)

Job Title: Plant Manager
Job Description:
Company introduction:
Our client, a Publicly traded on NASDAQ is an industrial supply chain logistics and diversified manufacturing business operating in three segments. With over 4,000 employees worldwide and Production and Sales of Parts for Automotive, Casting, Forging, and Supply Chain Management services. The company believes that a personal investment in the company and the pride of being part of a winning team. They are looking for talent for their Shanghai site.

Report To: CEO
Location: Shanghai
Responsibilities:
1. Oversee production operations and factory floor planning.
2. Manage the workforce, including supervisory and administrative support staffs.
3. Responsible for Safety of facility and employees, including environmental reporting.
4. Support Corrective and Preventive Action Programs through continuous improvement. Responsible for continuous improvement in all areas of the factory operation;
5. Participate in all new program start-ups to determine and communicate required schedules and documentation. Support implementation of the strategic direction of Operations in China.
6. Control and reduce production cost while improving quality by training programs, cross training of operators, process improvement, etc.
7. Responsible for financial reporting. Budget development and adherence requirement;
8. Contribute to the overall company performance by active participation as part of the management team by daily communication with the subordinate departments’ heads.
9. Follow TS Quality Management System
10. Provide Sales Support
11. Any other duties as assigned by supervisor

Requirements:
1. Bachelor degree majored in Mechanical, Engineering or relevant, and MBA is preferred;
2. At least 8 to 10 years of manufacturing experience including minimum 3 years in managerial position in foreign manufacturing company;
3. Professional leadership, teamwork and good communication skills; Strong analytical, organizational and planning skill required;
4. Knowledge of Lean Production/6Sigma. Knowledge, understanding, and experience in ISO and TS quality and automotive manufacturing systems.
5. Engineering processing experience in rubber molding is preferred.
6. Good command of English both spoken and written; Mandarin Chinese language proficiency, in verbal and written forms, is required.
7. Strong leadership and inter-personal skills with ability to work through all levels of organization, internal and external.
8. Be able to work under pressure, self-motivated and have positive attitude as well as good team spirit.
* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English to: ‘topjob_eo153sh@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject MUST you plus the position name ?in either En or Ch ?

Expert: Women ‘should work longer’

The retirement age of women should be extended as a solution to Shanghai’s shrinking supply of labor and the rapidly aging population, a demographics expert has said.

Gui Shixun, vice-director of the Shanghai Research Center on Aging, said by 2020 men and women should be allowed to retire at age 60.

Currently, women working for government institutions and companies are required to retire at age 55 and men at 60. Women blue-collar workers must retire at 50 and men at 55.

In recent years, economic experts have increasingly warned that the nation’s abundant supply of low -cost labor, seen as the backbone of China’s phenomenal economic growth, will decrease.

In Shanghai, 20 percent of its population of about 18 million, are now aged over 60, prompting the local government to step up efforts to find a solution.

Gui said Shanghai’s working population, or permanent residents aged between 15 and 59, shrank 52,400 to 9.76 million last year, reportedly the biggest decrease in all provinces and municipalities in China.

“The slow growth of the labor force in Shanghai will become more serious,” Gui told the Oriental Morning Post newspaper.

Shanghai should grant more permanent resident permits and the one-child policy should be relaxed, he said.

The proposal to have both men and women retire at 60, was put forward a few years ago, but met with mixed reactions.

Bao Yunyun, an office worker, said she would like to retire at an earlier age “so she will have time to do something different”.

But an increasing number of women who want to keep their jobs longer regard the current policy, introduced decades ago, as discrimination.

“The early retiring age means fewer social welfare benefits and it’s unfair for women,” Zhu Dan, a member of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress, said in a recent Xinhua report.

To receive the full benefits of government policies usually requires employees to have more than 30 years’ service, she said.

Women today are able to work longer than before due to improved working conditions and better health, she said.

Wang Qishan: China to provide more opportunity for foreign investment

China announced it would provide more opportunity for foreign investment, Vice Premier Wang Qishan said on Monday at the opening of the 12th Xiamen International Trade and Investment Fair in the southeast Fujian Province.

China will insist on its opening-up policy continuing to perfect the policies for the utilization of foreign capital to provide more spaces for overseas enterprises in the country.

Chinese vice Premier Wang Qishan (C) attends the opening ceremony of the 12th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) in Xiamen, a coastal city in southwest China’s Fujian Province, Sept. 8, 2008. (Xinhua/Zhang Guojun)
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As one of the main forces for the country’s development, foreign investment had brought capital, technology and management experience, among others. As China was the developing country that had attracted the largest amount of foreign investment over the past 16 years, more fields covering agriculture, manufacturing and services, were being explored, Wang said. Many international companies viewed China as their first choice.

Wang announced five policies for future investment services, covering promotion of the investment environment, better utilization of foreign capital and encouraging Chinese enterprises to invest in foreign countries, among others.

China will raise the service qualities of governments and guarantee a fair investment environment with a transparent legal system.

The government is encouraging foreign capital to flow into high-tech, modern agriculture, energy conservation industries and modern services to enhance the independent innovation and harmonious development. It will also encourage foreign companies to invest domestically through founding local offices or participating in the reforms of domestic enterprises.

In the post-Olympic Games period China would insist on the opening-up policy and peaceful development, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said.

“I believe every friend here at the fair will receive the opportunity and benefit from the peaceful rise of China.”

The Xiamen fair has become an influencial platform for mutual investment that is welcomed by governments, intermediate agencies and enterprises.

“The country (China) is committed to meeting its World Trade Organization obligations, which should boost FDI (foreign direct investment) even more,” said Alessandro Teixeira, World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies president.

“Sectors such as domestic commerce, financial services, insurance and tourism are being gradually opened up. Geographic restrictions on where foreign companies are allowed to set up operations are expected to be relaxed in the coming years,” he said.

“China’s foreign investment policy has come to a turning point, and preferential treatment for foreign capital has been in principle abolished with the exception of certain sectors including high-technology,” said Shoichiro Toyoda, the third chairman of the Japan-China Investment Promotion Organization. Its1990 establishment by Chinese and Japanese leaders was to improve the investment climate and promote investment in China.

At almost the same time, the China-Japan Investment Promotion Committee was established as its Chinese counterpart. Currently, Minister Cheng serves as its chairman.

At the time, few Japanese companies had launched operations in China. During the 18 years since its establishment, the Japanese committee has provided support and information for Japanese firms intending to invest in China. It has helped companies deal with problems they encountered.

Currently, its member companies number more than 370. In addition, it has provided advice on more than 20,000 cases.

According to Chinese statistics, Japan’s investment in China was decreasing. Japanese statistics, however, indicated the amount of investment, including reinvestment by companies operating in China, had not decreased. It had remained relatively unchanged, Toyoda said.

“In my view, there are four key elements that we should focus on for further promoting new investment in China. They are energy-saving and green technology, smaller companies, the development of Central, Western and Northeast China, and special preferential treatment,” he said.

The four-day Xiamen fair features 2,500 exhibitors, 1,000 more than last year. It has attracted 74 nations, including America, Australia, Brazil, Italy and countries from Africa and the Pacific islands. In all, 445 organizations from 104 countries and regions attended. More than 50 countries and regions were holding seminars to introduce their investment environment.

New projects signed at the fair this year have been reported at more than 5,300, including 320 from overseas.

As China’s only annual fair for promoting mutual investment, the Xiamen fair has become the world’s largest expo of its kind.

More than 100,000 guests from 144 countries and regions and more than 3,000 international companies have attended the fair over the past 11 years. It has drawn 7.7 billion U.S. dollars in investment into China with more than 13,000 projects signed.

Fatter pay packets for Shanghai graduates

SHANGHAI university students who graduated in 2008 have an average monthly salary of 2,899 yuan (US$424) from their first job, ranking the highest among six major cities in the country and followed by Shenzhen and Beijing.

The average salary in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province is 2,816 yuan and 2,699 yuan in Beijing.

The average Shanghai salary is up 10 percent compared to last year, according to statistics cited by zhaopin.com, Shanghai Evening Post reported today.

The 2008 salary report compiled by zhaopin.com, a popular job hunter Website, indicated the growth rate of university graduate salaries in the city ranks second in China, just 1 percent behind Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province.

Four other cities including Guangzhou and Beijing also experienced increases in average salaries for university graduates this year, according to the report.

The best paid graduates were usually those who majored in finance, high-tech, manufacturing, real estate and the consumer goods industry, the report said.

Those who majored in finance enjoyed the most rapid salary growth and have an average salary of 2,725 yuan. Graduates recruited by private enterprise also had a quick increase in salary but still start at 2,106 yuan.

Graduates who work for wholly foreign-owned enterprises have the highest starting salary of 2,957 yuan, but the lease growth rate, the report said.

The report said people working in marketing or product-related jobs experienced about a 10 percent increase this year but graduates in human resources and information and technology have taken a cut of 1 percent compared to last year.

The report also pointed out graduates with higher degrees can enjoy a higher growth in salaries this year. Masters degree graduates have had a 12 percent boost while college degree students only jumped 5 percent.

Taiwan to mainland job boat is still afloat

Last year, Phoebe Sun began to feel that her native Taiwan was too small for her to develop her career as an advertising executive.

She had been working in Taipei since graduating from business school in 2001 and wanted to try somewhere new.

After going to mainland China for the first time last summer, the 30-year-old decided she wanted to work there.

So she applied for a job in Beijing, was hired and moved to the city last December, thus joining the growing number of Taiwanese who go to the mainland in search of better career prospects.

“The Chinese market is huge and full of opportunities. I was hoping to gain some experience that I would not be able to get in Taipei,” says Ms Sun.

China has long been a popular place for Taiwanese to set up business because of its proximity and low cost-base. More than 1m Taiwanese now live in mainland China, according to estimates by Hung Hxi-yao, deputy secretary general of the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland (ATIEM).

A number of Taiwanese companies, in sectors such as manufacturing and semiconductors, also have transferred their operations from the island state to China, where they can save on costs and develop their businesses on a bigger scale.

Some companies in China, meanwhile, like to hire Taiwanese because they speak the same language and are culturally very similar.

“Taiwan was once ruled by the Japanese, who have very high loyalty to their companies and respect seniority. We have learnt these qualities from them and they are what many Chinese employers look for,” says Alex Hsu, general manager of MGR Search & Selection (Pasona Group), a Taipei-based recruitment firm.

For multinational companies in China, which usually have top-level executives relocated from other countries and large numbers of mainland graduates for junior posts, Taiwanese employees can fill a wide gap at the middle management level.

Taiwan is the biggest source of foreign workers for Chinese employers, according to a 2008 survey by Manpower, the international employment services company.

“One of our surveys shows that the top three kinds of job in which foreign talent is most needed in China are senior executives, middle management and engineers. Taiwan has them all. It’s simply a question of supply and demand,” says Lucille Wu, managing director of Manpower Greater China.

Against a backdrop of warming relations between Beijing and Taipei, ATIEM’s Mr Hung expects the mainland’s population of Taiwanese expatriates to reach 1.5m by the end of the year.

Since Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwan’s president in May, his administration has overseen the resumption of direct air links with China, partly removed restrictions on Taiwanese companies’ investments in China, and liberalised cross-Strait investments.

“Taiwan and China are becoming closer and closer since Mr Ma took over. A lot of Taiwanese feel they are Chinese too,” says Beijing-based Mr Hung. “With China being such an important economy, it’s only natural for them to want to work here.”

According to a recent survey by 104 Job Bank, a Taiwanese headhunting agency, 45 per cent of jobseekers in Taiwan are interested in working in China. Nearly 70 per cent people say they are attracted by the potential of China’s economy, which expanded 10.4 per cent in the first half of 2008.

Economic growth in Taiwan, meanwhile, is less than 5 per cent, which contributes to a subdued job market in the island state.

Although higher salary is not one of the factors cited in the survey, some people, especially those who work for multinational companies, do get paid more in China. MGR’s Mr Hsu says a human resources manager who works for a US company in China could be paid one-third more than their counterpart in Taipei.

“Increasingly, many Taiwanese are being considered local hires in China. Many don’t get expat packages any more” says Mr Hsu.

To make themselves even more attractive to Chinese companies, Taiwanese employees sometimes ask for lower salaries than other workers from the region, who often pay lower employment taxes at home. Income tax rates in Hong Kong and Singapore, for example, are up to 17 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, compared with 40 per cent in Taiwan and 45 per cent in mainland China.

“We find that Taiwanese expats do not request full expat packages and do not need to be tax-equalized, as opposed to Hong Kong and Singaporean candidates, who obviously enjoy much lower tax rates,” says Andrew Chang, associate director at Michael Page, the recruitment firm, in Beijing.

Meanwhile, just as a larger numbers of Taiwanese and other foreign workers are moving to China, the country has also been nurturing its own talent.

But this does not mean that it is too late for those Taiwanese who want to try their luck on the mainland.

“Supply is growing but has not yet met demand. China still needs a lot of Taiwanese. It is never too late”, says Ms Wu.

Advisors call for measures to raise migrants’ salaries

Political advisors Wednesday called on the government to make greater efforts to raise migrant workers’ salaries and ensure they have a better standard of living.

With more than 200 million such workers in cities across China, how to better protect their rights and interests has become a crucial issue, members of the country’s top political advisory body said Wednesday in Beijing at a meeting on achieving more balanced development between urban and rural areas.

They also called for substantial measures to be taken to provide these workers with insurance for workplace injuries, better educational opportunities for their children and more affordable housing.

Li Zhuobin, a member of the Standing Committee of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said migrant workers still face employment discrimination and poor access to public services.
Citing the construction industry as an example, he said migrant workers’ salaries could be two-thirds or half that of their urban counterparts.

In other cases, employers refuse to hire workers without urban permanent residence permits.

“Many employers do not pay them on time,” said Li.

“In sectors that hire a large number of migrant workers, such as construction, catering and entertainment, the government should be strict on implementing the salary deposit rule,” he said.

The rule, introduced in May 2004 by the former Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, requires construction companies to deposit a certain amount of money in a labor department bank account. The money is used to pay migrant workers who fail to receive their due salaries.

In addition, the training of rural workers fails to fully meet employers’ requirements and the public employment service’s efforts to help migrant workers find jobs are inadequate, he added.

Li suggested that preferential policies to promote employment should cover both urban and rural residents.

Shenzhen looks to fill 560,000 jobs

Authorities in Shenzhen are looking to attract 560,000 workers from rural areas of Guangdong over the next five years in a bid to counter rising labor costs, a provincial official said on Tuesday.

“Shenzhen’s ambitious plan is part of the province’s double transfer strategy,” Lin Yingwu, deputy director of the Guangdong labor and social security department.

“Other cities in the delta region will follow suit,” he said

The aim of the strategy is to attract workers to the manufacturing centers of the Pearl River Delta, as well as relocating some production bases to areas with large workforces in a bid to reduce soaring labor costs, he said.

Four industrial parks, funded by the Shenzhen and local governments, have already been built in rural areas of Guangdong, the Nanfang Daily reported recently.

Shenzhen has signed labor cooperation agreements with 14 rural cities, and on Monday, 128 employers from the city offered about 40,000 vacancies, with monthly salaries ranging from 1,300 yuan ($190) to 2,500 yuan, Lin said.

Labor departments in Shenzhen and the 14 cities will work together to improve communications and facilitate the movement of workers, Guan Lingen, director of the Shenzhen labor and social security bureau, said.

Also, online interviews will be held wherever possible to eliminate travel costs, he said.

Li Qingqing, an associate professor of economics at South China Normal University, said the double transfer strategy will be beneficial to all the cities involved.

“Under the plan, delta boomtowns will no longer need to worry about the shortfall of laborers, while the growing rural population will be able to find better ways to make a living,” she said.

Operation Director (mkt256nj)

Job Title: Operation Director
Job Description:
Company introduction: The client is an Italy company, which has become the world leader in automotive and machine tool markets during past 50 years. There are three manufacturing bases in Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuxi. Now a professional team is providing technology support and customer services for their customers in China. They are looking for talents to join them.
Report To: GM in Nanjing
Location: Nanjing

Responsibilities:
1. To monitor the overall situation of the factory.
2. To make planning, co-ordination and control production processes, including planning, logistic, warehouse control, assembly, testing, quality and on-site installation area.
3. Participating in constructing and optimizing organization of the Production group;
4. Monitoring the production processes and adjusting schedules as needed.
5. Supervising and motivating a team of works.
6. To ensure machine and services are produced efficiently and on time.
7. To improve the workshop ability and performance.
8. To ensure each operation is completed according to proper procedure and discipline.
9. To develop or improve operation procedures and maximize the utilization of manpower.
10. Follow up concrete projects according to production procedure of the Company.
11. Be responsible for the production quality and on-time delivery. Responsible for leading the plant and sub-department.
12. To communicate with people of other departments and/or customers and/or suppliers.

Qualifications:
1. Degree/background?College Degree in Mechanical, Electronic, or Automation Engineering or relevant
2. Experience?At least 10-12 years’ experience in production management.
3. Good understanding of the Manufacturing and Assembly Processes for complex automatic applications.
4. Background of Precision Gauges, automobile industry, engine, and /or automatic manufacturing industry.
5. Language?Good English in reading, writing and speaking
6. Other requirements?Good computer skills;
7. Good understanding of electrical drawings and mechanical manufacturing and assembly drawings;
8. Excellent communication and coordination skills;
9. Responsible, open-mind and willing to learn;
10. Flexible, Excellent Team-working.
* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English to: ‘topjob_mkt256nj@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject MUST you plus the position name ?in either En or Ch ?

Job training for 100,000 students

Twelve vocational high schools will be built in the Pearl River Delta over the next few years to train up to 100,000 students from less-developed areas of Guangdong to meet the soaring demand for skilled workers in the region, a local education official said yesterday.

A Nanfang Daily report quoted Luo Weiqi, director of the provincial education department, as saying: “The development of vocational education will be a priority over the next few years.

“A dozen vocational schools, each with 5,000 to 10,000 students, will be set up, and secondary schools in better developed areas of the Pearl River Delta region will be encouraged to work with their counterparts in less developed regions.”

The delta region has long faced a shortage of labor, and skilled workers are now in particularly high demand as the region seeks to switch focus from labor-intensive manufacturing to value-added industries.

In contrast, there is a surplus of unskilled workers in the northern, eastern and western regions of Guangdong.

Sending students from poorer regions to train in the Pearl River Delta is, therefore, a win-win situation, Luo said.

Lai Hongying, a publicity official with the education department, said that by 2011, the province aims to train 2 million students a year, up from 1.3 million last year.

Under the same timeframe, it also aims to recruit 600,000 new students a year, up from 540,000 last year, he said.

Polytechnics and universities will also seek to attract more students in the areas of science and technology to provide a richer human resource for the development of a modern industrial system, he said.

In a bid to achieve our goals, we will improve working and living conditions for teachers in rural areas, and go “all out” to attract top academics from home and abroad, Lai said.