Archives September 2013

‘Skills list’ to attract overseas talent

China is to publish a list of work skills most in demand to aid recruitment from overseas, a top official in charge of foreign affairs has revealed.

Speaking ahead of the 2013 Friendship Award ceremony on Saturday, Liu Yanguo, deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, said his authority is identifying shortages in the domestic labor market.

“We’ll do research with human resource departments and employers to learn what types of workers they feel are hard to find,” he told China Daily.

The list is scheduled for release next year, and will be updated to keep pace with changes in market demand.

How and where it will be published, as well as other details, are still under discussion, Liu added.

Wang Huiyao, director-general of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing think tank, welcomed the move.

“It’s important to have such a list. It can improve the effect of recruitment from abroad,” he said.

By listening to employers’ demands, he said, authorities will be able to pinpoint industries with long-term skill shortages and introduce favorable policies.

Shanghai began publishing a recruitment list for overseas talent in 2011. On the list, nine State-owned enterprises, including Shanghai Electric, provide 72 job vacancies that they plan to fill, with salaries up to 800,000 yuan ($131,000).

China needs foreign talent from all walks of life, especially people with expertise in management, technology and science, Liu said.

He added that China’s efforts to recognize and reward people who have made tremendous contributions to China’s development and bilateral friendship is equally important in attracting high-end talent.

Fifty foreign experts received the Friendship Award this year. The prize is the highest accolade given to foreign citizens by the Chinese government.

Liu said all winners are distinctive foreign experts working in China.

Many recipients this year are leading scientists and scholars, including Israeli biologist Aharon Ciechanover, the 2004 Nobel laureate in chemistry, who is director of Nanjing University’s Institute of Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences.

“Thirty years ago, most foreign experts came to help China solve technological problems, but now China also enables foreign experts to realize their dream and boost their career development,” Liu said.

Noticeably, four recipients, including Ravi Shankar Narasimhan, a senior editor at China Daily, were recognized for efforts in “helping China better tell its stories to the outside world”, Liu said.

“Many foreigners, after they came to China, realized China was not a rising monster but a fascinating country,” Liu said. “We appreciate foreign experts’ efforts can help the outside world better understand China.”

Internships have become a necessity for graduates to secure jobs

The job market has become so competitive that even well-qualified graduates need to secure internships to find work

Twenty-three-year-old Baptist University graduate Trista Hon has reason to be excited. She is about to start working at BDO, an international accounting company, after beating many others for the position.

Hon attributes her success to her two-month working experience in Shanghai in the summer of last year. Hon took part in the government’s Mainland Experience Scheme, a five-year pilot scheme launched in 2011 to sponsor short-term internships, or learning programmes, in the mainland for about 30,000 students.

“Auditing jobs require frequent travel to the mainland. It helps a lot that I have some understanding of working across the border. I can also adjust to working in the mainland better than other students,” says Hon, who will be based in Hong Kong for the near future.

To prepare Hon for her stay in the mainland last year, Baptist University’s career centre evaluated her fluency in Putonghua, along with her ability to cope with emergencies when working outside the territory.

In the current competitive economic environment, internships can give potential graduates a head start. Every day, recruiters are flooded with applications from university students who possess stunning academic credentials.

“We come across graduates with impressive academic and extra-curricular credentials all the time,” says Sue Kim, founder of LIBBLE, an online platform established two years ago that is dedicated to the development of new graduates, and job matching.

“It’s very easy to find a graduate who speaks four languages, has completed more than three internships or won academic scholarships, on our talent database,” says Kim. “Competition has indeed become fierce.”

In response to this challenging employment landscape, career centres at universities are constantly on the lookout for internship opportunities locally, globally and in the mainland.

Since 2005, Polytechnic University has required students to complete at least one internship before graduation. Every year, an average of 3,000 students from PolyU are engaged in an internship.

This summer, Chinese University placed 570 students in internships in 24 countries, under its global internship programme.

“Employers prefer job applicants with internship experience because they are more mature and more familiar with the corporate world,” says Melina Lai, director of the Office of Careers and Placement Services at PolyU. “They tend to have a stronger work ethic and are more adaptable.”

“If a new graduate has never done an internship, employers may wonder if the graduate lacks the initiative to look for one,” she explains.

The chance of a student being hired is boosted if he or she has international working experience, according to Dr Tim Wong, head of Baptist University’s career centre. “Medium to large-sized companies are selective in the recruitment process, and an international internship would improve the chance for a job candidate,” he says.

Echoing Wong, Lai says students with international experience had demonstrated better communications skills and flexibility, and were more independent.

Work experience prior to leaving school is especially beneficial for students without a professional degree. For example, an English major with an emphasis on languages and literature has plenty of options other than teaching, including administration, journalism, legal services, sales and marketing, and public relations.

“Employers are looking for people who have been exposed to more than one particular field,” Wong says.

Career advisers at the institutes are charged with the task of equipping students with the skills for a smooth transition into corporate life. Training courses and workshops on job hunting skills, interview etiquette, and resume writing, are organised on campus.

Before they start their internship, students are briefed on issues such as foreign culture, if they are heading to the mainland or overseas, and the jargon of particular industries.

The role interns are expected to play has changed over the years. In the past, the youngsters were seen as helping hands to provide support for the regular staff in an office. But now the new entrants are increasingly being integrated into overall manpower planning.

An internship can pave the way for a permanent position in large companies. Banks, in particular, may issue conditional offers to student workers who perform well, before they get their degrees.

Many employers view an internship as an arrangement that is meant to benefit the company as well as the student. “[It is] for the mutual benefit of the students and the employers themselves,” says Lai. “We have come across small and medium sized enterprises which offer internships to develop students’ interest in their fields.

“Eventually, the employers hope to secure their long-term commitment to the company. This in turn, helps to plug the shortfall from the turnover of regular staff,” she says.

While a university degree, stellar academic results and other criteria are often advantageous, employers also take soft skills into consideration to identify the right candidates.

Sectors like banking, asset management, consumer products, retail and technology want to be sure that the young workers have a can-do attitude and are reliable, Kim says. “To impress experienced recruiters, graduates need to be able to show genuine passion and interest for the role. They can do this by having a good understanding of themselves and their interests,” she says.

“They are also looking for people who can formulate their own views. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are useful, as is the ability to construct a sound opinion.” Baptist University encourages students to become involved in community projects. They try to get them to help with the co-ordination, rather than just join in. “Students nowadays tend to be less independent. They need to become proactive in finding resources,” Wong says.

The recent death of an intern at Bank of America in London, which is believed have been caused by excessive work, raised questions about the exploitation of young graduates.

“We always monitor the situation of our students closely by keeping in touch with them throughout the internship,” Wong says.

Staff from the career centre join students abroad to help them settle in, he says, adding that social media is used to share information among students and keep track of their situation.

3-year local rules suspension in pilot zone

Local regulations on foreign investment in Shanghai’s free trade zone will be suspended for three years from next Tuesday, in line with the state’s temporary adjustments on related laws to ease legal barriers for foreign participants.

The pilot free trade zone is due to open on Sunday.

The Shanghai People’s Congress, the city legislative body, said local regulations in the zone would be further adjusted if they were inconsistent with national laws and regulations and the overall plan for the zone. The suspension aims to maintain the unity of the national legal system and to push forward with the construction of the free trade zone, according to the SPC Standing Committee.

China’s top legislature last month authorized the State Council to suspend administrative approvals for foreign-funded enterprises, Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures and Chinese-foreign contractual joint ventures in the free trade zone, in a move to decentralize government power as part of the reform and opening up policy.

“The management system, operating mechanism and supervision system in the free trade zone will be quite different and will inevitably have conflicts with the current regulations,” said Ding Wei, director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the SPC.

“The decision to adjust local regulations will lay a legal foundation for the introduction of ground-breaking reforms,” Ding said.

Covering a total of 28 square kilometers in the Pudong New Area, the free trade zone is expected to be a testing ground for major policy reforms involving government function transformation, trade facilitation and financial innovations such as free yuan convertibility and liberal interest rates and foreign exchange.

Wang Xinkui, director of the city’s Counselor’s Office and the city’s WTO Affairs Consultation Center, said at a forum yesterday that the pilot free trade zone is not about preferential policies but is a place for the exploration of institutional innovation.

Wang said the transformation of regulatory methods from administrative approval to management through a registration system will be a major part of reforms within the zone.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said earlier that a negative list approach will be explored in the free trade zone and priority will be given to easier investment and greater openness.

The establishment of the pilot free trade zone in Shanghai has raised hopes that China will deepen its economic reforms as part of a broad strategy to shift the world’s second-largest economy toward a mode driven by domestic consumption, replacing investments and exports.

On Sunday, the Shanghai government will publicize some detailed rules for the zone.

Shanghai’s long-awaited Free Trade Zone opens Sunday

China’s Big Bang or just the first of a bunch of loud pops? asks Asia Sentinel’s Steve Wang

On Sunday, China’s State Council is due to set in motion a long awaited pilot plan for the 28.78 sq km Shanghai Free Trade Zone, marking a major milestone for the country’s cautious, step-by-step economic liberalization that began 30 years ago.

It is a Big Bang that has Hong Kong officials looking nervously over their shoulders. Shanghai has been talked about as China’s financial capital since at least 1995, prior to the takeover of the former British crown colony by the Chinese government, when Fortune Magazine carried a cover story titled “The Death of Hong Kong.” The tycoon Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man, for instance, warned publicly recently that the impact of the Shanghai FTZ will be much bigger and come much more quickly than the territory anticipates.

Critics have said Hong Kong, still saddled with the colonial mentality that characterized the territory prior to 1997, will have trouble meeting a competition characterized by the ability to act fast and without the hobbles of an often-fractious Legislative Council and a chief executive’s office that has been steadily losing public support for a variety of reasons.

The territory’s main attributes, however, remain the enforceability of contract and the rule of law, both of which are absent in the mainland, and a communications and transport infrastructure that rank among the best in the world although parts of China are catching up fast.

Some of the details of the FTZ plan were released Friday to allow experiments within the zone, in Shanghai’s Pudong district, including easing restrictions on yuan, investment, trade and business management.

According to Xinhua, the state-owned news service, the opening permits reforms in six different fields including financial services including banking, health insurances and leases. Logistics are to include shipping and port management. Commercial enterprises include telecommunication and gaming services, professional services refer to a closer working with HK law enterprises, credit surveyors, travelling agencies, recruitment companies, investment managers and construction. Cultural and entertainment imply performer agencies and entertainment resorts. Social services mean education, vocational training and medical care.

“Under the preconditions that risk can be controlled, China will create conditions to test yuan convertibility under the capital account, market-set interest rates and cross-border use of the Chinese currency in the zone,” according to the plan. Regulations in the zone will also be eased in 18 sectors from finance, shipping, commerce to culture.

The zone is to be modeled on existing free trade businesses in the country’s economic hub – Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, Waigaoqiao Free Trade Logistics Park, Yangshan Free Trade Port Area and Pudong Airport Comprehensive Free Trade Zone, allowing domestic banks to provide services to depositors who are residents in other countries, according to Xinhua. It will also allow eligible foreign-funded financial institutions to set up banks and team up with qualified private banks to establish joint-ventures.

Alibaba denies IPO venue rumors

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd dismissed as untrue published reports that it has decided to hold an initial public offering that could raise up to $75 billion in New York instead of Hong Kong.

In an interview with China Daily, an Alibaba representative in Beijing repeated the company’s statement earlier this month that it has made no final decision on the timing, location or terms for the IPO, projected to be one of the world’s biggest this year.

“Reports claiming that Alibaba has chosen the US over Hong Kong are not true,” said the representative, who asked not to be identified.

Alibaba Chief Executive Jonathan Lu also attempted to diminish the reports. Through his account on Laiwang, a mobile chatting app recently launched by the company, Lu replied “not yet” to a China Daily reporter who asked whether Alibaba had chosen to list in the US rather than Hong Kong and whether the company had received a final response from the Hong Kong stock exchange on its request for a change in board-nomination procedures. He did not say whether his response was to one question or both.

Alibaba has been in talks with the Hong Kong exchange’s listing panel to establish a system whereby founder Jack Ma and other top executives could nominate most of the company’s board and submit the proposed directors’ slate to shareholders for a vote. The managers’ goal is to retain voting power over Alibaba’s strategic direction and culture.

Hong Kong doesn’t allow the dual-class structure favored by Facebook Inc, Google Inc and other US-listed technology companies. The Hong Kong exchange’s charter says shareholders should have equal rights.

Published reports said that if Hong Kong regulators failed to approve Alibaba’s board-nomination request, the company would switch the listing venue to New York, where such a corporate structure is allowed.

That change of venue would come as Hong Kong needs a heavyweight such as Alibaba to revitalize its faltering IPO market. The territory was the top global destination for IPOs from 2009 to 2011, but a slowing economy has caused many companies to postpone their IPOs.

There’s no guarantee holding its IPO in New York would translate into a big payoff for Alibaba, despite its prominence in China. Recent accounting scandals involving US-listed Chinese companies have created a chilly climate for IPOs from the country, resulting in few IPOs from China seeking listings on US exchanges and hurting the share prices of Chinese companies which already trade on the US stock market.

But Alibaba would be the most widely anticipated IPO since Facebook’s $16 billion offering in May 2012 – the third largest in history.

Hong Kong, in comparison, has had fewer legal battles and a long record of hosting Chinese mainland companies incorporated overseas and listed in Hong Kong. Alibaba is incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

Hong Kong media outlets reported that the listing committee of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd, at its weekly meeting Thursday, discussed the IPO and decided not to make rule changes to accommodate Alibaba’s corporate structure. A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong exchange declined to disclose the substance of the committee’s discussions, saying they are not public information.

Hong Kong exchange CEO Charles Li suggested that the exchange might not compromise its rules for Alibaba. Li wrote in a blog post on Wednesday that “as enshrined in our charter, in the event of a conflict, public interest is put ahead of shareholder interest at HKEx”.

Praxair China Opens Global Technology Centre In Shanghai

The new Praxair China Technology Centre is a state-of-the-art facility for applications engineers and Research and Development

Praxair China Investment Company, a subsidiary of Praxair, Inc. has announced the opening of its state-of-the-art Global Technology Centre in Shanghai, supporting the company’s development and implementation of innovative applications technologies.

Praxair supplies gases such as nitrogen, hydrogen, arsine, phosphine, silane and ammonia used in III-V and III-nitride MOCVD growth.

The Praxair China Technology Centre is located in the Jinqiao Development Zone of Pudong New Area.

The centre houses laboratories, including pilot and demonstration facilities, to support a growing team of Praxair engineers and scientists who work with customers in China in the steel, combustion, metal fabrication, metals and materials processing, pharmaceuticals, water treatment and electronics segments.

“The new Praxair China Technology Center is a state-of-the-art facility for our applications engineers and R&D organisation,” says Minda Ho, president of Praxair China.

“These laboratories enable us to work closely with our business partners and customers to develop innovative products that meet their unique needs. In addition, Chinese regulations for emissions reduction are becoming more stringent and are world-class in several areas. Praxair’s experience will allow us to quickly replicate our applications technologies to contribute to our customers’ needs for cleaner air and water. We look forward to delivering novel gas applications from this centre to our customers across China,” adds Ho.

“The inauguration of the Praxair China Technology Centre builds on our rich tradition of innovation,” comments Amitabh Gupta, executive director of Praxair Asia R&D and Applications. “Praxair technical teams are developing applications to help customers increase productivity, achieve energy savings and improve environmental performance through emissions reductions. The development and application of these innovative products and services enables sustainable development, while truly making our planet more productive.”

“China is our largest and fastest growing market in Asia and this center is developing technology that will not only be used in China but also in Praxair’s businesses around the world,” adds Ray Roberge, Praxair’s senior vice president and chief technology officer.

“In addition, we are collaborating with several respected universities across China on important areas of research, which is a strategic advantage for Praxair. The innovation stemming from these projects and our ability to attract and recruit top talent from these and other educational institutions are key reasons we chose to open our facility here,” he continues.

Sogou sues Qihoo 360 over dirty tricks

China’s Internet giant Sohu’s search engine arm Sogou on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Qihoo 360, a New York-listed Internet security company, for unfair competition.

Qihoo 360 is accused of using its free Internet safety products to “induce and cheat users, prevent them from using the Sogou browser through destructive technical means, and damage Sogou’s service integrity to Internet users,” according to Xi’an City Intermediate People’s Court in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.

Sogou is demanding an open apology from Qihoo 360, and compensation of 45.5 million yuan (7.4 million U.S. dollars).

The court accepted the case, but did not disclose when the trial would open.

Also on Wednesday, Qihoo 360 announced it would sue Sogou and its CEO Wang Xiaochuan for unfair competition and damaging its reputation at two separate courts in Beijing, requesting total compensation of 51 million yuan. The courts have not confirmed the lawsuits.

Established in 2005, Qihoo 360 was listed in New York in 2011, and has a current market value of over 10 billion U.S. dollars.

The company lost a lawsuit in April, when it was accused of malicious competition and fined 5 million yuan as compensation to China’s Internet giant Tencent, the highest that has ever been ordered in an Internet competition lawsuit in China.

Airlines recruit ‘kind’ older flight attendants

Chinese airlines are recruiting older cabin crew as they believe they are more patient and considerate than the younger flight attendants traditionally preferred.

The trend is seeing more married women over 35 being taken on as domestic airlines raise their upper age limits.

“Married women look kinder, are more considerate and can serve passengers better than their younger counterparts,” said Zhang Wu’an, spokesman for locally based budget carrier Spring Airlines.

Demographics also play a part in the trend, as flight attendants already employed by the airlines get older, he added.

Spring Airlines launched a recruitment campaign yesterday, mainly targeting married women up to 45. Some 3,000 women — including 2,000 mothers aged around 35 — have applied, said officials.

“We will mainly evaluate their kindness and patience, while their appearance won’t be so important,” said Xiao Fei, human resources department director with the airline.

With Spring Airlines, a flight attendant can be promoted to chief attendant within two years with annual salary of more than 100,000 yuan (US$ 16,338), Zhang said.

Among those seeking a job with the airline is 34-year-old Lang Xiaohua, who has worked as a travel agency manager.

“My 10-year-old daughter is growing up and it’s time to realize my own dream,” Lang said.

She said she felt confident her work and life experiences would stand her in good stead.

Among other Chinese carriers, China Eastern Airlines has upped the age limit for new flight attendants to 32.

Chinese airlines are short of cabin crew due to the rapid expansion of routes and fleets.

A downside of the airline industry boom is frequent flight delays, leading to conflict between staff and passengers.

Last month, two Beijing passengers were detained for 10 days for pushing flight attendants and damaging boarding gates during a five-hour delay.

And in Shanghai, a crew with locally based Juneyao Airlines claimed last month that a flight attendant was slapped by a passenger during a delay.