Category News of China

More highly qualified teachers attracted to work in China’s rural areas

BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) — China has recruited nearly 17,000 new teachers to serve in rural areas teaching children for their nine years’ compulsory education, according to Wang Xumin, Chinese Ministry of Education spokesman.

Of those 17,000, a total of 68.4 percent are university graduates, said Wang Xuming at a regular press conference on Oct. 25. This represents an increase in graduate recruitment of 86 percent over the previous year.

China launched a special teaching program last year to encourage Chinese university graduates to act as teachers in the rural areas for compulsory education including education at primary school and junior high school levels.

The program, co-funded by central and local governments, recruits college graduates to serve a three-year term in rural schools and also offer them favorable policies for their future careers after they leave their teaching posts.

Under this program, the central government allocated 15,000 yuan (around 2,000 U.S. dollars) for each teacher recruited, and if the average yearly income in certain areas is higher than 15,000 yuan, the local government must allocate money to subsidize these teachers. And this year, the central government input has been increased to 18,960 yuan per person annually.

By now, 32,700 teachers have been recruited for the program, including 23,500 in junior high schools and 9,200 in primary schools.

“The quality of the teachers is crucial to education in rural areas and this program not only provides lots of qualified teachers for rural schools, but is also an innovative way of recruiting teachers,” Wang said.

The Party and central government has attached great importance to education in rural areas, he said.

“Since 2006, the central government has exempted rural studentsfrom tuition and miscellaneous fees for compulsory education in central and western regions. This year, this policy has been expanded to all rural areas in the country,” he noted.

Tuition fees range from 140 Yuan to 180 Yuan a year for primaryschools, to 180 Yuan to 230 Yuan for junior high schools.

Microsoft inks with Chinese PC maker to pre-install Windows

MICROSOFT Corp, and China’s No. 2 personal computer maker signed an agreement today to pre-install Microsoft’s Windows operating system in PCs in a move to combat widespread Chinese product piracy.

The agreement with Founder Technology Group Corp shows “the commitment of both companies to protect intellectual property rights” and promote the growth of China’s information technology market, the companies said in a joint statement.

Founder will also sell Microsoft keyboards, Webcams and other hardware in more than 500 stores across China, the companies said.

Microsoft suffers from widespread piracy of its software in China and has been pursing tie-ups with Chinese equipment makers to discourage use of unlicensed copies of its products.

In March, Microsoft and China’s biggest personal computer maker, Lenovo Group. agreed to pre-load Microsoft Corp.’s tool bar and Web search software on its computers.

Lenovo, the world’s third-largest PC maker, was to load Microsoft’s Windows Live on laptop and desktop computers, the companies said at the time.

The package included Microsoft’s search service Live Search, which could help the Redmond, Washington-based company compete with search leader Google Inc for traffic.

China Career Builder Corp’s Subsidiary Asian Career Company Ltd. Signed an Executive Search Service Agreement With Octopus Holdings Ltd

China Career Builder Corp., (“The Company”) (OTCBB: CCBX) a Delaware Corporation, is focused on outsourcing human resource services and staffing services in Hong Kong, China. The company is pleased to announce Asian Career Company Ltd has signed an executive search service agreement with Octopus Holdings Ltd. Under the term of agreement, Asian Career Company Ltd will provide the services of Senior Executive Assignment and Contingency File Search to Octopus Holdings Ltd.

China Career Builder Corp. CEO Mona Yim stated “We are honored to have earned this partnership. This is a very significant milestone for the growth of our company. Our company intends to deliver the best in service to Octopus Holdings Ltd as we do all our valuable clients”.

ABOUT OCTOPUS HOLDINGS LTD

Launched in 1997, Hong Kong’s Octopus is the world’s leading and most extensive smartcard payment system, with over 450 service providers across different businesses including public transport, parking, retail, vending and kiosks, schools and leisure facilities, as well as access control for residential and commercial buildings. Merchants and Octopus holders embrace Octopus for both its simplicity and its convenience. Today, more than 15 million Octopus are in circulation, and the system handles over 10 million transactions a day, with transaction value exceeding HK$80.4 million. For more information, please visit the Octopus website www.octopus.com.hk.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

China Career Builder Corp. (The Company) through its subsidiary Asian Career Company Ltd. provides outsourcing human resource services and staffing services in Hong Kong, China. The company provides recruitment services focusing on the professional, management, clerical, administrative, IT and industrial market. Its services include screening, recruiting, training, workforce deployment, loss prevention and safety training, pre-employment testing and assessment, background searches, compensation program design, customized personnel management reports, job profiling, description, application, turnover tracking and analysis, opinion surveys and follow-up analysis, exit interviews and follow-up analysis, and management development skills workshops. The company markets its recruitment services through a combination of direct sales, telemarketing, trade shows, and advertising. The company incorporated in Delaware, headquartered in Hong Kong, China.

For further information please refer to the Company’s website at www.ChinaCareerBuilder.com.

If you would like to receive regular updates on China Career Builder Corp. please send your email request to info@ChinaCareerBuilder.com or contact the company’s Investor and Public relations at ir@ChinaCareerBuilder.com .

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

Certain of the statements set forth in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements.” Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate, or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain the words “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” “forecast,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “planning,” “expect,” “believe,” “will likely,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “may” or words or expressions of similar meaning. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the company’s actual results and financial position to differ materially from those included within the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the Company’s ability to grow its business. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the Company’s limited financial resources, domestic or global economic conditions — especially those relating to China, activities of competitors and the presence of new or additional competition, and changes in Federal or State laws, restrictions and regulations on doing business in a foreign country, in particular China, and conditions of equity markets. The Company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statement or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events.

Executive hiring in Asia to accelerate in Q4 -Hudson

HONG KONG: Hiring by multinationals in major Asian markets is likely to accelerate in the fourth quarter, notably in Japan, a survey by executive recruitment firm Hudson shows.

Sixty-five per cent of managers at multinationals in Japan said they expected to increase recruitment in the fourth quarter, according to the survey released on Thursday, up from 60 per cent in a survey taken three months earlier.

In China, 64 per cent of respondents plan to increase headcount this quarter, up from 60 per cent in the previous quarter; in Hong Kong 54 per cent of managers expect to add staff, compared with 49 per cent in the last survey.

The survey by Chicago-based Hudson Highland Group Inc covered responses from 2,500 managers at multinational companies across industry sectors in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

Expectations in Singapore remained unchanged from the previous survey, with 54 percent of managers seeing a need to hire more staff.

Fast economic growth has led to a shortage of executive talent in Asia. More than a third of employees in Hong Kong and Singapore leave a company within two years, according to the Hudson report.

In China, 52 per cent of staff leaves within two years, and 30 per cent of job candidates there are demanding salaries of more than 20 per cent above what employers are willing to pay, the survey shows.

Workers go for quick turnover

CHINESE Mainland employees spend the shortest time in employment with employers than other workers in major Asian job markets, a survey released yesterday reveals.

Among the 673 respondents surveyed on the Chinese mainland, about 52 people said that they had worked for each employer for less than two years, most of them spending between 19 to 24 months.

Workers who spent less than two years in a position accounted for only 28 percent of those surveyed in Japan and 35 percent in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The survey, conducted by Hudson Recruitment, asked nearly 2,500 decision makers in multinational corporations in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore about their hiring and staff retention.

Media, public relations and advertising firms reported the shortest average staff tenure with 84 percent of their employees leaving the job in two years or less, while only two percent stayed in the one place for more than three years.

Other sectors such as banking, consumer, information technology and manufacturing followed, the report said.

Angie Eagan, Hudson’s general manager in Shanghai, said that the high turnover was brought by a continuous shortage of skills in Chinese mainland.

“People always want a bigger salary and they will keep looking for opportunities,” Eagan said, adding that the high level of head hunting made it easy for employees to hop from job to job.

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Hong Kong struggles to halt exodus

By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY

HONG KONG — Americans and other Westerners have been leaving Hong Kong by the thousands, raising questions about the city’s future as the commercial gateway to China and Southeast Asia.
Since the end of 1997 — the year the former British colony returned to Chinese rule — the number of Americans living here has dropped by 7,680, or 21%, to 28,320. Other nationalities have departed in even greater numbers, although a change in the way the statistics are calculated may explain some of the decline.

For almost two centuries, Western firms have used Hong Kong as a base for doing business in China, taking advantage of first-rate infrastructure, world-class banks and even-handed, transparent courts. But China’s booming economy is drawing firms directly to the mainland.

“China is sucking in a lot of expatriate talent,” says Mike Bekins, managing director for executive recruiter Korn/Ferry International in Hong Kong. Multinational companies “are moving to Shanghai lock, stock and barrel.”

“The benefits of being directly in the China market are overriding the benefits of Hong Kong’s history,” says Laurie Underwood, who interviewed foreign executives in China for her book China CEO.

Other factors:

•Multinational firms are hiring locals for top jobs. “The local talent has improved greatly,” Bekins says. “All companies would rather put a local person in a key role. The locals are here for the long term.”

They also bring Chinese-language skills and don’t require compensation packages that include housing allowances and tuition for kids at expensive international schools, Bekins says.

•Hong Kong’s smoggy skies are making it tougher for the city to attract foreign executives. Thirty-five percent of Hong Kong businesses reported having trouble getting employees to move to Hong Kong “as a direct result of the city’s air pollution,” according to a 2006 survey by recruiting firm Hudson.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong has warned that “a deteriorating environment will erode Hong Kong’s edge over competing Asian cities.” Super-clean Singapore, in particular, has been gaining from Hong Kong’s reputation for pollution, says Brenda Wilson, business leader of human capital for Mercer, Hong Kong.

•Dual citizenships might make the exodus look bigger than it is. Under a Chinese law in effect here since 1997, ethnic Chinese born in Hong Kong or the mainland are officially counted as “Chinese,” even if they hold passports from other countries and were once counted as foreigners.

Other evidence suggests that the drop in Westerners might not be so big. International schools are packed — though that partly reflects rising demand among locals for English-language education, says Peter Craughwell, spokesman for the English Schools Foundation.

InvestHK, a government agency that promotes foreign investment in Hong Kong, says the number of U.S. companies with regional headquarters in Hong Kong has risen steadily — from 256 in 2004 to 262 in 2005 and 295 in 2006.

Still, the perception remains among some foreigners that the city’s fortunes have peaked. When Underwood finished her Chinese-language studies five years ago, she didn’t even consider looking for work in Hong Kong. “I just wanted to skip it,” she says.

Underwood moved to Shanghai and works as director of external communications at the China Europe International Business School there. “It seemed like (Hong Kong) was over,” she says. “I wanted to work in the China market, not the Hong Kong market.”

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Interns rate their jobs only so-so in survey

DESPITE tough battles to win an internship position, most university students turn out to be unsatisfied with their part-time work experience, a recent Internet survey found.

The most common problems for students were feelings of disrespect, unsuitable tasks and low payment, according to 51job.com, a Nasdaq-listed human resources service provider in China.

The company surveyed 10,663 university students and 1,800 employers in major Chinese cities about their attitudes to internships.

The survey found that the 1,800 employers filled 7,587 internships so far this year, with an average of 43 people applying for each.

However, nearly 39 percent of students surveyed said that they were not satisfied with their internship experience, a figure that is seven percentage points higher than last year’s survey result.

About 43 percent of students said their internships were “so-so,” while only 18 percent of respondents considered the part-time work satisfying, the survey reported.

Lack of respect was the focus of students’ discontent, as more than two-thirds of students said they couldn’t bear their employers’ attitude to their work.

“Our manager took all our sales as his own and simply treated us as cheap labor,” said You Tingting, a student who interned as a sales representative for a local ticket agency.

Unsuitable positions that have nothing to do with students’ majors were another drawback.

The survey reported that only 1.4 percent of students surveyed took up internships that enhanced their professional knowledge, mostly designers, computer programmers and educational majors.

“It’s nothing for students to be a delivery boy or distributing fliers. You can’t expect to take a comfortable position immediately, as everybody has to start from scratch,” said a human resources manager of a logistics company, who asked to remain anonymous.

Cisco joins Haier in home networks

CISCO Systems Inc announced yesterday a partnership with Haier Group to explore home network markets in China, relatively new territory for both companies.

Cisco’s cooperation with Haier, China’s largest appliance manufacturer, helps them to expand consumer business, and Haier aims to profit from the growing integration of the Internet with home entertainment, industry insiders said.

Under the terms of the cooperation, Cisco and Haier announced their intention to explore sharing practices in group management and processes, financial management and controls, strategic investments and capitalization cooperation, construction of information infrastructure and home networking systems, Cisco said in a statement.

Qingdao-based Haier, with a global revenue of 107.5 billion yuan (US$14.3 billion) last year and 50,000 employees, is expanding its brand in international markets and the partnership with Cisco will help that.

Haier is also a large Cisco customer in China, and uses Cisco’s network equipment.

“We are a market leader in China, but are working to establish a strong brand presence in overseas markets. We believe it is necessary to take advantage of Cisco’s business practices as a model for efficient international expansion,” said Zhang Ruimin, Haier’s chief executive.

China’s digital TV market revenue is expected to hit 150 billion yuan in 2007, 19 percent of the global market size, according to Gartner Inc, an IT research firm.

Engineers have lost their shine for youth

ENGINEERING, once a highly rated job in China, has lost its appeal for young Chinese, Xu Kuangdi, the ex-mayor of Shanghai and President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said yesterday.

Xu said this in his opening remarks to a forum in Shanghai to promote the reform and development of engineering education in China.

“The profession of an engineer is far less reputable today than it was in the 1950s,” said Xu, who was the city mayor from 1995 to 2001.

He said most Chinese university students now hoped to make a lot of money by working for banks or scrambling to become Masters of Business Administration.

Xu said the hardships involved in becoming an engineer has also led to the decline – people who wanted to be engineers had to begin in workshops instead of sitting in offices.

Engineering has a special status in China where many of its leaders have had a background in engineering.

However the number of qualified engineers is failing to meet the demands of the country’s rapid economic growth.

According to a 2004 statistic, engineers only accounted for four percent of the overall staff in Chinese businesses.

Intern hunt goes ahead

ONE of China’s leading Web-based headhunters, 51job.com, has launched its 2008 nationwide internship program to provide more than 1,600 internship positions for university students.

Students will be given work at more than 100 companies in 12 major Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Dalian and Nanjing. Students can sign up for the program at the Website.