Category News of China

Red Cross hotline used to recruit volunteers

THE Shanghai Red Cross Association yesterday launched a service hotline (6323-7380) to recruit volunteers to serve in the city’s 10 Red Cross institutes as part of its celebrations for the 60th Red Cross Day today.

The association stipulates that volunteers must be available to offer their services at least once a month and work for more than two hours every time. They are also required to keep up their service for at least a year.

Foreign volunteers are also welcomed to the join the activity but so far a foreign language hotline service is not available.

The association will interview candidates and provide free training to those who pass the interview. Volunteers will get a certificate from the administration.

The administration unveiled 10 Red Cross service centers yesterday, including one at Fudan University’s Children’s Hospital and at Nanhui Central Hospital.

Benchmark deal for mothers in workforce

FEMALE employees will earn the same salary during pregnancy and while nursing, according to amendments to a women’s rights law.

The amended law was adopted at the 35th Session of the 12th Shanghai People’s Congress which sat yesterday.

The Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests states that pregnant or nursing women can be moved to a new post but must keep the same pay.

“The previous law just stipulated that their basic wages must remain the same and their work contracts cannot be terminated,” said Song Zhongbei, director of the female affairs division in the Shanghai Trade Union.

“So some enterprises reduced salary to the minimum wage after arranging a new post for the pregnant worker.

“But nowadays the basic wage only accounts for a very small portion of the total salary, so it is necessary to amend the law.”

The law also states that pregnant or nursing workers are entitled to have their work load and work time reduced.

Employees should also get at least 80 percent of their salary when on maternity leave.

The amendments state that enterprises should hold women’s health checks at least once every two years, and the government will organize regular checks for retired women.

The incidence of breast cancer in the city has increased in the past 30 years, Song said.

In 1972, 17.7 women out of every 100,000 developed breast cancer. In 2004 it was 55.66 out of 100,000.

“So we suggest enterprises hold health checks for women every year if possible, in order to ensure treatment for the disease, which is a major cause of death among women,” Song said.

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The law also suggests enterprises sign a special contract with female employees to guarantee their rights and interests.

“The special contracts represent the different cultures of enterprises,” Song said.

The Shanghai Diesel Engine Co gives women employees more than seven months’ pregnant an hour’s extra break time a day.

More than 30,000 enterprises have signed special contracts with female employees, covering about 700,000 women in the city.

Chinese, Swiss minds unite

THE city’s top universities will be assisted in funds and human resources by a Swiss science organization.

Fudan and Tongji universities are on the recipient list, according to yesterday’s Science and Technology Forum, which has the theme “Innovation for the Future.”

The event was hosted by the Consulate General of Switzerland in Shanghai and the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality. The Swissnex Shanghai, a science and technology center founded by the Swiss Education and Research Institution, an affiliated organization with the Consulate General of Switzerland in Shanghai, will begin operations in autumn.

About six Chinese and six Swiss scientists will work in the center, promoting cooperation between the top universities in the two countries.

The center will set up a foundation to award outstanding scientists from the universities. Students who make innovations in science and technology will also be rewarded.

“It’s the first time that we have set up such a science and technology center in Shanghai,” said Charles Kleiber, secretary of the institution.

“We chose Shanghai as the priority city because it has many common grounds with Switzerland, a place with a huge population and little resources, but always making efforts to promote innovations in science and technology.”

Bayer Signs MOU With China Europe International Business School

Bayer has signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Europe International Business School to work together to develop and enhance best practices in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors in China, which have grown rapidly in recent years.

Bayer Technology and Engineering (Shanghai) Company Ltd. (BTES), a subsidiary of Bayer Technology Services of Leverkusen, Germany, signed the MOU with CEIBS a month after Bayer and the CEIBS established the “Bayer Chair in Strategy and Marketing” as well as the “CEIBS Center for Health Policy and Management.”

A key element of the MOU is the joint hosting of the “International Technology Excellence Congress in Process & Pharmaceutical Industry,” which was recently held on the CEIBS campus in Shanghai from April 17 – 18, 2007. The congress, which is set to become a joint annual event from this year onward, featured leading international experts from the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors.

“The cooperation with the China Europe International Business School, China’s leading international business school, is a landmark step forward, not only for Bayer Technology Services in China, but also in the continuing development of the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors,” said Dr. Armin Knors, head of BTES, at the congress, which attracted more than 150 participants from the chemical industry and leading universities. “These industries are likely to play a critical role in the ongoing growth of China, and we believe that the MOU will facilitate improvements in practices and procedures, both from a technological perspective and also in terms of the knowledge and expertise that workers in these sectors will need to have.”

The planned cooperation under the five-year agreement is just the latest stage in the sustained growth of Bayer Technology Services in the Asia-Pacific region. In recent years, the company as carried out a range of complex, cutting edge projects in China.

Dr. Rolf Cremer, Dean of the China Europe International Business School, said: “Our mission is to provide an understanding of international business management practices and how these can be applied in China. Our relationship with Bayer Technology Services means that we will be able to work closely with an acknowledged industry leader to help advance best practice in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors in China.”

CEIBS was established in Shanghai on November 8, 1994 and is the leading China-based international business school. Its main objective is the contribute to the economic development of this country and its business communities. It does this by offering MBA students, top managers and senior executives of companies operating in, or planning to enter, China the latest knowledge and a thorough understanding of current practices in international management, helping participants to adapt them successfully to their own business environment. Based on its own campus in Pudong, Shanghai, the school is a not-for-profit joint venture established under an agreement between MOFTEC and the European Commission. CEIBS also has representative offices in Beijing and Shenzhen.

Graduates matched with firms

SHANGHAI has launched a technician training program to solve unemployment among young people by matching polytechnic and college graduates with employers, city officials announced yesterday.

The pilot training program will be implemented this year in schools and vocational institutes specializing in training of students for the automobile, equipment manufacturing, new material and new energy, logistics, trade, exhibition and other manufacturing industries.

Jiao Yang, the city government spokeswoman, said matching graduates with companies could fill the professional vacancies while at the same time ease the city’s youth unemployment pressure.

Schools are required to cooperate with firms to design curriculums and carry out classroom teaching according to employers’ requirements.

Schools can send students to work at the companies on a regular basis throughout the three-year study period to gain practical experience. But the total hands-on job training period should not be less than one year.

The government will allocate money from the city’s unemployment fund to subsidize companies for costs of using their equipment.

Officials said the training program was expected to raise the city’s percentage of high-level technicians from 17 percent now to 25 percent by 2010.

Foreign automakers plan free labor training

GENERAL Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler announced today they will provide training for their suppliers in China on how to keep their working conditions safe, health and legal.

The plan has the backing of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, a government-supported industry group, the three automakers said in an announcement, according to The Associated Press.

General Motors Corp has more than 20,000 employees in China and relies on suppliers employing thousands more. Ford Motor Co and German-American automaker DaimlerChrysler AG similarly have many suppliers based in China.

Senior executives of the three automakers were in China’s commercial capital for the weeklong 2007 Shanghai Auto Show, which ends on Saturday.

The automakers will use training designed by the Automotive Industry Action Group aimed at educating suppliers about Chinese labor laws and improving compliance with safe working standards, the statement said.

“The single most important resource at any of our member companies is people,” J. Scot Sharland, the action group’s executive director, said in the statement.

“Given the tremendous growth of North American investment in the developing Chinese automotive supply chain, it is imperative that these companies are cognizant of local labor laws and fundamentally understand that Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler expect 100 percent compliance.”

The training is due to begin by the middle of 2007, it said.

The statement cited an unnamed official from the Chinese automotive industry group noting the need for companies to abide by domestic labor laws.

Multinational companies operating or sourcing in China are under intensifying scrutiny for labor conditions at their factories and those of their suppliers. Meanwhile, China has been urging foreign-invested companies to let employees join the government-sanctioned labor federation.
The Automotive Industry Action Group was set up in 1982 to handle industry-related issues such as cost reduction, product quality, health, safety and the environment. It has more than 1,500 member companies in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

The group said it is also beginning training sessions in Mexico in mid-2007.

US firm has eye on acquisition

GRACE Construction Products, a leading US construction and building materials maker, said it plans to complete at least one acquisition this year in China.

Jeremy Gray, Grace’s vice president for Asia Pacific, said in an interview that the company also plans to build one or two plants in 2007 in China’s underdeveloped western region to capture potential growth there. It now has four manufacturing sites in the country.

The company is a business unit of New York-listed W.R. Grace & Co.

China vows neutrality in choosing 3G systems

CHINA will be “technologically neutral” when choosing standards for high-speed wireless services in the world’s biggest mobile market by users, Xi Guohua, a vice minister at the Ministry of Information Industry, said yesterday.

China approved the domestically developed time division synchronous code division multiple access, or TD-SCDMA, in January 2006 as a standard for third-generation services. The government has said it is considering two other technologies, wideband CDMA, or WCDMA, and CDMA2000, for 3G, which allows video conferencing and faster downloads of songs on to handsets.

“We will treat WCDMA and CDMA2000 equally,” Xi said at the Boao Forum held in southern China’s Hainan Island. “It has nothing to do with supporting a locally developed standard.”

Telecommunication equipment makers such as Ericsson AB are awaiting China’s issuance of 3G licenses to spur spending on networks, Bloomberg News reported. The government has said 3G services will be available for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, without giving a more detailed time frame or saying which other standards it will adopt.

No timetable

Xi reiterated that the government doesn’t have a specific timetable. The issuance of 3G licenses isn’t dependent on the outcome of a trial of TD-SCDMA being carried out by China Mobile Communications Corp, Xi said.

China will consider the maturity of the technology and how starting 3G services will affect the competitiveness of the domestic telecommunications market, Xi said. The government is hastening plans to reorganize the industry, he said.

Xi’s comments come after European Union Media Commissioner Viviane Reding on April 12 cited the same pledge by China’s Information Industry Minister Wang Xudong to be “technologically neutral” and to issue more than one 3G license.

Most 3G networks in Europe are based on WCDMA.

Compensation disputes on the rise at work

DISPUTES over compensation for terminations of work contracts are on the rise, according to the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau in its quarterly report released yesterday.

The arbitration division received 1,400 disputes about work contract termination during the first quarter of this year. Of those, about 75 percent were over compensation.

“Nowadays most employees choose to get compensation when it is illegal for the company to terminate a contract instead of insisting to stay in the company,” said Sui Wei, vice director of the bureau’s arbitration division.

“Most of the employees involved in these kinds of disputes are between the age of 18 and 40, and it has become a trend to prefer compensation,” Sui said.

Most disputes occur in private enterprises.

Other main causes of disputes are wage and insurance benefits, according to the report.

“But the number of disputes over arrears of wages has decreased by about 30 percent,” Sui said.

The number of dispute applications that can be handled by arbitration has been increased, Sui said.

Arroyo to sign US$2b deals on China visit

PHILIPPINEP President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was due to depart for a shortened visit to China today to conclude deals amounting to US$2 billion worth of Chinese investment, The Associated Press reported.

The visit, originally set for five days, was cut short to 12 hours after Arroyo’s husband underwent open heart surgery April 9. He was expected to be released from a hospital tomorrow, when Arroyo returns to Manila.

Apart from signing and approving several investment agreements, Arroyo was scheduled to take part in the weekend Boao Forum for Asia meeting of top government officials and business leaders, presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates, Bangladeshi Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus and Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also were expected to attend the forum in southern Hainan province, Bunye said.

He said Arroyo “brings to the forum her expertise and strong grasp of regional and geopolitical matters in her capacity as president and as chair of ASEAN,” the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Arroyo has said earlier the investments in the Philippines will be funded by the Chinese government. She did not elaborate. Her visit to China in 2004 yielded US$1.2 billion in combined investment commitments and soft loans.