Archives 2009

Sanofi-Aventis to Invest USD90mn More in China

PowerRating — Sanofi-Aventis SA (NYSE:SNY), one of the top pharmaceuticals producer in Europe, will additionally pour USD 90 million into China, and an insulin glargine pre-filled injection production line is scheduled to break earth in the Beijing Economic-technological Development Area.

Presently, the company still has great confidence in China’s development prospect, so it decides to invest more in such a market with growth potential. Sanofi-Aventis intends to spend a lot of money building or expanding its factories and seeking more partners locally, in accordance with the country’s increasing public health demand.

The Sanofi-Aventis CEO Chris Viehbacher also revealed that the European pharmaceutical giant and the Society of Diabetes of Chinese Medical Association would cooperate in a sizable type-2 diabetes gene research, in which about 46,000 diabetes patients and non-diabetes individuals are invited to participate.

So far, Sanofi-Aventis has invested more than USD 300 million in China, hiring over 3,300 employees, and its production bases are dotted in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen.

China labour disputes rise as economy slows

BEIJING (AFP) — The number of labour disputes in China have soared amid the global financial crisis as laid-off employees seek salaries owed to them by suddenly defunct companies, state press reported on Wednesday.

A total of 98,568 cases involving labour disputes were filed in Chinese courts in the first three months of 2009, up 59 percent year on year, the China Daily said, citing figures from the nation’s supreme court.

“Amid the global financial crisis, the number of businesses going into the red or going bankrupt continues to grow, leading to more disputes over salary claims,” Du Wanhua, a top official with the court, was quoted as saying.

Du said the rise was also likely due to the introduction last year of a labour contract law that provided a more solid legal footing for complaints and increased workers’ awareness of their rights.

The newspaper said the increase followed a 93 percent surge in such cases in 2008 to 286,221.

Chinese officials have repeatedly warned of the potential for widespread unrest if unemployment continues to grow.

The World Bank last month forecast China’s economy would grow 6.5 percent in 2009.

That would be its slowest expansion in nearly two decades and well below the eight percent level that Chinese leaders say is needed to keep enough people in work and to avoid unrest.

The economy, which grew nine percent in 2008, has slowed sharply amid the collapse of overseas markets for China-made goods due to the world economic downturn.

Thousands of factories and other businesses have failed in recent months, throwing millions out of work and leading to protests in some areas as angry workers demanded back pay owed by failed companies.

Senior Merchandiser ?Textile) (mkt285sh)

Job Title: Senior Merchandiser ?Textile?
Report To: Asia Textile Coordinator
Location: Shanghai
Our client belongs to world famous retailer groups’ Union specialized in different kinds of store products. Our client is one of the world’s largest sourcing organizations, serving some of the largest retailers in the world. Based on what they are good at, they consciously make strategies that continue to build, maintain and utilize their unique competences and capabilities to ensure sustainable growth.
They set up their Asia sourcing centre in Shanghai, and their office here is in charge of sourcing & quality control of the suppliers. They are now looking for a senior merchandiser for their textile department who is directly report to their Asia Sourcing director who comes from France.

Job Description:
Responsibilities:
1. In charge of his own turnover and have to goal his quantitative and qualitative targets
2. Is the link between supplier and each category
3. To carry out business trip for sourcing and organize also buyer’s schedule
4. Have to follow sample and file asking by each category
5. To negotiate price and import process with suppliers
6. Strength of suggestions for products, suppliers and packaging
7. First evaluation for new suppliers based on commercial, administrative and production terms.
8. Factories and fairs visit have to be plan
9. To keep update knowledge about costing, product, market and process (internal & external)
10. To look after Group import process policy
11. To be sure about information received and sent

Requirement:
1. Bachelor degree or above.
2. Minimum five years work experience in sourcing or purchasing, familiar with Domestic and International purchasing.
3. Familiar with International Trading Process, prefer to Garments, Home Texitile.
4. Strong with pricing and negotiating skills. Initiative, creative, flexibility and willing to work under pressure.
5. Excellent at communication and interpersonal skills
6. Fluency in English, both in oral and written.
7. Able to work under pressure.
* Please send us your complete resume (in Chinese and in English) to: ‘topjob_mkt285sh@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject please include the position name and job #

L’Oreal still hiring fresh graduates amid tough times

L’OREAL is still recruiting fresh graduates here amid the tough economic environment, as it opts to cut costs by improving efficiency instead of scrapping jobs.

‘Clearly we have to look at cost cutting but we’re not looking at cutting heads,’ said L’Oreal’s executive vice-president for human resources Geoff Skingsley.

‘We are not stopping recruiting of graduates. We have a steady long-term approach to recruitment.’

L’Oreal has a long-standing relationship with the National University of Singapore, he said.

However, the international cosmetics group is scaling back on recruiting more experienced staff.

Other ways in which it is containing costs include cutting travel budgets.

Despite the downturn, Asia remains a bright spot for the group.

‘It’s a high-growth region,’ said Mr Skingsley.

‘It’s clear from a population point of view, from retail sophistication, demographic trends – all of these things here work in the favour of the beauty industry.’

Markets such as China and Thailand deliver steady growth, while newer markets such as Vietnam offer lots of potential.

In FY 2008, L’Oreal’s Asian sales jumped 16.3 per cent year on year to 1.84 billion euros (S$3.59 billion). It reported consolidated sales of 17.542 billion euros for the year.

Based on the group’s strong brands and innovative efforts, Mr Skingsley is upbeat about L’Oreal’s ability to weather the economic storm.

‘Our industry is one that retains relevance even when times are tough,’ he said. A portfolio of 26 brands means a weaker performance by some is offset by a stronger showing by others.

L’Oreal remains committed to nurturing local talent. ‘We take pride in giving international opportunities to people so they can gain exposure in other markets and bring that exposure back to their own markets,’ Mr Skingsley said.

For instance, L’Oreal Singapore’s new managing director Chris Neo is a Singaporean who has been with the company for 14 years.

L’Oreal employs 63,000 people worldwide, including 350 in Singapore.

Bank of China goes on hiring spree in Switzerland

Bank of China, China’s second largest lender, has made seven senior hires for its new Swiss private banking office, with an emphasis of coverage on the Middle East and Latin America.

BoC became the first Chinese bank to open a private banking office in Switzerland last November, offering private banking and a fund management service.

The new hires were detailed in a press release from the bank. Fatima Al Arabi joins as head of institutional clients, the Middle East. Mohamad Bleik joins as co-head of private banking, in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Teresa Cheung-Constantin, joins as a senior private banker.

Jean-Pierre De Barro joins as head of sales. Julien Froidevaux is head of the independent managers department. Jose Luis Piccinini joins as head of institutional clients, Latin America. Daniel Alexander Rieber, joins as senior private banker, Latin America.

The new hires report to Jacques Mechelany, the former chief executive of Heritage Fund Management, who last November was hired to head the new private bank.

The private bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of China (UK), which is itself a subsidiary of the Bank of China group.

A spokesperson for the bank did not immediately return calls.

Commentary: Stimulus package no solution to long-term development

BOAO, Hainan, April 19 (Xinhua) — When the world’s third largest economy is walking out of the shadow of economic downturn, it has found more problems that demand to be immediately addressed when looking into a long-term picture.

Government and business leaders attending the Boao Forum for Asia, a platform for regional cooperation, agreed that the crisis will be over, but China can not return to the former export-oriented development pattern that depends on the demand in the United States and Europe. Those days are over, and now the country should learn to walk with both legs — domestic demand and exports.

When unemployment rate started to rise, the government adopted the 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package at the end of last year. It is true that government-sponsored infrastructure projects have created jobs for construction workers, but what will they do when the projects are over?

The stimulus package can not replace a long-term strategy for the country. With 1.3 billion people, China needs sustainable economic growth. Growth creates jobs. Jobs mean stability.

But where can China find the key to sustainable growth and stable employment? This question defies a simple answer.

As an emerging economy on the way of industrialization and urbanization, the situation is extremely complicated and diversified across the nation. However, the bottleneck that affects robust economic growth is more or less the same in many areas. To break them will definitely unleash enormous driving force for the economy.

The small and middle-sized enterprises (SME) in the private sector have sparked unprecedented economic boom since China adopted the reform and opening-up policy in 1978.

From Huawei to UTStarcom, from Baidu to Alibaba, these players — not state-owned industrial giants — are often fighting at the frontier of reform and development. As effective and efficient players in Chinese economy, the SMEs have been offering stable jobs for China’s ever-growing labor force.

However, when the financial crisis comes, bank lending often goes more to larger state-owned enterprises instead of the SMEs, and the latter are often the first to go bankrupt. This is unfair, and definitely hinders the healthy development of the economy.

Reforms are already underway, and this problem should be addressed with concrete measures from both the government and the banking system.

Another way to make China’s human resources better contribute to the economy should be the development of service industry. Instead of making things, people can do things to make money. More boosts should be given to information technology, telecommunications, medical care and education.

These sectors, rather than traditional factories, will give a platform for China’s huge number of college graduates, who get the opportunity of using their education to make money and create wealth for the country.

The lack of talents in key fields such as the financial sector and management also restricts the development of the national economy.

Good practices have been made in larger and state-owned companies. Ever since 2003, China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) have started recruiting executives for China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The application was open to top talents worldwide, and some of the SOEs even cancelled limit to the nationality of applicants. From 2003 to 2007, the SASAC hired 91 executives out of 5,985 applicants, 11 of whom had overseas experience.

Other companies should take similar measures. Not only should they introduce management talents, but also hire more experienced financial staff. When the Wall Street is laying off employees, it is high time that Chinese companies bring these talents to China to boost domestic growth.

China needs reforms, in many fields. As a developing country facing varied challenges, China should be prudent in blending long-term economic reforms and short-term stimulus policies.

The two aspects should be carried out in parallel. And one thing should always be born in mind: No policy solves everything.

Novartis in hiring mood – in China

Big Pharma continues its march into emerging markets. Chinese newspapers are full of a Novartis expansion push into their country, which is expected to boost employment and lead to–gasp!–a recruitment push for sales reps. And Pfizer said today it would mount a tender offer for Pfizer India stock, seeking to buy another one-third stake in the publicly traded company.

Novartis is ploughing money into its Chinese operations, including R&D and sales and marketing. Joe Jiminez, CEO of Novartis Pharma, wouldn’t say exactly how much the company is investing there, only saying that it’s “a considerable amount,” according to China Daily. The company plans to launch six new products in the country while boosting its clinical research, too.

China recently announced a healthcare reform initiative that would emphasize treatment for chronic disease; that’s something Novartis could capitalize upon, too. The newspaper says Novartis intends to “further strengthen its cooperation with the Chinese government and hospitals” in light of that reform package. The upshot? More jobs. Novartis added about 500 to its Chinese workforce in 2008, and it aims to recruit even more this year, the majority of them in sales.

Next, Pfizer: The company now owns some 41 percent of its Indian subsidiary, with the rest publicly traded. The drugmaker wants to boost that stake to 75 percent, in a tender that could be worth about $136 million. The offer is expected to open in June, managed by HSBC Securities in India; it comes in at about an 8.6 percent premium over last week’s closing price.

Quality Supervisor (Toys) (ml039sh)

Job Title: Quality Supervisor (Toys)
Job Description:
Company introduction:
Our client belongs to world famous retailer groups’ Union specialized in different kinds of store products. Our client is one of the world’s largest sourcing organizations, serving some of the largest retailers in the world. Based on what they are good at, they consciously make strategies that continue to build, maintain and utilize their unique competences and capabilities to ensure sustainable growth.
They set up their Asia sourcing centre in Shanghai, and their office here is in charge of sourcing & quality control of the suppliers. They are now looking for quality supervisor for their textile department who reports to quality manager.
Location: Shanghai
Responsibilities:
1. Follow up of all Quality matters for each related categories
2. Make sure all shipments comply with all European and French standards
3. Make sure all shipments comply with French Head office requirements
4. Applying the Quality methods and procedures provided by Asia Quality Manager
5. Technical support for French Quality Managers
6. Factory Audits. Follow up the productions.
7. Make sure the Technical specifications provided by French Quality Managers are fulfilled ?Size set samples checking, PP samples validation
8. Make sure all testing and control plan required are applied by the factories.
9. Update all information related to laboratories and inspection companies.
10. Advise and inform all related department in Asia or in France by reporting
11. Apply any existing tools and means to ship on time according to purchase order ETD
12. Provide explicit information to let French Head office make the final and right decision.
13. The Quality Supervisor is under supervision of Asia Quality Manager

Requirements:
1. Bachelor degree or above.
2. Minimum five years work experiences in toys quality. Be familiar with Domestic and International purchasing.
3. Strong with quality audit and quality controlling for the suppliers. Initiative, creative, flexibility and willing to work under pressure.
4. Excellent at communication and interpersonal skills
5. Fluency in English, both in oral and written.
6. Able to work under pressure.
* Please send us your complete resume (in Chinese and in English) to: ‘topjob_ml039sh@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject please include the position name and job #

Quality Supervisor (Textile) (ml038sh)

Job Title: Quality Supervisor(Textile)
Job Description:
Company introduction:
Our client belongs to world famous retailer groups’ Union specialized in different kinds of store products. Our client is one of the world’s largest sourcing organizations, serving some of the largest retailers in the world. Based on what they are good at, they consciously make strategies that continue to build, maintain and utilize their unique competences and capabilities to ensure sustainable growth.
They set up their Asia sourcing centre in Shanghai, and their office here is in charge of sourcing & quality control of the suppliers. They are now looking for quality supervisor for their textile department who reports to quality manager.
Location: Shanghai
Responsibilities:
1. Follow up of all Quality matters for each related categories
2. Make sure all shipments comply with all European and French standards
3. Make sure all shipments comply with French Head office requirements
4. Applying the Quality methods and procedures provided by Asia Quality Manager
5. Technical support for French Quality Managers
6. Factory Audits. Follow up the productions.
7. Make sure the Technical specifications provided by French Quality Managers are fulfilled ?Size set samples checking, PP samples validation
8. Make sure all testing and control plan required are applied by the factories.
9. Update all information related to laboratories and inspection companies.
10. Advise and inform all related department in Asia or in France by reporting
11. Apply any existing tools and means to ship on time according to purchase order ETD
12. Provide explicit information to let French Head office make the final and right decision.
13. The Quality Supervisor is under supervision of Asia Quality Manager

Requirements:
1. Bachelor degree or above.
2. Minimum five years work experience in textile quality. Be familiar with Domestic and International purchasing.
3. Strong with quality audit and quality controlling for the suppliers. Initiative, creative, flexibility and willing to work under pressure.
4. Being familiar with children’s garments is a plus
5. Excellent at communication and interpersonal skills
6. Fluency in English, both in oral and written.
7. Able to work under pressure.
* Please send us your complete resume (in Chinese and in English) to: ‘topjob_ml038sh@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject please include the position name and job #

Wal-Mart rejigs jobs in China

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, yesterday launched a job optimization and regrouping program to reduce labor costs in China.

Under the program, the company plans to relocate some of the mid-management staff at its stores to similar posts in the new stores that are being opened in China.

The company intends to start this by shifting five to six mid-management posts from each of its present stores, said Leally Huang, public relations manager, Wal-Mart China.

Wal-Mart had 144 stores across China by the end of 2008, and plans to open 23 new stores by the end of the first-quarter this year.

“Those who are unsatisfied with the program and want to leave would be given adequate compensation, but we will try and see if we can retain them,” said Huang.

The company’s decision come close on the heels of a report in National Business Daily that Wal-Mart was implementing a lay-off program in China, its largest since entry in 1996.

Around 10,000 staff including 2,500-odd mid-management personnel and many others at different lower levels from Wal-Mart’s 144 stores were reportedly demoted or asked to leave with compensation.

Huang, however, has denied the report. “The program is not about job cuts. It is a corporate interior personnel reshuffle that has been necessitated due to the decline in our corporate business,” she said.

Hurt by the economic slowdown especially in the US, Wal-Mart’s global sales revenue dropped by 0.1 percent in the last five weeks of 2008, which according to the company, is far below its expectations.

The company, however, said markets like China, Brazil and Mexico are still showing robust growth.

Company executives maintained that they are still scouting for new opportunities outside of the US, especially in Asia-Pacific, with China figuring as one of the most prominent locations for growth.

Huang said Wal-Mart’s China business grew in 2008, but refused to disclose details. “Wal-Mart’s China expansion plan has not been deterred,” she said.

In 2008, Wal-Mart opened 19 stores, compared to 30 in 2007.

It is reported that Wal-Mart’s regrouping program has not gone down well with employees from the Guangdong and Hunan provinces turning to the local trade unions for protection.

“They are just special cases, and Wal-Mart will sort them out,” Huang said.

Wu Ruiling, deputy secretary-general of China Chain Store & Franchise Association, said supermarkets are one of the few areas in the retailing sector that has not been negatively affected by the financial crisis.

France-based Carrefour said it will not cut jobs in China, while Wu-Mart, another leading player with 700 stores nationwide, said it plans to recruit around 3,000 to 4,000 this year.