Category News of China

Feature: China’s Huawei seeks to expand services in E Africa

China’s Huawei Technologies, a leader in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, is seeking to expand its services to become a dominant player in telecom services in East Africa.
The telecom firm which is marking its 10 years of business in East Africa said its expansion is in line with Huawei’s strategy to expand its regional network by offering customer’s specialized service and engineering teams to respond promptly to customer requirements.

The telecoms company has had exceptional growth in the region since it began operations in 1998 in Kenya and become the largest CDMA product provider in the region.

Speaking during celebrations in Nairobi on Tuesday night, Huawei Kenya CEO Herman He said the company first tapped into East Africa market with its cutting-edge technology and top-ranking services.

He said Huawei, together with African operators, has built a comprehensive communication infrastructure, enriching the life of African people due to diversified communication services offered by the telecom company.

“Based on our equipments and solution, Kenyans enjoy various quality and affordable services, including value added service, voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and broadband service through NGN, CDMA and 3G,” said Herman.

Herman noted that some of the leading telecommunication companies such as Kenya’s Safaricom, Celtel Kenya and leading fixed-line incumbent Telkom Kenya have benefited from Huawei’ s advanced technology, reliable products and quality service.

“In Kenya, Huawei is the major supplies of optical transmission network of Safaricom, and have offered it high speed wireless internet access service of 7.2Mb through leading 3G solution in Nairobi,” he said.

“We have also successfully built Telkom Kenya’s National CDMA wireless, as a end to end solution, we also provide Intelligent Network, NGN, Data Communication,” he said.

Herman said Huawei will never stop its efforts in providing timely response, proficient service and customized service portfolio.

The Chinese company has created more than 400 jobs both directly and indirectly in Kenya while it has employed over 3,000 employees in the sub-Saharan Africa.

Joe Deng, Huawei’s East Africa President, said the firm has invested about 1 million U.S. dollars in Kenya to establish a fully furnished training center with the latest and best equipment to train local customers, partners and their staff in the latest communication technology.

“Huawei East Africa has long-term strategically plan to invest in Kenya and become 100 percent Kenyan company. Area of investment will cover social responsibility, environmental awareness, technology education and knowledge transfer as well as enriching Kenyans life through communication, Deng said.

Huawei Kenya, with around 65 percent Kenyan employees, is a registered local company. It is the headquarters of East Africa, serving other branch offices including Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, and Ethiopian among other countries.

“We constantly update our customers on the latest technological developments which allow them to make informed decisions for their organizations and customers. In 2008, we will strengthen our investment in wireless terminals, as well as research and development,” said Deng.

The Chinese company was the first to introduce next generation telecommunication technologies in Africa such as UMTS/WCDMA, WiMAXand CDMA EV-DO and services mainstream mobile operators such as Vodacom, Orange, Telkom, MTN, Milliccom, Celtel and Safaricom among others.

Haier launches first after-sale services center in Jordan

AMMAN, June 1 (Xinhua) — Haier, one of China’s Top 100 IT Companies, launched its first after-sale services center in Jordan, in an attempt to extend more extensive technical support to its Middle Eastern customers, an official with the company told Xinhua on Sunday.

Yan Xuhong, General Manager of Haier Middle East, inaugurated the center and affirmed that it would provide fast and reliable services to its customers and clients.

The center, with the latest technical equipment, is run by a number of specialized electronic and technical engineers who have undergone extensive training in the mother company, Yan said.

As part of promotion, Haier has offered a two-week of free charge maintenance and repair of all Haier products, according to Yan.

Haier, the world’s fourth largest white goods manufacturer, specializes in technology research, manufacture industry, trading and financial services.

Haier has 240 subsidiary companies and 30 design centers, plants and trade companies and over 50,000 employees throughout the world. It registered a global revenue of 107.5 billion RMB (about 15.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006.

Chinese Pilots Pay To Quit

Hong Kong – Employees worldwide desire the protection of lifetime employment, a so-called “iron rice bowl” that can never break, and can’t be taken away. But in China it’s this very kind of lifetime employment that airline pilots are trying to end. One problem, though, is that even when pilots succeed at leaving their jobs they can be forced to pay vast sums to employers on the way out.

In recent months the grievances of Chinese pilots have received wide-spread publicity due to strikes staged against their employers, and the unfair treatment they have received in the newly-liberalized aviation industry.

Adding insult to injury, a slew of court verdicts has ordered the pilots to pay millions to terminate their employment contracts.

On Thursday, Air China agreed to let six pilots in its Zhejiang branch go, but only after it knew it would collect between 1.29 million yuan ($185,612) and 1.7 million yuan ($244,604) from each, in a closely-followed dispute. Two months ago one Air China pilot fainted upon hearing a verdict that ordered him to pay 2.1 million yuan ($302,158) for his resignation.

Also, Chinese pilots have seen their careers suspended and salary halted for up to three years as local courts dealt with their resignations; the airlines inevitably sought legal protection, citing the vast sums they invested in training the pilots. Worse, the law is on the airlines’ side: resignations from Chinese pilots are effective only if their employer agrees to it.

The problem is that the Chinese government controls all four major airlines—Air China, China Southern, China Eastern and Hainan Airlines—and keeps a tight leash on pilots, in much the way it runs the military. In fact, Chinese airlines enlist pilots from the military. This is despite 2004’s market liberalization, which allows small privately-run airlines to set up shop, and compete.

A boom in China tourism also creates an acute shortage for pilots, making them too precious a property to lose. Despite this, pressure from long working hours, intense overtime, and laxness in management and safety issues arising from recent consolidation has prompted an exodus of pilots from the state-owned sector to small, privately-run aviation startups.

Short of resignation, Chinese pilots have sought to get attention through strikes, mass sick leaves, and hunger strike. In one extreme maneuver, on March 20, China Eastern Airlines pilots disrupted 31 flights by flying back to their take-off point, just minutes after departure. The pilots were unhappy about a new, high tax on a formerly tax-free portion of their income and for being put under the loss-making Shanghai parent airline after a 2004 nationwide industry shakeout..

While almost all Chinese state-controlled airlines have disgruntled pilots, loss-making airlines based in Shanghai seem to have particular problems. A branch there was blamed for three waves of mass resignations since 2004 and in one tally, more than two-third of a 70-plus pilot team had tried to resign.

Hard to find staff

Fifteen percent of employers across Chinese mainland are finding it difficult to fill jobs, according to an annual talent shortage survey released yesterday by Manpower, a world leader in the employment service industry.

The top three vacant jobs are technicians, sales representatives and management or executive positions, and the ratio is four percentage points lower than that of 2007 survey result, said the January 2008 survey, based on 3,900 employers in Chinese mainland.

Compared with 2007, technicians top the list fill for the second year in a row. Sales representatives moved from third to second, and management/executives, ranked fourth in 2007, moved up to the third-most difficult job to fill. In addition, labor positions fell from second to ninth.

“Judging from survey results of the last three years, talent shortage remains a problem in Chinese mainland,” said Lucille Wu, managing director of Manpower Greater China.

“It require joint efforts from companies, individuals and the government to solve the problem,” said Lucille, adding companies could invest more in employee training, strengthen cooperation with educational institutions, encourage employees to extend their working scope and help upgrade employee skills.

“As for individuals, they can develop their own skills, attend more training and review their own career interests. The government should be committed to a long-term talent training plan, encouraging the development of vocational education and cooperating with companies to forecast future talent needs,” said Lucille.

The top 10 positions that employers in Chinese mainland are having difficulty filling in 2008:

2008 Hot Jobs

1. Technicians

2. Sales Representatives

3. Management/Executives

4. Sales Managers

5. Machinists/Machine Operators

6. Engineers

7. Production Operators

8. Skilled Manual Trades (primarily electricians, carpenters/joiners or welders)

9. Laborers

10. Restaurant & Hotel Staff

2007 Hot Jobs

1. Technicians

2. Laborers

3. Sales Representatives

4. Management/Executives

5. Engineers

6. Customer Service Representatives/Customer Support

7. Researchers (R&D)

8. Sales Managers

9. Supervisors

10. Designers

Takashimaya plans Shanghai outlet

TAKASHIMAYA Co plans to invest as much as 5 billion yen (US$48 million) to open a department store in Shanghai in its first foray into China, people familiar with the company’s plans said.

The 55,000-square-meter outlet may open as soon as 2010 as Japan’s third-largest department-store operator seeks to offset a decline in its home market, the three people, who refused to be identified before talks with a Chinese developer are completed, said.

China creates 12 mln jobs for urbanities in 2007

BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) — China created 12.04 million jobs for urban dwellers in 2007 and helped 5.15 million laid-off workers find new jobs, said the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Tuesday.

The urban unemployed population was 8.3 million at the end of last year, with the urban registered unemployment rate standing at4.0 percent, down 0.1 percentage point year-on-year, according to a report jointly released by the ministry and the National Bureau of Statistics.

The report revealed that the average annual salary of urban employees reached 24,932 yuan (3,573 U.S. dollars), up 18.7 percent year-on-year in nominal terms and up 13.6 percent adjusted for inflation.

The Ministry of Finance said earlier this month that it would allocate 26 billion yuan this year to help more people find jobs.

In the first quarter, 3.03 million urbanites found a job, or 30percent of the annual goal of 10 million. Meanwhile, 1.28 million laid-off workers were re-employed, or 26 percent of the annual target of 5 million.

Lenovo sees profit more than doubled

LENOVO Group Ltd, the world’s No. 4 personal computer maker, announced yesterday its net profit in the first quarter more than doubled as a result of a one-off gain from the sale of its cell phone unit and strong revenue from the Chinese market.

Lenovo posted a net profit of US$140 million between January and March against earnings of US$60 million a year ago. The first quarter net income included a US$65 million gain from selling its money-losing mobile phone business. The result beat expectations of US$129.2 million by analysts polled by Reuters.

The revenue, excluding the mobile handset business, rose 13.5 percent year on year to US$3.7 billion, higher than the 10 percent revenue growth projected by Citigroup’s analyst Jim Liang.

“Lenovo continued to demonstrate strong execution of our strategies in the past quarter, achieving the eighth consecutive quarter of profitable growth,” Lenovo’s chairman Yang Yuanqing said in a statement.

A slowdown in technology spending in the United States is affecting enterprise-oriented PC firms, like Dell Inc and Lenovo, which bought the Thinkpad brand of laptops from IBM. Meanwhile, Lenovo’s consumer PC business is also facing pressure from bigger rivals like Hewlett-Packard Co and Acer, which has purchased Gateway.

In China, Lenovo’s revenue was US$1.29 billion in the quarter, a jump of 18 percent year on year.

Lenovo is the top sponsor of the coming Beijing Olympic Games and will use the event to launch PCs and laptops that have the Olympic torch design etched on them, Du Ruochao, Lenovo’s general manager of East China region, said at a torch bearers’ welcome conference in Shanghai yesterday.

Lenovo’s share price dropped 2.86 percent to HK$6.45 (92 US cents) yesterday while the Hang Seng Index lost 1.64 percent.

Mainland-Taiwan trade up 21.7% in first four months of 2008

Trade between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan reached 43.91 billion U.S. dollars in the first four months of this year, up 21.7 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Wednesday.

The mainland’s exports to Taiwan reached 8.17 billion U.S. dollars and imports from the island reached 35.74 billion U.S. dollars, up 16.9 percent and 22.8 percent, respectively. the MOC’s figures showed.

During the same period, the mainland attracted investment from Taiwan in 731 projects, down 36.9 percent, while the actual use ofT aiwan investment reached 650 million U.S. dollars, up 29.6 percent.

As of the end of April 2008, cumulative investment from Taiwan in the mainland totaled 46.41 billion U.S. dollars in 75,877 projects. The figures date back to 1988, when mainland-Taiwan trade opened up.

Orange to extend stake in China

ORANGE Business Services, the business communications subsidiary of France Telecom Group, said China is the fastest growing regional market in Asia and it will bring great-volume investment into the country.

OBS’ customers come from two segments: multinational companies in China and home-grown firms which want to expand globally, said Yee May Leong, OBS’ senior vice president of Asia Pacific.

“Our strategy focuses on the emerging markets (this year) as China and India,” Leong told Shanghai Daily from the sideline of the Women’s Forum in Asia in Shanghai.

China is the company’s third biggest regional market in Asia Pacific.

“China will finally outrank the leaders (like Australia) and it will come very soon, I think,” Leong said.

Leong declined to reveal the detailed investment plan in China but she confirmed the company will invest a lot in the country in future.

OBS has expanded into about 200 tier-two and tier-three cities in China through cooperation with domestic carriers like China Telecom, covering Dongguan, Dalian, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Xiamen.

OBS has 2,000 multinational clients in Asia Pacific, including Airbus China and port and finance clients based in Shanghai.

Chinese companies’ foreign investment jumps nearly fourfold in Q1

BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) — Chinese companies’ foreign direct investment expanded 353 percent in the first quarter compared with the same 2007 period as domestic firms sought out a more open global market.

The investment hit 19.34 billion U.S. dollars in the first three months, Vice Minister of Commerce Chen Jian said Sunday at a forum. The figure stood at 18.76 billion U.S. dollars for the whole last year.

China set forth the “going-beyond-the-border” strategy in 1999,encouraging domestic enterprises to invest and do businesses abroad.

To support the outbound investment momentum, the government also offered help, including scrapping unnecessary controls on foreign exchange reserves and simplifying administrative procedures.

More than 12,000 Chinese companies have established firms in about 172 countries and regions by the end of 2007. Foreign investments rose nearly sevenfold from 2002 to 2007.