Category News of China

China plans to open wider in science, technology

Dec.4 – China on Sunday issued a five-year program (2006-2010) on international cooperation of science and technology, promising to open wider to foreign partners.

The program said except those concerning national security or with special requests, China’s key national scientific and technological projects and funds will be open to overseas partners.

Scientific institutions, universities and key national laboratories are required to expand cooperation and exchanges with foreign counterparts, according to the program.

China will also encourage and help enterprises and research institutions to set up overseas research and development agencies for further development by “using international scientific and technology resources”, the program says.

Meanwhile, China will “actively” participate in key international scientific projects, join international scientific organizations and encourage Chinese scientists to work in international organizations, the program says.

It says the moves are aimed at increasing China’s possession of or its reasonable share of intellectual property rights internationally and improving its status on the world science arena.

China also hopes to bolster its high-tech industry and boost export of its high-tech products through such cooperation.

The program listed a number of areas as priorities for cooperation, including clean energy development, environmental protection, HIV/AIDS treatment, responses to newly occurred infectious diseases and chronic diseases, nanoscience and aeronautic and astronautic technology.

Small and medium enterprises have contributed to 70% of China’s import/export

Chinanews, Beijing, Dec. 2 – China Small and Medium Enterprise Index of Economic Development 2005(SMEI) was released on November 28, 2006, which indicates that small and medium enterprises have taken up 99.6% of China’s enterprises in quantity (including small private businesses), and they have contributed to 70% of the country’s export and import.

Small and medium enterprises have become important boosters to China’s economic growth, and they have contributed to about 59% of China’s GDP, and taken up about 60% of the domestic market, as well as 48.2% of the total tax revenue, not to mention that they have also provided 75% of job opportunities in towns and cities in China.

Maximum cap for pay rises in state firms cut

CHINA has cut the maximum allowed margin of wage rises in state-owned companies for this year to keep pay growth, especially in monopolistic sectors.

State enterprises which paid employees twice as much as the average level of local urban wages in 2005 can increase total pay not more than 0.6 percent for each percentage of profit growth this year, according to a circular on the Website of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security late on Wednesday. The original cap was 0.75 percent.

The ministry said the government will stringently inspect the linkage between corporate profits and wage payments in state-owned companies where wages are too high and increasing too fast.

“Such a link-up mechanism is of great importance to help create a healthy relationship between growth in wages and profits,” the circular said.

The adjustment came amid a backdrop of intense public calls, starting in the second half of this year, for a wage reform in state firms where employees are considered outrageously overpaid than the average worker, widening the gap between the rich and poor segments of society.

“The latest move is a step forward to increase state control in reining in wage growth,” said Hou Ning, a columnist for several business newspapers. “But I think there is still a long way to go.”

Workers in state companies, typically in highly regulated industries such as telecommunications, energy and tobacco, usually earn much more than they deserve based on the profit they produce.

The monopolistic nature generates complacency resulting in these state firms operating at lower efficiency than global counterparts, thanks to competition. State firms are accused of contributing lower profit while holding a huge amount of state assets and reserves.

Several reports and surveys have indicated average wage for employees in monopolistic industries is up to three times the national average. The gap could be widened to as much as 10 fold if non-wage income like bonuses and pensions are included.

Next stop China for rail jobs

THE next generation of trains for Sydney’s rail system will be built by a Chinese company with little experience delivering passenger trains to a developed country, a move that will cost hundreds of jobs in the Hunter region.

The Premier, Morris Iemma, made no mention of the Changchun Railway Vehicle Company a fortnight ago when he awarded a $3.6 billion order for 626 rail cars to a consortium headed by the maker of CityRail’s Millennium Trains, Downer EDI Rail.

The Reliance Rail consortium said at the time the experience of EDI in building and maintaining the Millennium Train was a “key plank” in securing Australia’s largest-ever train order.

But EDI will only be responsible for the design and the final fit-out of the double-decker carriages, to be imported from China. Their electronics will be provided by the Japanese company Hitachi.

Changchun boasts on its website the “great progress” it has made in the international rail market, referring to Iran, Pakistan and Zimbabwe as its notable export success stories. Its carriages also operate in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

The 626 carriages in the contract are due to enter the Sydney rail network between 2010 and 2013. They will also replace 498 carriages in the existing fleet.

The Minister for Transport and Deputy Premier, John Watkins, said the Reliance bid provided a superior train at better value for money, “making it a clear winner”.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union campaigned for the contract to go to two local bidders, EDI or United Goninan. The union’s state secretary, Paul Bastian, welcomed the contract going to EDI, but blamed the State Government for requiring only 20 per cent local content. EDI and United, against foreign bidders, had no choice but to look at sourcing some trains from overseas to mount a competitive bid, he said.

EDI says 290 jobs will be created at its Cardiff plant in the Hunter from the contract. However, there is expected to be a net loss of rail-related jobs in the Hunter. United may have to lay off some of the 550 workers at its Newcastle plant.

The NSW director of Australian Industry Group, Mark Goodsell, said the contract required less local content than comparable contracts let by other states.

“There is a risk – a risk to local capacity to build trains and our ability to service them in the future,” he said. He warned of flow-on effects to other manufacturing with the loss of skills.

Mr Watkins defended Changchun’s quality and reliability. “CRC has significant experience building trains in joint-venture arrangements with major international rolling stock manufacturers, including Alstom, Hitachi, Bombardier and Siemens. It also has significant expertise in stainless steel car body construction and is building 540 stainless steel cars with Bombardier for the Beijing Airport line for the 2008 Olympics.”

It was one of few companies that could produce more than 2000 carriages a year.

The Opposition said the project was running late and had blown out from $1.5 billion to $3.6 billion.

Germany sees more job hires

GERMAN unemployment fell more than expected in November to the lowest in four years as increased optimism in the economy prompted companies to hire and the warmest fall on record buoyed the construction industry, a government agency said yesterday.

The number of people out of work, adjusted for seasonal swings, fell 86,000 to 4.24 million, the lowest since November 2002, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said.

Economists expected a decline of 30,000, according to the median of 34 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. The adjusted jobless rate fell to 10.2 percent, a rate last recorded in December 2002.

Maximum cap for pay rises in state firms cut

CHINA has cut the maximum allowed margin of wage rises in state-owned companies for this year to keep pay growth, especially in monopolistic sectors.

State enterprises which paid employees twice as much as the average level of local urban wages in 2005 can increase total pay not more than 0.6 percent for each percentage of profit growth this year, according to a circular on the Website of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security late on Wednesday. The original cap was 0.75 percent.

The ministry said the government will stringently inspect the linkage between corporate profits and wage payments in state-owned companies where wages are too high and increasing too fast.

“Such a link-up mechanism is of great importance to help create a healthy relationship between growth in wages and profits,” the circular said.

The adjustment came amid a backdrop of intense public calls, starting in the second half of this year, for a wage reform in state firms where employees are considered outrageously overpaid than the average worker, widening the gap between the rich and poor segments of society.

“The latest move is a step forward to increase state control in reining in wage growth,” said Hou Ning, a columnist for several business newspapers. “But I think there is still a long way to go.”

Workers in state companies, typically in highly regulated industries such as telecommunications, energy and tobacco, usually earn much more than they deserve based on the profit they produce.

The monopolistic nature generates complacency resulting in these state firms operating at lower efficiency than global counterparts, thanks to competition. State firms are accused of contributing lower profit while holding a huge amount of state assets and reserves.

Several reports and surveys have indicated average wage for employees in monopolistic industries is up to three times the national average. The gap could be widened to as much as 10 fold if non-wage income like bonuses and pensions are included.

White-collars’ jobs irrelevant to their study fields

Chinanews ,Beijing, November 28 ¨C A recent questionnaire survey finds that the jobs of about 80% of white-collar workers in China have nothing or very little to do with the areas of study they were trained for..

Many of them choose a ¡°strange¡± job because they don’t like their fields of study. In fact, only 42% of college students get jobs in their own fields. About 26% actually chose the fields of study at the request (or even orders) of their parents. The others were ¡°assigned¡± to major in the areas of study according to the result of the national college entrance examination.

The pressure of the job market also forces many of them to give up their dreams and pick up jobsthey don’t like at all. For example, many college graduates have become salespersons not because they have learned sales in colleges or because they enjoy the challenge of being salespersons, but because they have no choice: Salespersons are always needed in a commodity economic society.

China-made Christmas gifts sold to 200 countries

Chinanews, Hangzhou, Nov. 28 ¨C Zhejiang’s Yiwu has begun to see an increasing export of Christmas gifts this month when Christmas is no longer than a month away and many super markets in Western Countries are busy collecting Christmas products.

From last May to October, actually, there had been 10-million-US-dollar worth of Christmas gifts made in Yiwu exported to more than 200 countries and regions worldwide every month.

These 200 countries and regions, such as the US, Germany, Holland, and Brazil, have made Yiwu as their key channel importing Christmas commodities by this year, according to a chief of the Yiwu office of the Jinhua Customs.

The exported Christmas goods cover not only traditional colorful lamps and wrapping paper, but also many other categories including costumes, toys, and even household appliances, indicating a climbing added value of export.

Yiwu Festival Gifts Co., Ltd. is now running up a set of Christmas products for South Korea. Salesman of the company said it was a temporary order, and the products ordered by many European and American countries have all been turned out and shipped there already.

Halt to job cuts for two years

ALLIANZ SE, which earlier this year said it will cut about 5,700 jobs at its German insurance units, has prolonged a block on compulsory layoffs for employees there by two years following negotiations with its workers’ council.

Employees won’t face compulsory layoffs “at least” until the end of 2009, Allianz said on its Website. The Munich-based insurer confirmed plans to cut 2,479 jobs by the end of next year and to eliminate a further 2,170 jobs through the end of 2008, it said, adding that it had already cut 1,040 jobs by the end of October, Bloomberg News reported.

“Together with the workers’ council, we found a solution to better take our employees’ interests into account without lowering our sights on our business targets,” Gerhard Rupprecht, head of Allianz’s German holding Allianz Deutschland AG, said in the statement.

The job cuts will be reached through “mutual agreements with employees,” Allianz said. The company also abandoned plans to shut down its office in Cologne, it said.

Ericsson cuts jobs

WIRELESS equipment maker LM Ericsson AB said yesterday it will cut up to 400 administrative and sales jobs in Sweden, but many workers will be offered positions with staffing company Manpower Inc.

Ericsson said it expects between 300 and 400 workers will accept a voluntary redundancy offer that includes either a severance package or a job with Manpower as a consultant. The offer will be presented to about 4,600 workers in sales, marketing and administration, most of them in the Stockholm area. The restructuring program is expected to be completed by the end of January.