Chinese economy where to go post-Olympics
September 28, 2008
As the 2008 Beijing Olympics ended in a splendor of fireworks, concerns over a post-Games downturn for the Chinese economy re-emerged.
History shows that some host countries had experienced post-Olympic declines because investment dropped, such as Tokyo and Seoul.
Japan witnessed a drastic fall in growth the year after the 1964 Games, down to 5.2 percent from the year-earlier 13.1 percent. The Republic of Korea saw the rate slip from 10.6 percent to 6.7 percent in 1989.
Will China follow the same pattern? The world ponders. You can read the rest of article published in China Daily here : News Analysis: Chinese economy where to go post-Olympics
Tags: china parking website, Beijing, growthRelated Posts:
China Releases Implementation Regulations for Labor Contract Law
September 27, 2008
More than eight months after the Labor Contract Law came into effect, China’s State Council has released implementation regulations to clarify certain aspects of the new law. While the labor law was hailed as a landmark step in protecting employee’s rights, many complained it only served to increase a company’s operational cost.
A brief rundown of the new regulations:
-If an employee fails to sign a written labor contract with an employer within one month after commencing work, the employer can terminate the contract with the employee by written notice. Under this circumstance, the employer only needs to pay the salary for the period of work.
-If the employer fails to sign the written contract with the employee within one month, not due to the unwillingness of employee, the employer shall be liable to pay double salary for the period without written contract. The said period starts from the first day after the allotted one month since the employee begun work.
-The law says that if the employee has worked for the employer for over 10 years continuously, the employer shall sign open term contract with the employee for as long as he requires. According to the implementation regulations, the 10 year period is counted from the date the employee started worked for the company and include the time prior to the implementation of the law. This regulation renders the effort of certain companies to terminate and re-employ its employees at the end of 2007 useless.
-If the employer wants to close the company and transfer its employees to another company under the same group, how do we then calculate for the service years? Under the implementation regulations, there are two options. The company can either convert its employees to the other company, including the calculation of his previous years of service or pay compensation according to the law and then re-employ the employee without the calculation of his years of service.
-On the subject of compensation, the implementation rules were clarified. For instance, in an employment contract that expires upon completion of task, the employer shall be liable to pay the employee severance pay based upon the service term only.
The implementation regulations includes six chapters and 38 clauses to make the Labor Contract Law more effective. It details rules for terminating a labor contract, disposition of labor, and legal liability, to name a few.
Source:China Briefing
BY Cathy Gao, a business advisory service associate with Dezan Shira & Associates.
Related Posts:
Lack of port logistics causes annual loss of US$1.7bil
September 27, 2008
Vietnam faces an extra cost of more than US$1.7 billion as the lack of port logistics leads local companies to have their shipments transshipped via ports in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The country now had 114 seaports, most of them small, and that only 14 were considered internationally moderate such as Haiphong, Cat Lai and VICT, but they were only riverports.
Nguyen Tuan Hoa, deputy director of the Development Study Center under the HCMC government, said total throughput at Vietnam ports amounted to about 178 million tons, including 4.3 million TEUs.
Logistic fees in developed countries are much higher than in developing countries like Vietnam, said Hoa, who has been joining hands with other scientists to undertake a study on logistics development in HCMC.
He said logistics expenses in the United States made up 9.5% of GDP, 11% in Japan, 16% in South Korea, 21.6% in China and 25% of GDP in Vietnam.
Vietnam’s spending on logistics services last year totaled about US$17 billion while GDP was US$71 billion, he said at an international conference on logistics risk management in HCMC last Thursday.
He said logistics played a major role in the economic development of a country which depends heavily on exports.
There are 800-900 businesses active in the logistics field but a majority of them are in HCMC where the logistics market has a yearly value of US$12 billion, 60% of the country’s total, while 70% of import and export shipments transit through HCMC.
Le Van Bay, an expert in logistics at the HCMC University of Technical Education, said most logistics services companies in Vietnam were not yet specialized, thus lacking professionalism.
Hoa said the country now had 114 seaports, most of them small, and that only 14 were considered internationally moderate such as Haiphong, Cat Lai and VICT, but they were only riverports.
“We are lacking deep-water ports serving as international transshipment points, so Vietnam’s exports are transshipped to Hong Kong or Singapore before heading for foreign markets,” said Hoa.
Consequently, for every container of Vietnam’s export goods, local businesses have to pay an extra charge for transshipment of US$400.
Shanghai Daily
Tags: seaports, parking news, LogisticsRelated Posts:
SinoSteels’ Overseas Takeover Accepted by Shareholders
September 19, 2008
WO major shareholders in Australian iron ore miner Midwest Corp have accepted takeover offers from Sinosteel Corp, giving the Chinese steel maker more than an 82 percent stake in the company.
Sinosteel said yesterday its offer had been accepted by Murchison Metals Ltd, which holds 9 percent of Midwest shares, and Armadale Offshore Inc with 12 percent.
Sinosteel wants access to Midwest’s Australian iron ore assets to serve China’s booming steel industry, which is dependent on global mining giants Rio Tinto Ltd and BHP Billiton Ltd. China’s mills have had to agree to price rises of up to 96 percent for iron ore from the two.
Sinosteel gained a controlling 50.97 percent stake in Midwest in July but is still pursuing full ownership.
China View
Tags: iron ore, chinese car park, parking newsRelated Posts:
China interest-rate cut proves surprise
September 19, 2008
CHINA yesterday cut key lending rates and the reserve requirement on smaller banks to lift the economy amid easing domestic inflation and against a backdrop of American-driven global financial turmoil.
From today, the benchmark one-year lending rate will scale back by 0.27 percentage point to 7.2 percent, the People’s Bank of China said.
The move is the first interest-rate prune since China started a run of increases on October 29, 2004. During the period, the central bank has raised rates nine times. The interest rates on deposits will not change.
The reserve-requirement ratio will drop by 1 percentage point to 16.5 percent from September 25 except for the country’s big-five banks and the Postal Savings Bank.
The requirement will drop by 2 percentage points to 14 percent for financial institutions in the areas hit by the May 12 earthquake.
It is the first time the central bank has lowered the proportion that banks set aside from lending since November 1999. The bank raised the requirement 18 times between July 2006 and June this year.
“We decided to make the cuts to keep a stable and fast development of the economy by fulfilling the policy of structural adjustment,” the central bank said on its Website yesterday.
The PBOC initiatives were queried by some economists.
“I am quite surprised by the move as China’s growth is still robust and there is no signs of a significant economic slowdown,” Jan Lambregts, director and head of research Asia of Rabobank International, said yesterday. “China’s exposure to the US credit crunch is still limited.”
Lambregts said it was an early stage for the central bank to take this action as the real interest rate in China was “still very low.”
He said a wiser path may have been moves designed to help small and medium enterprises hard hit by tight monetary policies as China’s inflation fell to a slower-than-expected 4.9 percent in August.
Other economists worried that China may be deterred by a decrease in external demand. Citigroup expects a policy reversal as early as the fourth quarter.
With China’s inflation falling to 4.9 percent in August, the central bank may feel more inclined to stimulate SMEs with lending-rate cuts.
The longer the loan life, the smaller the decrease. The six-month lending rate drops the most at 0.36 percentage point while the five-year-plus by the least at 0.09 percentage point.
Shanghai Daily
Tags: SMEs, chinese car park, chinaparking websiteRelated Posts:
