Blog about Virtual Assistant, Outsourcing, KPO, BPO and China

Less than a year after opening its first overseas office in Beijing to promote cooperation and information exchange between US and Chinese oil and gas industries, American Petroleum Institute (API) plans to increase Chinese membership by over 30% from 800.

About a decade ago, only 12 Chinese enterprises had API certification. That number increased to 293 in 2004, and this year, more than 800 enterprises had become full-fledged members with about 300 are in the process of joining.

Since the year 2006 when Chinese membership exceeded that of all other countries including the US, Chinese oil and gas firms have been attaching greater importance to the global market and come to recognize the value of API’s globalized trade standards. And domestic oil manufacturers have been enthusiastic about obtaining product certification through the association, which demonstrates the industry’s growing internationalization.

China now plays an increasingly important role in today’s global petrochemical industry. In the overseas market, the Chinese oil industry is gaining a greater voice as its firms seek development and expansion in overseas market. Furthermore, many Chinese members in the association have been engaged in determining industry standards at API conferences in the US.

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BPO, China Business, China Business News API, China Business, membership, petroleum

With a slowdown of the world economy, many companies have started paring headcounts in their HR departments and outsource their HR functions to countries like China and India where the labor cost is comparatively low.

James Huang heads an BPO and HR outsourcing firm that has offices across China. Business is booming for freebooters like James as more and more solid, conservative old economy firms start receiving HR outsourcing contracts. The spry services outfits were doing this anyway.As a result, most companies. “It’s turning into a flood of contracts. Most are now being outsourced,” says James.

HR outsourcing is not a very new phenomenon; but what is surprising is the speed with which companies have bought into the idea itself. HR outsourcing covers all functions relating to recruitment, assessment of new candidates, sourcing candidates, background checks of candidates, and talent branding, which is a lot like media planning and deals with where to advertise for candidates and through which channels.

According to BPOVIA, a global consulting, outsourcing and investment services firm, human resource outsourcing (HRO) has come a long way since mere payroll administration or recruitment channel. It has moved up the value chain from tactical HR processes to managing business critical HR.

There are basically three broad classes of companies that are looking at HR outsourcing. First, there are large companies such as TCS and Infosys which have an employee base of close to 1 lakh each. These companies are looking to outsource HR to save costs. The second group comprises mid-size service as well as manufacturing companies with 2,000 to 5,000 people such as Microsoft China and Cisco. For such companies, it is a combination of a need to get the best talent and cost that is leading to the outsourcing of HR activities.Then there are the small companies who have ambition but simply do not have the strength or the expertise to hire big time. So they outsource their functions to BPO companies.

Apart from these functions, payroll and benefit management and performance management, strategic functions and training also form part of HR outsourcing Many of their clients are small firms with big ambitions, which do not have the capability to attract big talent. They also outsource their functions to firms like BPOVIA, who is professional on this.

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BPO, China Business, China Outsourcing BPO, HR outsourcing, World economy

The UK’s Financial Times Group aims to launch its first Chinese-language magazine ahead of the Summer Olympics in Beijing as a means of targeting China’s growing business elite.

The magazine, called “Rui”–the Chinese word for intelligence, would be the first in China to be published by a wholly foreign-owned company. The FT said it was in the process of obtaining approval from Chinese authorities to distribute the monthly in China where the media industry is still tightly regulated. If successful, the new monthly would have original content about wealth management and the lifestyle of China’s growing business ranks, as well as stories translated from FT publications.

FT, which does not include “politically-sensitive” content, is likely to have access to China market , since China is eager to show the world it is committed to its “opening-up” policy. The magazine also offers a chance for foreigners to know the lifestyle and wealth in China.

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China and the United Kingdom are poised to enhance cooperation in financial sectors, said Vice Premier Wang Qishan and the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling at the first China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue in Beijing.

Concluding his meeting with Wang, Darling said that the UK welcomes the creation of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund and its potential for investing in Britain. “Both countries recognize the importance of actually participating in the current discussions taking place in the international institutions on the issues between sovereign wealth funds and recipient countries to achieve better cooperation on a mutually open basis,” he said.

Wang, on the part of China, said the country also welcomes investments from UK financial institutions and particularly encourages them to explore potential markets in central and western China. Furthermore, he pointed out that confronted with the current international situation triggered by the US subprime mortgage crises, the two sides should also strengthen cooperation between financial regulatory institutions.

The two sides have already begun discussing “financing for sustainable development” as a potential theme for the next 3-year program of the China-UK sustainable development dialogue.

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During the first two months of this year, the actual use of foreign investment in China’s western part was 1.393 billion U.S. dollars, exceeding the nation’s average by 128 percentage points. A total of 254 foreign companies were approved to invest in the region. Thanks to the nation’s encouraging policy for foreign investment to the middle and western regions, a number of measures, like advocating a transfer for foreign investment from the eastern regions to the western regions and encouraging local government to use the investment in an innovative way, are taken by the ministry of commerce to develop the west in an all-round way.

Consequently, the ministry will keep improving regulations on foreign acquisition and merger and establish an anti-dumping investigation mechanism. Foreign investors would also be welcome to participate in the reforms of state-owned companies.

By the end of February, the number of foreign invested company amounted to 637,000 nationwide and the amount of actual use of foreign investment reached 781.1 billion U.S. dollars according to statistics available.

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Already ranking the first among docks for iron ore in the world, Qingdao Port is now ambitious to be the shipping hub of northeast Asia as it determines to equip itself with high technology, information technology and comprehensive logistics services.

In 2007, the port’s throughput was 265 million tons and 9.46 million twenty-foot container units, respectively doubling and tripling those of 2002. And in the first quarter this year, its throughput has exceeded 75 million tons, up 15% compared with the same period last year.

The port will further develop at Jiaozhou Bay, Qianwan Port, Aoshan Bay and Dongjiakou, striving to become a global state-of-art by 2010 when throughput is projected to hit 320 million tons. By 2010, handling capacity for crude oil is expected to reach 55 million tons, making it one of the world’s largest terminals for crude oil and liquid chemicals while iron ore throughput is projected to be 68 million tons, managing to maintain its top global ranking.

Twenty of the world’s leading shipping companies have regular lines serving Qingdao. And over 100 renowned domestic companies, including China Petrochemical Corp and Jigang Group Co Ltd, have established closer cooperation with the port, while 7 of the top-500 global companies have established operations there. In addition, Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal Co Ltd, a $887 million JV was established between the port and Maersk Group and P&O Nedlloyd Ltd, the world’s biggest and second-largest shipping companies, and China’s largest shipping company China Ocean Shipping Co (COSCO). Rapid expansion of the port has also driven the development of other entities, including customs, quarantine inspection and logistics. Currently, logistics companies are in full swing in Qingdao.

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According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), prices indices of fixed-asset investment rose 8.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.

Due to the rise of building material prices (up 13.7%) and labor costs (up 13.5%), the cost of construction and installation engineering that represents almost 60% of total expenditure on fixed assets, went up 12.4%. Analysts from NBS said the increase of fixed-asset investment prices indices in the first quarter was the biggest in the past 13 years and the increase would likely to continue. The result of such increase would probably be a drop of fixed-asset investment. However, some experts believe that fixed-asset investment would stay high for the rest of the year.

In addition, real estate investment rose 32.3 percent to 468.8 billion yuan during the first quarter, or 5.4 percentage points more than a year earlier.

Economic growth slowed to 10.6 percent in the first quarter, compared with 11.7 percent in the same period of last year.

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EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc, a leading telecommunications test and measurement solution provider, launched its first manufacturing plant outside its headquarters in Shenzhen.

Headquartered in Quebec City in Canada, the firm has seen increasing opportunities in the government’s large amounts of investment in telecom infrastructure and the residents’ growing demand for faster and better telecom facilities, recognizing China as the most important strategic market for its global expansion.

Covering an area of 4,600 sqm in an industrial park near the airport, the new factory is expected to assemble hand-held fiber-optic test and measurement equipment. With the new factory, Germain Lamonde, founder and CEO of the company, anticipates that 50% of all EXFO sales will be derived from products assembled in Shenzhen in 3 to 4 years, which will be sufficient to meet demands on the global market.

“China has been the second largest market of EXFO in the world, and it will become more significant in the future,” Lamonde said.

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At the first Finance Forum of the Yangtz River Delta, jointly held by the governments of Shanghai and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), 14 city commercial banks signed a strategic cooperation agreement on April 21, to strengthen cooperation in monetary transactions, settlement services, product innovation and risk management. These banks are: the Bank of Jiangsu, the Bank of Shanghai, the Shanghai-listed Bank of Nanjing, and other city banks based in surrounding areas, including Ningbo, Hangzhou and Wenzhou.

The aim of this integration is to build a platform for institutional coordination in the banking system, and thus accelerate the already booming economy of southeast China’s economic centre. In different cities, each bank has its own information and finance systems and promotes its own credit card. It has not only caused an enormous waste of resources, but also hindered the growth of the banking industry. The forum, as an external guidance and regulation, helps to build up the financial environment and conditions necessary for the further cooperation.

Four state-owned commercial banks, including the Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China, have already initiated “cross-region business”, with each bank coordinating its own banking transactions in different provinces and cities.

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With China’s prospective economic outlook and its appreciating currency, hot money will continue flowing into China.

China’s comparatively quick economic growth still makes it one of the destinations for international speculators, although it’s stock market has become lusterless because of the global turbulence caused by American subprime crisis. Moreover, the central bank has taken several monetary measures, which has proved “effective”, to bring down the main stock index and stem the inflation. For example, raising the reserve requirement ratio 11 times and the benchmark interest rates 6 times since last year to absorb excess liquidity.

As the yuan is rising, it’s difficult for some enterprises to stay in the competitive market. If they wanted to survive in this competition, they had better upgrade their technology and strengthen their competitive power to lessen the impact of rising labor cost and possible energy pricing mechanism.

Even though many investors in China seemed to think the government would do whatever it could to keep stock prices high before the Olympics.

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