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

While many foreign banks are vigorously cutting jobs worldwide amid the US subprime mortgage crisis, they have largely held back the ax in the Chinese market.

UBS, one of Europe’s biggest banking groups who announced 5,500 job cuts worldwide last week, said that the process of reviewing and reallocating resources “will result in a minimal number of redundancies in the region (including China)”.

Posting a $3.6 billion fourth-quarter loss and planning to reduce its workforce by as much as 5% globally over the next few month, Morgan Stanley, the second-largest US investment bank, has not yet laid off anyone in China.

JP Morgan Securities Asia-Pacific, unlike its parent who has trimmed about 10% of its headcount worldwide, is expanding its workforce by hiring more people in the country.

And Citibank China, reporting a 99% increase in operating income, said they “will continue to invest, expand, network, and hire and train people here, because China remains one of Citi’s top-priority markets anywhere in the world”.

There are two major reasons behind the optimism foreign banks have about the Chinese market.

Firstly, China’s capital market is expanding. As China International Capital Corp Ltd’s Chief Economist Ha Jiming has said, “China’s capital market has great potential in several sectors, including investment banking services, wealth management services and innovative product creation, because China still largely needs to develop the stock market and the private equity market.”

Secondly, the derivatives market shrinking in the US is to take off in the country. As Fudan University professor Sun Lijian put it, “dwindling overseas investment opportunities for foreign banks and security firms may cause them to look more closely at China.”

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(CNN) — The Internet has revolutionized many business sectors and has single-handedly created one — virtual assistance.

In recent years, thousands have switched their corporate jobs to work as virtual assistants for new bosses they may never actually meet. As independent contractors, they are engaged in all kinds of work ranging from bookkeeping, travel arrangements via phone, e-mail or fax, data entry, tax advice, accountancy to technology support. In spite of the fact that some bosses are only just coming to realize that administrative support can easily be done virtually, virtual assistance is in vogue.

Virtual assistance services have sprung up in such countries as the US, Australia, Canada and the UK. And the industry is now so popular that trade groups and websites begin to assist virtual assistants and try to attract potential clients.

The popularity of virtual assistance is attributable to the following two factors.

First of all, it is cost-effective. Employers are exempt from paying for extra office space, furniture, equipment or software, as well as additional cost for training, pensions or work insurance.

Secondly, virtual assistance sometimes can help employers make full use of time differences to meet deadlines.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/12/19/globaloffice.virtual.assistant/

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Since May 12th when the powerful seismological wave traveled 2000 kilometers to shake our office building here in Nanjing, we have been keeping a close eye on development of the ongoing rescue work in Sichuan province, the worst hit area in southwest China.

The earthquake, the strongest one to hit China in 32 years, demolished buildings and trapped tens of thousands beneath the rubble. Up until now, the death toll has exceeded 19,500 by 4 p.m. Thursday, rising by more than 5,000 from Wednesday’s 14,463.

Rescue work has been proceeding with much difficulty due to landslides, telecommunication breakdown and continuous rainfall. And more forces in the country have been mobilized to join the rescuers who have been racing against time to find as many survivors as they could.

In the meantime, people from all walks of life in and out of China have been doing their utmost to help the country live through the hardship.

When blood is urgently needed to save lives of victims in the quake, blood donors all over the country are responding in droves. Long queues of people waiting to donate blood at mobile blood-collection banks can be seen here in Nanjing as well as in many other cities. And people have also been actively offering donations in cash or goods.

Besides, both domestic and overseas companies and organizations have been giving what they can to help victims of the quake. Donations in both cash and goods to the quake-stricken area had risen to 877 million yuan (125 million US dollars) till 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has authorized the Red Cross Society of China and China Charity Federation to receive donations for quake-hit areas. The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) has received public donations of 311 million yuan and the China Charity Federation has received about 120 million yuan.

While ensuring the quality and timeliness of our services to all our clients, we are deeply concerned with lives of people still in danger in Sichuan. We hope that more people will join us in helping victims out there. If you are willing to offer help, here are several ways:

1. Account number for renminbi donation: 0200001009014413252, at Beijing branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

2. Account number for foreign currency donation: 7112111482600000209 at Jiuxianqiao branch of CITIC Bank.

3. Donation through post office should be sent to:
Red Cross Society of China
No 8, Beixinqiaosantiao, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100007
Its website: www.redcross.org.cn

4. Red Cross Society of China donation hotline: (8610) 65139999, 64027620

5. Chinese Red Cross Foundation also receives donations, which can be sent to:
No 53, Ganmian Hutong, Dongdanbeidajie Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100010

6. Account number of Beijing branch, Bank of China: 800100921908091001

7. Account number of Dongsinan branch, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China: 0200001019014483874

8. Account number of Beijing Chaoneidajie branch, China Construction Bank: 11001070300059000427

9. Account number for foreign currency at Bank of China: 800100086608091014

10. China Charity Federation hotline: (8610) 66083260, 66083264, 66083194

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At about half past two yesterday afternoon when we were working busily in our office at 40 floor, we felt the tremor of the building, or rather tremor from the earth. The entire building started to sway to and fro, back and forth, which brought us a strong sense of dizziness. Several minutes later, we managed to get down to the ground and joined the crowd waiting for the earthquake to calm down.

Fortunately, the quake died off about ten minutes later. When we went back to our office safe and sound, our technical team manager Jerry Xu was proud to announce that none of our servers, databases or company network infrastructureor was affected even in the slightest degree. “We have always regarded stability of our servers and company network infrastructureor as the top priority for our company. Only by guarantying this can we provide our clients with the most reliable services,” he said.

Hours later, word came that the epicenter Sichuan province in Southwest China had suffered gravely from the 7.8-magnitude quake. The powerful earthquake had claimed nearly 10,000 lives till this morning and most victims are in Sichuan. Hearing this tragic news, James Huang, our CEO and founder of BPOVIA Ltd, decided immediately to donate $1000 relief money to the disaster area hit by the quake. “Companies should not concern themselves with making profits only. Do something for the society is also necessary,” said James.

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To cash in on the rising demand for luxury jewelry, Luk Fook Group.the Hong Kong-listed jeweler, has put more stores on its mainland expansion schedule this year.

With 335 shops on the mainland, only 9 are self-operated, six more self-operated shops will be opened in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai this year to generate more profit.

Thanks to the fast growing mainland economy and the rising purchasing power of the middle class, the demand for luxury has shot up, which made the market big enough for Jewelers like Luk Fook Group to expand the number of shops 10 times there, hoping for a 30 to 40% turnover.

On the other hand, robust economy ,increasing wages, and money flooding from mainland has all acted as major boosters to the firm’s Hong Kong business, according to William Wong, CEO of the company, half of the turnover from the retail shops comes from mainland tourists, who always look for the most expensive products.

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L’Oreal SA, the largest cosmetics company by revenue in the world with strong make-up product sales, technology innovation and product value enhancement, aspires to become the leader on the Chinese market in cosmetics and beauty product sales.

L’Oreal entered the Chinese market 10 years ago and now ranks second in terms of market share and sales in the country. Besides its high-end cosmetic brands such as Lancome and Biotherm, it has been focusing on tapping the middle-and low-end mass products. The company purchased Mininurse and Yue-Sai in late 2003 and early 2004, expanding its presence in the hair-care and skin-care sectors. In addition, it has set up three plants in China, producing about 96% of all cosmetics products sold in the country.

In 2007, L’Oreal China saw a strong sales volume of 5.45 billion yuan, an increase of 30% compared with the previous year. Taking up 4% of the company’s global market sales volume, China became one of its 10 most important markets worldwide.

In 2006, L’Oreal accounted for 9.6% of the country’s cosmetics products market and the figure rose to 11.2% in 2007, narrowing the gap with market leader P&G.

Paolo Gasparrini, president of L’Oreal China, has much confidence in the cosmetics sector in China due to the fast increasing per capita income of the Chinese people. “We have a reasonable goal to become the No1 over the next three to five years, if we take our future business expansion plan into consideration,” said he.

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By the end of April 2008, the number of mainland enterprises listed on the Main Board and GEM of Hong Kong Stock Exchange reached 443, including 148 H shares, 93 red chips and 202 non-H-shares of private enterprises from the mainland.

The latest statistics released by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange show that the mainland stock shares take up 58.6% of the total market value and 74.2% of the total market turnover of the Hong Kong stock market.

Regarding Hong Kong itself, there were 1,244 listed companies with a total market value of about 18 trillion Hong Kong dollars by the end of April. And up until the end of last month, Hong Kong owned in total 4,808 derivative warrants, 260 callable bull/bear contracts, 26 trust funds and 173 bonds.

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In spite of the unfolding global credit crisis and soaring energy prices, auto sales in China maintained double-digit growth since the beginning of the year. Passenger car sales rose 17.84% year-on-year in the first four months of 2008.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), sales reached 2.46 million cars, including 1.81 million sedans, 75,500 mini-vans and 141,300 sport-utility vehicles. And the figure for March was unusually large, showing the most rapid year-on-year growth in seven months.

Volkswagen AG’s two Chinese ventures — FAW Volkswagen and Shanghai Volkswagen — continued to top the sales list last month, as well as in the first four months. They are followed by the Detroit-based car maker’s venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, Shanghai GM. And domestic auto producers sold 463,100 sedans in the first four months, accounting for a 25.46% share of the total sedan sales.

China, the world’s second-largest car market, produced 8.88 million automobiles last year, of which 8.79 million were sold. And this year, auto sales are anticipated to exceed 10 million units, which stand for a 14% full-year sales growth.

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After the announcement of the direct air route between Beijing and Seattle, China’s Hainan Airlines together with Berlin airport announced plans to begin direct flights between Beijing and Berlin from September.

From September 5th, Hainan Airlines will start to offer four non-stop flights a week between the two capital cities employing Airbus A33—200 aircraft. The new route will shorten travel hours to less than nine hours.

By then, Berlin will be the fourth German city to have direct flights to China following Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf.
On the part of China, the launch of the new route will help enhance economic, cultural and tourism cooperation between China and Germany and contribute to the friendly cooperation between the capital cities.

And on the part of Germany, the direct route is of great importance in promoting exchanges and cooperation between Germany and China as well as other Asian countries, bringing potential economic benefits to Berlin.

By opening more convenient air routes to Europe, China extends its welcome hands to more countries worldwide. Likewise, BPOVIA Ltd, with its excellent virtual assistants and professional consultation services, always welcomes every client, old and new alike and tries its best to facilitate his business processes in the country.

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Compared with the fourth quarter last year, sales of smartphone in the Chinese market in the first quarter saw a 4.8% growth.

The average price of a smartphone in China is around 2,470 yuan. Compared with high-end ones, low-end smartphones enjoy much wider popularity among buyers. And smartphone produced by Nokia and Motorola took up 85.9% of the market share.

In terms of sales volume, the market saw a record of 8.24 million units in the first quarter, accounting for 19.1% of all types of cellphones sold on the domestic market. And sales revenue stood at 20.4 billion yuan in the first three months, registering an increase of 7.6% over the same period last year.

The Chinese consumer market is in full swing in recent years, which is to a large extent attributable to the rapidly developing economy of the country and growing purchasing power of the Chinese people. Such a robust and huge potential market naturally attracts business people around the world like a strong magnet. For any businessman who is interested in the Chinese market and looking for assistance to facilitate business processes in the country, BPOVIA Ltd based in China, with its excellent virtual assistants and professional consultation services, can always be the source.

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