Shanghai remains attractive to skillful foreigners
Although the global economic crisis has given huge impact world wide, Shanghai is still a popular place for foreigner to work and live in. It seems that the economy recession has taken nothing away from the city’s allure for foreigners.
Marisa Espanyol, a 35-year-old property lawyer working in Shanghai, feels lucky to move to Shanghai. “It’s my best move so far,” She said, “I’ve learned some Chinese, you know, it’s always good to experience other cultures when you move.”
Espanyol was one of more than 68,600 foreigners who were working in Shanghai by Dec 24. The number is 13 times than that of 1996 when Shanghai started issuing expat work permits.
Angie Eagan, general manager of Hudson China, saw a number of foreigners working as senior management staff with Shanghai’s multinational companies being fired or returning to their headquarters.
She said at the same time, they are receiving more job applications from overseas.
The change of Shanghai’s job market reflects the global change, especially in banking, financial services, legal, property and the accounting firms.
“We see some banks refocusing their business more on rolling off their branches than on doing some of the B to B transactions. But many people see China offering better opportunities than North America or Europe.”
According to Sun Hande, director of Shanghai Employment Service & Administration For Overseas Personnel, his office still receives about 300 to 400 applications for work permit every day.
Sun Hande said in 1996, Shanghai’s labour bureau only had a small office of about 10 sq m to process registration of expat employment, which made them have to expand it again and again.
Then they finally moved to a new office of 1,500 sq m in May 2007.
Summing Wang, CEO of the city’s first joint venture hospital Shanghai East International Medical Centre, said they have several times bigger expat doctors than that of in 2003, when the hospital was founed.
Are you interested in the business opportunities in China?
China is one of the world’s great growth markets and is likely to be for many years to come. Foreign companies often face difficulties in assessing Chinese market demand and enacting effective strategies because of the language barriers, culture differences, and high expense.
BPOVIA is the leading virtual assistant and Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) service provider in China. BPOVIA is the only virtual assistant company ever been nominated for the prestigious “Red Herring 100 Asia” Awards 2008. Combines international perspective with local know-how, BPOVIA can provide our clients China business development service and help our clients doing successful business in China.
Please visit http://www.BPOVIA.com/ for details about our service.
Popularity: 4% [?]