Recruiting in China

Avaya, a global provider of business communications and collaboration systems and services, has an ambitious plan to target China's medium-sized firms, said Lily Fu, channel director of Avaya (China) Communication Inc, in Beijing.

"We used to get most of our income from large enterprises, but in recent years the medium-sized firm market has showed growing strength with climbing revenues," Fu said during an interview with China Daily website in Beijing.

"We are confident about China's medium-sized firm market and are willing to help our customers realize their big dreams", said Fu.

On July 22, 2014, Avaya announced that Jingtian&Gongcheng, one of China's first private and independent partnership law firms, has deployed an integrated Avaya IP Office voice and video collaboration solution to provide staff in the Beijing headquarters and three branch offices with rich tools to enhance collaboration and operational efficiency.

"Smaller and medium-sized businesses are eager to enhance their competitive edge with leading communication and collaboration technologies, and demand flexibility, scalability and ease of management. Avaya is focused on providing dynamic organizations like Jingtian&Gongcheng with tailored solutions that deliver significant business results, which will adapt and grow with their changing needs, and deliver full voice, video, data and mobile collaboration on a single platform", said John Wang, Greater China Managing Director of Avaya.

More than 400,000 Avaya IP Office systems, the company's flagship collaboration solution for small and medium-sized businesses, have been deployed worldwide, supporting more than 15 million users.

The IP Office business maintained growth in China for 19 consecutive quarters.

"Avaya is not the only provider of comprehensive solutions to the small and medium-sized enterprises, but we are the best. We do not simply put several product lines together, but making tailored product set for them," said Fu.

Earlier, the company had announced plans to form a special team in China to provide services to small and medium-sized firms.

"We will input more during the approaching fiscal year of 2015," said Fu.

A character from a video game is set up in Shanghai New International Expo Center for ChinaJoy 2014, the country's biggest annual game fair that opens on Thursday.

China will simplify the procedures needed to launch video games and strengthen intellectual property rights to boost the industry, Shanghai Daily learned at ChinaJoy 2014 on Wednesday.

Integration among games, films, telecommunications and theme parks is a rising trend in the domestic market, industry officials said during the opening of the country's biggest annual game fair.

The government will continue improving efficiency by giving more cities the power to approve games, greatly simplifying application procedures, said Sun Shoushan, deputy director of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

Shanghai is the only city now allowed to approve games, Sun said.

In the first half of this year, revenue in the domestic game industry totaled 49.6 billion yuan (US$8.03 billion), up 46.4 percent from the same period last year. Mobile games accounted for a quarter of the total and jumped 395 percent year on year. Domestic game firms generated combined revenue of US$800 million overseas, rising 67 percent year on year, Sun added.

But some game titles based on popular novels and films face IPR problems, which holds back the industry, speakers told the forum.

"New policies must be set to crack down and prevent IPR infringement in the industry while game developers should have a better understanding of their social responsibilities," Sun said, without providing more details.

About 30 executives from leading firms including Tencent Inc, Shanda Games, Qihoo 360, Giant and Blizzard Entertainment shared ideas about the industry and their development strategies.

Chen Jie, vice president of Qihoo 360, said mobile games will be the company's new focus as the number of users increased from 170 million a year ago to 250 million now.

"It's more convenient to play mobile games on smartphones because people always bring their phones with them," said Xiao Hong, the chief executive of Perfect World.

The speakers spoke highly of industry integration between gaming companies and other sectors like film and literature.

Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent, said they will continue focusing on cooperating with various industries such as creative art and media to provide a variety of games.

Huayi Brothers, one of China's top film studios, plans to work with different companies to build a theme park in Suzhou. Huayi Chairman and CEO Wang Zhongjun said the goal is to combine games and movies with recreation facilities.

Microsoft Corp's Xbox One will debut on the Chinese mainland in September with a starting price of 3,699 yuan (US$596) through local partner BesTV, making it the first foreign game console to be sold on the mainland in the past 14 years.

More than 70 games by 25 developers including EA, Ubisoft, Tencent and Perfect World will be available for the Xbox on its mainland debut.

Chinese-language and free games will also be available for the new Xbox. Other games will cost from 99 yuan to 249 yuan each, according to Microsoft.

Game console sales were banned in 2000, but it was lifted with last year's launch of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. In May, Sony Corp said it would set up a joint-venture with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group to bring the PlayStation 4 console to China.

Both Sony and Microsoft are attending ChinaJoy 2014.

Meanwhile, Microsoft will also offer a Kinect package with the Xbox One for 4,299 yuan, which includes several games. The Xbox One and Kinect package costs US$449 on Amazon.com in the US market, 35 percent cheaper than the price on the Chinese mainland.

Fast-food owner Yum Brands says the food safety scandal connected to one of its meat suppliers has had a "significant, negative impact" on its sales at its KFC and Pizza Hut outlets in China over the past 10 days.

In a regulatory warning to investors, Yum says if the sales impact is sustained, it will have a material effect on full-year earnings.

Yum Brands has severed its relationship with Shanghai Husi, the meat processing facility which has been accused of repackaging expired meat products and selling them to fast food outlets, including KFC and Pizza Hut.

So far, 23 Chinese cities have loosened restrictions on home purchases, accounting for half of the total 46 cities that imposed such restrictions over the past several years. To strengthen the market, local authorities will have to cut their reliance on administrative measures. But given the general market climate, abandoning earlier restrictions will not solve the market's problems once and for all.

Nowadays, the housing markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are still quite imbalanced. To put the brakes on price speculation, restrictions will likely remain in effect in first-tier cities where real demand is high.

In many of China's less-populated cities though, investment in the housing market is mainly a product of local fiscal policy. This has pushed supplies well ahead of demand. This partly explains why many of these cities are easing or removing earlier curbs.

It bears noting though that the restrictions imposed on these smaller cities were often quite limited to begin with. And due to official negligence, many curbs existed in name alone. The real test for the government will come only after housing inventories are digested and local officials wean themselves away from land transfer revenues.

The booth of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd at an Internet conference in Beijing. The Kirin 920 chip of the high-tech giant is regarded as an announcement that the company is increasingly innovative and internationally competitive.

As the dust settles on China's high-tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's latest innovation, a new wonder chip, the Kirin 920, it is important to review the significance of this new product.

In the month since the Kirin 920 was announced, it has certainly captured the attention of the media. The tone generally has been one of admiration and respect for the chip in a market long dominated by the United States in general and US-based Qualcomm Inc in particular.

On a technical level, Huawei's Kirin 920 provides support for QHD displays, 4K video recording and a high-speed LTE category-6 platform. None of Huawei's global competitors, not even Qualcomm, can match this functionality.

Huawei's Kirin 920 announcement also signals that the company as well as other Chinese companies are increasingly innovative and internationally competitive.

Technical innovation is an absolute necessity to remain competitive both domestically and globally, but it is not sufficient by itself.

Huawei needs to match its impressive technical innovation record with equally impressive brand image creativity and innovation.

The high-tech industry, perhaps with Apple Inc as the only exception, is dominated by software and electronic engineering advances and specialists. As a result, brand imaging is often relegated to a "bolt on" added by an outside marketing agency.

Huawei, therefore, can step further ahead of its global rivals by matching its latest Kirin 920 innovation with a brand image overhaul and redesign.

The key to any successful brand image is the set of associations chosen that collectively form a powerful impression in the minds of the brand's target market.

Here, Huawei could demonstrate real innovation and some courage by choosing associations that evoke a powerful Chinese image.

Chinese history, rich in artistic imagery, is full of such associations.

It is important to stress what sort of brand image Huawei should target. Huawei already has an enviable worldwide reputation, for technical excellence and innovation, but high-tech consumers also value a brand that attaches itself to an important aspect of their lifestyle.

High-tech brands also need to be seen as lifestyle solutions and provide a certain amount of "personality" as well as effective technical delivery.

Huawei, like many of its global high-tech rivals, does not appear to have considered any sort of emotional brand personality, but now is the time.

But with China's 5,000-year history and an abundance of associations from which to choose, where should Huawei start?

Perhaps an effective starting point would be inside the typical high-tech global consumer's mind, where the company can uncover their knowledge and appreciation of Chinese history.

Such a starting point will undoubtedly lead to one of the nation's most famous literary works, The Romance of The Three Kingdoms, a brilliant novel that winds through Chinese history with a multitude of rich characters.

Huawei could "attach" some of the book's characters and images in order to build a brand with real personality.

Intellectual giant and masterful military strategist, Zhuge Liang, could feature prominently in any brand imagery and enable Huawei to begin to build an emotionally powerful, competitive brand.

Huawei continues to lead Chinese companies' international expansion with technical excellence and creativity, but it is brand image innovation that is much needed now.

State inspectors in southern Tra Vinh Province have requested that the Chinese contractor of a local thermal power project elaborate on its plans for the recruitment of over 3,600 Chinese workers by 2017, said Duong Quang Ngoc, deputy director of the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

The department’s Inspectorate has coordinated with the management unit for the Duyen Hai Thermal Power Plant III Project in inspecting the project contractor’s plan for the recruitment of foreign workers to ensure that they are employed only when Vietnamese candidates fail to meet the qualifications required for each job title, Ngoc said.

The inspection was made after Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper published an article on July 7, questioning the local government’s approval of the plan, under which thousands of Chinese workers will be recruited for the project.

The article came after the provincial People’s Committee approved the plan based on the department’s proposal that was made after the contractor reported that no Vietnamese candidates met the required qualifications.

The Inspectorate now requests that the contractor, China Chengda Engineering Co., Ltd., report on its construction schedule and the plan for its use of workers for 2014 and each year to follow.

This plan must provide all details on the estimated number of employees to be recruited and their specific skills and qualifications.

When such recruitment plan is made available, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs will examine it and if it meets applicable regulations, the department will approve and broadly publicize it nationwide through mass media, not only within the province as previously done by the contractor.

The department will also assign staff to supervise the process of recruitment under the approved plan to ensure that the recruitment of foreign workers is lawful.

Under the current recruitment plan of the contractor, the company will recruit 1,513 workers from now until the year’s end, and 2,162 others by 2017, including 1,528 technical workers.