Cramer's 'Stop Trading!': China's Red Hot
March 15th, 2009"China is red hot and staying hot," said Jim Cramer on CNBC's "Stop Trading!" segment on Tuesday.
Vehicle sales are up in China, led by General Motors(GM Quote - Cramer on GM - Stock Picks). "People have to understand that the Chinese stimulus plan is really rooted in people's spending," Cramer said. It's "enough to be able to change spending habits, buy more, drive more cars."
He called China "the best market in the world" and predicted that it still has "far to go."
But there's a tradeoff, Cramer said, because China's stimulus plan isn't regulated by the rules of a democracy. "A democracy has a lot of different considerations to make it more difficult," he said. "I'll take the freedom over what they've got."
Cramer said that Verizon(VZ Quote - Cramer on VZ - Stock Picks) is going higher, and he recommended ag stocks such as Terra Nitrogen(TNH Quote - Cramer on TNH - Stock Picks) and Monsanto(MON Quote - Cramer on MON - Stock Picks).
"Monsanto's back," he said, adding that it had a "good" quarter, unlike Deere(DE Quote - Cramer on DE - Stock Picks).
He likes Terra Nitrogen for its dividend. "TNH is a great fertilizer play," he said.
HR: Top brass may get no pay hikes
March 13th, 2009Senior executives at nearly a quarter of Chinese companies would see no increase in their compensation packages this year, a survey by human resources consulting firm, Mercer, has found.
In all, 59 companies in China were included in the survey, of which 76 percent were listed companies and 39 percent, multinationals.
Around 34 percent of the surveyed companies said executive bonuses for 2008 would decrease. The average bonus level in Asia was 40 percent for 2008.
The global financial crisis has pushed companies to review executive compensation mechanisms. This is being done to tighten the relationship between executive pay and company strategy.
Around 49 percent of companies in China may adjust their performance evaluation standards in the next 12 months. Nearly 33 percent said they would adjust long-term evaluation standards, the survey revealed.
About 71 percent of the companies surveyed said they had a long-term incentive plan designed to retain talent. Due to the sluggish market, around 14 percent of the companies said the value of their long-term incentive plan (that will be met this year) would be lowered.
Mercer conducted similar surveys in other Asian nations, including India, South Korea, Japan and Singapore.
"In Asia, one-third of the companies surveyed said their senior executives' salaries wouldn't increase in 2009. The proportion in China is a little smaller than the average, indicating that the country is less impacted by the financial crisis," said Zheng Wei, managing director for the Asia executive remuneration business at Mercer.
"Considering the deferred impact on China's market, we expect more companies in China to take similar measures to limit senior executives' pay this year," Zheng added.
Ma Mingzhe, the chairman of Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, received the highest pay package for 2007 in the financial industry, at 66 million yuan. This was a nearly four-fold jump from his 2006 salary and was widely criticized.
About two thirds of Ma's salary in 2007 came from the long-term incentive plan. "Because of the financial crisis, companies should pay much more attention to the validity and rationality of the salary mechanism and make it palatable to staff and public supervisors," said Zheng.
Wanda to offer 60,000 new jobs in 2009
March 12th, 2009Wanda Group, one of the country's largest private property developers, will offer 60,000 new jobs this year, a company executive said on Wednesday.
"Most of the jobs are created by our rapid expansion this year," Wang Jianlin, Wanda's chairman, told China Daily on the sidelines of the annual sessions of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Wanda plans to build eight shopping malls and two five-star hotels this year. The company has spent 11 billion yuan in grabbing five pieces of land in Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Tianjin, Hefei and Hohhot since the fourth quarter of last year, despite the sluggish property market.
Xinjiang vows job offers to fresh graduates
March 11th, 2009Unemployed graduates will get a job offer within 12 hours of an application in the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, officials said Monday.
A record 58,000 graduates are expected to enter the job market in the region this year, up 9 percent from last year, prompting Xinjiang to roll out a slew of measures to help them find jobs amid the financial crisis.
"We can ensure that a graduate student can get at least one offer within 12 hours in Urumqi," said Li Zhi, party head of Urumqi. Li is in Beijing to attend the ongoing session of the National People's Congress.
Although he didn't say what kind of positions would be offered to students, he said that priority would be given to ethnic minority students.
"We will encourage employers to hire ethnic minority students and the government at all levels will arrange positions for them," Li said.
The efforts are part of a package for all Xinjiang graduates as the region aims to maintain an employment rate of over 70 percent among fresh graduates, said Tian Wen, party chief of Xinjiang personnel bureau.
Xinjiang's relatively small economy, however, means that there will be fewer urban jobs than the number of new graduates. As a result, they will be urged to go to the countryside to teach or practice as medical workers. Five percent college graduates in the region have been working in rural areas since last year.
"We offer tailored positions to students to support medical and educational developments in rural Xinjiang," Tian said.
She did not specify how many such positions are offered but said that 80 percent positions are reserved for ethnic minority students.
Both officials called for graduates to take frontline jobs, with Tian saying multiple vacancies exist in the public welfare sector.
Besides, the region has also established five job-training bases in Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture, Urumqi and Aksu. Among the other measures to boost employment among new graduates are subsidizing companies that employ graduates, offering small loans to graduates starting their own businesses, employment guidance to students and organizing specialized job fairs.
Bank of China to hire 10,000 college grads
March 10th, 2009Bank of China, the country's third-largest lender, plans to recruit 10,000 college graduates to staff its expanding networks, its president said.
The hiring "will be the biggest among the country's commercial banks," the Beijing Times reported, citing Li Lihui, president of Bank of China.
The nation's biggest foreign exchange bank will also expand its networks this year and some of the new recruits will be assigned to those outlets, Li said on the sidelines of the annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
The Beijing-based lender also said on Saturday that Temasek Holdings Pte, which owns 4.1 percent of the bank, would not sell its stake until at least June 30, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Chairman Xiao Gang.
Temasek, Singapore's government-owned investment company, has 10.48 billion Hong Kong-listed shares of Bank of China.
Xiao also denied rumors that Bank of China will take its Hong Kong subsidiary BOC Hong Kong private.
Job market stable as companies fold
March 9th, 2009Nearly 1,000 enterprises in Guangdong province's Shenzhen went under last year, but the local job market remained stable, Mayor Xu Zongheng said yesterday.
"The global economic meltdown has had remarkable impact on Shenzhen's development, which largely depends on the overseas market for economic and trade growth," Xu told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing National People's Congress session in Beijing.
Up to 60 percent of Shenzhen's foreign-funded enterprises are from neighboring Hong Kong, and most goods sent from Shenzhen to overseas markets are exported through the special administrative region, Xu said.
As many as 903 enterprises folded last year, leaving about 3 percent of the city's labor force, or 90,000 migrant workers, jobless, Xu said. "More than 60 percent of these enterprises had to close their doors because they were unable to sustain business in the global financial crisis' wake," he said.
The rest - nearly 300 enterprises - were closed because they failed to meet environmental protection requirements, Xu said.
But the city last year approved up to 35,800 new enterprises, of which half are involved in the modern service and hi-tech sectors, Xu pointed out.
"These new enterprises have greatly helped create more employment for migrant workers, ensuring the job market remained stable," he said.
About 4.5 million migrant workers left the city last year, but some 4.9 million have returned after the Spring Festival, Xu said.
"We attach great importance to migrant workers' employment, and have used a series of measures to help them get back to work in the city since the end of last year," Xu said.
These included free job markets organized by local labor authorities and enterprises, and free training courses for migrant workers, Xu said.
"Migrant workers who have been employed in Shenzhen for a certain period of time are allowed to apply for residence permits," Xu said.
In another development, Xu said people with temporary residence permits in Shenzhen could also apply for Hong Kong tourism passes with unlimited entries from May.
Also, Shenzhen's permanent residence permit holders would be able to visit Hong Kong with unlimited passes from April to enhance the two cities' integration, Xu said. Shenzhen currently has 2.32 million people with permanent residence cards and 6.44 million with temporary permits, he said.