Recruiting in China

China's domestic automobile sales are expected to grow 15 percent to hit 10 million units this year, backed by strong demand for passenger cars, an official with the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Saturday.

China's fast-growing economy has created a sound environment for the development of the automobile industry, Dong Yang, vice chairman of the association, said at an industry meeting held in the coastal city of Yantai in eastern Shandong Province.

Despite slower growth in business vehicles sales, demand for passenger cars remained robust, he said.

The government will speed up restructuring the industry by detailing standards on security, environment protection and energy saving, Dong said.

He noted the declining trend in auto prices will be reversed as a result of the sharp rise in prices of raw materials such as iron and steel.

The association's latest data showed that more than 4.3 million vehicles were sold in the first five months of this year, a jump of 17 percent from the same period last year.

Imports and exports continued to surge at Shanghai port, with the volume totaling 245.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first five months of 2008.

Shanghai Customs statistics showed the trade volume was 26.6 percent up year on year, 7.4 percentage points higher than that of same period of last year.

With this volume, Shanghai port did about one-quarter of the country's foreign trade, said a source.

In a breakdown, exports totaled 155.73 billion U.S. dollars, up 28.2 percent, and imports made up 89.77 billion U.S. dollars, up 23.9 percent, of which, imports under general trade accounted for 35.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 28.2 percent from a year ago but 3.2 percentage points faster.

Foreign trade peaked in May at Shanghai port to hit 51.86 billion U.S. dollars, up 35.6 percent from the same month a year ago.

The lion's share of the foreign trade at Shanghai port was done by overseas financed ventures, followed by state-owned companies and private Chinese businesses.

The European Union (EU) remained the port's top trading partner, followed by the United States, Japan, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Africa.

BEIJING, June 18 -- China Mobile has invested heavily in upgrading networks to consolidate its leading position in both 2G and 3G eras, Shanghai Daily learned yesterday.

The world's biggest mobile carriers by subscribers has signed two IT companies to upgrade the networks, including its trial 3G network, during Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan's visit to the United States for the economic summit.

Alcatel-Lucent, the world's biggest telecom equipment maker, said it had signed a 1 billion U.S. dollars framework agreement for 2008 with China Mobile to provide mobile communication equipment and services.

The agreement was secured through Alcatel-Lucent's flagship company in China, Alcatel Shanghai Bell.

"We are delighted to be selected to continue providing solutions and services to China Mobile. China Mobile is one of our company's main strategic cooperation partners," Olivia Qiu, Alcatel Shanghai Bell's president, said.

The agreement signing ceremony was witnessed by Wang in Washington.

Under the frame agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will provide China Mobile with mobile core and wireless network solutions, TD-SCDMA equipment, applications, transmission and IP router equipment and the related services.

Meanwhile, Sun Microsystems Inc also announced a framework agreement with China Mobile on IT products and services projects in 2008. Sun will provide China Mobile with IT products and relevant services at an estimated price of some 34.8 million dollars.

Hong Kong's jobless rate stayed at the lowest level in a decade, helping domestic consumption to sustain economic growth as the export outlook dims.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the three months ended May 31 was unchanged at 3.3 percent, the government said today on its Web site. That matched the median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

``The strong labor market will continue to support the economy,'' said Michael Dai, senior economist at Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd. ``There have been big salary increases across the board and that's encouraging consumption.''

Hong Kong's economy grew 7.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the fastest pace in two years. The expansion for the year may slow to between 4 percent and 5 percent as export demand weakens, the government said last month.

World economic growth will probably slow to 2.7 percent in 2008 from 3.7 percent last year on rising food and energy prices and the subprime credit crisis, the World Bank said last week.

Hong Kong's household spending rose 7.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier.

The labor market remained buoyant, Matthew Cheung, the Secretary for Labor and Welfare, said in today's statement.

Increased competition for labor has pushed salaries higher and added to inflation in the city. Wages climbed 2.7 percent in December. Figures for March are due this month.

Price Increases

Producer prices jumped 5.8 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the most on record. Consumer prices rose 5.4 percent in April, more than double the 2 percent pace for all of 2007.

For the year starting in April, salaries for civil servants were raised by 6.3 percent for the upper pay group and by 5.29 percent for middle and lower pay groups.

Stock market declines and a faltering global economy may erode business and consumer confidence. The key Hang Seng Index has fallen 17 percent this year.

A survey this quarter of 807 employers in the city showed a decline in the proportion who said they expected to add workers in the following quarter. The drop was from 33 percent to 30 percent, U.S.-based recruitment company Manpower Inc. said.

Taobao, Alibaba's online consumer website, expects its transaction volume to surpass 100 billion yuan (14.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, a 130 percent increase from the previous year, according to Liang Chunxiao, Alibaba's vice president.

Speaking at a forum in Hangzhou, capital of east Zhejiang Province. Liang said with the rapid growth in China's e-commerce market, Taobao's customer base had soared in the first quarter, reaching 62 million from 53 million in 2007. Its transaction volume in the first three months hit 18.8 billion yuan, up 170 percent from the same period a year earlier.

"Taobao's transaction volume has grown for four years and reached 43.3 billion yuan in 2007, an outcome that took supermarket retailers like Wal-Mart almost three decades."

In total, 55 million domestic Internet users shopped online last year, spending 59.4 billion yuan, according to the Beijing-based China Internet Research Center.

Taobao is one of seven unlisted arms under the Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com that was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma in Hangzhou. Its shares rose 122 percent on their trading debut in November.

Alibaba dominates the business-to-business segment in the country. Its consumer arms also include the online payment units Alipay and Yahoo China.

Taobao.com had maintained its leading position in the online shopping market last year and in the first quarter.

FOREIGN direct investment in China rose 37.94 percent in May from a year earlier to US$7.76 billion, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday.

The growth decreased from the peak in January when FDI posted a 110-percent hike and compared with an increase of 54.97 percent in the first five months.

New foreign-funded firms fell 10.94 percent in May to 2,425, while the data through May dropped 20.95 percent from the previous year to 11,915.

"China is very cautious about the inflow of hot money, or speculative money, when the yuan has accelerated in appreciation. The slower pace of FDI and the cut in new foreign-funded firms indicated such concerns but also demonstrated investors' focus on bigger and more capital-intensive projects," said Li Maoyu, an analyst with Changjiang Securities Co.

The Chinese currency has appreciated about 5.3 percent so far this year against the dollar. The pace was much faster than the combined growth of 7 percent for the entire year of 2007.

But what can't be denied is that China's rapidly expanding consumer market also made the country an attractive destination for investment.

Robert Brown, chairman of Watson Wyatt Global Investment Committee, said China was fit for stable investment in the long term because of the dynamics and the established infrastructure here. Watson Wyatt provides investment consulting services to clients, including many institutional investors.

Meanwhile, the slower pace of FDI growth can help ease government concern over excess liquidity and lead to a less harsh macroeconomic control after consumer prices also eased in May, analysts said. The central bank ordered lenders to set aside more money as reserves last Saturday to curb liquidity and inflation.

The Consumer Price Index, the main gauge of inflation, eased to 7.7 percent in May from April's 8.5 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

Investment from United States companies increased 25.09 percent in May from a year earlier while spending from European Union countries gained 35.2 percent.

Last year, China's FDI grew 13.6 percent to US$74.8 billion.

In the first five months this year, the figure jumped by 54.97 percent to US$42.8 billion.