Recruiting in China

Adidas aims to add 3,000 stores in China in the next five years to the current 9,000 nationwide as the German sportswear and apparel group expects emerging cities to contribute to over 60 percent of sales.

"More than 60 percent of our sales increase will be coming from emerging cities in the next five years thanks to an increase in consumer purchases," Colin Currie, managing director of Adidas Group China, said yesterday.

The company's sales in China rose 16 percent on a currency-neutral basis in the fourth quarter. Full-year sales jumped 18 percent to 2.5 billion euros (US$2.75 billion) in China.

The company also aims to open 20 women specialty stores in China by the end of 2020, compared with the current four outlets.

Females have become the driving force behind China's booming online-to-offline shopping sector, despite their minority position in the country's overall Internet-using population.

According to a new report from group-buying e-commerce website Baidu Nuomi, women now account for 46 percent of the country's Internet users, but they generate 62 percent of O2O revenues.

Baidu Nuomi claims it now accounts for a fifth of daily O2O sales?a rapidly growing market that enables online customers to pay online for bricks-and-mortar services, such as movie tickets and restaurant bookings.

Tang Lihua, a director at Baidu Nuomi, said the results show that attracting, then retaining, female shoppers has become critical for any O2O platform.

"We plan to provide more baby-related and beauty-related services and products, for instance, in order to further grow our business, as we think that's likely to be strong selling-point for women," she said.

The study showed that since the start of 2015, female O2O spending has far-outstripped that by males, and the gap is growing, particularly during the country's flagship shopping events such as Qixi, Chinese Valentines Day.

As well as the beauty-related sector, women outspent men in other lucrative areas, too, including gyms and leisure, and hotels, said the report.

Gao Shuang, an analyst with China Internet Network Information Center, said the main reason is simple: Women are more decisive when it comes to shopping.

"They are not only buying for themselves, they are also shopping for their parents, their husbands and children," she said, adding their pickiness, too, is also driving up improvements in services and product innovation.

According to the center's statistics, the number of female online shoppers grew to 180 million by the end of 2015, more than double the number in 2010.

They also showed female online shoppers spend 4.17 hours a day surfing the Internet, against a daily average of 3.74 hours by all Internet users in China.

Restaurants, travel spending and movie trips were the top three O2O sellers for women.

Zhou Shu, a senior executive at Yuxiang Renjia, a restaurant chain specialized in Sichuan dishes, said it had certainly noticed that women have the stronger say when it comes to deciding where to eat.

"And they are more willing to try new services and new products," she said.

"Most importantly, though, they are happy to communicate and exchange their feedback after eating at a new restaurant, which makes them more influential in the O2O market."

Foreign businesses are confident of Shanghai's growth prospect and eager to engage in the city's various development strategies, participants said during a briefing by Shanghai's commerce affairs yesterday.

More than 500 people, including foreign diplomats, executives of foreign-invested companies in Shanghai and local government officials, attended the annual meeting hosted by the Shanghai Commission of Commerce.

"Shanghai will try to maintain a stable economic growth rate and accelerate the industrial restructuring to further raise the city's growth quality," Vice Mayor Zhou Bo told the gathering. "We sincerely hope foreign investors will continue to help us in the process."

Lee Min-ho, director-general of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in Shanghai, said South Korean companies are expecting more interaction with China after the implementation of the free trade agreement signed last year between the two countries.

"Our investors are confident that bilateral trade will get a boost this year thanks to the free trade agreement, in particular in areas like fashion, health, cosmetics and tourism," Lee said.

"Shanghai is an important hub for China's trade of consumer goods ... we will enhance our operation here," Lee said.

Indonesia's Consul General in Shanghai, Kenssy D Ekaningsih, said her country was eager to engage in China's Belt and Road initiative.

"We have seen massive scale of operation in place under the initiative in the past two years," Ekaningsih said. "It is of huge importance for us because Indonesia stands at a core geographic location in the maritime Silk Road ... we hope our presence in Shanghai will play a constructive role in bolstering bilateral economic and cultural interaction," Ekaningsih said.

China's economy continued to weaken in February with activity slowing in both the manufacturing and service sectors, according to the latest figures.

The official Purchasing Managers' Index, a comprehensive gauge reflecting operational conditions in largely state-owned manufacturing companies, fell 0.4 points from January to 49 last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, below the 50 mark that separates contraction from expansion.

It was the seventh consecutive month manufacturing had been below 50.

The official non-manufacturing PMI, a counterpart for the service sector, fell to 52.7 in February, down from 53.5 a month earlier.

Bureau analyst Zhao Qinghe said factors including production being suspended during the Spring Festival holiday, which also led to less demand, were major reasons for the continuing decline.

The manufacturing PMI's component indexes showed production fell to 50.2 last month, down from January's 51.4. New orders lost 0.9 points to 48.6, staying below 50 for the second straight month. The purchase volume of raw materials lost 1.1 points to 47.9, while employment retreated 0.2 points to 47.6, both worse than a year earlier.

"The overall performance was disappointing," Zhao said. "But there were some positive signs such as a small rebound in the price of crude oil that led to higher sub-index measuring the costs of raw materials. Meanwhile, with the implementation of supportive policies, we have seen strengthened confidence among industrial companies."

The price of raw materials rose 5.1 points to 50.2 last month, above 50 for the first time since August 2014.

Liu Ligang, chief economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, said the figures suggested policy-makers may take further measures to manage an economic growth target of between 6.5 percent and 7 percent for 2016.

"The proactive fiscal policy will be needed to support investments and we expect the fiscal deficit could be increased to a range of 3 percent to 4 percent of the economic output in 2016, up from 2.3 percent in 2015," Liu said.

Robert Subbaraman, chief economist of Asia (ex-Japan) at Nomura, said earlier that China needed to expand fiscal investments, but should be cautious not to slow industrial restructuring.

In line with the worsening performance of state-owned industrial companies, their private and export-oriented counterparts also reported weakening activity.

The Caixin China PMI, an indicator slanted toward private and export-oriented manufacturing companies, landed at 48 in February, a five-month low that was down from 48.4 in January, according to the Caixin magazine and research firm Markit.

He Fan, chief economist at Caixin Insight Group, said: "The government needs to press ahead with reforms, while adopting moderate stimulus policies and strengthening support of the economy in other ways to prevent it from falling off a cliff."

China's gross domestic product grew 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, concluding 2015 with a rate of 6.9 percent, the slowest growth in 25 years.

Thundercomm will have access to intellectual patents from U.S. chip giant

Qualcomm Inc on Monday set up a joint venture with a Chinese tech firm to develop technologies used in drones, virtual reality goggles and other "smart devices" that the U.S. chip giant believes will be the next big thing after the smartphone boom.

The new JV, named Thundercomm, will provide products and technologies for local firms which are building the next-generation drones, robots, VR devices and wearables, according to a statement from Qualcomm and its Chinese partner Thunder Software Technology Co Ltd, or Thundersoft.

The registered capital of Thundercomm was 18.74 million yuan ($2.8 million) and the Beijing-based Thundersoft will control nearly 82 percent of the JV, according to a statement from Thundersoft. An investment subsidiary of Qualcomm took the rest of the new company's stake.

The JV will be located at the Fairy Peach Data Valley in Yubei District, southwest China's Chongqing municipality. The inland mega city has become one of the world's largest manufacturing bases of the smart devices in recent years.

Zhang Shutao, general manager of Thundercomm, said the JV will get to use intellectual patents from Qualcomm.

"We will have a lot opportunities to work with Qualcomm in IP, ... the JV will find ways to help customers get access to Qualcomm's IPs," Zhang said.

Frank Meng, chairman of Qualcomm China, told China Daily in an exclusive interview earlier this month Chinese startups are set to lead the world in innovation in an array of emerging sectors.

Chinese tech firms are making technological breakthroughs instead of waiting for ideas imported from overseas companies, said Meng.

"Local vendors are coming up with gigantic amount of ideas that suit requirements of Chinese customers. Qualcomm wants to be a part of this new trend that will unlock another trillion-yuan market," said the 56-year-old.

Ma Longwen, an analyst from Changjiang Securities Co, said the new JV will give an edge to Thundersoft in many areas, including drone making, smart automobile and VR.

"It requires a large number of high-end chips to make a drone, as global orders for drones reaching the highest level on record, the JV is facing a huge market demand because it is endorsed by Qualcomm technologies," according to Ma.

While sectors such as VR and operating system used in automobiles are not big today, they are set to receive huge user base like smartphones did, he added.

The establishment of Thundercomm was also the first major China investment from Qualcomm since it set up a Guizhou-registered firm to manage investments on the Chinese mainland in January.

Qualcomm is moving its investment focus to inland provinces to echo a number of national strategies aimed to boost economy in the less-developed regions taking advantage of the Internet and new technologies.

China has a huge number of migrant workers. They usually come from rural areas across the country, and work in cities to seek a better life.

This phenomenon came into being after China's Reform and Opening up policy was introduced in the late 1970s. It meant a larger labour force was needed to meet the demands of the burgeoning economy. Now, as over three decades have passed, this specific industry faces new challenges and changes.

A new landmark for China's capital. This building under construction will be the highest one in Beijing in two year's time. It's another masterpiece straight out of a designer's hands, and a masterpiece by its builders as well.

Li Shaohua, now approaching his 50s, is one of them. He has worked for 20 years as a migrant worke and now he worries about his age.

"As I am getting older now. I would like to spend more time with my family. It's no longer suitable for me to stay in this industry," he said.

It's rare to see a young face like Wu Chunxi at this construction site. There are less young workers in China, as a result of family planning policies. Wu says he won't stay in this industry for long.

"I will stay in this industry for several more years to earn some money. Then I will go back home, start my own family, open a small business, and ensure a happy life for my family," Wu said.

The average age of China's migrant workers is higher than ever before. Of the 270 million across the country, nearly 20% of them are more than 50 years old. And their lack of education means it's difficult for them to acquire new skills.

Li Shaohua graduated from a local middle school in central China's Hubei province. He says, besides old age, he is also concerned about his education level.

"If I got a much higher education level, I would take a job in the management team. However, due to the lack of education, I could only work here as a worker," Li said.

Wu Chunxi is luckier since his college education allows him to take a job as an electrician.

"The knowledge I picked up at school, along with the working experience here, makes me learn new things more quickly than others. I can read the circuit diagram, and I learn quite a lot of new things here," he said.

China's economy has entered a "new normal" development phase. It features slower growth but higher efficiency. Migrant workers, those that usually remain disadvantaged in terms of age and education are the first to be affected.

Starting from the latter half of 2015, many chose to return back home from cities. The number of returnees reached two million in November, 2015.

Li Shaohua is happy to talk about his plans for his retirement. He can either grow crops or start a business of his own. But one thing he is certain of is that he would encourage his son to get a college education....