Recruiting in China

China vows to further open up domestic markets to foreign investors with fewer restrictions as the country's economic reform goes deeper.

"We have largely slashed restrictions to market access to the Chinese market to further lure foreign investment," said Lian Weiliang, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a news briefing on Wednesday.

He added that restrictions over the proportion of foreign equity have also been further eased in the foreign-invested projects, especially in the service and manufacturing sectors.

"It's very important to set up a new system for an open economy and create a business environment that is more legalized and more international", he said. "And the country's efforts have paid off."

China's foreign investment has bucked the trend of the cooling global economy to increase 9.2 percent during January-August, among which investment in the service sector surged 20.1 percent from a year earlier.

In March, the country halved the number of industries that used to be off-limits to foreign investors, another big step toward a more favorable business environment amid reforms.

Lian said the country has been gradually shifting to the "negative list" approach to better regulate market access and encourage foreign investment.

The negative list, which identifies sectors and businesses that are off-limits for investment and allows investment in all other sectors, was first announced in September 2013 in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and then extended to the other three FTZs in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian a year later.

Vladislav Martynov, CEO of Yota Devices,delivers a speech during the signing ceremony of Yota Devices with X&F Technology and ZTESC on September 15, 2015 in Beijing.

Russian dual screen smartphone maker Yota Devices signed cooperation agreements with a domestic supply chain and original design manufacturer (ODM) to further compete in the Chinese market.

Shenzhen ZTE Supply Chain Co Ltd (ZTESC), an associate company of Chinese tech giant ZTE Corporation, and Shenzhen X&F Technology Co Ltd, an ODM that focuses on terminal products in the field of communications, singed the deal.

ZTESC, a company with 26 years' experience of supply chain management, will provide integrated solutions of procurement, manufacture, logistics and distribution to Yota in the domestic market.

Another ZTE associated company - Shanghai based ZTE Health Technology Co Ltd, - will work with Yota to embed their elder care application in the new generation of YotaPhone that will be unveiled in China next year.

"YotaPhone is the lone ranger in the smartphone sector; it brings a brand new and distinctive experience to the Chinese customer. We look forward to the cooperation with Yota Devices and will closely work with the company to launch the next generation of YotaPhone," said He Shiyou, president of ZTE Health Technology Co Ltd.

According to Vladislav Martynov, CEO of Yota Devices, the company has been working to choose its partners as the dual display design of the device required a reliable and mature ODM team possessing an innovative attitude.

"The next generation of Yota Phone will come with a high-end performance and a reasonable price," said Martynov. He told chinadaily.com.cn that features such as larger screen and better camera are some of the functions to be improved in the next generation.

He claimed that the price will be slightly cheaper than the existing YotaPhone 2, which is 4,888 yuan ($799).

"YotaPhone 2, the world's first dual screen smartphone with an always-on e-ink display, made its China debut on May 20 this year at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Beijing. The product has received many positive users' feedbacks in a very short period," said Andrey Ivanovich Denisov, Russia's ambassador to China.

Denisov said during the debut ceremony that YotaPhone represents a new level of technological cooperation between Russia and China.

In November 2014, Russian president Vladimir Putin presented the Russian-designed and Chinese-manufactured YotaPhone2 to President Xi Jinping as the symbol of cooperation between Russia and China in the field of the consumer electronics.

The phone features a quad-core 2.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chip, a 5-inch, 1080P AMOLED screen and a 2GB random access memory.

Unlike other standard Android-based phones, flipping the phone over reveals the E-ink display which uses zero power unless it is refreshing to receive new information.

Tencent Holdings Ltd is beefing up its efforts at tapping into a boom in online literature, opening a new company in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, to deal with any intellectual property issues arising from the sale and use of its original material.

The new firm, set up by Tencent's literature unit China Reading Ltd, will manage the adaptations of popular books into mobile games, TV dramas and movies on behalf of Tencent's best online writers.

The move comes after a book, The Journey of Flower, written by Jiang Chenzhou who is better known as "fresh Guoguo" online, generated 2 billion yuan ($314 million) in commercial revenue after its adaptation into a TV drama become a phenomenal hit in China.

"Our goal is to promote writers in the way we present movie stars," said Zhu Jia, China Reading's vice-president.

"The new company will function as an agent to take care of cooperation deals with publishing houses, movie companies, game developers and music enterprises."

Online original literature is becoming one of the most valuable sources of intellectual property.

Online video site iQiyi.com recently launched its own e-commerce shop selling products such as books and T-shirts.

The Journey of Flower's popularity also helped spawn a mobile game, which has since earned around 200 million yuan in monthly income.

China Reading also owns Shengda Literature, one of China's largest online literature platforms.

It has built up a library of 10 million original books and 4 million online writers, the company said on its official website.

Li You, an official at Wuhan Shared Business Incubator, where the new company will be based, said: "This will attract more online writers and entertainment companies to Wuhan, which will help the city become a copyright trading center for original Web-based books."

There are over 100 game companies and animation enterprises in the incubator.

To attract more Internet companies to the second-tier city, the local government has already said it is rolling out favorable policies such as cheaper office space and tax rebates.

Game startups, meanwhile, are also hopeful that the arrival of China Reading will benefit that market, said He Yunpeng, CEO of games firm Hubei Manzu Game Co Ltd.

"Intellectual property is like mining. A great deal of wealth can be dug out of entertainment, and there are huge commercial opportunities to come out of it," said He.

Chinese Internet company Tencent Holdings has expanded its entertainment business by launching a film company, joining its major rivals Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu Inc in the fast-expanding domestic movie market.

Tencent Penguin Pictures was launched in Beijing on Friday. The new firm will focus on film and drama production as well as acting as an agent for entertainment personalities.

Penguin Pictures plans to invest in the production of 10 to 15 movies every year and produce eight Internet dramas, Sun Zhonghuai, vice president of Tencent, told a press conference on Friday.

One of the Internet dramas will be adopted from the popular novel The Adventures of Three Tomb Raiders, and the investment is expected to be 5 million yuan ($784,500) per episode.

Before the launch of Penguin Pictures, Tencent had invested in several movies beginning in 2014, including the blockbuster Monster Hunt.

Monster Hunt, a domestic live-action animation, became the new champion in China's film market with box-office revenue of 2.43 billion yuan, breaking the previous record set by Furious 7.

Tencent's main rivals such as Alibaba, Baidu-backed video site iQiyi and Internet television company Youku Tudou Inc have already launched film divisions.

Alibaba Pictures made its debut in Hollywood this year by investing in the latest episode of blockbuster series Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.

The film generated box-office revenue of 418 million yuan in five days after hitting Chinese screens on Tuesday.

Analysts said the Internet giants aim to take a stake in the country's booming film industry.

China's box-office revenue exceeded 30 billion yuan as of September 5, hitting a record high and surpassing the figure of 29.64 billion yuan for the whole year of 2014, the Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday, citing data from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

"China's film industry is expected to grow 30 to 40 percent this year, far outpacing the rate of economic growth, as an increasing number of Chinese people go to the theater more frequently," Chen Shaofeng, deputy dean of the Institute for Cultural Industries at Peking University, told the Global Times Sunday.

The development of online sales channels run by e-commerce giants and group-buying websites has also boosted box-office sales, Fu Yalong, an analyst with entertainment consultancy EntGroup Inc, said in a report published on September 2.

Movie ticket sales through Internet channels accounted for 64 percent of the total ticket sales in China during the summer holidays, according to EntGroup.

Nomura Securities estimated Friday that China is likely to surpass the US to become the world's largest film market by 2017.

"Chinese Internet companies such as Tencent and Alibaba have abundant cash flows and large user bases," said Chen.

He noted that their participation in the film industry will promote the rapid development of the sector.

"Meanwhile, they will bring more competition to conventional film production firms," said the deputy dean.

China is poised to become the world's leading country for passenger air traffic, and the market has already become an important region for global aircraft manufacturers.

Consequently, recruiting talent in China has become crucial for them to make their businesses more sustainable.

Airbus Group, the France-based aircraft manufacturer, and Tsinghua University will launch the 2015 China Summer University event on Monday, as part of Airbus Group's University Partnership Program.

The event is the first organized in China since the program's launch in 2014.

"Closely cooperating with top-tier universities and building up a good partnership will ensure absorbing more and more talent for our industry in the future," Philippe Pezet, Airbus Group China Vice President Human Resources, told the Global Times in an interview earlier in September.

Pezet made the remark ahead of the Beijing Air Show, which will open on Wednesday.

Recruitment

In July, Airbus signed a framework agreement to set up an A330 Completion and Delivery Center in Tianjin with its Chinese partners. The center will cover aircraft completion activities including reception, cabin installation, aircraft painting, engine runs and flight tests.

The plant is expected to create 250 to 300 jobs over the long term.

The jobs are part of the company's expansion in China as Airbus said it has about 1,550 employees in the country, including those in Tianjin, Beijing and Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

"We have high standards. We want people who can speak English. We would like to have people with leadership capabilities, and we would like to have people with the potential to grow and to evolve," Pezet said.

A few of the positions will be occupied by expatriates because a certain number of expatriates will be needed to train the new Chinese employees, Pezet said. Still, expatriates will make up less than 10 percent of the workers at the facility.

The average turnover rate at Airbus China was 6-7 percent in 2014, or about half the national average.

But Pezet remains unsatisfied with the figure, which is still far higher than Europe's average turnover rate of 2.5 percent. He said a turnover rate of 5 percent "would be better."

"We are not recruiting people to hold one position for only a few years. We invest in somebody. We will do our best to develop people, to train, to grow. In terms of selection, we are very cautious and very demanding," Pezet said.

In the next two decades, the average annual growth rate for the domestic Chinese market will be 7.1 percent, though it will grow even faster over the next decade at 8.3 percent on average per year, according to a report released by Airbus in December.

The report also said domestic air traffic in China will become the world's highest within a decade.

Mobility

Working for a multinational company means more opportunities to advance, and it is an important measure to keep the talent in the company.

Airbus usually first offers these opportunities to employees who have worked at the company for at least five years.

The overall goal is for 10 percent of the staff to change jobs every year. That could mean simply changing positions within a division or changing divisions within the group, or even changing the country where they work.

"We started at 1 percent, and last year, we did 6 percent. Our objective for 2015 in China is 8 percent," Pezet said.

However, he said there are lots of obstacles to mobility in China, and accepting geographical mobility is a challenge here. Hukou can be one of constraints on mobility, which is something very specific to China. Europe doesn't have the same constraints.

Challenges

Several years ago, multinationals were seen as desirable places for employees. Nowadays, things are different, as State-owned companies are getting more competitive, and those companies are also in the process of instituting a global management style and offering more and more international positions, which pose a challenge for multinationals in terms of recruitment.

"We face some departures, resignations from people who are willing to move to State-owned companies, so it's complicated and more challenging for us," Pezet said, though he remains confident the company can attract more people.

Still, Pezet worries that very experienced talent is still in short supply in China, as the country's aerospace industry employment market is less mature than that in Europe.

"It's kind of a war for getting experienced people due to the pressure and tension on the job market," Pezet told the Global Times.

The Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club, the world's largest Jaguar automobile association, joined hands with a real estate company on Wednesday on the sidelines of the ongoing Annual Meeting of the New Champions?also known as Summer Davos?in Dalian, Liaoning province.

"They will cooperate in the construction and operation of a 2.4-kilometer-long Formula 3 racetrack in the Dalian Huangyuankou Economic Zone," said Shi Mingqiang, deputy director of the zone's administration committee.

It will be the first Chinese project of the Jaguar club, which operates in more than 84 national and international regions.

"As a top global motor club, the JEC has the capacity to make the track a big success," he said.

About $450 million will be invested for initial construction. Around the racetrack, there will be recreational and commercial facilities, such as a training school for car racing, a luxury seaside hotel, a theme park on motor sports and a shopping center.

"This will be the first high-end sports tourism complex in Dalian," Shi said.

It was one of 13 project agreements Dalian's government bodies and enterprises signed on Wednesday. Total investment reached $8.14 billion, of which $3.4 billion is foreign capital.

Maflow Components (Dalian) Co, a member of Boryszew Group of Poland, announced it will invest $8 million to expand its manufacturing capacity in the Dalian Free Trade Zone.

"Now, we have invested nearly $40 million in the Dalian factory," said Wojciech Szymczyk, the plant manager.

The company provides pipes for air conditioners and other components for big automakers, including BMW and Volvo.

"The Chinese automotive market is huge and will surely keep growing. We will invest according to demand from customers," he said.

More than 1,700 leaders in both public and private sectors from 90 countries and regions are gathering at the New Champions meeting, the ninth gathering, which runs from Wednesday to Friday in Dalian.

The event is a leading global gathering on innovation, entrepreneurship, science and technology. Since the first session in 2007, Dalian and Tianjin have hosted the event in alternate years.

Lu Lin, deputy mayor of Dalian, said the event is a good platform for the city to show itself to the world and to expand its international influence. It serves as a bridge that fosters closer relations between the city and global leading enterprises, Lu said.