Recruiting in China

This year's "Invest in Beijing" Fair, which aimed at attracting more investment to the city's high-end industries, opened in Beijing on Dec 9.

As an annual investment promotion event taking place in the city since 2009, this year's Invest in Beijing attached more emphasis on social and private capital's involvement in its cutting-edge sectors, such as the new generation of information technology, biological medicines, as well as energy conservation, and environmental protection.

The organizing committee also set up a service station to offer face-to-face counseling for potential investors and companies in various fields, such as laws and regulations, investment environment and planning of industries.

Representatives from the city's governmental departments, including the commission of science and technology, commission of education and commission of development and reform, came to explain the investment policies at the station, as did the investment promotion organizations from all the districts and counties of Beijing, as well as the city's major industrial clusters —Zhongguancun Science Park, Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area and Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone.

At the Fair, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform released a batch of pilot projects which call for social investment in public services and utilities, and the new list of industries that are prohibited or limited by the municipal government.

The China National Gold Group Corporation, the country's biggest gold producer, Nanshan Group, a chemical firm based in east China's Shandong province, and China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group signed contracts worth 31.1 billion yuan ($5 billion), higher than the 27.9 billion yuan at the contract signing ceremony during last year's "Invest in Beijing" Fair.

This year's Fair highlighted the promotion of projects in high-end sectors and strategic emerging industries to help advance the city's economic restructuring and strengthen its role as the country's center of politics, culture, global exchanges and scientific and technological innovation.

More than 500 representatives from state-owned enterprises, large private companies, multinational corporations, leading players from different industries, as well as chambers of commerce from China and abroad attended the fair.

Ma Peihua, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association, Niu Youcheng, a member of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and the city's vice mayor Cheng Hong were present at the Fair.

Yvonne Fang could not believe her eyes when she saw a total transaction volume of 500,000 yuan (81,000 US dollars) on Alipay over the past 10 years.

"I hope my husband never sees the bill," she joked.

Alipay, an online payment platform launched by Alibaba in 2004, sent reports to its 300 million users on Monday detailing their spending over the past ten years.

The reports showed spending and investment through Alipay, together with an estimate of the users' assets in another 10 years judging from the spending and investment history.

Reviewing her spending since 2007, Fang, 30, found the first item she bought online was a blouse for only 69 yuan, one third of the tag price. "I even showed it off to my foreign colleague and recommended she turn to online shopping," recalled Fang, who now works at an international public relations company.

During her time spending online, she has grown from a fresh graduate into the mother of a two-year-old girl. The items she bought have also changed from clothes for her and her boyfriend, to furniture for their home, to baby things. "How time flies," she said.

The record not only brought a lot of memories, but exposed just how big the e-payment business has become in China.

According to the overall report, also released on Monday, the number of Alipay transactions reached 42.3 billion, with Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing and Jiangsu the top five regions.

Apart from online shopping, the report also included payments for mobiles, electricity and gas, credit card payments and fund transfers; services that Alipay offers free of charge.

Mobile payments accounted for over 50 percent of total online payments in 2014. The less developed regions in the west grew much faster than the developed east.

The regions with the highest percentage of mobile payments in 2014 were autonomous regions of Tibet -- where mobile payments were almost 63 of the total -- Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi Province.

Chen Jin, director of the research center of modern services with the University of International Business and Economics, said mobile payments in sparsely populated western regions with poor transportation, have grown rapidly in recent years because of the popularity of smartphones and mobile Internet.

Following Alibaba's 25 billion dollar New York IPO in September, founder and board chairman of Alibaba Jack Ma told state media that Alipay will also go public someday, hopefully on the A-share market.

To that end, Alipay has started working with hospitals, stores and supermarkets, offering doctors appointments and payment services.

In Beijing, supermarkets such as Wu-Mart and Merry Mart are offering 10 percent discounts to encourage customers to pay their bills with their mobiles through Alipay.

Chen said Alipay, usually engaged in micropayment, has had to expand their community services with the "online to offline", O2O, and provide convenience to compete with UnionPay.

"With no more card swiping and signature needed, I'd rather use Alipay for convenience," said Cao Peng, a customer who paid his bill at a Merry Mart outlet in Beijing, adding that all he needed to do was to scan the bill code to make the payment with his smartphone.

Job hopping rose in 2014 as companies face challenges to their business, and the not-so-good news is that salaries are expected to rise slower next year, recruitment portal 51job.com said in a report yesterday.

The overall job hopping rate was 17.4 percent this year, 1.1 percentage points higher than that in 2013, the website said in a report covering 3,217 employers and 4,138 employees.

The report attributed the higher rate to employers failing to meet staff's salary expectations and more companies involved in mergers and acquisitions.

Employers said they have raised salaries by 8.1 percent in 2014, down from the 8.3 percent in 2013, the report said.

They expect salaries to rise 7.9 percent in 2015.

"The economy in 2014 was relatively weak and investment slowed down especially in the real estate, manufacturing, energy and chemical industries," it said.

"These factors made companies cautious about their salary strategy. We expect economic uncertainties will remain in 2015 and salary increase will further slow down next year."

The high-technology sector will lead the salary rise with 9.4 percent projected for next year, followed by finance firms as they expand to new areas such as the Internet, the report said.

Chinese shares continued rising on Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai index jumping over 2 percent to regain the 3,000-point psychological mark, the first time since April 25, 2011.

China's State Council, the Cabinet, has unveiled a series of measures to promote independent innovation and encourage entrepreneurship.

According to a statement released Wednesday after a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang, the country must expand pilot programs for independent innovation and seek "multiplication" in social enthusiasm for innovation and entrepreneurship with the "subtraction" of government grip.

Since 2010, China has experimented with policies promoting scientific and technological innovation in the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone in Beijing.

The government will roll out six Zhongguancun policies to the rest of country, including new rules on research funds and equity financing for small enterprises.

There will also be some tax preferences for innovation demonstration zones. For instance, the income tax for equity incentives given to technical and managerial employees can be paid by installment within five years, according to the statement.

The statement added that China will do research in Zhongguancun concerning overseas talent, diversify corporate financing channels and support the construction of bonded warehouses.

China has six national innovation demonstration zones and plans for more.

A total of 547 angel investment deals have been signed in the first 11 months in China totaling $341.4 million, a 69.6 percent increase compared with the whole last year, according to a report of Zero2IPO Group on Wednesday.

Ni Zhengdong, chairman of Zero2IPO Group, said that lots of angel investment institutions and funds were set up in 2014, stimulated by the rising number of start-up deals.

Ni said 55 new angel investment funds have been set up this year and their scale has reached $700 million.

Venture capital companies also have focused on deals at early development stage and about 60 percent of their funds are invested in these deals, said the report.