Recruiting in China

The Great Recession rolls on, but it’s not too early to single out the major powers that have come through the wreckage in the best shape. They are the ones the other major nations implore for help — to bail out weaker economies, to diminish their dominance of the world’s production and start consuming more themselves. There are just two such nations: China and Germany.

Global unemployment might remain stratospheric, but in China, long-suppressed wages are finally increasing for millions of industrial workers. China’s stimulus — effectively the world’s largest — has funded bullet trains, airports and wind turbines. In Germany, unemployment has been running a point or two below ours, and exports remain high. Thanks to its favorable trade balance, Germany’s finances are the strongest in Europe, which is why German monetary guarantees have been key to the future of both Greece and the euro.

Germany and China don’t have a lot in common. Germany has a mature economy and is a stultifyingly stable democracy. China has a rising economy and remains disturbingly authoritarian. What sets them apart from the world’s other major powers, purely and simply, is manufacturing. Their predominantly industrial economies meet their own needs and those of other nations, and have made them flourish while others flounder.

This used to be true of United States, too. In 1960, manufacturing accounted for a quarter of our gross domestic product and employed 26 percent of the labor force. Today, manufacturing has shriveled to 11 percent of GDP and employs a kindred percentage of the workforce.

For the past three decades, with few exceptions, America’s CEOs, financiers, establishment economists and editorialists assured us that the transition from a manufacturing to a post-industrial economy was both inevitable and positive: American workers would move to more productive jobs, and the nation’s financial security would only grow.

But after rising steadily during the quarter-century following World War II, wages have stagnated since the manufacturing sector began to contract.

Increasingly, it’s our most productive jobs that are being offshored. Until 2001, the United States exported more advanced technology than it imported, but since then, as Clyde Prestowitz reports in “The Betrayal of American Prosperity,” his persuasive new book on the need for an American industrial policy, we’ve been running annual high-tech deficits that reached $61 billion in 2008. Worse yet, as we lose manufacturing, which employed 63 percent of our scientists and engineers in 2007, we lose many of our most valuable professionals. Last year, reported Business Week, the number of employed scientists and engineers fell 6.3 percent while overall employment fell 4.1 percent.

Most Americans, I suspect, believe we’re losing manufacturing because we can’t compete against cheap Chinese labor. But Germany has remained a manufacturing giant notwithstanding the rise of East Asia, making high-end products with a workforce that is more unionized and better paid than ours. German exports came to $1.1 trillion in 2009 — roughly $125 billion more than we exported, though there are just 82 million Germans to our 310 million Americans. Germany’s yearly trade balance went from a deficit of $6 billion in 1998 to a surplus of $267 billion in 2008 — the same year the United States ran a trade deficit of $569 billion. Over those same 10 years, Germany’s annual growth rate per capita exceeded ours.

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Why Germany and China are winning
MICHAEL OSBUN / Tribune Media Services

By HAROLD MEYERSON

Published: Monday, July 5, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, July 2, 2010 at 6:05 p.m.

( page 3 of 3 )

The Great Recession rolls on, but it’s not too early to single out the major powers that have come through the wreckage in the best shape. They are the ones the other major nations implore for help — to bail out weaker economies, to diminish their dominance of the world’s production and start consuming more themselves. There are just two such nations: China and Germany.

Global unemployment might remain stratospheric, but in China, long-suppressed wages are finally increasing for millions of industrial workers. China’s stimulus — effectively the world’s largest — has funded bullet trains, airports and wind turbines. In Germany, unemployment has been running a point or two below ours, and exports remain high. Thanks to its favorable trade balance, Germany’s finances are the strongest in Europe, which is why German monetary guarantees have been key to the future of both Greece and the euro.

Germany and China don’t have a lot in common. Germany has a mature economy and is a stultifyingly stable democracy. China has a rising economy and remains disturbingly authoritarian. What sets them apart from the world’s other major powers, purely and simply, is manufacturing. Their predominantly industrial economies meet their own needs and those of other nations, and have made them flourish while others flounder.

This used to be true of United States, too. In 1960, manufacturing accounted for a quarter of our gross domestic product and employed 26 percent of the labor force. Today, manufacturing has shriveled to 11 percent of GDP and employs a kindred percentage of the workforce.

For the past three decades, with few exceptions, America’s CEOs, financiers, establishment economists and editorialists assured us that the transition from a manufacturing to a post-industrial economy was both inevitable and positive: American workers would move to more productive jobs, and the nation’s financial security would only grow.

But after rising steadily during the quarter-century following World War II, wages have stagnated since the manufacturing sector began to contract.

Increasingly, it’s our most productive jobs that are being offshored. Until 2001, the United States exported more advanced technology than it imported, but since then, as Clyde Prestowitz reports in “The Betrayal of American Prosperity,” his persuasive new book on the need for an American industrial policy, we’ve been running annual high-tech deficits that reached $61 billion in 2008. Worse yet, as we lose manufacturing, which employed 63 percent of our scientists and engineers in 2007, we lose many of our most valuable professionals. Last year, reported Business Week, the number of employed scientists and engineers fell 6.3 percent while overall employment fell 4.1 percent.

Most Americans, I suspect, believe we’re losing manufacturing because we can’t compete against cheap Chinese labor. But Germany has remained a manufacturing giant notwithstanding the rise of East Asia, making high-end products with a workforce that is more unionized and better paid than ours. German exports came to $1.1 trillion in 2009 — roughly $125 billion more than we exported, though there are just 82 million Germans to our 310 million Americans. Germany’s yearly trade balance went from a deficit of $6 billion in 1998 to a surplus of $267 billion in 2008 — the same year the United States ran a trade deficit of $569 billion. Over those same 10 years, Germany’s annual growth rate per capita exceeded ours.

Germany has increased its edge in world-class manufacturing even as we have squandered ours because its model of capitalism is superior to our own. For one thing, its financial sector serves the larger economy, not just itself. The typical German company has a long-term relationship with a single bank — and for the smaller manufacturers that are the backbone of the German economy, those relationships are likely with one of Germany’s 431 savings banks, each of them a local institution with a municipally appointed board, that shun capital markets and invest their depositors’ savings in upgrading local enterprises. By American banking standards, the savings banks are incredibly dull. But they didn’t lose money in the financial panic of 2008 and have financed an industrial sector that makes ours look anemic by comparison.

So even as Germany and China have been busily building, and selling us, high-speed trains, photovoltaic cells and lithium-ion batteries, we’ve spent the past decade, at the direction of our CEOs and bankers, shuttering 50,000 factories and springing credit-default swaps on an unsuspecting world. That’s not to say our CEOs and bankers are conscious agents of foreign powers. But given what they’ve done to America, they might as well have been.

By HAROLD MEYERSON

China's central authorities have set down a more open policy to attract top-notch foreign talents to help promote the economic and social development and global competitiveness of the nation.

According to the newly unveiled National Medium and Long-term Talent Development Plan (2010-2020), the government will work out favorable policies in terms of taxation, insurance, housing, children and spouse settlement, career development, research projects, and government awards for high-calibre overseas talents who are willing to work in China.

Furthermore, the government will also improve the system for giving permanent residence rights to foreigners, explore the potential of a skilled migration program, and work out measures to ensure a talent supply, discovery and appraisal system.

The national plan, a blueprint for creating a highly skilled national work force over the next decade, aims to transform the country from being "labor-rich to talent-intensive."

Wang Huiyao, vice chairman of Beijing-based China Western Returned Scholars Association, said, "The measures outlined are very attractive. They've touched upon various concerns of talents from overseas including personal and career needs."

"The plan is practical and concrete compared with previous documents," said Wang, who help draft the plan.

A program to hire 1,000 overseas top-notch specialists initiated in late 2008 was also incorporated into the new plan as one of the 12 key projects to be completed over the next ten years.

By May this year, 662 people have been recruited under the program, which gives priority to leading scientists who are able to make breakthroughs in key technologies, develop high-tech industries and lead new research areas.

Xiao Mingzheng, director of the Human Resource Development and Management Research Center at Peking University said, "It's preferable to import talents rather than capital or technology."

"As China strives to adjust its economic growth pattern, it has become more important for it to tap others' 'brains'," he said.

"The new policies reflect China's open attitude to personnel recruitment - that is, the country not only exports talents to serve the world but also enables foreign talents to serve China's development," he said.

China's efforts to attract overseas talents have gone beyond the central government level.

The country recruited about 480,000 talents from foreign countries, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan last year, according to the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

And about 50,000 Chinese officials and professionals went overseas for various training programs last year.

Li Yuanchao, head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said earlier this year, "Top-notch talents are crucial for improving the core competitiveness of a country, a region, and a company."

"Not only should the central government earnestly carry out its talent recruitment program. Local governments should also develop their own programs to create conditions to allow talents to achieve," he said.

After news last week that Facebook, the world's largest social networking service (SNS), aims to enter the Chinese market, a domestic head-hunting company disclosed that Facebook has hired it to recruit the person to manage its business in China. This signals Facebook's timetable to enter the Chinese market is drawing nearer.

According to the recruiter, Facebook wants to hire a general manager overseeing its Chinese operations and this person would be based in Beijing.

But according to the detailed description of the post, the company also wants this person to lead the SNS game lab team to make products for the western market, and the position may match the requirements for a person leading a research institute in the Chinese market.

Also, the head-hunting firm said that Facebook was hoping the person would be from its headquarters, but the firm does not want to exclude those who are interested in the post to apply.

According to last week's information, Facebook may enter Chinese market as soon as in three months, and this latest recruitment announcement adds fuel to the possibility.

But according to local media reports, in order to enter the Chinese market now, Facebook may only just establish the research institute first. According to the requirements of the position, the products designed by the lab are mainly aimed for the western market, which means that Facebook will not launch products for the Chinese market for a while.

Nevertheless, an insider from the recruiting company said that if Facebook wants to enter the China market, it first needs to set up a management team and begin its relations with the Chinese government, which is only still in its preliminary stages.

EMS-giant Foxconn is said to hire for its PC manufacturing factory in the Chongqing Xiyong Microelectronic Industrial Park in China.

EMS Foxconn is reportedly set to hire a further 6'000 staff over the next half year for the facility, with plans to reach a total work force of about 10'000 next year, reports CENS.

The EMS-provider currently employs around 1'000 staff at the Chongqing facility, which manufactures PC for various customers. The company aims for an annual production output of 10 million notebook.

Published: 29-Jan-2010

Sanofi-aventis has signed agreements with Minsheng Pharmaceutical to form a new consumer healthcare joint venture (JV). Sanofi-aventis will obtain a majority equity stake in the new entity. The agreements were signed in the presence of senior leaders of the Hangzhou municipal government.

The proposed Sanofi-aventis-Minsheng joint venture will primarily focus on vitamins and mineral supplements (VMS).

Recently, Sanofi-aventis had announced its planned acquisition of Chattem, a manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer healthcare products, toiletries and dietary supplements in the US.

Hanspeter Spek, president of global operations at Sanofi-aventis, said: “We are pleased to take a significant step toward establishing the new consumer healthcare joint venture with Minsheng, our long-standing partner. Combined with our leadership position in vaccines, we will continue to contribute to preventative healthcare in China. Entering the world’s second largest consumer healthcare market is also a strategic move for Sanofi-aventis to consolidate its position in consumer healthcare.”

Zhu Fujiang, chairman of Minsheng Pharmaceutical, said: “We are equally excited about the prospect of forming the new consumer healthcare joint venture with Sanofi-aventis, after more than ten years of successful partnership.Sanofi-aventis is an energetic and dynamic company. His success with pharmaceuticals and vaccines has demonstrated his strong marketing capability.

"We hope that once materialized, the new venture will revitalize our consumer healthcare business and expand the reach of our products to benefit more consumers. We also hope that the new venture will serve as a platform for us to develop more health products in order to contribute to the local economy and meet consumer needs.”

CHANGCHUN, Jan 03, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The global economic meltdown impacted many of the clients of BT Frontline, which provides outsourcing services for the IT systems of docks and logistics companies. But its General Manager, Lawrence Low, is still satisfied with the company's performance amid the financial crisis and confident about its future.

China's service outsourcing industry, mostly about software outsourcing, bounced back in the second half of the year from a hard time of three months caused by shrinking demand from the global market, according to Yu Hengzhuang, vice president of Dalian Software Park.

"We have gained access to high-end market and recently entered the Middle East market, which more than offset the impact of the global downturn," Low said.

"Our business not only survived, it grew and thrived," Low said with a smile, keeping the exact figures as business secret.

RAPIDLY DEVELOPING INDUSTRY The software outsourcing park in Dalian, the industrial hub in China, attracted 63 new clients in 2009, bringing the overall number of businesses in the park to more than 400, and the park's total sales are expected to top 20 billion yuan, up 32.9 percent year on year.

The sales of Dalian's software outsourcing business grew from 200 million yuan (29.3 million U.S. dollars) to more than 30 billion yuan in the past 10 years. A total of 700 companies are in the industry, including 300 joint ventures and more than 40 Fortune 500 companies.

In the first ten months, the industry's sales in Dalian grew by 33 percent to 33.7 billion yuan and its export grew by 34 percent to 1.1 billion U.S. dollars.

While Dalian has become a world famous hub of software outsourcing after Thomas Fridman compared it with Bangalore in India, another less known industrial hub with equally fast pace in east China's Jiangsu Province, is taking shape.

The contract value of Jiangsu's software outsourcing industry reached 3.28 billion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months of the year, a growth of 174 percent. The province has 2,470 companies in the industry, with 290,000 employees, according to statistics from the provincial department of commerce.

The provincial capital Nanjing's software outsourcing industry had a contract value of 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of the year, growing by 239 percent.

"The income of China's software industry, which software outsourcing takes a major part, has been growing by 38 percent annually and its revenue is expected to top 1 trillion yuan in 2010," said Hu Kunshan, vice chairman of China Software Industry Association.

China's software industry earned 757.3 billion yuan in 2008, and the figure is expected to reach 900 billion yuan in 2009.

BOOSTING EMPLOYMENT The rapid development of outsourcing industry bears great significance in sustaining economic growth, restructuring economy, stabilizing export and boosting employment, said Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan during a visit to Dalian in November.

More than 60,000 people are working in the software outsourcing industry in Dalian.

China's outsourcing industry recruited 690,000 new employees, 460,000 of whom were college graduates, in the first 11 months of 2009, according to statistics released on a national conference on commerce.

China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security expects the outsourcing industry to create 1.2 million new jobs in five years, including 1 million jobs for college graduates.

At the end of Sept. 2009, 1.42 million people were working in 8,060 outsourcing companies in China, said Qian Fangli, deputy head of the foreign investment department of the Ministry of Commerce.

The software outsourcing companies in China have enough programmers but lack mature project managers and decision makers, who are on the top of the talent pyramid, said Yu Hengzhuang, vice president of Dalian Software Park.

The gap in talent pool limited the size of such companies to less than 300 people, which is a human resource threshold to carry out core projects with high added value. "That's why Chinese companies are now the lowest ring of the world software outsourcing chain," Yu added.