Economy/Resources - 186. page

After a screening of 1,907 of the world’s top technologically innovative, talented people in six fields, including biological and biochemistry, computers, physics, agriculture, mathematics, and chemistry, the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that China has the leading edge in physics, mathematics and computer science. However, the number of China’s most talented who have been lost tops the world. An average of 87 percent of those in the science and engineering fields have chosen to stay overseas. An official from the Central Talent Work Coordination Group Office pointed to several problems that China has: a shortage of high-level, innovative, creative talent; a lack of innovation capabilities, and a mismatch between the demand for and the supply of talent.

In this current "war for talent," many developed countries are using immigration reform to attract or retain talented people. In recent years, nearly a million overseas Chinese students have chosen to return to China under the "thousands of people plan," including over twenty thousand with high-level talent.

Source: Xinhua, June 6, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-06/06/c_124820431.htm

On June 4, 2013, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) released a report on China’s environment. According to the report, pollution has resulted in the poor quality of the water and air in China. Of a total of 113 environmentally protected cities, only 23.9 percent meet acceptable air quality criteria.

The rural environment, including drinking water and air, suffers different degrees of contamination. Last year, China’s emission of chemical oxygen and its ammonia emissions was 24.2 million tons and 2.54 million tons respectively. Rural pollution has resulted in food safety problems. For example, not long ago, Guangdong Province had to admit that their rice contained heavy metals that had exceeded safety criteria.

Source: BBC Chinese, June 4, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/06/130604_china_environment_rural.shtml 

According to the Chinese Luxury Traveler White Paper that the Hurun Report released on June 4, 2013, this is the third consecutive year that Chinese tourists have ranked first in the global shopping market. Chinese tourists’ overseas consumption in 2012 grew rapidly at the rate of 57 percent over 2011, while the global tourists spending rate growth remained at around 30 percent. The average amount that Chinese travelers spend per trip is 71 percent higher than the global average.

Source: Beijing News, June 4th, 2013
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/finance/2013/06/04/266929.html

Time Weekly published an article on how residents can become creditors of local governments when city commercial banks act as the middleman.

In China, only the central government can issue bonds. Local governments do not have the authority to issue bonds. However, there is a proven and popular mechanism that local governments use the enable residents to become the creditors of local governments.

First, the local government establishes an investment company; this is the “Local Government Financing Platform.” Then the local government announces new infrastructure programs such as highways, airports, or office buildings. The financing platforms proceed to contact local city commercial banks for loans to fund these programs. Because the financing platforms are government backed and the loans fund government programs, the loans are issued smoothly. However, fully aware of the risks, the city commercial banks turn around and sell the debts to trust companies which re-package the loans into “financial products.” The trust companies ask the city commercial banks to promote these “financial products” to customers of the banks. The salespersons at the banks review resident’s bank accounts and then start making sales calls. Soon residents find that they themselves have become creditors of the local government.

[Editor’s note: The city commercial banks are a significant group in the Chinese banking market. Most of them used to be urban credit cooperatives. In 1998, the People’s Bank of China ordered that all urban cooperative banks change their name to city commercial banks. These banks have strong ties to their local government, are majority or wholly state owned, and are known for financing local infrastructure and other government projects.]

Source: Time Weekly, May 30, 2013
http://time-weekly.com/story/2013-05-30/129859.html

The year 2013 has seen the largest number of college graduates since 1949. With 6.99 million new graduates, there were 190,000 more that last year. However, the rate of employment for these graduates is less than 30 percent. In fact, a large number of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) need college students, but many students do not want to work at SMEs.

Zhang Weiying, a prominent Chinese economist and  head of the Guanghua School of Management at Beijing University, attributed the mismatch in the Chinese job market to the ingrained notion that only a job at a state-owned enterprise (SOE) is secure; it is called the "iron rice bowl," whereas a job with a private enterprise is only good for a temporary situation. Zhang believed that the government has set up a large number of SOEs; they receive more resources and better treatment than private enterprises. If SOEs did not have such an identity, employment opportunities would be relatively fair and students would not have to pick and choose.

A media survey found that many students use personal connections to hunt for jobs at SOEs. Many employers’ hiring decisions are based upon the applicant’s connections rather than their capabilities. The students who get into SOEs through personal connections create a new form of nepotism. Beijing News conducted a recent survey which showed that about 21.5 percent of those surveyed admitted this regarding the question, "Have you used personal connections when looking for a job?"

Source: Beijing News, carried by Caijing magazine, May 30, 2013
http://economy.caijing.com.cn/2013-05-30/112843978.html

On May 22, 2013, 21cbh.com, a professional financial news website under the 21st Century Media Group in Guangdong Province, published an article titled, “The Source of China’s Financing Chaos.”

According to the article, a large number of small and medium enterprises have two or even more sets of financial records, one of which is used only for applying for bank loans. However, this set of financial records is not accurate in presenting the true financial situation of the enterprise. As a result of this practice, banks and trust companies would rather lower their interest rate for large enterprises than lend money to the small and medium enterprises.

Source: 21cbh.com, May 22, 2013
http://www.21cbh.com/HTML/2013-5-22/4MMDM2XzY4OTQ4MQ.html