This must be the first Asian university with an overseas campus. Are there any others? But I bet it will not be the last.
Related articles
- Asian Universities Move Up In World Rankings (keptup.typepad.com)
04/02/2013
* The party has to stop, technology tycoon tells India’s mega rich
The Times: “One of India’s top technology bosses has attacked the growing tendency towards conspicuous consumption among his country’s business elite, saying that some of the excesses were repugnant in a nation of such poverty.
Azim Premji, the billionaire philanthropist and chairman of Wipro, the IT services group, said that practices such as flying in American bands for weddings at $1 million a time were damaging in India, where official statistics last year suggested that 360 million people were living in the depths of poverty.
His words come as Delhi considers imposing higher taxes on the super-rich as it tries to close a yawning budget gap.
The country’s ultra-wealthy should be devoting more of their earnings to philanthropy, Mr Premji said. He declined to be drawn on whether he thought the elite should be subject to higher taxes, emphasising instead the importance of giving away wealth voluntarily. The 67-year-old is one of Asia’s leading philanthropists and in 2001 founded the Azim Premji Foundation, an educational charity to which he has handed billions of dollars.
Mr Premji said: “In India the very rich are demonstrating too much conspicuous wealth in terms of lifestyle. That I think has not been the culture of India in terms of the previous rich, [who] always had very moderate, regulated lifestyles. That is getting a lot of visibility. If you go for parties and you go for weddings and in a country of our poverty some of those make you sick.”
India’s economy has slowed sharply, with growth of 5.5 per cent forecast for this year, down from expansion of over 8 per cent early in the decade. Mr Premji said that his country’s boom had been hyped in the past and that its image had been damaged recently by the economic slowdown and policy indecision.
Mr Premji, ranked as India’s third-wealthiest person by Forbes, warned that unemployment in his country could turn into a “complete disaster” if growth did not accelerate sharply.”
via The party has to stop, technology tycoon tells India’s mega rich | The Times.
04/02/2013
* China to help migrant workers in urbanization
China Daily: “Chinese authorities on Thursday underlined the need to help rural migrant workers become urban residents, calling it an important task for the country’s urbanization, according to its first policy document for 2013.
To promote urbanization, especially concerning migrant workers, China will put forward reforms of its household registration system, loosening requirements for obtaining residency permits in small and medium-sized cities and small townships, the document said.
The country also vowed more efforts in providing professional training for migrant workers, ensuring their social security and protecting their rights and interests, according to the document.
Migrant workers should enjoy equal rights and benefits in payments, education of their children, public health, housing and cultural services, the document said. It added that authorities will work to extend basic public services to all permanent residents in cities.
The central government also urged more serious attention be given to the left-behind population, namely children, women and old people in rural areas after their family members go to work in cities.
Local authorities at all levels as well as the public should guarantee the rights and safety of the left-behind population with support, help and care, said the document.
The first policy document, issued by the central committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council every year, is dubbed the No 1 central document. This is the 10th consecutive year in which the document has focused on rural issues.
Chinese official data showed that the country’s migrant worker population amounted to 253 million by the end of 2011, among which 159 million were working away from their homes.”
via China to help migrant workers in urbanization |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn.
See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/12/17/testing-time-for-chinas-migrants-as-they-demand-access-to-education/
Related articles
- * Grandparents without borders (chindia-alert.org)
- Boosting migrants’ education (chinawatch.washingtonpost.com)
- * Wealth gap to be cut, Han Changfu tells Central Rural Work Conference (chindia-alert.org)
03/02/2013
* The slow boat back from China
Another article about the ‘return’ of manufacturing from China; this time to Britain.
Sunday Times: “Janan Leo had waited what felt like for ever to find a British shoemaker to help bring production of her ballet pumps to Britain from China.
When Leo launched her company, Cocorose London, in 2007 the savings offered by cheap Chinese labour outweighed the benefits of British production. In recent months, however, her costs have gone up about 30% because of spiralling wages and raw materials prices in the Far East and rising shipping fees.
“In the early days we had the bags for our shoes made in London, but it was far too expensive so we sent everything offshore,” said Leo, 32, who had sales of £1m last year. “Now the cost advantages are less clear-cut.”
In 2011 she approached a family-owned factory in Northamptonshire, near the headquarters of the renowned Church’s and Loake shoe brands, to make a new range of pumps.
At first, the supplier was unsure. “They were worried about sourcing materials and the cost of the equipment needed just to make the samples. These aren’t problems I’ve ever had in China.”
The deal went ahead and Cocorose’s second luxury collection is now on sale. “British manufacturing is still not as cheap as in the Far East but the upsides more than offset the costs. Customers in Japan and South Korea are going mad for the British heritage [and] the quality is outstanding.”
It started as a trickle, but now a steady stream of small firms are bringing some or all of their manufacturing home as the gap between Chinese and domestic production costs narrows. Chinese pay has doubled over the past decade.
Small firms are also finding that supply chains stretching from Beijing to Britain are vulnerable to disruption. More than a fifth said cashflow complications from delayed orders had hurt their businesses, according to research by EEF, the manufacturers’ group.
“Companies in sectors as diverse as clothing, components and computer equipment are all weighing up whether to bring production back home,” said Simon Nicholson, an international trade adviser at Barclays. “It’s driven by cost and delivery, but firms are also catching on to the idea of Britain as a brand with real cachet in foreign markets.”
Yet factories here may be ill- equipped to meet this growing demand. “British firms have been quietly starting to bring contracts back home since about 2009, but it is taking time for them to find the right suppliers, and for producers to buy the plant and machinery needed,” said Lee Hopley, chief economist at the EEF.
Andy Loveland’s business, Earlyrider, has used a Chinese manufacturer to make its wooden Balance Bikes for small children since its launch in 2006. But Oxfordshire-based Loveland, 41, wanted a British company to make his latest product, a toddlers’ ride-on toy called the Spherovelo.
“We needed to work closely with an industrial designer and to control production because the Spherovelo is completely original — and, unlike our Balance Bikes, labour would be only 15% of overall production costs.”
Loveland’s experience with Inject Plastics, the Plymouth factory he commissioned to make the tools and produce the Spherovelo, was mixed. “The tooling was supposed to take three months, but in the end it was seven. It meant we had to let down a key customer, which was devastating.”
Inject went into administration but in December it was bought by Magmatic, the business behind the Trunki ride-on suitcase for children. Rob Law, Trunki’s founder, had moved production from China to the factory seven months earlier.
He said: “It was a long-held ambition to manufacture in Britain — for ourselves and other companies, such as Spherovelo — and shipping was going through the roof.” Magmatic’s door-to-door transport costs rose 58% in the first five months of 2012.
Since the move to Britain, Trunki’s lead times have shrunk from 120 days to 30. As a result, the firm holds less stock, and pressure on cashflow has been eased. “Best of all, we saved jobs and created new ones,” said Law.
Andrew Cock has also opted to take manufacturing into his own hands. In May his £30m-turnover company, Multipanel UK, will open a factory near Dover making panels for road signs and shop fascias. The £5m facility will use Taiwanese machinery and British recycled plastic to make about 60% of the firm’s output. The rest will continue to be made in China for sale to Asian customers.
“We took the decision a couple of years ago when Chinese costs started rising,” said Cock, 51, who reckons that labour has increased 30% over 18 months, while raw materials are up about 15% after currency movements are included.
“It’s not just a financial decision, it’s about quality too,” added Exeter-based Cock. “We want to win business by making the best product at the least cost. We also think that cutting our products’ carbon footprint will open the door to big corporate customers with a corporate social responsibility agenda.”
Multipanel’s investment has so far been funded from cashflow, but not all manufacturers in loan-starved Britain have access to expansion capital.
“We are working with lots of producers that have downsized during the recession but are now being asked to make small, high-quality batches,” said David Wright of Growth Accelerator, a government-backed advisory service. “They have the skills to adapt to new jobs but they lack the cash to scale up.””
via The slow boat back from China | The Sunday Times.
See also:
- https://chindia-alert.org/2013/01/06/flextronics-ceo-sees-hope-for-u-s-tech-production/
- https://chindia-alert.org/2012/08/27/135-12-the-pay-gap-the-west-cant-bridge/
Related articles
- Magmatic acquires Inject Plastics (engineeringcapacity.com)
02/02/2013
* Corrupt Shaanxi banker disappears with US$160 million
This disappearance will probably be the first of many.
China Daily Mail: “Posted by chankaiyee2 ⋅ February 2, 2013
In my post “Police uncover Shaanxi fraudster’s 41 Beijing properties; arrest 4 ‘accomplices’”, I told SCMP’s story of Gong Aiai, a small potato who was for some time deputy chief of a county bank. However such a small potato was found by police to have assets worth more than 1 billion yuan ($160.2 million).
Singtao Daily reports today police investigation of her started due to a post on the internet informing against her in early December.
Singtao says that Gong denied that she had such properties in an interview with chinanews.com, but later disappeared. There is rumour that she has fled abroad using her passport with fake identity.
Chinese media have made investigation and found that Gong had valuable properties in Xian and her hometown Shenmu County and owns two large hotels in Shenmu.
However, with all such wealth, Gong was not happy and tried a failed suicide last October due to pressure from her business. Her daughter who studied in Beijing was in poor health due to excessive dieting for weight reduction.
SCMP reports: “Police have uncovered the false documents of a business partner of Gong Aia. Gao Yiner – who owned properties with Gong in Chaoyang district – had two Beijing household registration papers, called hukou, and at least two identification cards listing different birthdays.
Gong, dubbed the ‘elder sister of property’ by mainland media, reportedly had four IDs and four hukou, three of which were from her hometown of Shenmu county, Shaanxi province.”
Ming Pao says, according to Chinese web newspaper yicai.com, the household registries in many areas are somewhat in a mess. They have not only become the places for police officers to make extra money by providing people with fake identities but also shelters for corrupt officials to hide their assets.
Some police officers have revealed that some party and government officials have two household registrations to keep two identities. They use their fake identities to own their ill-gotten assets, while there are no illegal assets under their true identities. In that way, they are not afraid of declaration of their property.
From this, we see Xi Jinping’s wisdom. As soon as he took over the reigns, he said he wanted to reform the letters and calls, reeducation through labour and household registration systems.
He has conducted a swift reform of the letters and calls system to prevent local officials from intercepting and persecuting petitioners and informers so that people dare to inform against corrupt officials.
He said that he would abolish the reeducation through labour system. If that system is really abolished by the National People’s Congress, local government and police will not be able to imprison people in labour camps without proper legal procedures.
As for the household registration system, I thought that he meant allowing migrant workers to have household registration in the cities they work. That will take a long time and no priority should be given to that reform.
However, reform of the system to prevent corrupt officials from having fake identities, and discovering such fake identities, will be vital to the success of Xi’s anti-corruption drive. Xi seems to have his own source of information, so that he decided to give priority to that reform.
Sources: chinanews.com, yicai.com, Singtao Daily, Ming Pao, SCMP”
via China: Corrupt Shaanxi banker disappears with US$160 million « China Daily Mail.
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- Chinese woman owns 20 homes using multiple identities (indiavision.com)
- Rural Chinese banker built up £100 million property portfolio (telegraph.co.uk)
- * Panicked property fire sale in China amid corruption fight (chindia-alert.org)
- China’s Xi says ‘no leniency’ in corruption fight (sinodaily.com)
- China Is Getting Closer To Netting A Big Fish In The Corruption Crackdown (businessinsider.com)
02/02/2013
* MNREGA can bring another green revolution: Sonia
The Hindu: “Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday strongly pitched for utilising MNREGA to increase agricultural production, saying the flagship scheme can play a big role to usher in second green revolution in India.
“I am of the belief that MNREGA has tremendous potential to increase agriculture production, which we have not been able to tap fully till date. There are many possibilities not only for creating community assets in villages but also providing irrigation facilities to small and marginalised farmers, developing land and promoting farming.
“Manifold increase in the produce of farmers can be made by connecting this scheme with the use of modern technologies in agriculture. There is no doubt that MNREGA can play a big role in fulfilling our dreams of second green revolution,” Ms. Gandhi said at the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act conference in New Delhi.
Acknowledging the challenges in proper implementation of the scheme, the UPA Chairperson said, “We frequently hear complaints of corruption and misutilisation of funds in this scheme. It is very essential to put a check on this.”
The government will take steps to reduce its shortcomings through the tools of modern communication and information, she said while maintaining that it was necessary that social audits happened timely and according to norms.
In his inaugural address at the conference, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said 30 new works have already been added to the list of works permitted under MNREGA, whose focus is by and large on providing employment in rural areas mainly through agriculture.”
via The Hindu : News / National : MNREGA can bring another green revolution: Sonia.
02/02/2013
* China’s Environmental Protection Racket
WSJ: “Beijing’s choke-inducing air – which blanketed the city for nearly a week before being cleared away by a bout of sorely-needed wind on Friday — prompted Premier Wen Jiabao to call for action to protect the environment and public health.
If the premier and his colleagues can see through the smog on the policy front, they might consider something that has been all but overshadowed by the capital’s plight: the sorry track record of the environmental watchdog in little Nantong in east China’s Jiangsu province.
The problems in Nantong are a tale of environmental protection gone seriously wrong in a country where money clearly talks. They may also be small but critical components of an increasingly toxic environment.
According to a series of newspaper reports, online versions of which appear to have vanished into the country’s not-so-thin air, more than 30 environmental and other officials from the Nantong area were implicated in a scandal that involves bribery and turning a blind eye to pollution problems. Thanks to the reporting of the Shanghai-based China Business News (in Chinese here and here), it’s now fairly clear that Nantong environmental officials were running something closer to an environmental protection racket.
The newspaper, which had been following the story since the summer of last year, reported earlier this month that the scandal had reached the highest level of the local environmental protection bureau. Contacted by the Wall Street Journal, an official with the Nantong Environmental Protection Bureau was unable to elaborate beyond the official posting on the Nantong discipline inspection committee’s website, which stated that former bureau director Lu Boxin was found guilty of accepting bribes and sentenced to 12 years in prison (in Chinese).
This brief report, posted under the banner headline of “Study the Spirit of the 18th Communist Party Congress, Promote and Deepen the Anti-corruption Campaign and the Building of Clean Government,” said that the bribes were taken on more than one occasion.”
via China’s Environmental Protection Racket – China Real Time Report – WSJ.
See also: https://chindia-alert.org/economic-factors/greening-of-china/
02/02/2013
* Earl Grey descendants sell English tea to China
Taking coal to Newcastle and tea to China!
Reuters: “An estate owned by descendants of the 19th century British aristocrat for whom Earl Grey tea was named is turning history on its head by selling English tea to China.
The Tregothnan estate in the southwestern English county of Cornwall started selling tea from its tiny plantation in 2005 and last year produced about 10 metric tons (11.023 tons) of tea and infusions.
Although a drop in the ocean of global tea production, which the UK Tea Council estimated to be about 4.3 million metric tons, Tregothnan has found a niche for its products by trading on England’s historical reputation as a nation of tea-lovers.
“It’s unique. There’s no one else who’s growing tea in England and putting English tea on the market,” owner Evelyn Boscawen told Reuters.
The long history of immersing tea leaves in hot water for a refreshing drink is not lost on the son of the current Viscount Falmouth and a descendant of British Prime Minister Charles Grey, for whom the bergamot-flavored Earl Grey tea is named and whose Reform Act of 1832 sowed the seeds of modern parliamentary democracy and universal suffrage in Britain.
Chinese tea has been coming to Britain since the East India Company first imported it in the 17th century for consumption by wealthy aristocrats.
By the Victorian era, taking tea had become a regular ritual at almost every level of society from elaborate afternoon tea for the rich in country houses to tea and gruel for the working poor as depicted by author Charles Dickens.
But the Boscawens at Tregothnan are bucking the historic trend of tea flowing from East to West by beginning to export some of their wares to China and elsewhere.
“We do see China as an opportunity at the moment,” Boscawen said. “The Chinese are great lovers of buying exotic things from all over the world. Even if it might have come from China (originally).”
Tea, native to Asia, is not traditionally grown in Britain but can be cultivated outdoors at Tregothnan, which is situated in England’s southwest and benefits from an unusual microclimate similar to that of Darjeeling in India.
Less similar to India is the tiny scale of production at Tregothnan, which might be large enough to be considered a small Darjeeling tea garden, the English estate’s commercial and garden director Jonathan Jones said.
“We went into this right from the outset as being able to put the English into English tea,” Jones said. “We weren’t ever looking at being the new India or China, that’s ridiculous.””
via Earl Grey descendants sell English tea to China | Reuters.
See also: For all the Tea in China by Sarah Rose: the smuggling of and transplanting tea from China into India took several years to effect though eventually, British tastes turned to Indian tea in preference to Chinese tea.
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- Cheers! Earl Grey Tea (rhymeetreason.com)
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02/02/2013
* Coming of age: China’s used car market outpaces new sales growth
This also means that tyre companies will be selling tyres to replace the original sets. Invest in rubber company shares!
Reuters: “Used car sales in China grew faster than new car sales for a second straight year in 2012, and should account for half of all sales within seven years as the world’s biggest autos market matures.
While new cars still outsold used vehicles by more than 3 to 1 last year, they are sputtering after a period of breakneck growth, and the potential for the pre-owned market to be the industry’s growth engine is prompting foreign automakers to open more used-car outlets.
A key target for them are buyers like Jiang Meng, a 32-year-old office worker in the southeastern city of Guangzhou, who this month went shopping for a sport utility vehicle, and hadn’t considered a second-hand car until she came across a used car dealer run by Nissan Motor Co’s (7201.T) local joint venture.
“I wanted an SUV, but I wasn’t sure of getting a used one until I stepped into the store. There are so many models and they offer a warranty,” said Jiang, who traded in her 2-year-old Nissan Tiida sedan for a 4-year old silver Qashqai. The deal cost her 25,000 yuan ($4,000). A new Qashqai is priced at around 189,000 yuan.
“The car was very clean inside and outside and it drives very well. Many of my friends thought it’s new,” she said.”
via Coming of age: China’s used car market outpaces new sales growth | Reuters.
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- Car Sales Figures Show Strong Market in US and China (marketcurator.com)
02/02/2013
* Venezuela seeks $4 billion China loan, $2 billion Chevron credit
Reuters: “Venezuela‘s government and state oil company PDVSA are in urgent talks over a long-expected $6 billion in loans from China and U.S. energy giant Chevron that would help relieve the nation’s strained finances, sources close to the discussions said.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said this week that PDVSA had no plans to issue any more dollar-denominated bonds, confounding widespread speculation that one was planned to address a chronic shortage of dollars for local businesses.
That has left the government in the OPEC member seeking other forms of financing, amid pressure to order a devaluation of its currency that would ease the pressure on its cash flow by providing more bolivars for every dollar of oil sales.
Its top priority is a deal agreed last year with China Development Bank for a $4 billion loan this year.
Venezuela has borrowed $36 billion from China in recent years – repaid with oil shipments – making Beijing the single biggest foreign source of funding for the country’s socialist government, according to finance ministry data.
But a source close to the talks told Reuters that the Chinese team wanted to toughen the terms of the deal.
“The Chinese have introduced a clause that the Venezuela team decided to reject,” the source said, without describing the proposed change. “That was holding things up until recently, but they are coming to an agreement on the amendment.””
via Exclusive: Venezuela seeks $4 billion China loan, $2 billion Chevron credit – sources | Reuters.
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- Venezuela to Pump More Dollars Into Economy With Oil Tax – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
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CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 