Students deliver food, end relationships for a fee

BEIJING, March 16 -- College students in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, launched a new service to help classmates handle important but time consuming errands and difficult matters.

A junior student in Southwest University for Nationalities and organizer of the new service, said that he and four classmates launched the service that will help others buy meals, get water delivery, write love letters, or even handle the difficult job of informing someone their boyfriend or girlfriend is dumping them.

The service was well received but was also criticized by some for encouraging laziness.

(Source: China Daily)

Grads need more help to start own ventures

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

by Ma Hongman

BEIJING, April 24 -- The country should take more practicable and operable
measures to help fresh graduates start their own businesses.

The "zero down payment" lending policy adopted by the government, aimed at
encouraging graduates to jump-start their ventures, has encountered a setback in
Shanghai. According to a recent survey conducted on six graduating Shanghai
students, who chose start their own enterprises under the center's preferential
policy, all of them failed to open business accounts in banks, even though they
managed business licenses.

Under the influences of the global financial crisis, China's social
contradictions involving employment have become increasingly prominent. The
"zero down payment" policy was basically aimed at expanding employment channels
for fresh graduates and offering them a chance to make use of their knowledge
and tap their own potentials.

However, relevant State departments still need to take some comprehensive
and considerate measures for the policy's smooth and effective implementation.
Also, we should not pin more hopes on profit-pursuing commercial banks to play a
role, which the government should shoulder.

In the context of the economic slowdown at home and abroad, this year's
graduates are confronted with a particularly harsh employment environment. It is
reported that by the end of March, a famous high-learning institute in Shanghai,
a locomotive of China's economy, still has 30 percent of its graduating students
whose working intentions remain unresolved. In the previous years, 100 percent
of the institution's final year students usually found jobs by January. Worse,
less than 20 percent of graduating students in some other high-learning
institutes have landed job contracts as yet.

To ease growing employment pressures, the country should lower the
threshold for graduates to start their own businesses, which is expected to
inject a new vitality into the slowed national economy. To this end, a good
policy on *** alone is not enough.

When it comes to the "zero down payment" policy, the government still needs
to take workable measures to seek active coordination from relevant parties,
domestic commercial banks in particular. Otherwise, the policy will be reduced
to only an attractive pie, out of reach.

As it turns out, most graduates keen on setting up their businesses have
encountered various hurdles in the process of opening an enterprise account, a
necessary step to start a new business. For instance, all domestic commercial
banks demand that any one who wants to start a business must first deposit no
less than 20,000 yuan in his or her bank account, and must pay a procedure fee
ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 yuan.

For the 20-something graduates, who have just left their ivory tower and
have no strong economic power, such an exorbitant economic requirement is
undoubtedly equivalent to an insurmountable jolt in their dream of a business
venture.

In fact, commercial banks cannot be blamed for their lack of cooperation,
given that their overwhelming purpose is to pursue maximum profits at low risks.
Any of the existing risk evaluation systems set up by domestic commercial banks
are enough to persuade them to avoid lending to economically weak graduates.

Under these circumstances, any preferential policies launched by the
country's industrial and commercial authorities due to the lack of a necessary
risk guaranteeing system, would prove useless.

The setback most graduates have suffered is also an essential reflection of
the hardships facing the country's private-run enterprises. It is common that a
large number of private enterprises have been marginalized in the country's
preferential policies in support of industrial development.

A typical case is in the field of refined oil. According to a regulation
promulgated by the Ministry of Commerce, the wholesale of the country's refined
oil should be open to all domestic enterprises, state-run or private, as of Jan
1, 2007. But the regulation also stipulates that only those enterprises with an
oil storeroom of 10,000 cubic meters and a registered fund of 30 million yuan
are qualified to start such a business. The two requirements undoubtedly deprive
almost all of the less powerful private oil enterprises.

As the global financial crisis continues to affect the Chinese economy,
domestic private sectors' potential should not be understated anymore. The
country's enormous domestic savings, as high as 24 trillion yuan, should flow to
these sectors and help boost the national economy.

Developing private sectors will not only help promote a diversified market
pattern, but will also contribute much to the improvement of market vitality. We
should not suffocate any possibility of our young graduates becoming the next
Bill Gates and Michael Dell, both of whom have set a good example for young
graduates to create a new business empire after starting from scratch.

To encourage the country's youth to start their own businesses, a policy on
*** or slogans without any substance is not enough. A risk guarantee fund,
including risk investment and private equity, should be set up to dispel the
concerns of commercial banks when extending loans to young graduates.

The author is an anchorman with China Business Network, a TV network based
in Shanghai.

(Source: China Daily)

A new G2 in Asia to help steer the way

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

by Dennis Pamlin

We have a financial crisis that has forced any traditional superpower to
understand that the emerging economies must be given a more important role when
global economic policy is being developed. So far this has resulted in G8+5, a
bigger role for G20 and a number of crisis meetings.

But the financial crisis is nothing more than the tip of an iceberg and
much more is needed. Below the su***ce we have a number of trends that require a
dramatic change in how the current global governing system works, including the
Bretton Woods institutions that were created after World War II.

The firm action that the current financial crisis requires is a perfect
opportunity to begin looking toward a new global architecture. At the very
center of this architecture are two different G2's that will play a very
important role.

The first G2 is the one that has been discussed in media since the
beginning of the financial crisis, that of China and the United States. This is
the G2 that follows the logic of the current system. Few would disagree that the
G8 that exists today is increasingly outdated and that something new is needed.
The G8 was a response to the oil crisis in 1973 and when it was formed in France
in 1975 it was the major Western countries that came together. That time is gone
and we have a different situation today.

The two major economies on the planet should have a special relationship
and the "strategic and economic dialogue" mechanism that was launched during the
G20 meeting in London provides a great opportunity.

It is important that China is clear and does not allow the old, polarized
agenda to dominate, so that G2 becomes a smaller, more effective version of G8.
China's global role so far has been a breath of fresh air as it does not seek
global leadership, but instead wants to work in collaboration with all countries
and on all levels.

With the U.S. as a major consumer and China as a major producer, we can
hope for a "global collaboration" initiative. This could focus on the major
challenges we face and how China and the U.S. could together, with other
countries, to find solutions for them.

These solutions could range from major initiatives with incentives that
support sustainable innovation and standards that ensure future buildings are
net producers of energy. Instead of being the largest problem for climate change
and resource use, the buildings of the world could become the epicenter for
climate-smart and resource-efficient solutions. For this to happen, China and
the US must cooperate.

This G2 could also encourage micro collaborations. I myself carry around a
bag with solar panels that can charge my laptop; it is made in the U.S. and
costs a lot. I would like to see these kinds of solutions being made in places
like Baoding, the city south of Beijing that wants to be a center for renewable
energy production that Silicon Valley is to the computer industry. At the same
time, companies in China could be invited to the U.S. to explore how joint
construction projects for solar buildings can be launched.

This kind of practical collaboration could be linked to more strategic
collaboration in trade, investments and finance, as well as in security policy
and other important areas.

In order to identify the second G2, we must take a step back to the macro
level. It is easy to see that the center of the global economy is moving east.
The need to find long-term solutions for a financial system where the money can
move at the speed of light will require new regulations and new institutions.

But there are other issues that are harder to see, issues that will not hit
the headlines before it is too late, as they happen slower. These include issues
such as the demographic crunch with an aging global population, the increased
population pressure as the world moves toward 10 billion people, growing
inequalities within and between countries, and finally an accelerated
development of new technologies.

All these can bring humanity fantastic gifts if they are met with the right
framework, but they could also drive the world into conflict and problems beyond
imagination. Especially since natural resources on the planet are not enough to
provide everyone with a "G8 lifestyle".

This brings us to what I think is the more interesting, and less discussed,
G2 - China and India. I was fortunate to be in Delhi during President Hu
Jintao's visit in 2006. During this trip, a number of initiatives were started
and it is clear that the 2 billion-plus population countries share many
challenges and opportunities.

Cynical observers have focused on the differences between the countries and
many Western observers seem to view China and India as pawns in the power play
between the G8 countries. But anyone that can do the math and look at the
history of these two countries will realize that there will be a very
interesting G2, whether we like to call it that or not.

By ensuring closer and more strategic ties between China and India, the
world will get two countries with long, proud histories that are a welcome
balance to the dominating Western narrative in most of today's global
institutions. The world would also get two countries that are reflections of how
the world as a whole looks like, with a mix of rich and poor people and
different development paths.

The most interesting aspect of the "Chindia G2" would probably be the end
of the idea of Western countries as the goal of "development". We could also get
a discussion about where the world can and should go next. We need a global
circular economy for that and the two countries that probably have the best
opportunity to provide guidance on how this can be done in a practical way are
China and India.

Every time I visit China and India, I see more and more similarities when
it comes to the big challenges. With their roles as global economic engines, it
becomes very important what direction those engines will move and what fuel they
will use. If China and India start collaborating in a way that shows the world
the two countries - which together contain about 40 percent of the world's
population - can develop joint innovative strategies for global sustainability,
it will be a very good step forward for this current crisis.

This G2 understands the need for innovative solutions that deliver more
than incremental improvements, as this is necessary to lift people out of
poverty and deliver solutions that do not result in conflict over natural
resources a few years from now.

So while most people are looking for a U.S.-China G2 along the lines of the
old school, the most important G2 will probably be that of China and India. We
should see these two in a relationship that is mutually beneficial.

With a global agenda that delivers global benefits, China would start
building a global governance culture beyond narrow self-interest that also
includes scientific consideration for the planet in a way that the current
economic system has failed to do. This would be a very good start for the 21st
century and a way to turn the current economic crisis into something that will
benefit both the people and the planet in a way that we never done before, but
that we urgently need.

Deng Xiaoping once said that a real Asian century will arrive only when
China and India are developed - this time is now emerging and for it to deliver
a positive outcome, the two G2s could play a crucial role.

The author is a global environment policy advisor specializing in China and
India.

(Source: China Daily)