IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Employment

Foreign expertise pours in

Measures including expanding recruitment programs are leading to more foreign experts being employed and more expertise brought into China, a senior official said at a forum on Dec 10.

State-owned enterprises directly under the central government have recruited more than 1,600 people from overseas, said Huang Shuhe, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

A number of recruitment programs are in operation. The Recruitment Program of Global Experts is one, and through it a research and development group, involved with 15 state-owned enterprises in Beijing, has hired 136 high-level experts.

The program was set up in 2008 in an effort to attract 2,000 overseas professionals to key projects across a range of sectors from engineering to finance.

Policy

Residents' rights to be extended

Foreigners who obtain permanent residency will have the same pension, employment and property rights as Chinese citizens under new regulations announced on Dec 11.

Access to schools for their children will also be on par with those of Chinese citizens, under the rules endorsed by central government departments in September.

The only rights not afforded to "green card" holders are political rights. Foreigners with permanent residency can take part in all aspects of social insurance and avail themselves of the benefits.

Green-card holders are exempt from a restriction that does not allow foreigners who have worked or studied less than a year in China to buy property. They can also work in China without a work permit.

Commerce

Street to be duty-free haven

Beijing is considering making a city neighborhood often called Russia Town its first downtown duty-free shopping area, following the announcement last week of a 72-hour visa exemption policy for foreign tourists from Jan 1.

City authorities say plans are afoot to turn Yabao Road, a retail area that attracts many foreign traders, especially Russians, into a test area for outlets offering tax refunds and duty-free shopping.

Details regarding the size of shops and how many brands will be covered will be made public early next year, said Hong Guangxin, deputy director of the Beijing Chaoyang municipal commission of commerce.

The traditional center of trade in goods from Russia and other eastern European countries is near the Second Ring Road, near an area well known for fur trading.

Media

China Daily launches Africa Weekly

China Daily launched its Africa edition, the first English-language newspaper published in Africa by a Chinese media enterprise, on Dec 14.

China Daily Africa Weekly is a milestone in the overseas development of China Daily. It joins the paper's international stable of publications in the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific as well as Hong Kong.

"The relationship between China and the African continent is one of the most significant relationships in the world today," said Zhu Ling, China Daily's publisher and editor-in-chief. "It is growing and complex and not always understood - not just by those in other parts of the world but Africans and Chinese, too. We hope to set that right, and that is why China Daily, China's largest English-language newspaper, is launching an Africa edition."

The newspaper will be circulated throughout the continent and will also be available in digital format.

Culture

Ethnic villages to be upgraded

The government says it will further protect ethnic cultural diversity and improve the livelihood of ethnic groups, as it outlined plans for 1,000 ethnic villages across the country to be protected in the next three years.

A guideline issued by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission on Dec 10 said that protecting and improving the villages would be given priority.

The ethnic villages included must have at least 50 households, and more than 30 percent of residents must be from an ethnic background.

In the next three years, the government will ensure the delivery of drinking water, electricity, roads and telecommunications into those villages, and the villagers should see an increase in personal income.

Communication

City set to be the smartest

Shanghai is on course to become a smart city by boasting the country's highest number of 3G network cellphone users and the most concentrated wireless signal coverage, among other key indicators that define a digital hub.

Those are the key findings of Smart City Shanghai Development Report, Xinhua News Agency said. The city is now home to 6.3 million 3G users under three different networks, 2.2 times the number in 2010, the report said.

China's three telecom operators have pulled together to expand the city's Wi-Fi hotspots to 15,600 by the end of this month, more than doubling the number in 2010.

China Daily

(China Daily 12/14/2012 page2)