China Daily 每日新闻摘要——May 7th
Premier says efforts to create opportunities must focus on college students, migrant workersPremier Li Keqiang vowed on Friday that the government will provide opportunities for steady employment to college graduates and migrant workers, even though the country is undergoing economic restructuring.
He made the remark while visiting the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security as part of efforts to review the nation's employment situation.
Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security, said 4.43 million people found jobs in urban areas from January to April, accounting for 44.3 percent of this year's target set in March.
Yin also said the registered urban unemployment rate was 4.04 percent by the end of March — lower than the maximum 4.5 percent annual rate set forth by Premier Li in the Government Work Report in March.
The premier said employment opportunities must focus on key groups — college graduates and migrant workers — by helping them with training and other supportive policies.
Li said migrant workers are the most vulnerable group during economic restructuring.
"Channels have to be broadened to boost employment for migrant workers and increase their income," he told officials during a meeting on employment at the ministry.
"In this way, their lives can be improved and the new type of urbanization can proceed together with agricultural modernization."
A record 7.65 million college students and about 5 million vocational school students will graduate this year, so more than 12 million young people will need to find jobs.
Li said many traditional industries have a limited capacity to provide new jobs. "So we have to create more jobs for young people by cultivating new economies, new technologies and new business models, as the national economy restructures," he said.
Zheng Dongliang, director of the ministry's Work Science Research Institute, said, "The premier's visit underscores the importance the central government has attached to employment."
Migrant workers should learn new skills to work in the service sector or start their own businesses in their hometowns, Zheng said.
He suggested that the government work out more favorable policies to create job opportunities in small cities or townships, where migrant workers can settle down with affordable housing and education for their children.
Zheng also said universities should provide students with proper training that caters to market demands and should also find more ways to help graduates.
Website makes online shopping easier for expats
For expats living in China, finding their way around the giant online shopping platforms run byAlibaba, which offer more than 800 million products, can be a daunting task.
This led long-term US expats Charlie Erickson, Jay Thornhill and Tyler McNew to developBaopals, an English-language website that helps foreigners in China to navigate and buygoods on Alibaba platforms Taobao and Tmall.
With an investment of about 500,000 yuan ($77,000), which included their own personalsavings together with financial help from friends, the trio set up Baopals in Shanghai inFebruary.
"The idea was born out of necessity from all of us," said co-founder Erickson. "I was alwaysasking my Chinese colleagues to help me buy things on Taobao. So, we just wanted to figureout a way to do this independently."Baopals constantly updates the flow of goods from Alibaba's platforms and automaticallytranslates the product information, including customer reviews, into English.
The website also reorganizes products into different categories to facilitate the item search fornon-Chinese speakers, and it has a bilingual customer support team to help with questions.
To make the shopping experience even more convenient, Baopals accepts Alipay, WeChatWallet and China UnionPay as payment methods and is working on integrating Visa,Mastercard and Paypal into the system.
In the past two months, the website has sold 7,000 products and shipped them to 40 cities inChina.
Erickson said Baopals sees steady growth ahead. "We expect to keep doubling ourtransactions every month for the next three to four months, at least", he said.
For every transaction on the platform, Baopals charges a service fee of 5 percent of the itemprice, plus 8 yuan per item type. The service fee is automatically included in the pricing of allthe products on the site.
Because the website is still in early stages of development, the company expects to securemore funding in the coming months to improve technology.
"We are currently in talks with some Chinese investors interested in participating in the nextround of investment that will take place in the next three to six months," said Erickson.
Similar to the general shopping trends on Taobao, the biggest categories on Baopals arewomen's clothing, electronics and household goods.
Abby McBride, a US expat living in Shanghai and a regular user of the website, said herpurchases have ranged from home decor to charcoal for her grill. One of the majoradvantages of the website is being able to use WeChat Wallet, since Alibaba accepts onlyAlipay, she added.
"It can be challenging for non-Chinese speakers to use Chinese shopping platforms," saidMcBride.
Shanghai index tumbles on liquidity withdrawal
Stocks slumped the most in more than two months on Friday, after the country's central bank drained a combined hundreds of billion yuan liquidity from the market since last week.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 2.8 percent to a seven-week low, closing at 2,913.25, while the Shenzhen Component Index dropped 3.6 percent to 10,100.54 on Friday.
Telecommunication and computer service companies led the decline, as Datang Telecom Technologies Co and Hundsun Technologies plunged 6.7 and 5.3 percent respectively. China Unicom slid 2.4 percent.
Property developers also led the loss. Shanghai-headquartered Greenland Holdings tumbled 3.6 percent, and Beijing North Star Co 2.3 percent. Poly Real Estate Group, the country's second largest developer, fell 1.8 percent.
The People's Bank of China pulled back net 220 billion yuan ($33.85 billion) liquidity from the money markets this week, following a drain of 290 billion yuan last week, according to Xinhua.
The slump also comes as the April Caixin services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) released Thursday stood at 51.8, down from 52.2 in March.
The CSI Index, which tracks some of the largest cap stocks at Shanghai and Shenzhen, dropped 2.6 percent to 3,130.35.
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