MEMBER NEWS
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced today that Pratt & Whitney has been awarded a one-year contract with extension options, which will assist Pratt & Whitney to further develop and mature new jet engine technologies aimed at reduced fuel burn, noise and emissions under the FAA's Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) technology development program. The funding will support ongoing development of advanced technologies for the new game-changing PurePower engine family with the geared turbofan™ architecture. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company. Under the CLEEN program, the FAA will support the development and commercialization of CLEEN technologies for current and future civil subsonic airplanes and jet engines to help achieve the Next Generation Air transportation System (NextGen) goals. These goals are intended to increase airspace system capacity by significantly reducing the impact of noise and air quality emissions on communities. The CLEEN program's goals include the maturation of new aircraft technologies for introduction beginning in 2015. The goals include reduction of aircraft fuel burn by 33 percent below current technology, reduction of noise by 32db cumulative below Stage 4 levels, and reductions of NOx emissions by 60 percent below CAEP 6 standards. Pratt & Whitney will work to further advance jet engine technologies to achieve additional fuel, emissions and noise benefits through 2025.
"The PurePower PW1000GÂŽ engine, which is scheduled for entry into service in 2013, already enables Pratt & Whitney to deliver world class levels of fuel burn, noise, and emissions," said Alan Epstein, Pratt & Whitney vice president, Technology & Environment. "Unlike conventional turbofans based on existing technology that have been stretched to its limits to achieve added efficiencies, the geared turbofan engine technology has runway and should achieve fuel burn savings of 25-35 percent by the 2020s. The gear changes everything." The PurePower family of engines is designed to power the next generation of passenger aircraft. The combination of its gear system and advanced core allows PurePower engines to deliver double-digit improvements in fuel efficiency and emissions with a 50-percent reduction in noise over today's engines. Pratt & Whitney's PurePower PW1000G engine has been recognized by Popular Science Magazine with a 2009 "Best of What's New Award." In addition to the Popular Science award, Pratt & Whitney's PurePower engine family also received the 2009Aviation Week Laureate Award for outstanding achievement in Aeronautics and Propulsion and the 2008 Technology Breakthrough Award from the China Aviation Association and AVIC Science and Technology department. Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines. United Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and commercial building industries. Source: PR Newswire
July - August 2010
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MEMBER NEWS
San Francisco Mayor, Mr. Gavin Newsom Stayed at the Portman Ritz-Carlton, Shanghai
San Francisco Mayor, Mr. Gavin Newsom(L) is welcomed by Manfred Weber(R), General Manager of The Portman Ritz-Carlton, Shanghai, as he arrived in Shanghai for “San Francisco Week” at the 2010 World Expo. The 610-room hotel is a landmark located in a retail, dining and entertainment complex on the famous Nanjing Road. Situated right in the heart of the commercial, shopping and entertainment district of the city, services and facilities include six restaurants and lounges serving Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Western favorites. An extensive health club with swimming pool, gym, squash and racquetball courts is featured alongside a fully equipped business center.
UVic Study Shows Few Teens Sing O Canada Perfectly A study by the University of Victoria shows more than half of Canadian high school choral students still don’t know the melody to “O Canada,” while fewer than 70 per cent know the lyrics. The “O Canada Project” - conducted by Dr. Mary Kennedy, associate professor of music education in UVic’s Faculty of Education - represents a cross-Canada sampling of 275 high school choral students representing 12 schools in six provinces. The study found that few students could sing the national anthem perfectly. Only 67 per cent of the students tested were judged proficient in lyrics, making an average of two errors or less. More alarming were the results for melodic proficiency, where only 46 per cent of students made an average of two melodic errors or less. Newfoundland youth displayed the highest overall proficiency while Quebecers displayed the lowest. “It’s very discouraging,” says Kennedy. “These results are all the more disturbing due to the fact that students in the sample were enrolled in secondary choral classes where they received regular instruction in singing and had more opportunity than others to perform the anthem at various events. What might this say of other students who do not sing in school choirs?” Kennedy suggests there are many reasons for the
poor results. “We must consider the frequency with which students have the opportunity to sing the anthem, where they are singing it and who is teaching it to them,” says Kennedy. ““Many high schools no longer play or teach the anthem. It’s sad when the only exposure Canadian children have to the anthem is at hockey games, where the anthem is usually sung by a soloist. It’s also plausible that the lack of consistent musical training guided by specialist teachers could also be a factor in the students’ inability to sing the anthem with proficiency.” Kennedy completed the study just prior to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, where Canadians experienced a newfound pride in their national identity. She is now eager to re-test the students to see if their knowledge has improved as a result of hearing the anthem so many times during the Games. The “O Canada Project” was funded in part by the Canadian Music Educators Association and the University of Victoria Don Wright Endowment for Music Education. Source: University of Victoria For more info visit: http://communications.uvic.ca/releases/release.p hp?display=release&id=1136
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Moving towards a healthie economy and environmen
WORDS OF WISDOM
By Bronwen Smith
5 More Online Resources for Business Leaders in China China CSR
What it’s all about
ChinaCSR.com provides news and information devoted to helping corporate social responsibility professionals act on new trends and forge new paths of their own. ChinaCSR collates press releases, commentaries, and indices to bring you the sort of information you need to conduct business in Beijing, Shanghai, or out in China's hinterlands. ChinaCSR.com gets its news from research, tips, compilations of Chinese media translations, interviews, and press releases.
Take a look CSR Review: Companies Have More Opportunities To Develop In China Harmonious Corporate Social Responsibility In China: More Prophesy Than Reality? How Far Can Chinese Companies Take Corporate Social Responsibility?
The China Works Blog What it’s all about
Providing up to date China manufacturing news, analysis and insights, China Works helps manufacturer navigate the complexities of the manufacturing world in China.
Take a look The ultimate China sourcing checklist – a beginner’s guide to manufacturing in China Getting your outsourcing project right from the start – critical success factors South Africa’s Vuvuzela: Made in China
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r
WORDS OF WISDOM
Little Red Book What it’s all about For marketing professionals looking to gain some insight into China advertising, marketing, communications and culture, Little Red Book provides useful information for professionals interested into breaking into the Chinese market.
Take a look Confessions of a China Entrepreneur. Top 10 reasons to use Chinese Social Media Confessions of a Chinese Shopper.
China Business Blog What it’s all about
An independent, research-driven consultancy that uses specialist resources to deliver integrated business solutions to companies in China.
Take a look China, Monopolies & M&A Better Statistics. Don’t Count On It. Ammunition To Fight The War For Talent
China Economic Review What it’s all about China Economic Review is a monthly magazine published in Hong Kong covering business, finance and economics in China. It has been published since 1990. We publish a comprehensive package of original reporting, commentary and analysis for the discerning business reader with an interest in China's economic affairs.
Take a look Tough company Are you being served? Reader survey results show business optimism in Shanghai
July - August 2010
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REFLECTIONS
Halfpat is the New Expat in China? Not likely… By Jason Inch
In Supertrends, we wrote about how increasingly younger working professionals are coming to China, sometimes right after graduation from an MBA program or even undergraduate school. This is a certain trend. Shanghai can even be called the new New York for its growing fashion, club, restaurant, and shopping scenes. And, in the city’s business sector, to paraphrase the immortal Frank Sinatra, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But are halfpats the new expats? Halfpats are not an official job classification, just a collective term for people that go to another country to work on their own initiative, rather than being sent by their firms. They come as tourists or students, then stay as workers, sometimes for years. On the other hand, the classic expatriate, in China and elsewhere, is typically an older executive at the managerial level dispatched on a limited-term assignment from the headquarters to an office abroad. Expats play an important role in bringing experience, trust, and corporate culture to a foreign office. For this, they are often handsomely rewarded with luxurious (compared to local standards) rent and food allowances, tax-differential subsidies, even hardship pay and medical evacuation insurance. An by Alan Paul in the Wall Street Journal ponders whether the traditional expat is the Neanderthal to the halfpat’s Homo sapien, writing “… these old school mainline expats may be endangered. There is another, growing
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group of expats in Beijing who are younger, more willing to move around and less expensive to employ.” All true. But I disagree with the idea of halfpats significantly endangering the Neander– sorry, expats. Unlike their halfpat descendants, older expats have experience that callow youth simply cannot make up. Furthermore, the very thing that makes halfpats attractive - local presence, Mandarin-speaking, upwardly mobile skills make them a flight risk. They have choices about where to work in China, and may not have a long-term commitment to the foreign firm. A multinational company in China would be no more likely to hire a halfpat instead of an expat than it would to hire an inexperienced Chinese manager. Every survey I have seen still says there is a shortage of management talent in China, whether foreign or local. A halfpat may be extremely competent but, for company politics if for no other reason, nobody is handing them the keys to a multimillion dollar China operation. So the premise that Paul puts forward is - and I think he must get this, too - partly flawed. Expats
REFLECTIONS
and halfpats are apples and oranges. Full disclosure, I am a halfpat based in Shanghai. And, like all halfpats, I sometimes lament the fact that I am not an expat. It is true, I have no luxury villa, no car with driver, nor tuition subsidy to send my kids to school. I don’t even have kids! But, like many other people coming to China without a work sponsorship, I gave up comfortable and higher-compensated jobs in other countries for the chance to be here. It was a chance worth taking. And, like that other Sinatra song, “… regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again too few to mention.” Contrary to the implied conclusion of Paul’s article, that halfpats are going to be replacing expats, I believe that the demand for expats is as strong as ever, and halfpats are a mutually exclusive quantity which may also be increasing, for that matter. Many foreign firms are still expanding in (or even just entering) the China market, requiring foreign management staff. A recent announcement showed that companies choosing Shanghai as their regional headquarters are still on the increase, now numbering 206, up from just 41 in 2003. While the current HR practice in China is to try to follow a local or local-plus (i.e. the aforementioned halfpats, such as haigui returnee Chinese, or foreigners already living in China) hiring policy, there are not yet enough qualified halfpat candidates available for top organizational positions. We may also study the preferred habitats of expats to “guesstimate” their numbers. For example, expensive serviced apartments
can be an indicator of expat populations. To make a generalization, halfpats get much lower salaries and little or no housing allowance, so few can afford the US$1,500-15,000 monthly rents on a serviced apartment or villa in Shanghai. We can therefore take growing supply of luxury residences (as long as they are filled) to mean that the expat market size is increasing. Singapore’s Fraser Property in the redevelopment of Shanghai’s Wujiang Road, plans to open 20 new serviced apartment buildings in China by 2010, which constitutes half of the company’s global increase during that period. Paul’s WSJ article also points to a barrier for new or returning halfpats: Longer-term visas have become harder to obtain in China. Many of the visa brokers often employed by halfpats have been shut down and there are rampant stories about expats without full-time employment having to leave China, at least for a while. So, while China still remains an extremely attractive place to work in the minds of many young foreign graduates, the job market for those workers is tight, and I don’t expect a big influx of halfpats to displace more experienced expats anytime soon. That said, even these expats are experiencing a scaling back of their benefits. The wake of the economic crisis combined with the fact that China is modernizing quickly (thus becoming less of a hardship post), means that expat packages are slimming down and are staying that way. Whereas in the past expat packages may
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REFLECTIONS
have included education at international schools for children, housing allowance, hardship allowance and cost of living adjustments, new hires are now offered packages which do not include hardship allowances, cost of living adjustments and a reduced housing allowance. One would think that such cutbacks would deter expat candidates from wanting to work in China but rest assured, China still remains an extremely attractive place to work and anecdotal evidence suggests that employees in general, understand the need for such cutbacks and are willing to scale back their benefits. So attention big company managers: For now you may rest easy on your imported beds and high thread count sheets this night, for your jobs are not in danger from Mandarin-speaking Young Turks just yet but expect to tighten your belts.
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Jason Inch is a Shanghai-based consultant and the co-author of Supertrends of Future China. Please contact Jason Inch at Jason@chinasupertrends.com or www.chinasupertrends.com
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