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Teaching Chinese in Thailand

The Chinese Language Council selected 410 Chinese teachers in late May to teach public primary and middle school students in Thailand. Another 618 teaching volunteers will also go to teach in private schools, colleges and Confucius Institutes. In 2009 the Thai education authority invited more than 1,000 Chinese teachers, the largest group since the joint “Volunteer Chinese-language Teachers” project kicked off in 2003. Eight groups, including 3,270 teachers, have gone to Thailand, giving a big boost to Chinese-language education in the Southeast Asian nation.

A Less Competitive China

Recently the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) released the Global Competitiveness Report for 2009. The U.S. continues to top the 57 listed economies with a full mark of 100, followed by Hong Kong SAR. The Chinese mainland ranks 20, slightly lower than last years placing of 17. Chinas Taiwan slid to 23, its worst ranking in history. The leading business school pointed out that competitive ranking focuses on economic performance, but also the ability of an economy and its enterprises to utilize resources for larger-scale prosperity. Therefore, “soft factors” were taken into account, like environmental sustainability, living quality, scientific development and knowledge levels. Soft factors are divided into economic performance, government efficiency, enterprise management efficiency and construction of infrastructure.

Overseas Mergers

According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce, Chinese enterprises have shown strong momentum towards overseas mergers in recent years. The capital involved in mergers was only US $200 million in 2002, but soared to 20.5 billion in 2008. Overseas investments have mainly focused on energy resources, minerals, manufacturing, and trades and services. China still only accounts for a small part of global capital however.

China has established a scheme of bilateral economic and trade joint committees with more than 100 countries and regions, and signed 127 bilateral investment protection treaties. These agreements will boost Chinese companies overseas explorations. On the other hand, capital exports will help to ease the pressure of trade surpluses within China and help balance international payments.

Save Energy, Reduce Your Budget

The “High-efficiency products benefit people” project launched by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Finance will subsidize purchases of high-efficiency and energy-saving products. Ten categories of home appliances, including air conditioners, refrigerators, flat screen televisions, washing machines and electric engines, have been listed. Buyers can only enjoy subsidies if the products are in class 1 or 2 in terms of energy efficiency. The project is expected to stimulate RMB 400 to 500 billion in domestic consumption. Meanwhile, it will raise the market share of energy-saving products by 10 to 20 percent and save 75 billion kWh of electricity every year.