Don't Skimp on Wages

The China Business Competitiveness Report 2007 warns that at present, many enterprises manage to reach large profit margins by keeping payrolls low. For example, the proportion of national wage and salary income to the gross domestic product dropped from 53.4 percent in 1990 to 41.4 percent in 2005, but corporate operational income's share of the total economic volume rose from 21.9 percent to 29.6 percent.

In order to make more profits, businesses all want to cut the cost of production. Given the rising prices of raw materials and energy, it seems impossible to cut cost in this regard, so they turn to workers' wages. Besides, the fact that China now has a large surplus of labor makes it possible for employers to slash labor costs.

In order to reach the profit-based performance assessment standards, state-owned enterprises will consider layoffs in the name of reform and employ hourly workers for less cost. Private and foreign-invested companies will reduce welfare to their employees and offer no overtime pay although the employees frequently work overtime.

As far as society is concerned, if wages remain low, it's hard for involved industries to maintain their competitiveness and even more difficult to conduct industrial upgrading.

China Youth Daily

Job Fairs a Sham

A job fair crowing about the presence of large and medium-sized enterprises was recently held in Guangdong Province, attracting over 30,000 college graduates. However, when they arrived there, the students found that most of the companies present were unknown small or medium-sized enterprises. The big companies that were there had strict criteria about how they wanted resumes to be prepared and suggested students send them resumes by e-mail. The whole fair greatly disappointed the enthusiastic students who had other expectations.

Every year during the job-hunting season, college graduates shuttle from one area to another across the country, but they always find that many job fairs are nothing like they are advertised to be. It turns out that only a very small number of students can find jobs through such fairs.

Currently, free job fairs are always organized by education authorities. For them, such activities can add more scores to their achievement records; and people tend to believe that the larger a job fair is, the more efforts organizers have made for job hunters. As for commercial job fairs, organizers always hope to make profits from the business: Employers have to pay participation fees and students have to buy admission tickets. Besides, anything within the fair arena can sell at high prices to a captive audience.

The problem with such large-scale but low-efficient job fairs is obvious: It wastes students' time and money.

It's hoped that both government departments and job agencies can be considerate enough to offer a good employment environment and opportunities to the young, instead of teasing and even cheating them.

Guangzhou Daily

Give the Public More Say

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) announced on December 5 that it would hold a public hearing in mid-December on revising the mandatory rate of the compulsory traffic accident liability insurance.

Guided by the principle of "no profits, no losses," the hearing is expected to justify a lower rate. Namely, while the indemnity provided by insurers for accidents will rise, premiums will be cut.

In nature, the public hearing shows policymakers' respect for the public's rights, as well as relevant laws and regulations. Nevertheless, whether the public directly has a say on the matter is still in doubt.

Since it took shape, the compulsory traffic accident liability insurance has been suspected of collecting undeserved profits. However, the public's outcry for being heard over the issue was always rejected.

Actually, the proposed rate cut is less than expected. Despite the reduction, the coming premium rate is still likely to ensure an excessively high profit margin for insurance companies. Most importantly, some key financial indicators of the first-year operation of the compulsory insurance program are still shrouded in secrecy by the CIRC.

Only when the public has the right to know what has really happened, can the hearing be targeted and fairer.

Xiaoxiang Morning Post

Counties Need to Count the Cost

Since 1991, the National Bureau of Statistics has released the rankings of the top 100 counties in terms of economic strength across the country. However, this year, the practice has been scrapped.

The listing of top 100 counties is based on their gross domestic product (GDP). As a result, grassroots officials are keen to get on the list, which would add prestige to their career. Besides, being on the list may also help them attract more investment.

Overemphasis on GDP has its own ripple effects. As GDP-related energy consumption of most of the listed counties is skyrocketing, it comes at a cost to the natural environment.

What lies behind the list of top 100 counties is actually a competition of local officials' "political achievements" and to cancel the rankings will encourage people to pay more attention to the environmental cost of GDP growth, instead of always chasing the increase in the economic volume.

Procuratorial Daily