Post-WTO survey

A RECENT survey shows 93 per cent of foreign businesses in Shanghai are satisfied with China's performance following its entry into the World Trade Organization three years ago.

Of the 1,000 foreign-invested companies surveyed, 86 per cent said they are optimistic about China's investment and trade environment in the coming two years, and more than 95 per cent said they would either expand their China operations or maintain their present size.

The survey, conducted by Shanghai WTO Affairs Consulting Centre in collaboration with Shanghai Society of International Trade, was based on a questionnaire on post-WTO China.

Eleven per cent of the respondents gave China very high scores - over 90 points with grades from zero to 100 - for its overall performance over the past three years. Twenty-seven per cent gave grades between 80 and 89 and 42 per cent graded the country between 70 and 79. Less than 4 per cent of the companies surveyed gave China failing grades below 60, with comments that the country has a lot to improve to meet its commitments to the world trade conglomerate.

New MBA graduates

AFTER 18 months of study, a total of 111 students finished the MBA programme and graduated from China-Europe International Business School (CEIBS) on December 11. The average salary for the graduates in their new jobs exceeds 250,000 yuan (US$30,193) per year. Nearly 160 enterprises provided 733 positions for the graduates of Asia's leading business school this year. The latest data shows over 83 per cent of graduates have signed with companies including manufacturing giants and top consultants like Schneider, Lucent and Boston. The majority of graduates, about 88 per cent, are from Chinese mainland and another 11 per cent are from the US, Spain, Malaysia and other foreign countries. Among them, 48 have engaged in exchange programmes with overseas business schools during their study.

Sino-Italian tourism tie

THE Italian State Tourist Board recently announced that it will invite more than 100 Italian tourism enterprises in China early next year for face-to-face talks with their Chinese counterparts at the "Sino-Italian Tourism Meeting", scheduled for January 18 and 19 in Beijing.

At the same time, the board revealed that a training project targeting Chinese outbound tourism agencies is being planned. According to the plan, next year several business representatives from Chinese outbound tourism agencies will be sent to Italy for professional training as well as to investigate Italian tourism sites.

During the last two years, tourism ties between the two countries have been increasingly tightened and, according to sources from the board, more than 50 Chinese outbound tourism agencies have been invited to Italy for 14 international tourism fairs. (Star News)