Paid leave close to China？

Chinas State Council has approved the establishment of the State Council Joint Conference of Tourism. Meanwhile， the Chinese cabinet also cancelled the National Holiday and Tourism Coordinated Conference， which is also known as the “Office for Holidays”.

The establishment of a new unit and the cancellation of the “Office for Holidays” are expected to open up a new age. As some experts are hoping， the change might mark the shift from “golden week”-based holiday to the “paid leave”in China.

Prof. Cai Jiming with Tsinghua University says that how to arrange the holidays has always been a hot topic in China. This is also the first problem the newly founded State Council Joint Conference of Tourism needs to face.

Last year， the State Council published the Guideline for the National Tourism and Relaxation （2013-2020）， for the first time mentioning the goal of “putting the paid leave system into effect by 2020”.

This year， the State Council also issued Several Suggestions about Promoting the Tourism in which pertinent policies and measures are put forward for the problems and difficulties in the Chinese tourism development. Once again， the decree required the local governments to put the establishment of paid leave system into their schedules.

In the past， Chinese people could only have leave in national holidays such as the National Day holiday starting October 1. Too many people choose to go out traveling these days， leading to the traffic jam on the expressway and the overcrowded scenic spots.

Therefore， the establishment of State Council Joint Conference of Tourism is following the strategic need for the tourism industry. The government needs a higher authority to plan and coordinate for the solutions to problems which are not limited to holidays.

The Joint Conference consists of 28 governmental departments， such as the Tourism Administration， the National Development and Reform Commission， the Ministry of Public Security， the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Land and Resources. Its major function is to have an overall planning and co-ordination of the tourism development in China under the leadership of the State Council.

U.S. enterprises to lower investment into China

Apart from the “raiding” anti-monopolization investigators and the harsh punishment， the foreign enterprises， which were previously deeply fond of China， now has a reason to part with this land： there is not so much money to earn.

China is the largest nation to attract foreign investment. In the past four years， this country could receive the foreign investment of over US$100 billion annually. However， as a survey by American Chamber of Commerce in China shows， the increase in labor cost and the slowdown in economic growth have reduced the number of U.S. enterprises that have steadily increased their investment into China. Some of the U.S. enterprises are even planning to reduce their investment into China in the future.

“The cost is climbing up and the income and profits are increasing more slowly. The enterprises are more cautious with the future plan，” reported the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

The organization has sent questionaries to 1000 members that are running business in China. Compared with last years figure， there are more enterprises having the same or slightly higher growth rate in their income. The number is quite poor compared with the 30% increase in 2013 and 41% increase in 2012. Only 23% of the members announced the“drastic increase” in the income in 2014. About 18% of the respondent members had lowered income， twice as much as the figure two years ago.

The survey shows that the U.S. enterprises are more cautious towards the investment into China. One third of the members of the American Chamber of Commerce in China showed their will to expand their investment in China by at most 10% in 2014， while 27% of the respondent enterprises had no plan of investment increase.

Apparently， though most enterprises are still developing their business in China， they were much less ambitious than before in the investment increase. The weak growth in income and the harsher business environment are enough to force the U.S. enterprises to consider carefully. 14% of the respondent enterprises say they moved a part or all of their business from China， higher than the 11% proportion in 2013.

China has no chance to see iPhone 6 within this year

The extreme popularity of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus seems to have nothing to do with the market of mainland China， which is not listed in the first and second groups of markets of Apple.

China Unicom once posted a poster before the launch of the new iPhone， telling consumers that they can pre-order the device there. All these marks show that Apple previously wanted to make China one of the first markets to see the new iPhone， but the truth is quite a disappointment to both consumers and China Unicom.

“iPhone 6 once again sucked at the‘blue logo. This time， we have to wait till 2014，” a source close to Apple China says. The “blue logo” refers to the Network Access License. “Previously， Apple is almost done with the negotiation with Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technologies （MIIT） about the Network Access Network within September， but it still ended with failure.”

Someone guesses the stagnating negotiation is a result of MIITs disagreement with the new gadgets compatibility with all 4G systems while MIIT is sparing no efforts in promoting the TDD instead of FDD. It has not been confirmed， but Apples failure to deliver the products in time and the ignorance of telling operators – China Unicom and China Telecom – also triggered a lot of complaints.

Apple was also not prepared for the sudden changes. It is said that Apple has produced 100-300 thousand units for the Chinese market. The sudden halt also cut Apple deeply，” the aforementioned source says.

Therefore， the journey of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus in mainland China is full of uncertain factors. From the popularity of the devices in the world， any additional minutes absence of iPhone 6 in China would mean loss for Apple.

Beingmate severely hurt by anti-monopolization

On August 27， Beingmate reached a strategic agreement with Fonterra， the largest dairy product exporter. The New Zealand company spent about 3.16 billion yuan acquiring 20% stakes of Beingmate and thus became the second largest shareholder of this baby formula brand.

The “internationalization” is a strategic goal that takes the obvious place in Beingmates internal documents. Early in 2012， it built a partnership with Kerry Group， an Irish food and drug supplier and thus gained the technological support from the latter. This June， Beingmate published the plan of “Second Start”， in which the Hangzhou-based company put forward the goal of“having 2/3 of the sales income from overseas markets”.

Beingmate has been under the business depression for one year thanks to the anti-monopolization investigation. In order to end the depression， Beingmate embraced the “Second Start”initiative with the focus on the adjustment of product structure. As of 2013， the company span off all of its business apart from the baby and child food.

According to AC Nielsen， Beingmate now takes the third largest share in the baby formula market in China. It is going to extend the range of its products from 0-6 years old to 0-12 years. It also has the ambition to be the largest milk powder brand in China.

The change actually started last November when Beingmate spent 350 million yuan establishing Beingmate Kid Milk Co.， Ltd， which is mainly engaged in the business of vegetable protein-based drinks. However， this new company was not greeted with good performance. In the first half of this year， it only had the sales income of 2.43 million yuan and suffered the loss of 17.74 million yuan. “This part of business seems to be stumbling Beingmate. The drinks for kids have been filled by Mengniu， Yili， Wahaha and other brands. There is little space for Beingmate，” says an industrial analyst.

Beingmate was not bothered by the encumbrance in this market. But it had to endure worse days. Now the companys business ledger still recorded the 250 million yuan of debt. In addition， the H1 financial report of Beingmate， just as the market forecast， went through a terrible slump. Its net profits dropped 72.09% compared with a year before.

Last year， when the Chinese government initiated the anti-monopolization investigation， Beingmate actively lowered the price of its products to avoid the punishment. This led to the lower gross profit margin of its products and cooled the enthusiasm of dealers， which worsens the sales of its products.

To deal with these problems， Be- ingmate increased the investment in the construction of direct-sale channels. This February， it invested 44 million yuan setting up sales and marketing companies in eight cities with the hope of being less dependent on dealers and developing the new market. However， the direct-sale channels high cost and low sales volume might cause more pains for Beingmate， at least for a while.

Sanya to build an abovesea airport

The government of Sanya， Hainan plans to reclaim the land from the sea and build a new airport right above the sea.

The new airport is possibly located in the sea area inside Hongtang Bay， right between the Tian Ya Hai Jiao scenic spot and Southern Hill scenic spot. It is said the airport will cover 28 square kilometers and needs hundreds of billions of investment.

According to Ms Lai from Sanya Municipal Tourism Resources Development Department， the new airport is within the general planning for the Linkong Tourism Industrial Park. The investor is the state-owned Sanya New Airport Investment and Construction Co.， Ltd. It is known that the project has been approved by the State Council and is ready to be initiated.

This new airport is going to be the first above-sea airport in China.

An insider from the Sanya government says that the new airport will not replace the existing Phoenix Airport of Sanya； instead， it will function as an extension as the old airport.

Sanya is now eager to expand its airport to break free of the limitation on its tourism. The present airport only has one runway， hard to accommodate the 10 million passengers every year. The airport is bearing an increasingly heavier burden， which has greatly damaged the appeal of this city.

“There are always delayed or cancelled flights just because of the limited space on the runway，” says Gills Hervieus， General Manager of Sanya Bay Pullman Hotel. As an important tourism city in Hainan， the expansion of Sanyas airport has been an important task for the provincial leaders of Hainan.