Commerce is a serious business, but EF aim to make their English courses fun as well as relevant. Fluency is achieved through role-playing and dialogue designed to be useful, real and entertaining. Although grammar and theory are very important, the maximum time in class is spent using the language rather than simply talking about it. And vitally, the EF business English teachers have real-world business experience, as well as teaching qualifications.

A variety of different types of course are available. The main business courses are taught over 72 hours in three months, and at four different levels – ‘keystage’, ‘waystage’, ‘threshold user’ and ‘independent user’. At the first level, a speaker can convey and understand meaning in basic situations, and begin to understand the gist of simple conversations. By the time you reach the fourth level, you will have a general effective command of the language, be able to use a range of sentence structures and idioms, and write texts on familiar subjects with a good degree of accuracy. In a business context, you could conduct a meeting or sales negotiation in English, or make a simple presentation in English.

Shorter specialised modules are also available in five topics – telephoning, meetings, negotiating, recruiting and banking/finance. These last 18 hours, over two weeks.

Another important service offered by EF is testing for the TOEIC examinations – the Test of English in International Communication. This measures a non-native speaker’s ability to understand English in typical international business situations, and has been legally approved for use here by the Chinese government.

Although EF has four centres in Shanghai, where your staff can attend classes, EF can also come to your factory or office to deliver the courses. Class sizes, wherever they are held, will not be greater than 16. You could even have one-to-one training, too. This might be suitable if you are an advanced student and need to master specific skills, such as a specialized vocabulary or writing complex technical reports.

EF’s aim is to enhance global understanding through the exchange of words and ideas. A greater insight and appreciation, through the English language, of your customers’ needs will also help your success in global trading.

At the signing ceremony on the agreement to establish the new corporation, Matti Alahuhta, head of Nokia’s Cell Phone Division, said that “China already is and will continue to be one of Nokia’s major manufacturing centres globally as well as a major centre for Nokia’s global research and development”. He added, ” the move to begin local manufacturing of CDMA handsets would not only allow us to broaden the products we offer to Chinese consumers, but also allows the new company to capture opportunities in China’s growing CDMA market.” The new corporation will be headquartered in Beijing, with affiliates in Dongguan, Guangzhou, and Suzhou.

Goldman Sachs, Nokia’s investment bankers for the deal, said that for Nokia clients, the integration of its manufacturing JVs will help Nokia improve its operation efficiency and overall competitiveness. The shareholders of the new corporation are Nokia, Beijing Capitel Co., Ltd., Dongguan Nan Xin Industrial Development Co., Ltd., Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd., and Beijing Hangxing Machinery Manufacturing Corporation.

The new name and board of directors will be announced after approval has been received from the authorities.

Will it allow you to say goodbye to your low salary, routine work and difficult boss? That sounds really fantastic.

But, according to some employers, taking an MBA course can be a mixed blessing, because the expected high salary is likely to be “a castle in the air”. To make matters worse, people who used to work for you could be promoted while you are still on the job market after your graduation. Before making your decision about an MBA, listen what some HR experts have told us.

The average annual income of an MBA graduate is RMB 70,000 – 80,000, relatively high compared to that for ordinary graduate or Ph. D. However, don’t be too optimistic! According to our survey, some HR managers are not inclined to hire expensive MBA graduates, although they may do if average salaries drop.

Miss Lu, an experienced HR manager tells us, “the salary of an MBA graduate is much lower than several years ago. Some of them can only get RMB 4,000 per month. That may satisfy the undergraduates but not the MBA graduates, considering the high tuition fee.” Mr. Wang, an HR supervisor from a leading private textile company says, ” I don’t tend to employ MBA graduates. I don’t fi nd them useful at all. The senior managers are usually drawn from the outstanding staff in our company, who are much more familiar with our routine business.”

Ms. Kornelia Wijaya, another senior HR director who has been working for multi-nationals for the past 10 years, told us, “an MBA is not everything. Selection will be done based on the match with job requirements, and motivation fi t for current and future jobs.”

Ironically the most obvious competitive edge of an overseas MBA is their language profi ciency, rather than a lot of managerial expertise. “Since our economy is in transition, up-to-date managerial knowledge doesn’t seem to benefi t our local fi rms, which are much more complicated and involve more procedures when handling some problems,” says Miss Liu, a HR specialist from Lucent Technology Co., Ltd.

Speaking of those local MBA graduates, Miss Liu adds, “their working experience is superior to their MBA degree. If they manage to combine their theoretical knowledge with work experience, that’s perfect. In Lucent, we usually have an annual review giving general managers an assessment of their employees, which is conducted from two perspectives, one is their performance and the other is their ability, and the latter involves their management level, working skill, potential and MBA degree.

Holding an MBA degree is not the decisive factor but we will take that into consideration. If a MBA graduate fails to possess excellent work experience, their salary won’t be very high. However, we usually send outstanding staff with great potential to take MBA courses, and an MBA is a qualification for most senior manager positions”.

With respect to the salary gap between MBA graduates and non-MBA graduates, Ms. Wijaya says, “the pay depends on the position, past performance and the person. The gap is on the third factor, which is the person. Other than the job price, and the person’s performance, the third factor takes into account the person’s expectation, their name and reputation, and the next possible career path related to one’s potential.”

So we can conclude that an MBA is not everything, and only when you have managed to upgrade yourself in all around respects can you wish for a satisfactory salary.

Going a step further, let’s have a glimpse at the current MBA market.

There are so many MBA graduates now! Some MBAs did not do well in their undergraduatecourses. That gives an unfavourable impression and a sharp reminder for HR managers as well. It has dawned on the managers that not all the MBA graduates are first-class – all that glitters is not gold! Too many unqualified institutions have cultivated too many unqualified MBA graduates, reducing the value of the degree. HR managers should choose the right person who is worth the high salary.

So, is the market saturated with MBA graduates? The answer is: yes, it’s saturated with inferiors MBAs, but is not yet, and may never be, with real highly-qualified MBA graduates.

Ordinary MBA graduate are reluctant to accept a salary of RMB 5,000 per month, but in the end have to accept it because no employer are willing to offer more. However, quality counts. The IMBA graduates from Fudan University have an average of three satisfactory job offers this year. Those from Fudan University and CEIBS got an average salary of RMB 120,000 and RMB 200,000 per year respectively. Graduates from many prestigious institutions, such as Fudan University, CEIBS, Qinghua University and Peking University are highly sought-after in the job market, and many of them go to some worldrenowned companies such as Citibank Group, HSBC, GE, HP, and the like.

Why is the salary gap so large? There could be a great many reasons. The prestigious institutions deliver first-class students with great potential and high IQ. Talented people are always in great demand on the job market even if they do not hold a MBA degree. Second, according to our survey, it is the brand-name companies that demand MBA graduates. These companies prefer to enroll MBA graduates from famous institutions rather than less famous ones. Other MBA graduates may go to smaller enterprises. However, such companies are not inclined to employ MBA graduates, and on this market supply exceeds the demand, so salaries tend to be lower.

While the numbers of MBA graduates are mushrooming, skepticism about them are also apparently on the rise. If, unfortunately, the unqualified institutions have no intention of improving the quality of their graduates, it is unlikely that salaries for MBA graduates will rally. HR managers definitely have the right to say “no” to all the inferior candidates.

Statistics show that at the end of July 2002, China’s unsold housing space totaled 120 million square metres, up to half of which remained unsold for over one year, resulting in over RMB257 billion in non-performing capital. This leads all other industries in terms of bad assets.

The scale of real estate construction in many cities appears to be being cut. Real estate development in Beijing has, all along, been testing the limits, surpassing Shanghai’s housing real estate boom in almost all aspects. Cranes towering over dusty construction sites dot the skyline of the capital city and many large office and residential towers are shooting up. The result: many high-end apartments remain unsold. Beijing’s total investment in the real estate industry in the first half of this year rose 42% to hit US$2.66 billion.

According to data released by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Construction, the province’s investments in real estate development rose sharply in the first half of this year, but the pace of growth in housing sales slowed down. Between January and June, housing sales increased by 13%, down 18% from that of the same period last year, although total area of land development and the area already under construction jumped 128% and 38% respectively. The scenario was similar in Shenzhen, where more than 70% of the real estate developers are eyeing the top 5 to 15% of the consumers, despite the fact that their purchasing power is nonetheless limited. The average housing price last year stood at RMB6,921 per square metre in Shenzhen and this rose further this year away from the mainstay consumer group, the average wage-earner who earns about RMB3,000 a month. Beijing faces the same problem. If the cycle for real estate development is calculated at four to six years, then 2002 should have been the year for Beijing to reach the ceiling in real estate supply. If sales continue to lag behind, the market will have to make adjustments to housing prices.

Wuhan’s housing market also reached historic heights recently. On top of several records set last year, investment in real estate development grew 27% to reach RMB9.5 billion. As much as 85% of the investments went to housing construction and the amount of floor space in housing under construction, newly started housing projects, and completed housing projects soared to new limits.. The total area covered by completed housing shot up 34% to hit 5.1 million square metres. Meanwhile, housing prices in Wuhan rose by more than 10%. Suzhou has also been affected by the overall increase in housing prices, which have risen to around RMB500 per square metre in the new region or even RMB1,000 in some of the hottest areas.

In 2001, China’s housing prices increased 2.2% from the year before and in the first half of 2002 grew a further 3.6%, staying within a reasonable range. According to surveys of 35 mainland cities, only five of the cities reported that the average prices per square metre were at or above RMB3,500. The ratio of housing prices to average disposable incomes stood at five to 14 times, in contrast to 6 times to 12 in the developed countries.

The Central Bank released a report recently on the implementation of the country’s monetary policies in the second quarter of this year. The report points to possible adjustments in the real estate industry following several years of rapid growth, a forecast that should arouse people’s attention. As to the contribution to the nation’s GDP growth, that of the real estate industry has been obviously far too high. According to estimates, real estate investments contributed directly to 1.3% of China’s GDP growth in 2001and indirectly between 0.6 and 1.2%. In total, the real estate industry contributed to between 1.9 and 2.5% of the country’s GDP growth last year. This is a clear indication that China’s GDP growth has been too dependent on the real estate industry.

The most important factor behind the real estate boom has been the country’s reforms in the real estate system and particularly the housing system that started in 1998. One can see an obvious watershed from the statistics over the years.

The Chinese economy started its rapid growth in the early 1990s and peaked in 1993 to 1994. This was followed by the central government’s drive to tackle the overheated economy, which led to downturns in both investments and the scale of housing construction. After hitting the bottom in 1996 and 1997, starting from 1998, the real estate industry began to experience an almost straight-line increase, which peaked before the end of the year; with total housing investments and new housing projects exceeding those of 1994. The Chinese economy continued to grow in 1999 and 2000, and the area covered by newly started real estate projects topped 200 million square metres in 2000. On top of that, 2001′s investments in real estate projects expanded by another 30%.

The rapid development, therefore, started in the wake of the 1998 reforms in the country’s real estate system. The real estate industry has so far been the driving force behind the development of the overall economy, and the reform has contributed dramatically to this. If the latest real estate fever is no bubble and all the demand seen so far is real, then the question is what will happen in the future? If the high-end market continues its expansion, a real estate bubble would be very likely, as there is no way of predicting where the market will turn.

China experienced a very dangerous real estate bubble ten years ago, which triggered two-digit inflation rates and led to mounting loans, that the banks could not recover, from speculative investments in the real estate industry. Such worries are again starting to haunt China.

This followed the initiation in early 2001, by the United States of a procedure under Section 201 of the US Trade Act 1974, which imposed a three-year tariff quota restriction as well as 8-30% tariffs on imports of major steel products. In this international steel trade dispute, the European Union, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have, one after another, adopted protective measures to shield their domestic steel markets from an import impact. Initially, in order to prevent surplus steel products from flooding into the Chinese market, the Chinese Government introduced temporary safeguard measures on imports of some steel products. From May 24, 2002 it imposed tariff quotas on imports of nine kinds of steel products, namely ordinary medium plate, ordinary sheet, silicon steel, stainless plate, coil rod, section, seamless tube, and billet, for a period of 180 days.

Thanks to the introduction of these measures and the general pick-up of the macro economy, steel prices on the Chinese market rebounded strongly and steel enterprises reported a better performance. Despite a 50-% profit decrease, the iron and steel industry earned in RMB18 billion in profit in the first nine months of 2002, up 10% on the previous year. These temporary safeguard measures expired on November 24, 2002. New “final safeguard measures” were then introduced by MOFTEC. This followed a six-month investigation and two hearings, and is in accordance with China’s industrial policy guide, the development trend of the iron and steel industry, and current supply and demand on the domestic market. China has introduced these new measures based on WTO rules. Although free trade is the ultimate aim of the organisation, if a WTO member country suffers damage to a certain industry or products, it may legitimately adopt necessary measures to safeguard its rights and interests. Being able to introduce such safeguard measures on steel imports is arguably the greatest benefit China has achieved since its WTO entry. Instead of being severely affected, as previously anticipated, China’s iron and steel industry has available the same, legally-based methods of self-protection as other trading nations.

The final safeguard measures will create a comparatively relaxed environment for China’s iron and steel industry, in which it can complete its industrial restructuring. China plans to construct several plate production lines during the “10th Five-Year Plan” period (2001-2005) to produce quality hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets, including plate for cars and household electrical appliances, container plate, cold-rolled silicon sheet, cold-rolled stainless plate, and galvanized sheet. Many new production lines are coming on stream in China at present. These include the sheet production line of Tangshan Steel; the second-phase plate production line of Handan Steel, the hot-rolled plate line of Wuhan Steel, the second cold-rolled production line of Anshan Steel, the second cold-rolled line of Benxi Steel, and the cold-rolled and hot-rolled plate production lines of Baosteel and Hualing. The market needs time to digest these capacities. China’s WTO entry has certainly lowered the threshold for similar foreign quality steel products to enter the country and to pose a competitive threat to the development of the iron and steel industry. Therefore placing steelmakers under the protection of these “safeguard measures” has won time for the industry to adjust its product mix and seek development in the future.

Steel prices, as a whole, are expected to stabilize after the “final safeguard measures” are introduced. Prices of plate products on both domestic and international markets are currently high. Meanwhile, the tariff quota for plate products has been used up, the imports are decreasing, and supply of various plate products is growing tight on the domestic market. Therefore the measures will bring new tariff quotas, which will release imported plate products now stockpiled in ports and bonded zones. This will help ease the tension between market supply and demand. Market prices of steel products put under the “final safeguard measures” may drop in the short term. But from the long-term point of view, plate products will be in short supply in China due to brisk development of car, machine-manufacturing, shipbuilding and real estate industries. Furthermore, plate product prices on the international market are unlikely to drop.

Although medium plate and sections have not been put under safeguard measures, the small import proportion has meant that their prices will be mainly subject to domestic market fluctuation. As the downstream industry develops strongly, market prices of medium plate and sections may remain stable for a period of time. As construction in North China has entered the slack season, a price drop of construction steels is reasonable and does not have much relation to the safeguard measures. Meanwhile, fuelled by brisk market demand and high prices of plate products, the price drop should not last long.

More recently, the government has further modified these measures by exempting a number of from 1 February, 2003, following further discussions with the iron and steel industry. However, it goes without saying that foreign-made iron and steel products will in the future enter the Chinese market freely, without trade barriers. China has to meet the requirements of trade liberalization advocated by the WTO. That is why the” final safeguard measures” last for only two and a half years. Chinese steel enterprises should make use of this short period of time to accelerate development, otherwise they will lose the battle in the future.

Consumer credit, with fixed risk has in recent years, become more and more accepted by Chinese residents. People are now starting to use this mechanism. The Shanghainese seem to be the leaders in the number of people using consumer credit, accounting for 13% of those surveyed, followed by Chengdu at 7%, Guangzhou at 6% and Beijing at 4%. The three hot spots are in personal housing mortgages, loans for durable consumer goods and car loans

Currently, seven forms of personal loans are available in China – housing loans, durable consumer goods loans, student loans, housing refitting loans, deposit certificate small mortgage loans, Lulutong personal consumption loans, and car loans. Among those surveyed, people who have borrowed or plan to borrow money from banks mostly require housing loans, durable consumer goods loan and car loan. Very few have applied for the other forms of loans.

Housing loan is the main personal loan issued by banks in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and Chengdu. More than 40% of consumers in these cities have bought houses in this way. Guangzhou and Shanghai rank top among the four, with the Guangzhou topping 83%. People take out housing loans ranging mainly from RMB50,000-100,000, accounting for 43% of the total, and RMB200,000-500,000, 26 % of the total. Second-hand houses with prices at about RMB100,000 and new houses with prices at more than RMB200,000 are the most popular types of property. Durable consumer goods loans, like housing loans, have snatched a big share of the loan market reaching 40% in Beijing, much higher than the other three cities.

Motor loan trade has also developed steadily in the four cities. Beijing leads in granting motor loans, accounting for 20%, followed by Guangzhou, 17%, Chengdu, 14%, and Shanghai, 13%. The high percentage of motor loans being issued in Beijing is attributed to its flexible car purchase policy, well-developed roads and transportation facilities.

Only a dozen Chinese banks can provide loan service. The survey shows that three banks, the Construction Bank of China (CBC), the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and the Bank of China (BOC) dominate the market, providing 84% of loan services. The performance of the three banks varies in the four cities.

In Beijing, each of them has a 20% share of the loan market. In Shanghai, CBC and ICBC have 53% and 27% of the share respectively, leaving BOC, 13%, far behind. In Chengdu, CBC leads the others with the market share standing at 43%, followed by BOC, 29%, and ICBC, 14%. In Guangzhou, ICBC snatched 33% of the market share, while the other two each hold 17%. The above figures show, CBC is the market leader, especially in Shanghai and Chengdu. ICBC has also performed well according to the survey.

There is a big difference in the types of loan business done by the various banks. Housing loans are concentrated in CBC, accounting for 67% of the total, while ICBC has 17% of the total, and the Agricultural Bank of China, 10%. BOC has a 39% share in durable consumer goods loans, while ICBC and CBC, each account for 21%. ICBC and the Communications Bank of China have dominated the market of motor loans, with ICBC holding about a 65% share. Customer satisfaction is also generally high. The survey also demonstrates that more than 60 of those surveyed speak highly of their performance. The banks are now competing with each other to improve quality and increase the variety of services.

The survey also studied repayment ability and second-time application for loan. The survey shows that RMB100,000 personal loans are most favored by consumers. More than 80% of the borrowers say that they are competent to repay the loan, and only 20% felt that they might find it difficult to do so. About 50% say that they plan to borrow money again in three years. The development of the consumption loan market therefore shows great potential.

A recent media story, which power companies denied, claimed that almost 65 million power meters in urban China had registered zero consumption over a six month period, which raised a theory that there are enough empty apartments in China to house 200 million people.

However, the true figures will probably never be known, because there is little transparency in such statistical information, which has led to calls for accurate information to be published.

Without this information, policy-makers face an uphill battle, because the actual size of China’s unused apartment stock is crucial to measuring the extent and seriousness of the nation’s property-market bubble.

It is also highly likely that such data would also reveal a quantity bubble as well as a price bubble.

Price bubbles, which generally last a long time, occur primarily because of government regulation, like height limits that almost eradicate the possibility of increasing supply in accordance with demand, such as occurred in Tokyo in the past, and are occurring in London right now.

China also is experiencing an urban price bubble nationwide, but high prices in major cities cannot be rationally explained.

Rising rents can be explained easily, because it can be linked to inflation expectation, with landlords fearing the cost of repairing user wear and tear will be higher in the future.

However, China’s property bubble is exceptional, in that there is an unprecedented amount of living space available, the large number of empty apartments, which equates to the nation’s quantity bubble.

Quantity bubbles are less common than price bubbles, and usually don’t last as long, as rising supply normally forces prices down, but the influx of money in China seems to be keeping the prices higher, even though supply is still rising.

Price bubbles cause economic damage in three ways: a banking crisis; a weakening economy for several years; and adverse effect on other supply industries.

A quantity bubble ends when the building cycle changes, new supply causing prices to crash, as happened in the United States in the late 1980s, and in turn causing a banking crisis.

Quantity bubbles occurred in Southeast Asia during the 1990s, causing a market crash, and finally the Asian Financial Crisis.

In Taiwan’s quantity bubble of the late 1980s, analysts used electricity meter data to establish the number of empty flats, and concluded that 15% were empty, and today, analysts are trying the same tactic in China, compounded by the lack of reliable availability of such data.

The data that is available concludes that China does not have a housing shortage, and it’s per capita living space of one person per 28-30 square meters is higher than in Europe or Japan, and using Japan’s standard, China has enough living space for every man, woman and child in the country.

Of far greater importance, however, are the housing figures showing a huge amount of empty flats being held for speculation, and no other reason.

The total normal vacancy rate in a normal economy is determined by a world standard calculation, and is normally about 3%, compared with an estimated 25-30% vacancy rate in China.

This is speculative inventory; property is being stockpiled just as copper and other commodities are stockpiled in expectation of price rises, and are probably worth about 15% of China’s GDP.

China needs a reasoned property strategy, to avoid the problems that America is experiencing from its property bubbles; failure in America caused a crash that has lasted, and will continue to last, for many years.

The nation is under intensifying international pressure to allow the yuan to strengthen to offset global imbalances in trade. Assistant Commerce Minister Chen Jian said in Beijing today that the trade deficit in March will be “very small.” “The market is increasingly looking forward to some move in the next few months,” said David Cohen, an economist at Action Economics in Singapore. “Renewing appreciation would win China some relief in foreign pressure for a while.”

Twelve-month non-deliverable forwards advanced 0.2 percent to 6.6491 per dollar as of 5:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, reflecting bets the currency will strengthen 2.7 percent from the spot rate of 6.8256, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The contracts climbed 0.4 percent this week, the best performance since Jan. 8.

China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 55.1 in March from 52 in February, according to a report issued yesterday by Li & Fung Group, a Hong Kong-based company that releases data for the Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

Export Data Overseas sales probably climbed 26.7 percent last month from a year earlier, the survey showed. Profits of makers of household appliances, automobiles and cell phones in China may plunge by between 30 percent and 50 percent if the currency were to strengthen 3 percent, the Xinhua News Agency’s Economic Information Daily newspaper said today, citing the results of a “stress test.”

Government bonds declined this week on speculation increasing signs of recovery will prompt the central bank to withdraw economic stimulus policies, said Tang Guohui, a fixed- income analyst at Industrial Securities Co. in Shanghai. The yield on the 2.82 percent bond due in June 2016 rose four basis points this week to 3.08 percent, and the price of the security slid 0.22 per 100 yuan face amount to 98.54, according to the National Interbank Funding Center.

Tesco’s Being one of the worlds biggest retailer by sales volume is planning to open 80 shopping centres across China by 2016, Which means that Tesco will expand more in China in the next five years than it has done over eight decades in the UK where it has a footprint of 33m sq ft.

The Chinese expansion comes in spite of a difficult year for the retailer’s other international operations, including in the US. The central European businesses.

Within the UK Tesco’s was again on track after a difficult start to 2009 and said it would add 2.4m sq ft of space, with plans for 181 new Tesco Express stores and 26 more Tesco Extras within the UK.

Tesco will invest £2bn in China over the next five years but would not say how much of the £1.5bn of capital spending overseas in this financial year would be directed into China.

Suning has succeeded in operating three large modern logistics bases in Nanjing, east China; Beijing, north China; and Hangzhou, east China in the past three years. The Chongqing logistics base has a planned construction area of more than 110,000 square meters. With adopting the third-generation logistics experience and model, it is expected to reach a cost reduction of around 50%.

Sun has long been attaching importance to logistics, and it will actively deepen the combination between the Chongqing logistics base and its nationwide logistics program, said Sun Weimin, president of Suning Appliance Co., Ltd. (SZSE: 002024).

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009, Suning reaped a revenue of CNY 58.300 billion, up 16.8% from CNY 49.897 billion a year ago, citing its audited consolidated financial results. Its net profit climbed 32.2% year on year to CNY 2.988 billion from CNY 2.260 billion in 2008

Chinese home appliance retailing leader Suning Appliance Co., Ltd. (SZSE: 002024) starts building a logistics base in Chongqing, an emerging electronics manufacturing center in west China where there have been a list of electronics names such as Hewlett-Packard Development Company (NYSE: HPQ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), Foxconn Industrial Group, Quanta Computer Inc., and Inventec Appliances Corp. (TSEC: 3367).

Suning has succeeded in operating three large modern logistics bases in Nanjing, east China; Beijing, north China; and Hangzhou, east China in the past three years. The Chongqing logistics base has a planned construction area of more than 110,000 square meters. With adopting the third-generation logistics experience and model, it is expected to reach a cost reduction of around 50%.

Sun has long been attaching importance to logistics, and it will actively deepen the combination between the Chongqing logistics base and its nationwide logistics program, said Sun Weimin, president of Suning Appliance Co., Ltd. (SZSE: 002024).

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009, Suning reaped a revenue of CNY 58.300 billion, up 16.8% from CNY 49.897 billion a year ago, citing its audited consolidated financial results. Its net profit climbed 32.2% year on year to CNY 2.988 billion from CNY 2.260 billion in 2008