Asian business travel markets better placed than most to weather ... micebtn, Australia - 13 hours ago Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) will become more evident as suppliers respond to climate change. Another key factor affecting corporate travel in ...

Foreign and trade ministers from the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum met here Wednesday to discuss such issues as the global financial crisis and the Doha round of trade talks. “We came to this meeting facing a great opportunity and a wide range of challenges. How to promote growth and how to restore confidence in the market are at the top of the agenda,” Mercedes Araoz, Peru’s International Trade and Tourism Minister, said during the gathering’s openi

China's Baidu.com: Drugged And Screaming For Better Management ChinaTechNews.com, China - Nov 19, 2008 These websites included the fake websites of the Diabetes Treatment Center of China TCM Higher Medical Institute, the Diabetes Treatment Center of Chinese ...

By ChinaTechNews.com Editorial Team The uproar this week over Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com's (BIDU) pharmaceutical paid search listings and advertisements gives further reason to believe that stock analysts should drop the "yst" from their monikers and Baidu's management should be hung out to dry. The problems appeared when China Central Television aired a report on November [...]

Despite the solid entrepreneurial spirit that characterizes many Chinese, not many are able to start and expand small businesses. Access to credit is often no more than a dream for most of China’s 300 million people living below the poverty line in China. An attractive option for them is microfinance, commonly defined as small loans - as small as US$100- for impoverished individuals to help them achieve financial self-sufficiency.

Wokai.org is a “capital-contributing microfinance intermediary” trying to bring money to Chinese entrepreneurs who want to set up their own small businesses, by raising loan capital online from individual contributors for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in China. Its goal is to expand financial opportunities for the country’s poor (and mostly rural) population.

Though its primary goal is fundraising, Wokai also provides “capacity building” for microfinance organizations, which can mean anything from emotional support for first-time borrowers to computer training for loan managers.

Wokai.org American founders Courtney McColgan and Casey Wilson think that the website will not only be a fundraising platform, but also a community for people interested in supporting microfinance in China.

Through Wokai, people will be able to make loans online directly to individuals who have been selected by Wokai’s local partner MFIs. These MFIs in select clients, whose profiles are then posted on the Wokai website through profiles that outline their business ventures and loan request.
Contributors browse these profiles, select who and how much to finance, and then transfer money to Wokai through our online payment system. Once funds are transferred, Wokai distributes this loan capital to partner MFIs for allocation to micro entrepreneurs. At the end of the loan cycle, partner MFIs collect loan repayments and re-issue loans.

Like other “capital-contributing microfinance intermediaries’ Wokai is not legally a financial service organization, so it does cannot receive savings deposits, which means that the pool of money cannot grow and requires constant capital injections.

The website is scheduled to be launched in Mod-November, so stay tuned.

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It’s inappropriate to restrict car purchases or license plate issuing to control the total number of vehicles. We need to take into account the overall situation of boosting domestic demand and maintaining steady, rapid economic growth.

said Wang Haiping, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform here.

With the poor economic situation, officials are thinking twice about whether to close polluting factories, whether the benefits to the environment really outweigh the dangers to social stability

said Peng Peng, research director of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, a government-affiliated think tank here (Washington Post).

A slowing economy will use less resources, but is this bad for China and the workers making stuff out of those resources? Does China want to ensure consumption remains high (even of polluting goods) and is willing to do anything to keep it that way? Will China still be willing to accept the short-term financial costs for longer-term environmental (and, often, financial) gain? Will the recent trend in stronger environmental protection enforcement continue, or will the economy take precedent over all else, again?

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Unilever Supports the Asian Forum on Corporate Social ... Trading Markets (press release), CA - Nov 19, 2008 ... Ammado, Asian Quality Magazine, Asia Weekly, Business Monitor International / Asia Monitor, BusinessWorld, China CSR, CSR Asia, Roof and Facde Magazine, ...

The Chongqing Municipal Federation of Trade Unions has issued a circular to the relevant city departments, asking that taxi companies in the city set up trade unions by the end of November 2008 to better protect taxi drivers' rights. At present, there are more than 14,600 taxis in Chongqing and these are operated by 155 taxi [...]

China National Petroleum Corporation has signed a joint venture agreement with Costa Rica's state refinery RECOPE to build an oil refinery in Costa Rica. This is the first oil and gas cooperation project in Central America since China and Costa Rica established diplomatic relations in June 2007. According to the agreement, the parties will set up a [...]

China's Health Minister Cheng Zhu and his U.S. counterpart Mike Leavitt said at a press conference that China and the United States would set up food safety surveillance offices in each other's country to enhance communication and cooperation on food safety between the two countries. Chen said that establishing food safety surveillance offices in each other's [...]