Expat Mag

Originally launched on July,the 14th France.fr had rapidly disapeared because of problems attributed to it's servers. The situation had brought a flow of criticism, spurred  by the amazing financial ressources that had been invested. The page is now turned with this new website, online since August, the 15th: simple to use, colorful and with an abondance of resources,  France.fr aims to be the reference website for all public ressources and services on the internet.

In the last MBA ranking established by the Financial Times, most of the best ranks are unsurprisingly being trusted by American and British institutions; the London Business School leading ahead of Wharton, Harvard, Stanford and the french-Singaporean Insead. Institutions from the Asia Pacific area are progressing: 9 are amongst the 100 top MBA.

According to a recent study by KPMG, China would have replaced India as the first destination of outsourcing and shared services for companies in Asia pacific. Singapore would be second.

Although the survey was restricted to asian companies, the trend is clearly: China is the number 1 choice for Asian companies to outsource services.

42% of respondents say their company has set up one of their shared services center in China and 41% say they have an outsourcing provider There.

Despite recent warnings, the chinese economy confirmed it's trade growth with a once again impressive figure in June. Imports show a sharp growth curb, sending a rare optimistic message for the world economy, but exports remain also -very - high. 

In a move to develop it's teachers' skills, the Thailand Ministry of Education had the idea to have teachers in secondary school take the same test they are supposed to prepare their students to. The results are catastrophic: up to 88% of teachers specialized in computer science failed the test, 86% in Biology, 84% in Mathematics, 71% in Physics, 64% in Chemistry and 63% in Astronomy and Earth sciences.

Nicolas Ribeyron is Regional HR Manager of Imerys-pigments for Paper Asia Pacific. He tells us about his challenges and projects within Imerys. This is the portrait of an HR Manager with a strong social ambition and the willingness to promote bold projects to stimulate the engagement of all employees.

Can you tell us about Imerys activities ?

The Foshan Honda factory, in China, has been experiencing an unusually lengthy strike lately on salary claims, that could be a starting point for factory wages to rise significantly in the near future. The fact for the strike to be allowed so far to continue, shows that salary increases might be henceforth encouraged by the Chinese Government as a way to fuel a domestic demand led economic growth.

New Zealand introduced a mandatory offshore licensing for people providing immigration advice about New Zealand.

The measure which becomes effective on May 5, 2010, is aimed to build confidence and enhance the quality of services provided to potential migrants to New Zealand. It applies to all advisers, no matter they are based in New Zealand or located in another country.

In it's last Quarterly report, the Hudson cabinet laid emphasis on the consolidation of hiring expectations in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. With additional power on the side of job seekers and increased difficulties to retain talents, a majority of respondents indicate that they are likely to make counter offers, mainly by increasing basic salaries, in order to retain employees who would resign to join other companies.

Social media - Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin and the like - have not only invaded multiple parts of our personal lives. They are now infiltrating our professional environment, changing the rules of the office and the workplace. Companies have to adapt, but most of them are unusually lagging behind social trends. While some, for respectable reasons, can be tempted to control and restrain the usage of social media in the workplace, others try to tame the beast and initiate bold and sometimes highly rewarding experiments.