French connection

While the job opportunities offered by Chinese employers does add the extra sheen to German labor market, other EU member states are leaving no stone unturned to attract additional investment from Chinese companies.

Sources from Invest in France Agency (AFII), a government body that promotes and facilitates foreign investment in France, says that the total value of China's investment in France reached $1.8 billion by the end of 2011 and created more than 6,000 jobs.

In 2011, 17 job-creating investment projects were announced to generate 696 jobs in France, making China France's 10th largest investor.

The business activities prioritized by Chinese companies were decision-making centers (35 percent) and production/manufacturing units (30 percent). A majority of Chinese investments involved site creations (71 percent). In 2011, six new investment projects from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were set up and they led to the creation of 318 jobs in France. There are about 60 HKSAR subsidiaries in France, employing more than 6,100 people.

In 2011, France was the third-largest recipient of job-creating investment from China, hosting 13 percent of Chinese projects in Europe. With 15 percent of investment projects, Germany was the leading recipient of Chinese investment projects on the continent, followed by the UK, which attracted 14 percent of these investments.

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co, one of the nuclear sector's leading companies, specializing in engineering, installing and servicing nuclear plants, opened its subsidiary China Nuclear Power Engineering Company Ltd in Ile-de-France (Paris region). The new entity is expected to employ about 30 people.

Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, which specializes in designing and manufacturing civil aircraft, decided to locate its European headquarters in the Paris region. Twenty new jobs are likely to be created by the company.

Rotam Cropsciences Ltd, an HKSAR firm which specializes in distributing, marketing, manufacturing and R&D in phytosanitary and veterinary products, has decided to expand its Rotam Agrochemical Europe site in the Rhone-Alpes region, to focus on producing insecticides, fungicides, growth regulators and plant and animal nutrients. The investment project will create another 20 jobs.

Workers at D & R Technology, an auto sensor manufacturer bought by Wanxiang America, in Carol Steam, Illinois. Zhang Yuwei / China Daily

Old favorite

The UK has always enjoyed a special bond with Chinese companies and was one of the destinations actively pursued during the early years of outbound investment. Though others have overtaken it in the investment race, it still remains an active destination.

The UK is now home to more than 400 companies from the Chinese mainland, according to the UK Trade and Investment. Chinese investment in the UK has increased from virtually zero during the 1970s to more than $2.3 billion last year, says Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK.

In September, Chinese telecoms and computer network giant Huawei Technologies announced that it would invest and create more jobs in the UK as part of its overall expansion plan in Europe.

Huawei employs 800 people in the UK and plans to increase that to 1,500 over the next five years as part of the 1.3 billion pound investment and procurement program in Britain.

Victor Zhang, chief executive of Huawei Technologies UK, had termed the investment "the beginning of an exciting new period of development".

MG Motor UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), China's largest automaker, in Longbridge, Birmingham, is another British company that has created strong links with the local community through investment and job creation, says company managing director Wang Hao.

Seven years ago, the historic car manufacturer MG Rover went bankrupt, and its assets were purchased by the Nanjing Automotive Company that later merged with SAIC.

At that time, the deal had created sour feelings in Britain, as many feared that it would lead to massive job losses. All of that has changed and there are frequent outreach programs aimed at building even more strong links with the local community.

Bank of China London is another Chinese company that has made waves by adding more than 300 local jobs and having predominantly local employees.

Apart from Bank of China, there are many other Chinese companies in the UK like the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Telecom that have been slowly, but steadily increasing the quantum of local hiring.

Other destinations

According to Eurostat data, unemployment rates in Spain and Greece have climbed to 25.5 percent and 25.4 percent respectively by the end of September 2012, the highest among all 27 EU member states.

Slightly better than the situation that one out of every four persons is jobless, the figure for Portugal stands at 15.7 percent, closely followed by Ireland's 15.1 percent.

It is these countries that are fast emerging as alternate locations for Chinese companies looking to expand their geographical presence.

Portugal has been one of the big movers and has so far attracted investment from more than nine Chinese companies, according to official source.

Prominent among the Chinese companies are the State Grid, China Three Gorges Group, Huawei, ZTE, National Development Bank, ICBC, ECADint Group, the Bank of China Portugal branch (under construction), and Wuhan Zhongye Group (under construction).

In accordance with their global strategies, Huawei and ZTE, the two Chinese ICT giants, have continued to add more local employees. In Huawei Portugal, 23 out of the total 74 employees are Portuguese. There is an even higher ratio of localization in ZTE's Lisbon office where 25 Portuguese employees and 15 Chinese colleagues work together.

Proportionally, the number of job chances created by Chinese investment in these nations is relatively low compared with Germany, because they have been hit harder by the economic crisis.

If Chinese companies can firmly grasp expansion opportunities in Europe, it will create a win-win situation for both the enterprises and job seekers, experts say.

Liu Jia contributed to this story in Brussels.

Contact the writers at chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn, fujing@chinadaily.com.cn, zhangchunyan@chinadaily.com.cn and lixiang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/07/2012 page1)