Outbound shopping tourism craze arises

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Tuesday, 20 November 2012 09:30

Outbound shopping tourism becomes popular as Christmas and also the yearly discount season of many western countries draw near. Statistics from a dozen of travel agencies in Ningbo show that itineraries for outbound tourism around Christmas have already been made out and consultations and bookings for European countries and the USA are on the increase.  

The shopping tourism to European countries during Christmas has long been a main event for travel agencies. Traditional travel routs to France and Italy are still hot among tourists. The 11-day tour to France, Italy and Swiss become the hottest choice immediately when it was put in the market. The cost during Christmas is set to be around 13,600 yuan.

Given the simplified procedures for applying for the USA visa and the decrease of the exchange rate of US dollars, cargo sweeping tourists to America has increased significantly and consultations as well as bookings has continued to grow. Itineraries offered on such on-line tourism websites as tuniu.com have been revised to satisfy the shopping need of many tourists. For example, the 8-day long tour to the West Coast areas of America started from Shanghai, costing about 10,800 yuan, increased many shopping centers like the Outlets shopping mall and the direct sales center for Lynwood.

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Delivery firms busy for Single's Day surge

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Tuesday, 20 November 2012 09:24

Delivery firms in Ningbo have been handling record levels of business after the Singles' Day promotion. Many delivery companies are busy hiring temporary couriers to meet the projected soaring demand. Some of them even hire residential working staff or security guards as their part-time couriers.

Several chains courier company in Haishu, Jiangdong district reported soaring in deliveries after November 11. In one delivery branch, packages were piled into a 2-meter-high hill, and some packages were scattered two or three meters away at the door.

A courier surnamed Li said while loading packages on his motorbike, "this is our busiest time of a year. We have been unloading packages early in the morning, and started to deliver packages at 8:00. We have to work without rest until next week."

To cope with the soaring business, many companies began to hire temporary couriers. According to statistics released by 58-Job.com, many job applicants in their website enter list of potential employees for many delivery firms as early as September this year. The demand of couriers rose nearly 30 to 40 percent compared with two months ago, and the salary offered by delivery companies rose about 12 percent. In order to improve their efficiency, Ningbo Branch of Yto Express even hired working staff and security guards in some residential quarters, who will help to deliver the packages to the buyers as soon as they arrive at the quarter.

A number of local courier companies reported a 50 percent increase of daily handling from usual. Ningbo's express delivery sector is expected to see a peak on November15 and 16 as packages keep pouring in. Fortunately, it is still within the daily handling limit of local courier companies.

Yinzhou Bank issued ¥2 bln of financial bonds

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Tuesday, 20 November 2012 09:24

Yinzhou Bank openly issued 2 billion yuan of financial bonds in the national inner-bank bond market a few days ago, and the raised funds were set to loan to small and micro enterprises. It becomes the first rural financial institution across China which got the approval to issue that kind of financial bond.
 The bonds spans three years with an interest rate of 5 percent. According to relative personnel of Yinzhou Bank, the bank would decide the lending rate in terms of the raised funds, providing preferential rate for medium-sized, small and micro enterprises as much as possible. The amount of loan is expected to reach four bln to five bln in 2013, and the beneficiaries will increase by 600 companies, a fact indicates that those companies can hire 24,000 more workers and create output value of five bln yuan.  

SME confidence slips again in Q3

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Tuesday, 20 November 2012 09:22

The Standard Chartered Bank released China's SME confidence index in the third quarter in a press conference in Ningbo this Tuesday. The report is designed to reflect the external environment, operational status, investment direction and financing needs for SMEs. According to the report, the SME confidence index stood at 46.71. The highest reading is the macro-economic confidence index, which stood at 50.45, and the lowest reading is the investment confidence index, which stood at 43.30.

The press conference was jointly organized by Ningbo Municipal Commission Of Economy and Information, the Municipal Finance Office and Standard Chartered Bank (China) Ningbo Branch. Chen Zhongchao, the vice mayor, attended the announcement ceremony.

Released by Standard Chartered Bank, the index is measured by the survey responses of China's SMEs. Through a quantitative analysis, it intends to reflect the subjective and objective influencing factors including the production, sales, procurement, investment and financing of a firm. The quarterly published index covers more than 1,000 SMEs of more than 10 various sectors. It has four categories: the macro economy, business operations, investment and financing confidence.

SME confidence index released on Tuesday shows that confidence among small and medium-sized enterprises dropped further in the third quarter, as the country's economic growth continued to slow down.