China to impose anti-dumping tax on stainless steel from Indonesia, EU, Japan, South Korea www.reuters.com

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Monday it will impose anti-dumping duties on some stainless steel products imported from the European Union, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.

BRI to cause boom in project management jobs www.chinadaily.com.cn

China is expected to generate 46 million jobs related to project management by 2027, said the top executive of the Project Management Institute, an international organization based in Pennsylvania.

Such massive job creation will be due to demand for high-quality development, which is stoking entrepreneurial spirit and spurring Chinese companies to go global, said Sunil Prashara, president and CEO of the PMI, the association for professionals in the sectors of project management, program management and portfolio management.

In the "new era" spawned by the Belt and Road Initiative, everything is considered a project that needs to be managed well. The scale of projects in China, as well as those of Chinese companies operating abroad, is unprecedented, said Prashara.

"They (projects) are huge in every industry, as they have been going through tremendous transformation and change. The Beijing Daxing International Airport and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge are good examples," he said.

The PMI's Job Growth and Talent Gap Report 2017-2027 found that global employers will need nearly 88 million individuals working in project management-oriented roles by 2027. China alone represents more than half of the total employment in this filed.

According to the report, an average of 1.1 million new project management jobs will be sought to be filled each year in project-oriented industries within China. In other words, there will likely be about 11 million new job openings between 2017 and 2027.

Anticipating this, the PMI introduced the project management professional certification test, or the PMP test, in China two decades ago. Prashara predicted that the number of active PMP certificate holders on the Chinese mainland will exceed 300,000 by the end of this year.

Boosted by economic growth, trade globalization and cross-border investment activities, the number of active PMP certificate-holders in China has expanded more than 30 percent year-on-year since 2012.

"We have also discovered that about 56 percent of companies on the Chinese mainland have set up project management offices," said Prashara, adding the PMI saw a surging demand for project management training from the country's State-owned enterprises, as many of them are keen to grow by expanding their business into overseas markets, thanks to the tangible growth of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Such companies include big names such as China National Petroleum Corp, China Communications Construction Co and China Poly Group Corp. From the private sector, Alibaba Group and Huawei Technologies Co are prominent names in this group.

Besides, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises are seeking to go global.

As many projects are in other economies, Chinese companies have to deal with complex situations there and need imaginative solutions to resolve those issues. So, roles and expectations of project management professionals are changing, Prashara said.

Soft skills are now becoming as important as hard skills. There is more to project management these days than just scheduling, planning and risk mitigation.

"Under such circumstances, leadership skill, empathy, understanding of different cultures and the ability to make decisions on the basis of different technologies and information assume paramount importance," said Chen Yongtao, managing director of the PMI in China.

Apart from the rapid growth in the number of PMP certificate-holders, there is far more adoption of technology and new tools related to project management among Chinese companies.

China is recognized as a mature provider and generator of data, Prashara said, noting that China's project managers could be more tech-savvy than their counterparts elsewhere. "For the PMI, the China market is growing significantly. There is an opportunity for us to choose China as an innovation center where we can research new ways of working."

There could be some research into the relationship between new technologies, new frameworks and the future work, he said.

With China deploying more resources to stimulate the real economy and develop the Belt and Road Initiative, having a strong supply of project managers has become increasingly critical for companies. There are lots of job opportunities in those areas, said Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute in Beijing.

"If you look at the supply chain sector, given rapid infrastructural improvements in China, and as the world and China are incredibly interconnected, there are lots of new management skills required around supply chains to make them more seamless, more frictionless, economical, and to boost production and sales," Li said.

Registered unemployed decreased by 10 percent www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At the end of June 2019, the Labor and Social Protection Services Agencies have registered 33.3 thousand job seekers, 69.1 percent of which were unemployed and remaining 30.9 percent were employed but looking for a new job.

Construction begins on China-Russia border cableway www.chinadaily.com.cn

HARBIN - Workers on Thursday broke ground on a cableway spanning Heilongjiang River, which forms the China-Russia border, in hopes of advancing tourism in the region.

Electric car models to triple in Europe by 2021 www.bbc.com

The number of electric car models available to consumers in Europe is expected to triple by 2021, says a European environmental lobby group.

Boeing takes $5bn hit over grounding of 737 Max www.bbcc.com

Boeing is taking a $4.9bn hit to cover costs related to the worldwide grounding of its 737 Max aircraft.

The charge is set to wipe out profits when the world's biggest planemaker posts quarterly results next week.

In a statement, Boeing also said its "best estimate at this time" is that the aircraft will return to service in the last three months of this year.

A 737 Max crash in Indonesia in October, and another in Ethiopia in March, killed 346 people in total.

Boeing is facing one of the worst crises in its history after its best-selling aircraft was grounded worldwide after the disasters.

Crash investigators have concentrated their efforts on the aircraft's control system and Boeing has been working with regulators to roll out a software upgrade.

The manufacturer, facing intense scrutiny over the regulatory clearance for the aircraft to fly, has cut the monthly production rate from 52 to 42 as airlines hold off purchases.

Most of the $4.9bn charge will be used to compensate Boeing's customers for schedule disruptions and delays in aircraft deliveries.

"We are taking appropriate steps to manage our liquidity and increase our balance sheet flexibility the best way possible as we are working through these challenges," Boeing chief financial officer Greg Smith said in a statement.

Also in the same statement, Boeing chairman and chief executive Dennis Muilenburg, said: "This is a defining moment for Boeing. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the flight crews and passengers who fly on our airplanes.

"The Max grounding presents significant headwinds and the financial impact recognised this quarter reflects the current challenges and helps to address future financial risks."

Cancelled flights
Boeing said it continues to work with aviation authorities to get the 737 Max back into the air, which it hopes will be in the fourth quarter of 2019.

But the statement added: "This assumption reflects the company's best estimate at this time, but actual timing of return to service could differ from this estimate."

Boeing also warned that if this timetable slips, and its anticipated resumption of deliveries to customers is delayed, that this "could result in additional financial impact".

However, in a speech on Thursday, the US transportation secretary appeared less certain that the aircraft would be cleared to fly again this year.

Elaine L Chao said the Federal Aviation Administration, "is following a thorough process, rather than a prescribed timeline... the FAA will lift the aircraft's prohibition order when it is deemed safe to do so." She was not referring directly to Boeing's statement.

Analysts knew that Boeing faced a heavy financial cost following the disasters and had been awaiting clarity. Boeing's share price rose 2% in after-hours trading on Wall Street after the announcement, a sign that investors are comfortable with the charge.

In April, Boeing halted share buybacks. The planemaker said that lowered production due to the grounding of the 737 Max fleet globally had cost it an additional charge of at least $1bn so far.

On Thursday, Southwest Airlines, the biggest user of the 737 Max, joined its US rivals in cancelling more flights until early November.

The move also prompted the low-cost carrier to freeze new pilot hiring.

China to boost imports of Russian soybeans, cutting out US crop exports www.rt.com

China’s Commerce Ministry said on Thursday that Beijing and Moscow are discussing ways to increase bilateral trade, particularly by increasing imports of Russian soybeans and other agricultural products.
Commerce Minister Zhong Shan met with Russian Minister for Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin this week. They agreed to “deepen trade in soybeans” as China looks to diversify supplies away from the United States.

Luxembourg's International Development Support for Mongolia Contributes to 50% Reduction in Infant Mortality www.chronicle.lu

The Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action in Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has reported that Minister Paulette Lenert met Radnaabazar Altangerel, Ambassador of Mongolia in Belgium and Luxembourg on Thursday 18 July 2019.

Foreign workers in Mongolia increased by 4.8 thousand www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At the end of second quarter of 2019, 9.7 thousand foreign workers from 95 foreign countries were employed with labour contract in Mongolia. Compared with the same period of previous year, the number of countries increased by 3, while the number of foreign workers increased by 90 people or 0.9 percent.

Mongolia's industrial output rises 12.6 percent in H1 www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's industrial output reached 8.4 trillion Mongolian tugriks (3.12 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2019, a 12.6 percent increase year-on-year, the country's national statistics office said Thursday.