Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Slight growth of Catalan economy forecast for 2011

From http://www.catalannewsagency.com/news/business/exports-will-drive-catalan-economy-09-growth-2011 (in English)

According to the Catalan Ministry of Economy and Knowledge, exports will lead the slight growth that has been forecast for Catalan economy in 2011, estimated at 0.9%. Exports are expected to grow by 6.2% during this year, which will help reverse the trend in the Catalan economy, but president Artur Mas has warned that this growth will not be enough for job creation. Unemployment in Catalonia is expected to reach 18% by the end of the year.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

High entepreneurship attitude by Chinese population residing in Catalonia

From http://ensenyarllengualumnatnoromanic.blogspot.com/2011/05/els-xinesos-mantenen-la-seva-vocacio.html (in Catalan)

Chinese population in Catalonia has had a ten fold increase in the last 10 years, reaching the present figure of 46,000 inhabitants. The Chinese community has a high entepreneurship attitude and some 9,000 thousand businesses have been censed in Catalonia alone, with 15,000 self-employed workers. As already described in Sinalunya, self-employed Chinese workers nearly double the percentage of native self-employed Catalan workers. They are known for being hard-working, as they are seen fronting businesses with long working hours.

Catalan TV channel TV3 recently broadcast a short report covering the entepreneurship attitude of the Chinese population in Catalonia (in Catalan).

Saturday, May 7, 2011

The Chinese Dream - A review

Early this year I was browsing through the @Sinalunya Twitter timeline when I saw the promotion of a book that I thought it was promising: The Chinese Dream, by Helen H. Wang. It was advertised by the author herself and the information on her website convinced me to give it a try and order it from Amazon.com.

"The Chinese Dream: The rise of the world's largest middle class and what it means to you" is a very well written book that is also very easy to read, but by no means is a simple book. Chinese-born, US-resident Helen H. Wang examines in detail the situation of present-day China, explaining what she knows, describing what she sees and analyzing what the people she meets and interviews reply to her. She covers all the relevant aspects in today's China, such as society, politics, economy, environment, religion and spirituality, highlighting both what are the benefits and the challenges of such a fast transformation that the country is undergoing. A recurring element throughout the book is the constant reminder on how East and West can benefit from each other's degree of development if things are taken from an open mind perspective and mutual fears are avoided: a generous approach from a holistic view would benefit not only both countries but the entire world, whereas a greedy and selfish attitude would represent just the opposite. This is very well explained in the summaries at the end of each chapter, in which the concepts of oneness on thought, culture, modernization, economy, environment, politics and spirit, respectively, are exposed. Having herself one foot on each culture, it becomes logical that Helen H. Wang often reminds the reader how the situation for everyone would improve if the best of both worlds could be obtained and combined.

Because of the kind of stories and facts explained in the book, with interviews to several revealing characters, and also because of the enlighting information provided, it reminded me of "An Empire Wilderness: Travel's into America's Future" by Robert D. Kaplan, but set in present-day China instead of United States. Because of her origins, Helen H. Wang had a privileged view over China, its culture and its situation, something that would have been more difficult even for more experienced writers such as Robert D. Kaplan himself. We all were lucky she decided to write it, indeed.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="199" caption="The Chinese Dream, by Helen H. Wang"]The Chinese Dream, by Helen H. Wang[/caption]

See the promotional video of the book at The Chinese Dream from Helen H. Wang's website

 

Friday, May 6, 2011

The Costa Brava touristic development explained in Chengdu

Professor Lluís Mundet, Dean of the Faculty of Tourism of the University of Girona has recently given a presentation entitled "The Spanish Tourism Model. New strategies of tourism regeneration in mature tourist resorts. The Costa Brava as an example" in the the School of History and Culture (Tourism) of the Sichuan University in Chengdu. The above link explains how well accepted was his detailed presentation and the warm atmosphere in the classroom, in which probably there were many of the future touristic professionals in the Chengdu area.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Slight decrease of unemployment in Catalonia in April

From http://www.expansion.com/2011/05/04/catalunya/1304506796.html (in Spanish)

Unemployment rate in Catalonia decreased by 1.59% in April as compared with the previous month due to the fact that 9.728 people found a job in this period. The main decrease happened in the Girona province (5.24%), followed by Tarragona (3.51%), Lleida (1.15%) and Barcelona (0.86%). Total number of unemployed people in Catalonia is 601.541, of which 54.064 are below 25 years old.

Singapore Airlines refuses to become a Spanair stockholder

From http://www.expansion.com/2011/05/04/catalunya/1304492852.html (in Spanish)

Swee Wah Mak, Executive Vice President of Commercial at Singapore Airlines Ltd., has denied that rumours that were indicating that Singapore Arlines might become a stockholder of the Star Alliance member, Spanair. Singapore Arlines will remain as a commercial partner of Spanair and values the opportunity that Barcelona airport of El Prat offers as an alternative hub to the Madrid Barajas airport for flights to South America. Sales of Singapore Arlines in 2010 totalled 7.2 billion euros and the net profit reached 122 million euros.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Second Spanish-Chinese Water Forum held in Nanjing

From http://www.marm.es/es/prensa/ultimas-noticias/notas-de-prensa-din.aspx?tcm=tcm:7-155979-16 (in Spanish)

The Spanish Secretary of State for the Rural Environment and Water, Josep Puxeu, has opened the Second Spanish-Chinese Water Forum held in Nanjing, China, together with Vice Minister of Ministry of Water Resources, Hu Siyi. During his speech, Josep Puxeu has claimed the importance of the collaboration between the two countries in the water sector, both a the private and the public levels. Both goverments are willing to cooperate on technology transfer and on integrated resources water management, as well as on wastewater treatment, water reclamation and reuse and desalination. Other agreements were the establishment of a cooperation link between the Júcar and Liao river basins and the organization of the Spanish-Chinese Water Forum every two years.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Spanish-Chinese Water Forum (Image source: http://www.mwr.gov.cn)"]Spanish-Chinese Water Forum (Image source: http://www.mwr.gov.cn)[/caption]