Xu Tehui is really busy. A one-hour interview with China Daily last week was interrupted seven times by incoming calls at his office in Guangzhou, one of the pioneering cities in China's reforms and opening up.

Xu, in his late 20s, works for an investment consultation company at the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone.

Since he joined the firm three years ago, he has become quite proficient in his job, offering consultation services to foreign business people who are going to invest and those who have invested in China.

China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has put higher demands on Xu's work.

"The past year has been the busiest for me in my three-year working career," he said.

On weekdays, Xu gets up at 7 am in the morning; he drives to work at 7:30 am, arriving at the office around 40 minutes later. He works and studies almost every day until 1 am.

"A growing number of foreign enterprises have got in touch with us after the WTO entry a year ago," he said.

His caseload has increased by about 30 per cent compared with two years ago, he said.

"They come to us for the feasibility studies of their potential investments, for the locations of new projects, to overcome obstacles they encounter and for the explanations of local investment policies and regulations.

To be able to meet a diverse range of needs of their clients - most of which come from transnational corporations, Xu said he and his colleagues have to "know everything about something and something about everything," he said.

As a result, Xu, who already has a master's degree in language translation, has to continue his education in his spare time. He has studied economics courses by himself and obtained the national economic administrator qualification certificate.

Xu also studies law courses on Saturdays and Sundays at Zhongshan University for an master's degree in this regard.

As a business consultant, Xu said he has witnessed how the local authorities have become more efficient, which has in some way reduced their workload. "The procedures for new investment projects are more simplified today and policies and administrative operations have become more transparent after China's accession to the WTO," Xu said.

More International Qualification Test

In Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Zhao Junfang didn't know how many sleepless nights she'd spent for two months before November 2 and 3, when she took part in the qualification test for international business.

"The test was the first in the country's reform of international business management after China's entry into WTO," she said.

In western China, there are far fewer opportunities to conduct foreign business. She had nowhere to turn for a specialized training class in Shaanxi so she had to study on her own. Zhao read numerous types of foreign trade cases while learning English.

The double burdens undoubtedly added to the difficulty for her to pass the test which was rather strict and only about 10 percent of the candidates would pass.

However, Zhao has not regretted taking part in the test. Instead, she said she has had chances to learn some practical skills and professional knowledge.

"I will come back for the test in the next year if I fail this time," she said, eagerly awaiting the outcome.

The export salespeople are now in greater demand after China's entry into WTO.

Tao Xiaofeng, an official in the Foreign Trade and Economic Office of Shaanxi Province, said that Zhao is one of the 659 local candidates to take the test.

Convenient Life

Li Jing, who works for a media organization in Guangzhou, describes her daily life in the past year as "much more convenient."

Supermarket chains including the Hong Kong-invested PARKnSHOP Megastore, Vanguard and the Taiwan-invested Trust Mart and local retailer giants are open within easy reach of where she lives.

"The retailers efforts to improve their services, shopping environment and their pricing benefit the consumers," she said.

He Rongrong, a 50-year-old Shanghai housewife, has also experienced the changes through her shopping in the market.

"It's obvious that we can see more cheap imported goods on the market," she said.

But she said that the price cuts (due to a tariff reduction), are still not enough.

She picks the kiwi berry as an example. The imported fruit is often priced at 2.50 yuan (30 US cents) in local supermarkets, while the home grown kiwis cost only one-fifth of the imported ones.

Yet like Li, He in Shanghai also believes that the WTO entry will, in the long run, enable people to get access to more imported products.

He wants to see more improvement in the service industry. "Even though we have got into the WTO, quite a few public places like restaurants still provide substandard services that sometimes leave people an unpleasant impression," she said.

Looking for Future

Kang Haihua, 22, is one of the 2,500 seniors who are expected to graduate from Shanghai's Fudan University in July next year.

Kang has started to look for a job in Shanghai, dubbed China's economic power house.

But Kang, from the university's business school, has got an offer from a global accounting firm.

Kang said that the country's entry into the WTO has had an effect on the job market in Shanghai, a city increasingly connected to the outside world. The local job market in some way reflects the global market situation, he said.

While many multinationals, as a result of their own economic difficulties, have cut their human resources investment in Shanghai. Meanwhile, Shanghai is still on the way to shape itself into a city focused on the service sector. Thus, job opportunities have not yet been expanded to accommodate new university graduates every year, Kang said.

"I've got more readers"

Huang Lei, in her mid-30s, is a part-time bookstore manager in Shanghai.

She started her business in January 2000, renting a 30-square-metre bookstore with an initial investment of about 150,000 yuan (US$18,140).

Located near a metro station in Pudong, the bookstore is named "Xishu," which sounds the same as "to cherish books" in Chinese.

The store not only enables Huang to get to know plenty of book lovers, but gives her an idea of how people have begun to adapt themselves to the changing times.

"Though my bookstore is not very big, a growing number of readers come here everyday," Huang said.

Huang's bookstore, a branch of a Beijing-based chain, saw a significant growth of the yearly sales volume over the past two years -- from less than 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) in 2000 to nearly 400,000 yuan (US$48,000) projected for this year.

More than 1,000 local people, ranging from office staff to blue-collar workers, stop by Huang's bookstore regularly.

Huang said that books dealing with social sciences and humanities are her store's bestsellers, but books on economics and management are also popular.

"It's definite that our readers will continue to expand their interests as they want to improve their knowledge," she said.

(China Daily December 11, 2002)