CPDF monthly newsflash no. 2

Page 1 Vol.2 January 15, 2003 \03 Recent Business Highlights \03 Investment Service (IS) \03 CPDF's IS Group has concluded recently its current mandate service to Aiminer, a local shoe maker. During the past year, CPDF has provided help to the company in the areas of financial, opeartional, environmental and human resources management, achieving great improvement of the latter's operation and cash flows. As a result, Aiminer successfully obtained finance from China Agricultural Bank Sichuan Branch for further expansion. Ms. Liu Qiongying, owner and general manager of the company, has strongly acknowledged the value of CPDF services to her business and herself, and expressed her willingness to continue the cooperaton with the Facility. \03 CPDF signed its sixth IS mandate on January 15, 2003, with Sichuan Baoxing Ruite Stone Material Co., Ltd., a local SME specialized in marble products in two remote locations outside Chengdu. The company has engaged CPDF as financial advisor to provide advice on its business development strategy, financial management, and corporate governance structure. A business plan and funding proposal will be prepared to asist Ruite to raise finance. \03 Business Enabling Environment (BEE) \03 35633 Page 2 The IFC-sponsored survey on State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) restructuring and privatization in Chengdu kicked off on January 6, 2003. Beijing University China Center for Economic Research, designated organizor of the survey, went to this western China city to interview 20 medium-sized companies between January 6 and 10 in a bid to collect information on the process, scope and issues related to the city's efforts to restructure its debt-burdened SOEs since 1995. More than 100 questionnaires are also expected to be collect and analyzed in a later stage. The survey is one of the series, initiated by International Finance Corporation in collaboration with China State Economy and Trade Commission, taking place in eleven major Chinese industrial cities across the country, including Harbin, Lanzhou, Xining, Zhenjiang and Tangshan. It will enable CPDF and the local governments to make comparison of SOEs in Chengdu with those in other cities. \03 Capacity Building (CB) \03 CPDF has embarked on the market assessment as well as localization of "Teaching Yourself Business Management" workbook series, a successful model developed by Mekong Project Development Facility (MPDF). The training program will start with the marketing module, followed by HR and others. CPDF are in discussion with a couple of local consultants to develop contents of the trainer's guide for the module while finalizing the contract with regard to the "train-the-trainer" (TTT) courses. In early January, CPDF held a meeting with selected local training firms and introduced to them the whole program layout. Most attendants, over 15 of them in total, have showed great interest and confirmed their participation in the TTT courses. \03 A symposium was held on January 8, 2003, by EDAC, which belongs to the Sino-British COoperative SOERED (State-Owned Enterprise Restructuring and Enterprise Development) Project financed by DFID, to present to about 90 attendants, most of them local SMEs, the Business Performance Improvement Program (BPIP) introduced to Sichuan by CPDF. Eric Siew, General Manager of CPDF, made an important speech on IFC and CPDF in Sichuan and the presentation was well received. Heads of Sichuan Provincial MOFTEC, SME Department of Chengdu Municipal Government and Sichuan Federation of Industry and Commerce also addressed the conference, after which many SMEs participating in the symposium showed great interest in the program and expressed their willingness to work with EDAC. \03 EDAC is one of the five local consulting firms selected by CPDF to implement the BPIP in the region. BPIP aims at building the local capacity to offer creative and affordable management consulting services to local SMEs. \03 Visitors To CPDF