The Compass Edge Educational Seminar, directed towards general managers, sales and marketing directors, e-commerce managers and other hotel management professionals, aims to help hoteliers understand the newest online trends and the essential concepts for online distribution and marketing.

Aside from newest online trends and automated solutions, the seminar will present an overview of the Guangzhou and China hotel market and discuss existing distribution channels.

“Independent hotels in China will find it very rewarding to join the seminar and we at Compass Edge are happy to help hoteliers understand the importance of online distribution and marketing in today’s environment and see how we can help the hotels in China to derive a successful online strategy,” said Rudy Ruan, Compass Edge Business Development Manager for China.

The Compass Edge Educational Seminar will be held on May 18 at the Dongfang Hotel in Guangzhou.

Since January 1, social organizations that belong to any of these eight categories – guilds and nonlocal chambers of commerce and public service, technological, economic, cultural and sport organizations, and social service – have been able to register with civil affairs department without having a governmental department in their field that could serve as a supervisor.

“Since May 1, all other social organizations — except for private organizations that specialize in education, training and medical care — have joined the favored group,” said Tang Guoping, director of the Guangzhou Administration of Non-governmental Organizations.

The new system is a welcomed news for social organizations. According to Zhang Lifan, who serves as director-general of Guangzhou Green Point Environmental Protection Information Center, which assists university students in Guangdong to embark on projects to safeguard the environment, the new system will allow organizations to develop soundly.

“Now, under the city’s new act, a directly registered social organization will be an independent legal entity responsible for its own behavior,” he said. “The supervision of social organizations has also become more reasonable and effective.”

Under the new system, social organizations will be put under the direction of several governmental departments, which distribute the supervision work based on their functions. Social organizations will no longer have to seek approval for their names or prepare several plans before heading to civil affairs departments for registration. Registration can also be completed in about 20 days, down from the previous 60 days.

The decline is another sign that Chinese exporters are struggling to maintain their competitiveness in the global market.

Declining export orders also serve as a warning for the country’s economy as they coincide with sharply increasing wages and higher factory space rents, pushing several export factories to the brink of bankruptcy.

Problems within the export sector coincide with greater weakness in the Chinese economy since 2011, though there were signs of a slight improvement in March.

Contracts signed at the spring session of the Canton Fair hit US$36 billion, down 2.3 percent in terms of dollar from the 2011 spring session and 4.8 percent from last autumn’s session.

Not all exporters, however, are struggling. Luxury goods vendors seem to be doing better, as wealthy families have resumed spending.

Happening on June 9 to 12 at the China Import and Export Fair Complex, the event comprises two themes in electrical engineering, building technology and home and building automation. More than 230 top companies will be attending this year’s event, including France’s Schneider Electric, Germany’s Beckhoff and US’ Echelon Technology.

This year’s GEBT, which is regarded as one of the major gateway to China’s demand, will occupy 18,000 sq m of space, up 80 percent from the previous year.

The event will feature a series of fringe programs to connect participants with major industry players. This include Guangzhou Electrical Building Technology Symposium 2012, offering a series of seminars on future trends in China’s home automation and intelligent building markets; and KNX Technical Seminar, focusing on communication standards for building and home control systems.

Several prominent industry associations will be hosting face-to-face networking platform, giving participants an opportunity to learn the newest market information, discuss important industry topics and exchange views.

The forum, targeted towards Chinese property industry, will introduce application and development trends in intelligent green building. Various topics will be discussed at the event, including green building technology, intelligent building and sustainable development.

GEBT takes place simultaneously with Asia’s biggest lighting show, the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition. This year’s event will also takes place in concurrent with Building Solar China – Conference and Exhibition, which will feature innovations like solar thermal products, integrated photovoltaic products and Combined Heat and Power. Together, the three events will offer a diverse range of business opportunities under a single roof.

Export transactions at the recently concluded spring session of the Canton Fair declined for the first time since three years ago.

The value of export transactions slid by 2.3 percent year-on-year to US$36.03 billion, a decrease of 4.8 percent compared to the figure at the autumn session of the biannual fair, said event spokesperson Liu Jianjun.

This is the first decline in volume since the spring of 2009 due to the worldwide economic recession, said Liu.

The slowdown was attributed to the debt crisis in the European Union and the demanding job market in the US.

“Although we have seen sharp export deal increase in new markets, such as in Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa and other African countries, it cannot make up for the huge shortfall from European and American markets,” he said.

Buyers at the 111th China Import and Export Fair hit 210,000 reaching a new peak since it debuted in 1957.

Chinese cancer centers have launched an unprecedented effort to improve and modernize access to cancer management technology. Aside from advanced therapy planning and treatment technology, hospitals and clinics are using oncology information management (OIS) systems for the efficient coordination of radiotherapy department activities. Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) becomes the first cancer center in China to use Elekta’s MOSAIQ in the Chinese platform. Situated in Guangzhou, it is also one of China’s premier showcases for cutting edge oncology EMR solutions.

SYSUCC recently celebrated its second anniversary, hosting Elekta’s National RT New Technology Conference, a meeting attended by leading radiation oncology professionals from over 30 cities and provinces. Attendees had the chance to see the center’s range of advanced radiation technology, which include its three Elekta Synergy systems with VMAT capabilities, an afterloader and three Nucletron simulators, and 25 Elekta treatment planning stations.

SYSUCC’s newest addition, MOSAIQ has already had a significant impact by managing and integrating all department processes and workflow. The center’s workflow has been optimized substantially thanks to the integrated Elekta hardware and software “total” solution. It has allowed clinicians to cut patient waiting time for treatment from 30 days to 20 days and increase treated patients from 520 monthly to 600, said SYSUCC Vice President Ma Jun.

“Effective data management across different departments and locations had been a challenge in the past,” said SYSUCC vice director Dr. Sun Ying. “We had to go to four different systems to schedule appointments for each patient. With MOSAIQ, we only need to find the right slot and then schedule the patient’s appointment once in MOSAIQ.”

Thanks to the capability to interface SYSUCC’s HIS with the MOSAIQ, the need for manual entry of patient information in MOSAIC has been reduced and precise transfer of ADT information has been facilitated.

“In addition to the freedom to integrate any technology with MOSAIQ, rapid, reliable access to patient data is vital in managing our patients’ care,” said SYSUCC director Dr. Liu Meng Zhong. “With the comprehensive radiation oncology chart in MOSAIQ, you can quickly find what you need when you need it.”

Thanks to the new route, the travel time between Xiamen and Britain will be significantly shortened compared with transferring flights in Dubai or Hong Kong. The new route will use an Airbus A33-200 aircraft, which can accommodate 217 passengers.

The new service will run three flights each week every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to London Heathrow International Airport and vice versa, with total flying time of around 13.5 hours.

The new route will bring convenience for passengers from Xiamen heading for this year’s London Olympics, which is slated for July 27 to August 12.

China’s biggest trade fair has seen a sluggish growth in transactions, up only 1.1 percent totaling about $8.5 billion in the first phase from the previous session.

The first phase of the Canton Fair took place on April 15 to 19, focusing on home appliances, consumer electronics, autos and auto parts, motorbikes, lighting, hardware, machinery, sanitary products, chemicals and construction materials.

“We are facing declining exports due to weak demand from buyers from traditional markets,” said Liu Jianjun, spokesperson for the fair.

The number of buyers in the recently concluded second phase of the Canton Fair, which ran from April 23 to 27, also dipped significantly, said Liu.

Despite the instability in the world economy, organizers of the event are still upbeat on the trade cooperation between the European Union and China, he said.

The EU, despite its woes, was still the country’s biggest trading partner in the first three months of the year, though growth in bilateral trade was a mere 2.6 percent year-on-year hitting $126.87 billion.

Chinese trade with the United States, its second biggest partner, rose 9.3 percent reaching $106.77 billion, based on customs data issued earlier in April.

While the country’s exports totalled $430 billion in the first quarter, up 7.6 percent, exports from Guangdong – China’s biggest contributor to foreign trade – rose only 5.4 percent at $121.3 billion, said customs sources.

Total trade in the province jumped only 4.3 percent at about $209.9 billion in the first three months of 2012, said local customs sources.

“As nearly 75 percent of Guangdong’s exports go to traditional markets, including Europe and the US (where economic conditions have been soft), it is no wonder that Guangdong had a weak performance in foreign trade,” said Li Huiwu, deputy director of the province’s development research center.

The foreign trade had been also affected by the provincial policy of industrial upgrading, he added.

“A growing number of businesses have moved out of the province and some new, large projects have yet to start operations in Guangdong. Industrial reconstruction has affected foreign trade a lot,” he said.

The 111^th Canton Fair has invited a record number of 1.11 million overseas buyers in an attempt to drive trade growth, which has slowed down since 2012 kicks in, said event organizers.

The spring edition of the fair provides a good opportunity for China’s struggling export-oriented companies to increase sales. The country’s foreign trade volume rose only 7.3 percent year-on-year in the first three months of the year reaching US$859.37 billion – the slowest growth since the last quarter of 2009, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

The session aims to help stabilize China’s foreign trade growth rate at 10 percent, deputy commerce minister Zhong Shan said. According to the office of customs, export-oriented Chinese provinces, including Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong, posted growth rates of 3 percent to 5 percent in the first quarter.

Chinese enterprises agree that worldwide economic uncertainty, soaring costs, slow recovery in worldwide markets and increasing trade frictions have added to foreign trade challenges. This greater pressure has prompted various Chinese firms to try different approaches to promote exports. These include targeting remote overseas markets and boosting product quality.

The Canton Fair, the biggest trade fair in China, has also adopted new measures to draw foreign buyers, reaching out on various social networking sites and providing free admission to new buyers.

The Canton Fair provides an important indicator of the trade and economic development of the country. Since 1957, the event has been held twice a year in Guangzhou.

According to Chen Shaobo, secretary general of the political and legislative affairs committee of Guangdong provincial Party committee, the Chinese economic hub has recorded a 4.6 percent, 8.9 percent and 3.5 percent year-on-year decreases in the previous three years, thanks to better capability in maintaining social stability in the city.

The number of conflicts peaked about 10 years ago, said Ying Limin, deputy director of the research office of the committee.

Most of the disputes were related to labor disputes, followed by land requisition and building demolition, and environmental issues, said Chen in his review of the province’s public security situation over the previous five years.

Also causes of the protests were disputes over rights in mountains and forests in rural areas, he added.

Guangdong’s social order improvement is partly attributed to a three-level platform aimed at maintaining stability.

Since 2009, there have been 25,779 village-level, 1,584 township-level and 121 county-level stability maintenance centers established in public institutions, businesses, schools and large farms.

These centers have succeeded in reconciling 94 percent of the 850,854 disputes tackled by the end of 2011, said Chen.

Such a platform, however, cannot ultimately solve the root causes leading to mass protest, said professor Chen Tianxiang at the management school of politics and public affairs under Sun Yat-sen University.

“Public protests reflect systematic problems, so reforms are needed, and the key is how to ensure social equality,” he said.