Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai writes:

The basic ingredient is opportunity. Talent flows naturally to countries that create an environment for economic growth; that make life easy for enterprise; that attract and welcome investment; and that nurture a culture of achievement. Skills are attracted to challenge and possibility.

Opportunity on this scale is becoming a scarce commodity in many parts of the West. But this is not the case in the developing world – at least among countries with the appetite and determination to deploy strong governance and continually raise their competitiveness.
Second, quality of life matters greatly. A generation ago, many talented individuals would consider working outside the West a “hardship posting.” Today, standards of living in the UAE, for example, are among the highest in the world. We have shown that the business of reversing brain drain is also the business of creating a better life for citizens and residents. Building happiness is, after all, the primary business of good government everywhere.

China’s taxation authorities announced on Wednesday that buyers of distributed photovoltaic (PV) power should invoice for purchases, a move to reduce the tax burden on PV power producers and promote green energy.

The buyers, mainly companies of the State Grid, will be required to invoice power generators from July 1 to make PV power transactions easier, said the State Administration of Taxation.

The move reverses the current practice and will boost the installation of building-integrated PV power projects, as most producers are individuals and non-enterprise entities and always experience difficulties with invoicing.

Electric power companies will also be allowed to collect value-added taxes on behalf of the authorities from PV power producers with monthly revenue exceeding 20,000 yuan ($3,252).

Distributed PV power generation projects were mainly adopted by hospitals, schools, government offices and communities, which were allowed to sell their extra electricity after self consumption.

China added 800MW distributed solar PV capacity in 2013, bringing the total number to 3.1GW.

Another Chinese company will go public on the New York Stock Exchange this week, and data show that the 10 biggest Chinese companies to list in the US in the last 12 months have seen an average return of 44 percent since their first day of trading. And that compared with 25 percent for all US IPOs of more than $100 million in the same period, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. In that time, the Chinese returns have outpaced all global counterparts, Bloomberg said.

Josef Schuster, founder of Ipox Schuster LLC, a Chicago-based independent financial-services firm specializing in global IPOs, said that US markets provide a better trading infrastructure and a favorable pricing environment for Chinese firms, among other added benefits.  “It’s eventually up to the firm where to list but a listing in the US can surely add to the novelty of a Chinese company and may help the marketing appeal,” Schuster told China Daily.
IPOs and Chinese firms in particular are taking advantage of a “big window of opportunity,” he said. And many of these deals help drive interest in “hot sectors,” like e-commerce and consumer-related industries.

Of the 16 Chinese companies that have listed in the US this year, 12 are involved in the Internet technology and web services industry.
Francis Gaskins, the director of research for financial industry website equities.com, said one of the main attractions for a Chinese company to list in the US is “broader exposure to US institutions”.
“Chinese IPOs have done pretty well in the US market because they have very good top line revenue increases,” Gaskins said on Monday in an interview with China Daily. “The first thing to look at for a Chinese company is do they have a good branding position.”
Zhaopin Ltd, a Beijing-based Chinese jobs website operator, is scheduled to go public this week at the NYSE.
Many of the Chinese companies listing in the US in the last year have seen solid returns.
E-commerce firm JD.com and Weibo Corp are two of better-known Chinese companies to list in the US in 2014.
JD.com, the largest direct seller of online goods in China, raised $1.78 billion in its IPO on the Nasdaq Stock Market in May, the biggest IPO by a Chinese company in the US, to date.
Weibo, a popular Chinese micro blog commonly referred to as “China’s version of Twitter,” netted $285.6 million during its first day on Nasdaq in April.
Since listing in the US, JD’s shares have produced a return of 49.6 percent, while Weibo’s stock has gone up a more modest 10 percent.
Some other companies that have had solid returns include: Autohome Inc, a car-information website that has gained 110 percent since a December IPO, and online classified ads provider 58.com Inc, which has climbed 140 percent since its IPO in October.
All of those listings pale in comparison to the proposed IPO for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. A US listing for Alibaba, China’s largest online marketplace and No 1 e-commerce firm, could exceed $20 billion, according to some estimates.

The Bank of China signed an agreement with the Milan-based Italy China Foundation to create a platform of services aimed at enhancing collaboration between the two countries’ small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs).
The platform will offer all kind of assistance including increasing mutual knowledge and helping companies in the difficult task of searching solid partners, Bank of China’s officials said in a conference held in Italy’s business capital Milan to present the project.

“SMEs from Italy and China are complementary to each other,” but have difficulties in finding each other and need valid instruments, SMEs Department Director at the Bank of China Head Office Wang Jian highlighted.  For example, Wang said, the strong points of Chinese SMEs, such as a more comfortable investment environment in terms of labor costs, can combine with Italian SMEs’ excellent technological skills with a win-win perspective.
“Traditionally, Bank of China would provide loans to big companies,” but following the fast development of China’s economy, “its services today are focused on SMEs,” Wang explained to Xinhua.

Currently some 99 percent of Bank of China’s clients are SMEs, he underlined.
Italian firms rarely chose to enter the Chinese market alone, and many of them have failed in their mission, Italy China Foundation President Cesare Romiti noted.
“Together with Bank of China, we will assist companies in their internationalization path, helping them to build solid development projects, starting from identifying strategic partnerships and business partners,” he said.
A delegation of Chinese SMEs in different sectors including food, textile and green technologies took part in the conference, which was also attended by local authorities including Chairman of Aspen Institute Italia and former economy minister Giulio Tremonti.

Australian women at the Dell women in business conference in Austin were surprised by the news that Australia has the second best environments in the world for female entrepreneurs.

For the second year in a row, the Dell-sponsored Gender Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index showed Australia as ranking second only to the US in terms of “the conditions that foster high potential female entrepreneurship”.

In both years Australia ranked a very clear second ahead of many other developed countries — and streets ahead of any developing countries — as a place for women to start their own companies.

This year, the survey has been expanded from an initial 17 countries to 30. On closer analysis there are a number of elements to the story.

The survey itself takes into ­account many objective factors from organisations such as the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation comparing countries. Australia ranks with the US, Sweden and France in support for small and medium enterprises. It scores high in other criteria such as access to childcare, the freedom to do business, and access to technology.

Australia also ranks high in equal rights and educational levels for women.

The lesson from this is that, at least compared to the position of women in many other countries, Australia has a lot better preconditions for women in business than we like to think.

In the survey the US scored 83 as a place for female entrepreneurs. Australia scored 80, followed by Sweden at 73. This puts us well ahead of France and Germany at 67, Chile at 55 and Britain at 54, with others else below this.

As one of the survey’s researchers pointed out, a stunning 73 per cent of the countries scored poorly — less than 50 or below out of 100.

So it does make the point that Australians do need to take a look around at their country in a global context, and while it might not be as great as would like it to be, the basic framework of the country for would-be female entrepreneurs is a lot better than in many other countries.

If the survey is right, as Australian entrepreneur Wendy Simpson points out, maybe it is time for more women to take the jump to start their own businesses.

Of course, saying that Australia ranks a lot higher than India (26), Uganda and Egypt (19), Bangladesh (17) and Pakistan (11) as a place to do business is no reason for complacency.

But all that said, is there an “x” factor in Australia — maybe cultural — that is holding back women in business at all levels?

There are similar issues facing women in business and women thinking about founding their own business around the world.

As Dell’s entrepreneur in residence, Ingrid Vanderveldt, said yesterday, the biggest single thing preventing women from starting their own businesses (at least in the developed world) is lack of confidence.

Do Australian women lack confidence or are there cultural ­elements in Australia that hold women back or lead women to hold themselves back in business in general?

Maybe the real question is not why Australia happens to rank second in this survey but what can we learn from top-ranking US to improve things.

The US business culture is based on people who know they have to fight hard to compete with 300 million others. Not a lot of room for any Australian-style self-deprecation or hiding a light under a bushel.  This difference is even more pronounced in the attitudes to business and personal success by women in both countries.  (Glenda Korporall)

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Equal Opportunities, Ministry of Development and businesses.  Banks acceding to the new Protocol will indicate the financial ceiling that can be used for the granting of loans related to specific lines of action: new investments for the development of the business or profession; creation of new businesses or start-up of the profession.  After Italy’s financial difficulties this is good news.   Loans are provided on competitive terms compared to the normal supply of credit and similar transactions with the same degree of risk. Benefiting from the guarantee of the special section of the Department of Equal Opportunities Fund, the cost of financing could be further lowered.

The President of Cna, the National Confederation for the Craft Sector and Small and Medium Enterprise of Italy, said, “We appreciate both the Government’s commitment both by the Italian Banking: is the recognition of the role that women entrepreneurs can play in the revitalization of our country. ”

“This Protocol ‘Health concludes” it is a great opportunity to make a qualitative leap in relations between banks and firms. But a signature is not enough. Now we need all of them that the parties commit themselves to transform into action the principles set out in the plan. And, to avoid that the Protocol will remain on paper, the CNA will promote a comprehensive information activities aimed at entrepreneurs and the banks themselves. ”

The UAE has emerged as the most popular destination for professionals looking to migrate, according to a new study by networking site LinkedIn.  The global study, which tracked talent migration among the 300 million members on LinkedIn’s network, found that the UAE gained 1.3 per cent as a percentage of its total workforce in a 12-month period, topping a list of 20 nations.

Of this talent inflow, 75 per cent was from outside the Middle East, and more than 40 per cent reported a new role with a promotion and higher designation, a statement said.  India was the top destination from where most professionals moved to the UAE, followed by the UK, Pakistan, the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The industry sectors that attracted the most talent were management & leadership, engineering, sales accounting and lifestyle.

The UAE has attracted more professional talent as a percentage of its workforce than countries such as Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, India, Singapore and Australia, the statement said.

Ali Matar, head of Talent Solutions, LinkedIn MENA, said: “This latest study shows that two Middle Eastern nations, UAE and Saudi Arabia, have gained talent at 1.3 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively. Talent inflows are from Europe, USA, the Subcontinent, and other Arab nations, showing that the Gulf states still retain their attractiveness for employment.”

Overall, the study found that the countries that topped the list in exporting talent to other countries were Spain, United Kingdom, France, the United States, Italy and Ireland.

The UAE is building up its talent base as it prepares to host Expo 2020 in Dubai. The six-month long event is expected to provide up to 277,000 new job opportunities in the market and boost the economy.  W-T-W.org will explore the reasons why and particularly opportunities for women.

The consequences of a dearth of women in technology are showing up again, this time in a show of sexism at a tech conference in Berlin.

Atlassian, the company behind software products Jira, Confluence, HipChat and more, is holding its #AtlasCamp for developers, and a developer there took the stage to present.

Jonathan] Doklovic was making a presentation called, ‘A P2 Plugin and a SaaS Platform Walk into a Bar …’ In the presentation, he threw up a slide about Maven, a plugin execution framework supported by Atlassian that developers can use to add software components to their existing applications.
“In the slide, Doklovic compared Maven to his girlfriend, saying that although she looks beautiful she ‘complains a lot, demands my attention, interrupts me when I’m working’ and ‘doesn’t play well with my other friends.’ ”

The consequences of a dearth of women in technology are showing up again, this time in a show of sexism at a tech conference in Berlin. (See update at end of post.)

Atlassian, the company behind software products Jira, Confluence, HipChat and more, is holding its #AtlasCamp for developers, and a developer there took the stage to present. Business Insider details what went down:

“[Jonathan] Doklovic was making a presentation called, ‘A P2 Plugin and a SaaS Platform Walk into a Bar …’ In the presentation, he threw up a slide about Maven, a plugin execution framework supported by Atlassian that developers can use to add software components to their existing applications.
“In the slide, Doklovic compared Maven to his girlfriend, saying that although she looks beautiful she ‘complains a lot, demands my attention, interrupts me when I’m working’ and ‘doesn’t play well with my other friends.’ ”

The slide stirred up the latest tempest of disgust on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlassian, the company behind the AtlasCamp and the employer of the developer who put up the controversial slide, has put up a lengthy blog post apologizing for the incident on stage. An excerpt:

“We are sorry for having allowed this offensive slide into an AtlasCamp presentation. The content does not reflect our company values – nor our personal values as co-founders and individuals. Quite simply, it’s not OK.  Sexism is a difficult issue for the tech industry, and today we didn’t make it any better.”

Atlassian, the company behind the AtlasCamp and the employer of the developer who put up the controversial slide, has put up a lengthy blog post apologizing for the incident on stage. An excerpt:

“We are sorry for having allowed this offensive slide into an AtlasCamp presentation. The content does not reflect our company values – nor our personal values as co-founders and individuals. Quite simply, it’s not OK.
Sexism is a difficult issue for the tech industry, and today we didn’t make it any better.

We are going through all the events that allowed this slide to reach the public. We’ve already started immediate action. Where our organisation and process were lacking, we will add oversight. Where our culture is at fault, we will change that culture.”

Concerned about the future of mining in Africa, and wanting to place more women in the business, South African Women In Mining (SAWIMA) was launched in December 1999, when Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, was appointed Minister of then Minerals and Energy. Shortly after herappointment, she expressed concern at the alarming absence of women in the mining industry.

Current programs:  Economic Transformation & Change Management (annually and continuously monitor & evaluate Economic Transformation & Change Management Progress in the Mining Sector)  Stakeholder Relationship Management (implement and adhere to the Stakeholder Relationship Management Matrix Model); Marketing, Advocacy, Publicity & Communications Unit/Desk (introduce Information Technology System, Multi-Media and Social Media Platforms)  SAWIMA – a Women Chamber of Mines South Africa (launch SAWIMA Women Chamber of Mines South Africa Project), SAWIMA Women Mining Skills & Enterprise Development (co-ordinate Human Capital, Investment & Business Opportunities Development for Women in Mining; Corporate Governance, Compliance & Ethical Business Practice (launch annual SAWIMA Board of Directors Development Programme and refresher courses on Responsible Directorship); SAWIMA Investments Management (produce record of all SAWIMA Investments Portfolio, and submit official Investment Certificates).

An inspirational figure for women miners is Dr. Mamphlea Ramphele who created a mining company now worth over 50 million dollars.

Women Entrepreneurs in Africa