Analysis of Hong Kong Economy During Financial Crisis

 ·808 · Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management An Analysis of the Hong Kong Economy after the Financial Crisis Cao Hongliu School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong, P. R. China, 510520 (E-mail: [email  protected] com) Abstract This paper analyzes the current economic development and the status of leading industries in Hong Kong. It shows that Hong Kong economy, which is mainly comprised of the service industry in particular, facing with both opportunities and challenges after the financial crisis.Hong Kong economy has a wide range of needs in information technology, electrical and electronic technology, and manufacturing technology. Development in these areas has great significance to ensure sustained development of Hong Kong economy. Key words Hong Kong economy status; Leading industry; Service industry 1 Introduction Hong Kong’s a small and open economy system and international financial center, its economi c development face many new challenges because of the impact of the global financial crisis.Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of the Hong Kong’s economic development and their leading industry status becomes an important issue. 2 Overview of Hong Kong Economy 2. 1 The services sector is a leading industry in Hong Kong From Table 1, we can see that the services industry is a leading industry of Hong Kong economy. During the decade from 1997 to 2006, services sector in the Hong Kong economy has gained greater prominence. This change has already been reflected in the share of contribution of the services sector to the local GDP.The contribution of the services sector to GDP increased from 85. 9% in 1997 to 91. 2% in 2006. Based on the industry definition of Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, The services sector includes wholesale, retail and import and export trades, restaurants and hotels; transport, storage and communications; financing, insurance, real estate and b usiness services; and community, social and personal services. Table 1 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Economic Activity (at Current Prices) GDP by Economic Activity(2004-2007) 2004 2005 2006 2007Economic activity Agriculture and fishing Mining and quarrying Manufacturing Electricity, gas and water Construction GDP 886 72 44455 39726 40376 ratio 0. 1 * 3. 6 3. 2 3. 2 GDP 847 100 45547 39924 38538 ratio 0. 1 * 3. 4 3 2. 9 GDP 849 93 45761 40364 38688 ratio 0. 1 * 3. 2 2. 8 2. 7 GDP 895 114 39282 39426 40154 ratio 0. 1 * 2. 5 2. 5 2. 6 Services 1119304 89. 9 1207873 90. 6 1297545 91. 2 1429293 92. 3 Note: Data is from Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics (2004-2008 Edition) edited by Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department. Data unit is in million terms and ratio unit is %.Besides, * represents the comparison had less than 0. 05% is in the total economy The services sector becomes the principal source of employment. The employment share of the services sector in total employment h as increased moderately over the past decade, from 79. 8% in 1997 to 86. 6% in 2007. In 2007, the services sector as a whole engaged 3. 03 million persons out of the 3. 5 million overall employments. The services sector plays a significant role in supporting the growth of our external trade. In 2007, the value of exports of services reached $652 billion, representing an average annual growth rate ofProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management  ·809 · 8. 6% over 1997. In 2007, merchant and other trade-related services was the most important major service group, contributing 30. 9% to the value of total exports of services. It was followed by transportation services and travel services, contributing 28. 6% and 16. 5% respectively to the value of total exports of services in 2007. In 1997, the respective percentage shares of these three major service groups in the value of total exports of services were 25. 6%, 30. % and 20. 8%. 2. 2 The structure of H ong Kong’s services industry sector Among the economic activities in the services sector, wholesale, retail and import and export trades, restaurants and hotels together contributed 27. 9% of the GDP in 2006, followed by financing, insurance, real estate and business services (25. 0%), community, social and personal services (18. 0%) and transport, storage and communications (9. 6%). Among them, financial services, trading, tourism and professional services are key industries in the Hong Kong economy.They have been the driving force of Hong Kong’s economic growth, providing impetus to growth of other sectors and creating employment. (1) Import and export trade . The import and export trade is the most important industries in Hong Kong’s service industry, has been playing an important role in the development of Hong Kong economy. The import and export trade produced a net output of HK$305. 1 billion in 2006, representing an increase of 39% over 1997. The ratio is the highest among all service industry. In 2007, there were 98 000 import and export trading establishments in Hong Kong, with 520 000 persons.At the same time, import and export trade sector is also directly promoting the development of other industries, such as logistics, transportation, business services and other services. Hong Kong’s import and export trade, including the visible trade and invisible trade two parts. The visible trade refers to the traditional commodity trade. In 2007, the value of Hong Kong imported and exported goods was $5,556 billion, representing an increase of 9. 8% compared to 2006. Hong Kong’s total exports of goods (comprising domestic exports and re-exports) in 2007 amounted to $2,688 billion, or increased by 9. % when compared with 2006. The value of imports increased by 10. 3% to $2,868 billion in 2007. With the value of total exports being less than that of imports, a merchandise trade deficit of $180 billion was recorded in 2007. In the import and export trade, the largest proportion of re-exports. This was largely attributable to the relocation of many local manufacturing activities to the mainland of China. Quite a large amount of the goods produced in the mainland of China through the outward processing arrangement were sent back to Hong Kong and re-exported to other countries/territories.During 1997 to 2007, the value of re-exports increased by 107%, while a decline of 48% was observed in the value of domestic exports. In 2007 the re-export trade to the mainland continued to grow rapidly. The invisible trade services are export and import trade of commercial services and financial services. While these services could be exported or imported by the import/export firms or companies in other sectors, most of the merchant and other trade-related services were exported or imported by import/export firms . In 2007, Hong Kong’s exports and imports of services valued at $652 billion and $322 billion respecti vely.Compared to 2006, exports and imports of services increased by 15. 4% and 11. 7% respectively. Net exports of services in 2007 amounted to $330 billion, this makes Hong Kong’s overall trade surplus of $150 billion. (2) Finance. Hong Kong is recognized as an international financial center, many multinational banks and financial institutions gathered here. The financial business is classified in detail, covering all aspects of the financial industry. Hong Kong three-tier system of deposit-taking institutions, namely licensed banks, restricted licensed banks and deposit-taking companies, known collectively as the authorized institutions.At the end of 2007, the number of authorized institutions stood at 200, comprising 142 licensed banks, 29 restricted license banks and 29 deposit-taking companies. 68 of them were incorporated in Hong Kong and 132 were incorporated outside Hong Kong. In addition, there were 79 representative offices of foreign banks coming from 27 economies/ regions. As at end December 2007, 152 of the largest 500 banks in the world had a presence in Hong Kong. The value added generated by the banking industry amounted to $136. 5 billion, or 9. 6% of Hong Kong’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2006, representing an increase of 41. % compared with 1997. The development of the banking sector also promotes the development of other financial industries. In 2007, some 2 940 establishments and about 32 400 persons were engaged in the business. These included stock and share companies; commodity futures, gold bullion and foreign exchange brokers/dealers; stock, bullion and commodity exchanges; fund management companies; investment advisory companies; and firms providing other various financial services. The financial markets and asset management industry generated value added of about $59. billion, contributing to 4. 1% of Hong Kong’s GDP in 2006.  ·810 · Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Managem ent Hong Kong is also the Securities and Exchange Center and an important place for the mainland enterprises to raise funds. At the end of 2007, 1 048 companies were listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx), with a total market capitalization of $20,536 billion. Despite an increase of only 7. 5% in the number of listed companies, market capitalization was observed to rise 55. 0% over 2006.Since July 1993 when the first Chinese state owned company was listed on the HKEx through issuance of H shares, the role of Hong Kong as a major fund-raising centre for the mainland of China had become increasingly important. By the end of 2007, there were 146 H shares listed on the HKEx, with market capitalization of $5,080 billion. In addition, there were also 93 â€Å"Red Chips† companies and 200 private enterprises listed on HKEx. Hong Kong is one of the most active and liberal debt markets and a leading asset management centre in Asia. (3) Tourism . In 2007, 51 900 persons were engaged in industries closely related o tourism, such as hotels and travel agents and 315 300 persons in industries partly related to tourism such as restaurants, retailers, transport operators and other service providers serving visitors. In terms of economic contribution, inbound tourism and outbound tourism together generated $45. 3 billion value added and 176 300 job opportunities in 2006, or 3. 2% of total GDP and 5. 2% of total employment of Hong Kong respectively. The number of incoming visitors in 2007 reached 28. 2 million, increased by 11. 6% as compared with 25. 3 million in 2006 and set the highest record for visitor arrivals in history.The mainland of China remained the major source market of visitors to Hong Kong since 1994. Visitor arrivals from the mainland of China reached 15. 5 million in 2007, accounted for 55. 0% of the total visitor arrivals, followed by South and Southeast Asia (10. 3%) and Taiwan (7. 9%). In addition, Hong Kong i s Asia’s major trade exhibition and business conference center. A total of 218 conventions and 78 exhibitions with international participation were held in Hong Kong in 2006. (4) Professional service . The professional service is Hong Kong’s fourth-largest service industry.The professional services industry generated $40 billion of value added, or 2. 8% of Hong Kong’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in 2006 and provided job opportunities for about 106 000 persons in 2007. In 2007, there were about 13 500 professional services establishments, including 3 900 accounting, auditing and bookkeeping firms, 1 800 solicitor and barrister firms, 3 300 architectural, surveying and engineering firms and some 4 500 management consultant firms. The business receipts of professional services industry increased by 10. 7% in 2007 over a year earlier.The development of professional services industry over the past decade was quite remarkable. Number of establishments and persons en gaged increased by 35% and 23% respectively between 1997 and 2007. During the same period, the total number of registered professionals also increased remarkably, with certified public accountants increasing at the fastest rate of 7. 3% per year on average. 2. 3 Manufacturing company is the support for the Hong Kong service industry In this paper, the Hong Kong Manufacturing Company refers specifically to the Hong Kong manufacturing companies in the mainland.The rapid expansion of Hong Kong’s service industries in the past two decades benefited from the development of the Hong Kong Manufacturing Company and the sub-contracting business model. In the late 80’s, under the pressure of high land prices, high rents, high labor costs, a large number of Hong Kong manufacturers shifted their production to the Mainland, where the land and labor costs were relatively low, in particular the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province. And because of the changes in the business, many original manufacturing companies become the service company.These companies transferred their manufacturing factories to the Mainland, and kept the headquarters and other high value-added services such as marketing, order processing, material procurement, design, packaging, logistics business in Hong Kong. This business model is known as â€Å"shop in front and factory in back† mode. At the same time, in order to adapt to the changes in international markets and increase exports, many traditional trading companies, set up manufacturing factories in mainland, and formed a sub-contracting operation mode.In the sub-contractors mode, products manufactured in the mainland branch companies, headquarters in Hong Kong focused its efforts on trade, market and management. This mode of operation combined the mainland companies’ low-cost production advantage and the Hong Kong trading companies’ familiar with the international market advantage together, promoted the expediti ons of business of Hong Kong trade companies and improved their production efficiency. This production mode provided a strong support to the development of Hong Kong’s service industry.The financial crisis press great operating pressure to the Hong Kong Manufacturing Company. Mostly concentrated in the Pearl River Delta region, the types of these companies are sound equipment, electrical appliances, toys, clothing, footwear and other labor-intensive industries. The development of these enterprises is based on low labor and land inputs, production technology is very low. With the Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management  ·811 · labor, land costs rising substantially in the Pearl River Delta region, the ompetitive advantages of the Hong Kong Manufacturing Company decreased a lot in recent years. Under the impact of the financial crisis, there has an obvious drop in experts of these labor-intensive consumer goods. Many Hong Kong Manufacturin g Companies face the problem of orders reduction, profit decline, and even bankruptcy. 3 Hong Kong’s Economic Problems under the Global Financial Crisis Table 2 1997-2007 Business Receipts Indices 1997 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Wholesale/Retail Import and export trade Restaurants Hotels Transport Storage Communications Banking Financing (except banking) Insurance 24. 4 107. 2 104. 7 99 61. 7 157. 1 127. 1 84. 1 79. 8 38. 2 88. 3 75. 5 94. 9 73. 1 68. 8 81. 1 96. 6 86. 4 56 59. 2 85. 8 80. 4 85. 7 58. 8 69. 1 77. 4 94. 3 86. 4 65. 7 70. 5 93. 8 90. 5 94. 3 81. 9 85 90. 6 95. 1 90. 2 87. 5 86. 2 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 107. 4 110. 2 109. 5 113. 7 110. 6 110. 2 100. 8 119. 5 147. 9 121. 3 99. 6 119. 6 114 109. 7 120. 6 119. 1 124. 2 131. 1 122. 6 127. 8 110. 8 165. 3 249. 7 156. 2 139. 3 135. 4 135. 4 117. 1 Real estate 135. 6 71. 5 75. 9 86. 2 Business 119. 7 87. 88. 1 95. 3 services Tourism 91. 5 75. 5 70 88. 5 Computer and 53. 1 63. 7 67. 3 81. 1 information services Note: Data is from Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics(2008 Edition) Statistics Department. Table 3 2005 edited by Hong Kong Census and 2005-2008 the variation ratio of Business Receipts Indices 2006 2007 2007 3 quarter 9 15. 1 8. 2 15. 4 15. 7 11. 7 11. 7 9. 7 47. 7 99. 6 42. 1 27. 7 2007 4 quarter 15. 5 17. 7 7. 6 14. 8 16. 5 14. 8 10. 3 16. 2 45 82. 9 35. 4 69. 5 2008 1 quarter 9. 6 17. 5 13. 2 16 9. 9 15. 9 10. 7 11. 2 6. 32. 8 11. 7 14. 5 2008 2 quarter Wholesale/Retail Import and export trade Restaurants Hotels Transport Storage Communications Banking Financing (except banking) Insurance Real estate Business services 5. 6 6. 8 10. 6 6 22. 1 17. 8 10. 4 5. 1 10. 9 14. 3 16 16 7. 9 7. 3 10. 2 9. 5 13. 7 10. 6 10. 2 0. 8 19. 5 47. 9 21. 3 -0. 4 10. 4 12. 8 8 13. 4 15. 2 10. 8 16 10 38. 3 68. 8 28. 8 39. 8 14. 1 14. 4 14. 6 15. 3 9. 6 11 3. 5 13. 5 -6. 8 4. 7 8. 3 10 Tourism 4. 9 19. 6 13. 2 11. 8 14 11. 5 10. 3 Computer and 12. 9 14 18. 7 18. 9 25. 4 14. 14 information services Note: Data is from Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics (2008 Edition) edited by Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.  ·812 · Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management Table 2 shows the revenue changes of the Hong Kong’s service industry from the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the subsequent 2003 epidemic of SARS, Hong Kong’s service industry was particularly hard hit. Until 2006, the industry revenue was generally restored to the level of 97. Finance, insurance, transport, trade and other business incurred the largest loss.In February 2007, the U. S. sub-loan crisis happened, and the Lehman bank filed for bankruptcy in September 2008. The U. S. financial crisis intensified and developed into a global financial crisis. From the second half of 2008, the global financial crisis began to influence Hong Kong economy. This performance is particularly evident in the service industry. Hong Kong’s financial industry has been most affected. From Table 3 it can be seen that Banking and financial services industries are in the most affected after the financial crisis. There is a rapid decline in industry revenue.In the second quarter of 2008, banking industry even has the first negative growth since the past few years. At the end of the third quarter, because a lot of major financial institutions in the United States had been threatened with a bankruptcy, the global financial crisis became even more serious. The panic selling appeared in many countries’ stock market, Hong Kong was no exception. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index plummeted by 15% in September, and fall 22% in October. The normal operation of Hong Kong’s capital markets has been seriously affected.The growth of other financial related industries, such as insurance, real estate and business services, had a slowed down significantly from the beginning of the second quarter of 2008. Import and export trade and related industries sectors have been affected in different degrees. The merchandise exports slowed down in the third quarter and only had a small increase. Even so, this was the worst performance since the first quarter of 2002. With the increase of global financial crisis, exports to other markets also had different degrees of slowing down.As a result, the growth of related industries, such as business service, trade service, transportation and storage service also slowed down slightly. Exports of services had maintained a steady increase in the financial crisis, but the growth rate was also smaller than the second quarter. The growth of tourism also had signs of deceleration and affect the growth of related industry, such as transportation, hotels, catering services, the number of visitors from long distance market decrease a lot, particularly the tourists from Europe and the United States.To face the challenge of financial crisis, the SAR Government has been actively responding well to prevent the spread of financial risks. From the beginning of the sub-loan crisis in the United States, in order to ensure stability of the financial system, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority introduced a number of measures to alleviate the pressure on banks and provide necessary assistance to the banks. Securities and Futures Commission and the Insurance Supervisory Commission also had made action to strengthen the protection of investors and policyholders.At the same time, most Hong Kong’s local financial institutions’ participation in directly investment to the US sub-loan is limited in small scale. The local banking system remains steadily without be directly effected by the sub-loan crisis. Benefit from the economic development of the Mainland, Hong Kong’s service industries is also faced with new opportunities in the global financial crisis. For example, supported by the growth of trade in the Mainland, of fshore trade growth was still significant.Although 2008 is the â€Å"Olympic Year†, but the mainland tourists to Hong Kong remained a high-speed growth. In the third quarter of 2008, the Mainland tourists to Hong Kong wad still higher than last year, an increase of 9. 4%. Individual Visit Scheme is one of the bright spots; the visitors in accordance with this scheme had a further rise in the third quarter, the ratio wad 14. 5%. These factors effectively guaranteed the smooth operation of Hong Kong’s service industries. At the same time, the ten naturalization industry plan in the mainland had already been introduced.The mainland accelerated the pace of industrial upgrading and began to support the development of high-tech industry. These policies provide a good environment for the Hong Kong companies in mainland to upgrade their technological level and achieve their own industrial upgrading. Based on the above analysis, the challenges faced by Hong Kong’s econom ic in the financial crisis can be summarized into the following three aspects: (1)financial sector’s profits decline a lot, related sector’s services business reduces. 2) The trade and service market in Western countries shrink. 3 Hong Kong Company in mainland operates difficultly. Hong Kong economy is facing the opportunity for: the steady development of the Mainland economy and the acceleration of the industrial upgrading. Therefore, in order to face the challenge of the financial crisis, it is important for Hong Kong service companies to expand business in the Mainland, and to Hong Kong companies in mainland to enhance the productivity. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management  ·813 · 4 ConclusionsThrough the above analysis, this paper can be drawn the following conclusions: (1) The a major problem of Hong Kong economy is decline in financial sector profits and trade volume with Western developed countries. (2)The expansion of d emand of the Mainland market is the most important opportunity for Hong Kong’s economic development. (3) Hong Kong economy has great demands for information technology, electrical and electronic technologies, manufacturing technology. To ensure sustainable development of Hong Kong economy, it is very important to promote scientific and technological development. References [1] Yang Xue.The Analysis of the Scientific and Technological Needs Based on Micro-macro System[J]. Social Science Frontier, 2008, (10): 241(In Chinese) [2] Guo Kasha, Wang Wenlong. Science and Technology Needs Analysis of Chinese High-Tech Industry[J]. Economic Review, 2004, (8):198(In Chinese) [3] Wu Jiapei, Wang Changsheng. Science and Technology Needs Analysis of the New Road to Industrialization[J]. Science & Technology and Economy, 2005, (4): 4(In Chinese) [4] Li Jianhua, Cheng Baoying, Yang Xue. Analysis on Demand of Science and Technology Effected by Informatization During New Industrialization[J]. Information Science, 2004, (8): 903(In Chinese) Analysis of Hong Kong Economy During Financial Crisis  ·808 · Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management An Analysis of the Hong Kong Economy after the Financial Crisis Cao Hongliu School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong, P. R. China, 510520 (E-mail: [email  protected] com) Abstract This paper analyzes the current economic development and the status of leading industries in Hong Kong. It shows that Hong Kong economy, which is mainly comprised of the service industry in particular, facing with both opportunities and challenges after the financial crisis.Hong Kong economy has a wide range of needs in information technology, electrical and electronic technology, and manufacturing technology. Development in these areas has great significance to ensure sustained development of Hong Kong economy. Key words Hong Kong economy status; Leading industry; Service industry 1 Introduction Hong Kong’s a small and open economy system and international financial center, its economi c development face many new challenges because of the impact of the global financial crisis.Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of the Hong Kong’s economic development and their leading industry status becomes an important issue. 2 Overview of Hong Kong Economy 2. 1 The services sector is a leading industry in Hong Kong From Table 1, we can see that the services industry is a leading industry of Hong Kong economy. During the decade from 1997 to 2006, services sector in the Hong Kong economy has gained greater prominence. This change has already been reflected in the share of contribution of the services sector to the local GDP.The contribution of the services sector to GDP increased from 85. 9% in 1997 to 91. 2% in 2006. Based on the industry definition of Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, The services sector includes wholesale, retail and import and export trades, restaurants and hotels; transport, storage and communications; financing, insurance, real estate and b usiness services; and community, social and personal services. Table 1 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Economic Activity (at Current Prices) GDP by Economic Activity(2004-2007) 2004 2005 2006 2007Economic activity Agriculture and fishing Mining and quarrying Manufacturing Electricity, gas and water Construction GDP 886 72 44455 39726 40376 ratio 0. 1 * 3. 6 3. 2 3. 2 GDP 847 100 45547 39924 38538 ratio 0. 1 * 3. 4 3 2. 9 GDP 849 93 45761 40364 38688 ratio 0. 1 * 3. 2 2. 8 2. 7 GDP 895 114 39282 39426 40154 ratio 0. 1 * 2. 5 2. 5 2. 6 Services 1119304 89. 9 1207873 90. 6 1297545 91. 2 1429293 92. 3 Note: Data is from Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics (2004-2008 Edition) edited by Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department. Data unit is in million terms and ratio unit is %.Besides, * represents the comparison had less than 0. 05% is in the total economy The services sector becomes the principal source of employment. The employment share of the services sector in total employment h as increased moderately over the past decade, from 79. 8% in 1997 to 86. 6% in 2007. In 2007, the services sector as a whole engaged 3. 03 million persons out of the 3. 5 million overall employments. The services sector plays a significant role in supporting the growth of our external trade. In 2007, the value of exports of services reached $652 billion, representing an average annual growth rate ofProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management  ·809 · 8. 6% over 1997. In 2007, merchant and other trade-related services was the most important major service group, contributing 30. 9% to the value of total exports of services. It was followed by transportation services and travel services, contributing 28. 6% and 16. 5% respectively to the value of total exports of services in 2007. In 1997, the respective percentage shares of these three major service groups in the value of total exports of services were 25. 6%, 30. % and 20. 8%. 2. 2 The structure of H ong Kong’s services industry sector Among the economic activities in the services sector, wholesale, retail and import and export trades, restaurants and hotels together contributed 27. 9% of the GDP in 2006, followed by financing, insurance, real estate and business services (25. 0%), community, social and personal services (18. 0%) and transport, storage and communications (9. 6%). Among them, financial services, trading, tourism and professional services are key industries in the Hong Kong economy.They have been the driving force of Hong Kong’s economic growth, providing impetus to growth of other sectors and creating employment. (1) Import and export trade . The import and export trade is the most important industries in Hong Kong’s service industry, has been playing an important role in the development of Hong Kong economy. The import and export trade produced a net output of HK$305. 1 billion in 2006, representing an increase of 39% over 1997. The ratio is the highest among all service industry. In 2007, there were 98 000 import and export trading establishments in Hong Kong, with 520 000 persons.At the same time, import and export trade sector is also directly promoting the development of other industries, such as logistics, transportation, business services and other services. Hong Kong’s import and export trade, including the visible trade and invisible trade two parts. The visible trade refers to the traditional commodity trade. In 2007, the value of Hong Kong imported and exported goods was $5,556 billion, representing an increase of 9. 8% compared to 2006. Hong Kong’s total exports of goods (comprising domestic exports and re-exports) in 2007 amounted to $2,688 billion, or increased by 9. % when compared with 2006. The value of imports increased by 10. 3% to $2,868 billion in 2007. With the value of total exports being less than that of imports, a merchandise trade deficit of $180 billion was recorded in 2007. In the import and export trade, the largest proportion of re-exports. This was largely attributable to the relocation of many local manufacturing activities to the mainland of China. Quite a large amount of the goods produced in the mainland of China through the outward processing arrangement were sent back to Hong Kong and re-exported to other countries/territories.During 1997 to 2007, the value of re-exports increased by 107%, while a decline of 48% was observed in the value of domestic exports. In 2007 the re-export trade to the mainland continued to grow rapidly. The invisible trade services are export and import trade of commercial services and financial services. While these services could be exported or imported by the import/export firms or companies in other sectors, most of the merchant and other trade-related services were exported or imported by import/export firms . In 2007, Hong Kong’s exports and imports of services valued at $652 billion and $322 billion respecti vely.Compared to 2006, exports and imports of services increased by 15. 4% and 11. 7% respectively. Net exports of services in 2007 amounted to $330 billion, this makes Hong Kong’s overall trade surplus of $150 billion. (2) Finance. Hong Kong is recognized as an international financial center, many multinational banks and financial institutions gathered here. The financial business is classified in detail, covering all aspects of the financial industry. Hong Kong three-tier system of deposit-taking institutions, namely licensed banks, restricted licensed banks and deposit-taking companies, known collectively as the authorized institutions.At the end of 2007, the number of authorized institutions stood at 200, comprising 142 licensed banks, 29 restricted license banks and 29 deposit-taking companies. 68 of them were incorporated in Hong Kong and 132 were incorporated outside Hong Kong. In addition, there were 79 representative offices of foreign banks coming from 27 economies/ regions. As at end December 2007, 152 of the largest 500 banks in the world had a presence in Hong Kong. The value added generated by the banking industry amounted to $136. 5 billion, or 9. 6% of Hong Kong’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2006, representing an increase of 41. % compared with 1997. The development of the banking sector also promotes the development of other financial industries. In 2007, some 2 940 establishments and about 32 400 persons were engaged in the business. These included stock and share companies; commodity futures, gold bullion and foreign exchange brokers/dealers; stock, bullion and commodity exchanges; fund management companies; investment advisory companies; and firms providing other various financial services. The financial markets and asset management industry generated value added of about $59. billion, contributing to 4. 1% of Hong Kong’s GDP in 2006.  ·810 · Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Managem ent Hong Kong is also the Securities and Exchange Center and an important place for the mainland enterprises to raise funds. At the end of 2007, 1 048 companies were listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx), with a total market capitalization of $20,536 billion. Despite an increase of only 7. 5% in the number of listed companies, market capitalization was observed to rise 55. 0% over 2006.Since July 1993 when the first Chinese state owned company was listed on the HKEx through issuance of H shares, the role of Hong Kong as a major fund-raising centre for the mainland of China had become increasingly important. By the end of 2007, there were 146 H shares listed on the HKEx, with market capitalization of $5,080 billion. In addition, there were also 93 â€Å"Red Chips† companies and 200 private enterprises listed on HKEx. Hong Kong is one of the most active and liberal debt markets and a leading asset management centre in Asia. (3) Tourism . In 2007, 51 900 persons were engaged in industries closely related o tourism, such as hotels and travel agents and 315 300 persons in industries partly related to tourism such as restaurants, retailers, transport operators and other service providers serving visitors. In terms of economic contribution, inbound tourism and outbound tourism together generated $45. 3 billion value added and 176 300 job opportunities in 2006, or 3. 2% of total GDP and 5. 2% of total employment of Hong Kong respectively. The number of incoming visitors in 2007 reached 28. 2 million, increased by 11. 6% as compared with 25. 3 million in 2006 and set the highest record for visitor arrivals in history.The mainland of China remained the major source market of visitors to Hong Kong since 1994. Visitor arrivals from the mainland of China reached 15. 5 million in 2007, accounted for 55. 0% of the total visitor arrivals, followed by South and Southeast Asia (10. 3%) and Taiwan (7. 9%). In addition, Hong Kong i s Asia’s major trade exhibition and business conference center. A total of 218 conventions and 78 exhibitions with international participation were held in Hong Kong in 2006. (4) Professional service . The professional service is Hong Kong’s fourth-largest service industry.The professional services industry generated $40 billion of value added, or 2. 8% of Hong Kong’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in 2006 and provided job opportunities for about 106 000 persons in 2007. In 2007, there were about 13 500 professional services establishments, including 3 900 accounting, auditing and bookkeeping firms, 1 800 solicitor and barrister firms, 3 300 architectural, surveying and engineering firms and some 4 500 management consultant firms. The business receipts of professional services industry increased by 10. 7% in 2007 over a year earlier.The development of professional services industry over the past decade was quite remarkable. Number of establishments and persons en gaged increased by 35% and 23% respectively between 1997 and 2007. During the same period, the total number of registered professionals also increased remarkably, with certified public accountants increasing at the fastest rate of 7. 3% per year on average. 2. 3 Manufacturing company is the support for the Hong Kong service industry In this paper, the Hong Kong Manufacturing Company refers specifically to the Hong Kong manufacturing companies in the mainland.The rapid expansion of Hong Kong’s service industries in the past two decades benefited from the development of the Hong Kong Manufacturing Company and the sub-contracting business model. In the late 80’s, under the pressure of high land prices, high rents, high labor costs, a large number of Hong Kong manufacturers shifted their production to the Mainland, where the land and labor costs were relatively low, in particular the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province. And because of the changes in the business, many original manufacturing companies become the service company.These companies transferred their manufacturing factories to the Mainland, and kept the headquarters and other high value-added services such as marketing, order processing, material procurement, design, packaging, logistics business in Hong Kong. This business model is known as â€Å"shop in front and factory in back† mode. At the same time, in order to adapt to the changes in international markets and increase exports, many traditional trading companies, set up manufacturing factories in mainland, and formed a sub-contracting operation mode.In the sub-contractors mode, products manufactured in the mainland branch companies, headquarters in Hong Kong focused its efforts on trade, market and management. This mode of operation combined the mainland companies’ low-cost production advantage and the Hong Kong trading companies’ familiar with the international market advantage together, promoted the expediti ons of business of Hong Kong trade companies and improved their production efficiency. This production mode provided a strong support to the development of Hong Kong’s service industry.The financial crisis press great operating pressure to the Hong Kong Manufacturing Company. Mostly concentrated in the Pearl River Delta region, the types of these companies are sound equipment, electrical appliances, toys, clothing, footwear and other labor-intensive industries. The development of these enterprises is based on low labor and land inputs, production technology is very low. With the Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management  ·811 · labor, land costs rising substantially in the Pearl River Delta region, the ompetitive advantages of the Hong Kong Manufacturing Company decreased a lot in recent years. Under the impact of the financial crisis, there has an obvious drop in experts of these labor-intensive consumer goods. Many Hong Kong Manufacturin g Companies face the problem of orders reduction, profit decline, and even bankruptcy. 3 Hong Kong’s Economic Problems under the Global Financial Crisis Table 2 1997-2007 Business Receipts Indices 1997 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Wholesale/Retail Import and export trade Restaurants Hotels Transport Storage Communications Banking Financing (except banking) Insurance 24. 4 107. 2 104. 7 99 61. 7 157. 1 127. 1 84. 1 79. 8 38. 2 88. 3 75. 5 94. 9 73. 1 68. 8 81. 1 96. 6 86. 4 56 59. 2 85. 8 80. 4 85. 7 58. 8 69. 1 77. 4 94. 3 86. 4 65. 7 70. 5 93. 8 90. 5 94. 3 81. 9 85 90. 6 95. 1 90. 2 87. 5 86. 2 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 107. 4 110. 2 109. 5 113. 7 110. 6 110. 2 100. 8 119. 5 147. 9 121. 3 99. 6 119. 6 114 109. 7 120. 6 119. 1 124. 2 131. 1 122. 6 127. 8 110. 8 165. 3 249. 7 156. 2 139. 3 135. 4 135. 4 117. 1 Real estate 135. 6 71. 5 75. 9 86. 2 Business 119. 7 87. 88. 1 95. 3 services Tourism 91. 5 75. 5 70 88. 5 Computer and 53. 1 63. 7 67. 3 81. 1 information services Note: Data is from Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics(2008 Edition) Statistics Department. Table 3 2005 edited by Hong Kong Census and 2005-2008 the variation ratio of Business Receipts Indices 2006 2007 2007 3 quarter 9 15. 1 8. 2 15. 4 15. 7 11. 7 11. 7 9. 7 47. 7 99. 6 42. 1 27. 7 2007 4 quarter 15. 5 17. 7 7. 6 14. 8 16. 5 14. 8 10. 3 16. 2 45 82. 9 35. 4 69. 5 2008 1 quarter 9. 6 17. 5 13. 2 16 9. 9 15. 9 10. 7 11. 2 6. 32. 8 11. 7 14. 5 2008 2 quarter Wholesale/Retail Import and export trade Restaurants Hotels Transport Storage Communications Banking Financing (except banking) Insurance Real estate Business services 5. 6 6. 8 10. 6 6 22. 1 17. 8 10. 4 5. 1 10. 9 14. 3 16 16 7. 9 7. 3 10. 2 9. 5 13. 7 10. 6 10. 2 0. 8 19. 5 47. 9 21. 3 -0. 4 10. 4 12. 8 8 13. 4 15. 2 10. 8 16 10 38. 3 68. 8 28. 8 39. 8 14. 1 14. 4 14. 6 15. 3 9. 6 11 3. 5 13. 5 -6. 8 4. 7 8. 3 10 Tourism 4. 9 19. 6 13. 2 11. 8 14 11. 5 10. 3 Computer and 12. 9 14 18. 7 18. 9 25. 4 14. 14 information services Note: Data is from Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics (2008 Edition) edited by Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.  ·812 · Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management Table 2 shows the revenue changes of the Hong Kong’s service industry from the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the subsequent 2003 epidemic of SARS, Hong Kong’s service industry was particularly hard hit. Until 2006, the industry revenue was generally restored to the level of 97. Finance, insurance, transport, trade and other business incurred the largest loss.In February 2007, the U. S. sub-loan crisis happened, and the Lehman bank filed for bankruptcy in September 2008. The U. S. financial crisis intensified and developed into a global financial crisis. From the second half of 2008, the global financial crisis began to influence Hong Kong economy. This performance is particularly evident in the service industry. Hong Kong’s financial industry has been most affected. From Table 3 it can be seen that Banking and financial services industries are in the most affected after the financial crisis. There is a rapid decline in industry revenue.In the second quarter of 2008, banking industry even has the first negative growth since the past few years. At the end of the third quarter, because a lot of major financial institutions in the United States had been threatened with a bankruptcy, the global financial crisis became even more serious. The panic selling appeared in many countries’ stock market, Hong Kong was no exception. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index plummeted by 15% in September, and fall 22% in October. The normal operation of Hong Kong’s capital markets has been seriously affected.The growth of other financial related industries, such as insurance, real estate and business services, had a slowed down significantly from the beginning of the second quarter of 2008. Import and export trade and related industries sectors have been affected in different degrees. The merchandise exports slowed down in the third quarter and only had a small increase. Even so, this was the worst performance since the first quarter of 2002. With the increase of global financial crisis, exports to other markets also had different degrees of slowing down.As a result, the growth of related industries, such as business service, trade service, transportation and storage service also slowed down slightly. Exports of services had maintained a steady increase in the financial crisis, but the growth rate was also smaller than the second quarter. The growth of tourism also had signs of deceleration and affect the growth of related industry, such as transportation, hotels, catering services, the number of visitors from long distance market decrease a lot, particularly the tourists from Europe and the United States.To face the challenge of financial crisis, the SAR Government has been actively responding well to prevent the spread of financial risks. From the beginning of the sub-loan crisis in the United States, in order to ensure stability of the financial system, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority introduced a number of measures to alleviate the pressure on banks and provide necessary assistance to the banks. Securities and Futures Commission and the Insurance Supervisory Commission also had made action to strengthen the protection of investors and policyholders.At the same time, most Hong Kong’s local financial institutions’ participation in directly investment to the US sub-loan is limited in small scale. The local banking system remains steadily without be directly effected by the sub-loan crisis. Benefit from the economic development of the Mainland, Hong Kong’s service industries is also faced with new opportunities in the global financial crisis. For example, supported by the growth of trade in the Mainland, of fshore trade growth was still significant.Although 2008 is the â€Å"Olympic Year†, but the mainland tourists to Hong Kong remained a high-speed growth. In the third quarter of 2008, the Mainland tourists to Hong Kong wad still higher than last year, an increase of 9. 4%. Individual Visit Scheme is one of the bright spots; the visitors in accordance with this scheme had a further rise in the third quarter, the ratio wad 14. 5%. These factors effectively guaranteed the smooth operation of Hong Kong’s service industries. At the same time, the ten naturalization industry plan in the mainland had already been introduced.The mainland accelerated the pace of industrial upgrading and began to support the development of high-tech industry. These policies provide a good environment for the Hong Kong companies in mainland to upgrade their technological level and achieve their own industrial upgrading. Based on the above analysis, the challenges faced by Hong Kong’s econom ic in the financial crisis can be summarized into the following three aspects: (1)financial sector’s profits decline a lot, related sector’s services business reduces. 2) The trade and service market in Western countries shrink. 3 Hong Kong Company in mainland operates difficultly. Hong Kong economy is facing the opportunity for: the steady development of the Mainland economy and the acceleration of the industrial upgrading. Therefore, in order to face the challenge of the financial crisis, it is important for Hong Kong service companies to expand business in the Mainland, and to Hong Kong companies in mainland to enhance the productivity. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation & Management  ·813 · 4 ConclusionsThrough the above analysis, this paper can be drawn the following conclusions: (1) The a major problem of Hong Kong economy is decline in financial sector profits and trade volume with Western developed countries. (2)The expansion of d emand of the Mainland market is the most important opportunity for Hong Kong’s economic development. (3) Hong Kong economy has great demands for information technology, electrical and electronic technologies, manufacturing technology. To ensure sustainable development of Hong Kong economy, it is very important to promote scientific and technological development. References [1] Yang Xue.The Analysis of the Scientific and Technological Needs Based on Micro-macro System[J]. Social Science Frontier, 2008, (10): 241(In Chinese) [2] Guo Kasha, Wang Wenlong. Science and Technology Needs Analysis of Chinese High-Tech Industry[J]. Economic Review, 2004, (8):198(In Chinese) [3] Wu Jiapei, Wang Changsheng. Science and Technology Needs Analysis of the New Road to Industrialization[J]. Science & Technology and Economy, 2005, (4): 4(In Chinese) [4] Li Jianhua, Cheng Baoying, Yang Xue. Analysis on Demand of Science and Technology Effected by Informatization During New Industrialization[J]. Information Science, 2004, (8): 903(In Chinese)

Implication of Science and Technology Essay

Implication of Science and Technology to mans’ use is as old as 2500 B.C or much earlier when the people, of Indus Valley Civilization came to know first time about the fire and the wheel. Wheel is the mother of all technological innovations of today and discovery of fire is the man’s first experience about energy. Since then, man’s curiosity and meticulous efforts have helped him for new inventions and discoveries. But Science and Technology got its real recognition in India during the British period and were established to meet the needs and requirements of the then government. During 19th century, when the whole Europe passed through a phase of Industrial Revolution, the Britishers also put emphasis on development of Science and Technology in India. Establishment of railway system, building of canals and development of a network of meteorological stations began. The first scientific survey of this country was done during this time. Several academic institutions, such as Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784, the Indian Association for the Advancement of Science in 1876 and many others were created All these generated a greater awareness of science in the country and eventually led to the birth of modern science in India between 1890 and 1940. However, the end of the last century and the first 50 years of the present one was a period of renaissance of science for India. Renowned scientists like Sir J. C. Bose, C. V. Raman, S. N. Bose, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Dr. Homi J. Bhabha, the father of India’s nuclear power, Vikram Sarabhai, Dr. Har Govind Singh Khorana etc. became well-known for their notable scientific researches in various fields and brought name and fame for the country. During post independence period and through the vision of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru the then Prime Minister, Science and Technology were developed in a conscious way as a major force for accelerating social and economic change. Nehru clearly expressed his views in his ‘Discovery of India’: â€Å"It was science alone that could solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and doddering custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people,† Programme of ‘Green Revolution’ has made it true. Now, in the fields of space research, atomic energy, biotechnology and agriculture, India has achieved a lot. Continuous emergence of new areas and micro areas are gradually gaining the importance and specialized research areas like Superconductivity, Laser, Supercomputers, Robots and Robotics, Information Technology, Optic fibers etc. have resulted in a vast expansion in the areas/fields of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY activities. India is still lagging behind in the field of energy; specifically harnessing clean, safe and non-polluting energy through exaltation of non-conventional resources. Solar energy, the limitless source (the sun) provided by the nature, is still underutilized. Though much is achieved, but more is left unattended. Hence, with the consistent support of the government as well as private institutions today there are about 3000 public and private institutions engaged in basic/fundamental, applied researches and development works in various fields of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

Public Issues and Personal Problems

PUBLIC ISSUES AND PERSONAL PROBLEMS Most of the time, we don’t think of problems we go through as social issues, but when we compare ourselves to others we can see that many of the everyday problems of average people occur on a larger basis in our country. Some are easier to spot such as unemployment, even though it affects each person laid off once the rates get to a certain point it is obvious that the rates are due to economical factors not the characteristics of each individual (Mills 1). I have found that a problem that is becoming more evident in our daily life is a growing use of dangerous supplements in teenage athletes.When I was thirteen I started in my first school sport. I became a runner. I fell in love with the sport. As I grew older it was something that dominated my life on and off the mat. I often found myself in class wishing I were running. Naturally as I became older I also became more a competitive athlete, as did the rest of my friends that ran or played any high school sport for that matter. Talk of being a competitor at state championships or who was favored at the next match often filled the hallways. Generally this competition appeared a good thing to me. I was a better athlete because of that competition.Being a runner I often heard people talk about â€Å"why would you do that to your body? † referring to dropping weight. At first the idea seemed absurd. The conversations with others about what supplements I was taking or not taking took place almost every day. As I spent more time conversing with wrestlers from other school I found the phenomenon was far from isolated to my school or even my state. Pills such as Xenadrine, DHEA, and Androstat where almost a necessary thing. To keep up with the bell curve of students taking the same things everyone â€Å"had to do it. Instead of sticking with these already dangerous or at the very least unhealthy pills people often felt pushed to try even bigger and better things. Over time the use of very unhealthy supplements to drop or gain weight or to gain any kind of edge became almost common. Sadly many of these pills, drinks, and even injections where available to anyone at most â€Å"health food stores. † The long term use of these can have a devastating effect on teens. I have seen the best wrestlers walk off the mat and into the locker room to puke. Thankfully I have never known anyone personally to suffer any long-term effects but I ave often seen on the news and read in the paper about athletes that have. I recently saw on the news that a pitching prospect for the Oriels, Steve Belcher, died from taking Xenadrine RFA-1. It is true that this was not the only factor, but it was defiantly a major contributor. I am familiar with this particular drug as I probably went through two hundred dollars worth in high school. The major ingredient is Ephedrine. Ephedrine is the principal extract from Ma Huang. Ephedrine is a â€Å"beta-adrenergic agonist,à ¢â‚¬  which means it increases heart rate, blood pressure, and thermal energy by burning fat for energy.My experience with this is it is very effective but unless a person is already in good health (which is unlikely if they are taking a fat burning formula) this can be a very dangerous chemical. Such as in the case of Steve Belcher. The company that makes Xenadrine recently released a new formula of the supplement with out Ephedrine in my opinion because this is because Ephedrine is being evaluated by the USDA and may become illegal over the counter. As I made it though high school and I no longer take part in the rush for the hot new supplements to make me perform better I have found that I haven’t even thought about it in a long time.At the time I didn’t even give it a second thought but now I see that supplements that are meant for short term use by grown adults or that are just plain not healthy to use for anyone are finding their way to the hands of athletes mor e often. The need to gain an edge and be the best drives them to do whatever it takes for them to win. I find myself relegated to telling my little brother of the dangers and hoping that these supplements will be pulled from the shelf before more harm is done. Bibliography: Works Cited Mills, C. Wright â€Å"The Promise† Mapping the Social Landscape, Ed Susan J. Ferguson McGraw Hill, 2002. 1-6.

Examination of Traits Possessed by Effective Counselors Essay

Examination of Traits Possessed by Effective Counselors Catherine M. Kleinschmit Liberty University Abstract Because the counselor-client relationship is one built on trust, a counselor should seek to have as much knowledge as possible to facilitate this trust and bring about healing and wholeness for the client. This paper examines many of the traits possessed by counselors who are considered successful in their field. Much of the research came from peer reviewed material, and most of the traits listed in this paper- positive mental attitudes, possess self-awareness, are culturally diverse in their methodology, are good communicators and are versed in non-verbal communication, awareness of the laws in their state, awareness of the dangers of burnout, mindfulness, and empathy all come from the opinion of different sets of counselors who are themselves successful. Some of these traits are in born to the counselor, while others are learned. With the exception of burnout, strategies for effective learning are examined, while strategies for avoiding and coping with burnout are highlighted. The counseling relationship is unlike any other. It is a private and safe place where the client can feel free to express his or herself and receive help and understanding in a time when they may feel no one else can help them. It is imperative that counselors strive to be as effective in this relationship as they possibly can in order to fuel change in the client’s life. An effective counselor has many characteristics that facilitate that healing. Some are natural to them, some are taught in college or continuing education classes. Even further still, some are sought out by the counselor themselves. However they are acquired, the effective counselor will build up his or her portfolio of strategies in order to continue a high level of strength in the counselor-client relationship. Effective counselors have positive mental attitudes, are culturally diverse in their methodology, communicate well, are aware of the laws in their state, are aware of the  dangers of burnout, practice mindfulness, and are empathetic. Positive mental attitude is the basis of becoming an effective counselor. In a study published in 1971, Jackson and Thompson identified that effective counselors have positive attitudes toward â€Å"self, most people, most clients, and counseling.† This study was conducted with counselors who were already working in the field in order to find traits that were common among successful counselors. The purpose for this was for screening possible graduate students for admission into counseling programs. The school of thought among the participants in this study was that, while they had received training in various counseling techniques, that as a rule, once a counselor begins practice, they will revert back to the attitudes they once had at the begin ning of training. In their book, Competent Christian Counseling, Clinton and Ohlschlager assert that counselors should be comfortable in their understanding of counseling practices, professional skill, and their qualifications. (2002, p. 193) Clients do not want to enter therapy with a counselor who is unsure of themselves or nervous. An effective counselor will, to put it simply, â€Å"know what they know† and will have the natural positive attitudes to practice their trade successfully. Because of the intimate nature of the counseling relationship, a counselor has a responsibility to be self-aware. (Corey, Corey & Callanan, 2011, p. 44) They need to know where they have unmet needs in their life that may hinder a client’s progress. Areas of denial will greatly affect the counselor’s ability to help their client. Corey, Corey & Callanan suggest that all counselors enter into some sort of counseling themselves to help them stay aware of their own mental health and abilities.( p. 47) An effective counselor also has a multicultural view. The counselor should not hold the opinion that his or her culture is in any way superior to another person’s, and so must avoid becoming a culturally encapsulated counselor. (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, p. 117) He or she has made conscience steps to venture out of his or her own culture in an effort to experience and understand other cultures so that their personal issues, value system, or any sort of bias will not interfere with their counselor/client relationship with clients of a different culture. They should try to see the world through their client’s viewpoint. The culturally sensitive counselor should be aware of any type of prejudices or other negative feelings that may  interfere in the helping process. (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, p. 126) Being a culturally aware counselor should also include the ability to understand family dynamics within different cultures. With that, they should be able to understand roles of different family members in relation to each other. In some cultures, the male(s) of the household hold a dominant position over the female(s), despite birth order. Additionally, counselors should be able to respect and try to understand their clients’ religious beliefs. A counseling technique that may work for an American Christian may not work for a Hindu from India. A counselor must be sure to be versed in different counselling techniques for various religions. Of course, communication plays an important role in effective counseling. A good counselor will know when it is time to speak, to listen, or to allow silence t o remain to allow the client time to remember, or to think upon what was just said. Communication does not just involve words that are spoken; an attentive counselor will also be versed in high-context communication. High context communication, or non-verbal or inferred communication, is a valuable tool for the effective counselor. High context communication can be thought of as a cultural tool, in that some cultures are more adept at it. People from the Mediterranean area, Japan, Korea, China, parts of Africa, parts of the Middle East, and Latin America have high context communication ingrained in their culture. (Frederick, Leong, Altmaier, & Johnson, 2008) For instance, if a person said to someone else, â€Å"I really enjoy going to statistics class.† but rolled their eyes and crossed their arms, someone who is adept at high context communication will be able to take the comment as not particularly truthful, relying instead on the non-verbal cues exhibited. These cues are often used to suspect if a person is feeling something other than what was expressed verbally. Knowing the law of the state one is practicing in is essential to a counselor’s success. Not all states have the same laws in regards to duty to warn, duty to report, child custody cases, etc. (Feldman & Sommers, 2010) Being an effective counselor does not always mean only effective with one’s clients. It means effective with the community and society in general as well. Let us look at the famous Tarasoff case. In 1969, a student by the name of Prosenjit Poddar at the University of California, Berkeley confided in his therapist that he intended to kill a student for whom he had developed romantic feelings. Through his  descriptions, the therapist identified the student at Tatianna Tarasoff, and he alerted the campus police after conferring with his colleagues. The police detained Poddar, but found him to be rational, and released him. Poddar eventually killed Tarasoff. It was later ruled that the therapist should have warned Tarasoff. (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011) Had the therapist followed through in regards to duty to warn, it is possible this tragedy could have been avoided. Burnout is a factor that effective counselors deal with successfully. Burnout can be defined as experienced stress manifesting itself in three ways. These are, according to Lent and Schwartz, â€Å"emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment.† (2012) Because counselors spend their day dealing with clients’ deep emotional and psychological problems, they must deal with the fact that their self-efficacy will be affected. There are many indicators that one is experiencing burnout, the lead symptom being neuroticism. (Lent & Schwarz, 2012) Neuroticism is characterized by feelings of anxiousness, feeling angry, being overly self-conscious, and feeling vulnerable. (Lent & Schwartz, 2012) The research conducted by Lent and Schwartz suggests that a counselor’s own personality may help combat this. They show that a counselor who is by nature more agreeable will be more interested in other’s lives and behave in a more altruistic way, thus reaping more benefits from their work and not experiencing burnout as often. (2012) Lent and Schwartz suggest three strategies to create a positive workplace and minimize burnout. Firstly, they suggest that counselors work with employers/supervisors to encourage a more healthy â€Å"other-care/self-care balance.† (2012) Secondly, counselors should seek out support from cohorts or mentors that can help them through times of stress, and relieve anxiety. A counselor should be aware that times of burnout are part of the profession, and to be expected, and asking for help from colleagues is nothing of which to be ashamed. Lastly, Lent and Schwartz suggest that a counselor become a mentor. They advocate that mentoring helps the counselor with working through their problems, because they are not as focused on just what is going on in their life. (2012) A strategy known as mindfulness can improve a counselor’s efficacy. Mindfulness is defined as â€Å"bringing one’s whole self into the encounter with clients by being completely in the moment on multiple levels: physically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually.† (Campbell &  Christopher, 2012) In a study reported by Campbell and Christopher, medical students who participated in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training raised their empathy for others and saw a reduction in their level of anxiety and depression. (2012) The research showed that after completing a course in mindfulness, participants reported becoming more â€Å"aware, patient, mentally focused, empathetic, compassionate, attentive, responsive, and able t o handle strong emotions.† They were also â€Å"less defensive, reactive and judgmental.† (Campbell & Christopher, 2012) In conclusion, in a study conducted by Pope and Kline, 22 counselors considered experts in their field ranked 10 different personality traits they feel are important for a counselor to possess in order to be successful. Interestingly, among the top three was empathy, and among the bottom three was sympathy. (1999) Sometimes, these two terms can be confused with one another. However, the website Dictionary.com states that sympathy and empathy both are connected to feelings one has for another person. While sympathy means to â€Å"feel with†, empathy means to â€Å"feel into.† (2013) The difference is that the counselor who has the ability to empathize will be able to actually feel their client’s hurt or frustration, and will ultimately be able to understand the client better. To put it in simple terms, one feels empathy when one has â€Å"been there† and one feels sympathy when one has not. (Dictionary.com, 2013) While effective counselors possess positive mental attitudes, are culturally diverse in their methodology, are good communicators, are aware of the laws in their state, and are aware of the dangers of burnout, one must also have empathy, and to gain empathy, or the ability to have â€Å"been there†; one must expand his or her own personal boundaries and borders to become, as Paul said in I Corinthians 9:22, â⠂¬Å"To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.† (KJV) References Campbell, J. C., & Christopher, J. C. (2012). Teaching mindfulness to create effective counselors. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 34(3), 213-226. Retrieved from:http://search.proquest.com/docview/1027919921?accountid=12085 Clinton, T. & Ohlschlager, G. (2001). Competent Christian Counseling: Volume one. Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press Corey, G., Corey, M., & Callanan, P. (2011). Issues and ethics in the helping professions: Eighth edition. Belmont, CA:Brooks/Cole. Dictionary.com. (2013). Word FAQs. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/d23.html Feldman, S. (Producer), & Sommers, G. (Director). (2010). Legal and Ethical Issues for Mental Health Professionals, Vol. 1: Confidentiality, Privilege, Reporting, and Duty to Warn [Motion picture]. (Available from Psychotherapy.net) Retrieved from: http://ctiv.alexanderstreet.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/view/1779007 Frederick, T., Leong, L., Altmaier, E.M., & Johnson, B.D. (2008). Encyclopedia of Counseling. Retrieved from: http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=vic_liberty&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm ¤tPosition=3&contentSet=GALE|CX3074200401&&docId=GALE|CX3074200401&docType=GALE Jackson, M., & Thompson, C.L. (1971). Effective counselor: Characteristics and attitudes. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 18(3), 249-254. doi: 10.1037/h0030862. Retrieved from: http://psycnet.apa.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/journals/cou/18/3/249 Lent, J., & Schwartz, R. C. (2012). The impact of work setting, demographic characteristics, and personality factors related to burnout among professional counselors. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 34(4), 355-372. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1114670345?accountid=12085 Pope, V. & Kline, W. (1999). The personal characteristics of effective counselors: What 10 experts think. Psychological Reports, 84(3), 1339-44. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10477949

Write summary Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Write summary - Article Example Multi-level analysis can distinguish the impact of the teachers from the school environment and analyze the factors at each level. The study was conducted because of the significant role that technology plays in enhancing the learning experience. The study employed multi-level modeling to analyze data obtained from 3,652 teachers who specialize in handling students in grade 1-9. The study was conducted in 289 schools in Taiwan. According to the article, both school-level factors and teacher-level factors affected the integration of ICT in the process of teaching. The teacher-level factors identified by the study are the beliefs of a teacher and the amount of hours spent in training in the previous year positively influenced ICT Integration. The school level factors that affect ICT integration are hours of training and the way teachers perceive the support from the school. The other factors influencing ICT integration are internet access, quality of computers, number of projectors available and stability of the available computers. The results indicate the significant role that teachers and schools play in the integration of ICT to improve the quality of the learning experience. Teachers play a significant role in the process of ICT integration. Ayub, A. M., Bakar, K. A., & Ismail, R. (2012). Relationships between school support, school facilities, ICT culture and mathematics teachers attitudes towards ICT in teaching and learning.  AIP Conference Proceedings,  1450(1), 196-200. Doi:10.1063/1.4724139 The study examines the relationship between school support, facilities, ICT culture and attitudes of mathematics towards ICT integration in learning and teaching. ICT enables students to widen their sources of the information because of the web. Teachers have the opportunity to use the available technology to create a relatively more interactive and informative learning process. According to the study, the

Wal-Mart's Employees are Motivated to do Their Jobs Essay

Wal-Mart's Employees are Motivated to do Their Jobs - Essay Example If Wal-Mart treated its employees so poorly, they would not be motivated in their jobs and the corporation would not succeed. So, how does Wal-Mart motivate its employees? They are motivated because the working environment in the stores creates a team atmosphere, because they can move up in position and are provided good benefits by the company, and because they feel that they help customers. Wal-Mart retail employees work in departments that provide a positive environment by using teams that motivate the workers to perform their job well. Each worker in a department has a specific task, and all members of the department work together to achieve the department’s goal. Because all the workers have a task that leads to a goal, they all have to depend on each other. This interdependence makes the team strong and provides a sense of belonging for the employees. Just like a sports team, each Wal-Mart department needs employees that work together in order to be successful. If one pe rson does not work, the team will not achieve their departmental goal. So, the employees are motivated to do their jobs for each other. The feeling of belonging is one of the most motivating of all human needs, but employees need more than just a sense of belonging. Wal-Mart provides other needs of the employees by giving them great benefits. One of these benefits is the opportunity to move to higher positions. Wal-Mart promotes within the company, so an employee that works hard can become a store manager. Workers who have the chance to better themselves are more motivated to prove their worth at their current level. Wal-Mart also provides employees with health insurance and life insurance. One of the greatest of human needs is the protection of health and family. Since the company gives benefits that allow employees to provide for themselves and their families, the workers feel thankful and are motivated to achieve in their roles. While employees are working each day, they also ear n vacation and sick leave. This benefit allows employees to spend time with their families which helps provide for the social growth of the family. But, despite all these extrinsic motivations, the greatest motivation the corporation provides is intrinsic. The main reason that Wal-Mart employees are motivated to do their jobs well is because they are helping customers. Wal-Mart sells items that are necessities for many people. Without Wal-Mart, most Americans would not be able to purchase the goods needed for their families, especially since the current economy has closed many stores that once provided products now only available at Wal-Mart. Additionally, for many customers, Wal-Mart’s low prices allow them to purchase more food and other items than they normally would, which is also important in a economy in recession. Because of all these factors, Wal-Mart employees feel good about helping customers get the items they need. They understand that by doing their jobs well the y are helping customers’ lives, and these customers are people who are just like them. When employees feel positive about the work they are doing, they are motivated to work harder. Despite what many critics say, Wal-Mart retail workers are motivated to do their jobs. Wal-Mart provides an excellent team working situation that gives employees a sense of belonging. Also, Wal-Mart provides good benefits for its employees that allow them to provide for th

Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place as a Woman and as an Case Study

Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place as a Woman and as an Artist - Case Study Example Ana Mendieta, a Cuban American artist most famous for her performance art and earth-body sculptures, documents through photography her more memorable art such as the series of performances from 1972, the â€Å"Facial Hair Transplants.† In these performances, a male student, Morty Sklar, shaves his beard and moustache while Mendieta applies the pieces of hair to her face. Through these satirical transferals of hair to her own face, she in effect assumes the symbols of male power. In one of the portraits, â€Å"bearded,† she reveals herself as an earnest Amish farmer. In another photograph, she is outfitted with a curled moustache complete with gold hoop earrings, so she appears as a mischievous, devilish pirate. What these photographs show are Mendieta’s gender examinations as she strives to find her place as a woman and as an artist. As contemporary photographers continue their ongoing dialogue of the difference between photographs as documents and photographs as pictures, I believe that Mendieta’s photographs can be defined as a document and as a picture both. A document is defined as a bounded physical representation of the body of information designed with the capacity and usually the intent to communicate. A document may manifest symbolic, diagrammatic or sensory-representational information. Given that the original presentation of Mendieta’s piece was a performance and then captured via photograph, her â€Å"faces† can be considered as the physical representation of the information Mendieta’s is trying to capture, that she is able to assume the symbols of male power as she tries to understand her place in the art world.