The Group continues to carry out its corporate social responsibility and to share its success with the community at all levels. In 2008, the Group was well recognized by the public for its efforts in creating a harmonious society through active participation in public charity, educational subsidies, environmental protection, optimizing customers’ life, serving customer and promoting staff development. A Corporate Social Responsibility Committee was set up during the year to enhance our efforts towards this aspect.

 

As a responsible property developer, by developing top-quality properties the Group helps the economic development and improves the living conditions of the region there. The Group has won numerous prizes and awards including the Zhan Tianyou Awards and the five awards in the CNBC International Property Awards 2008 (Asia Pacific) for the excellent quality, design and management of its projects. Furthermore, according to the appraisal of International Trade and Economic Cooperation Academy, which is under The Ministry of Commerce, China Overseas Property Group Co. Ltd, the property business flagship of the Group in mainland China, was for the fourth consecutive year, ranked AAA① in terms of overall integrity. This proves the Group’s performance gains acceptance by the Chinese government in terms of debt management, contract and debt performance and public records.

 

China Overseas Property Management Co. Ltd., another subsidiary of the Group in China was ranked number one in the “2008 Chinese Property Management Company Development and Research Forum” and the “Presentation Ceremony of Research on Top 100 Property Management Companies“. This again proves that the Group has great emphasis on product quality, customer service and community interest while pursuing the maximum benefits for its shareholders.

 

 

 

The Group is an active participant in charity activities. This year as usual, the Group successfully organized staff to join the “Walk for Millions” and “The Community Chest Sports Corporate Challenge”. Furthermore, the Group always encourages its staff to take good care of the community through participation in volunteer service and environmental protection.

 

2008 was an unusual and indelible year for China. As a responsible entity, the Group continues its philanthropic spirit with the belief of “taking benefit from the community and use for the interest of community”. In this year, the Group contributed donations, construction works and helping the victims who suffered from the nature calamities in mainland China.

 

“Unmerciful Storm, Merciful China Overseas”. The Group responded immediately to the snowstorm which occurred in the beginning of 2008. The Group was the first entity in Hong Kong to donate to the snowstorm through The Hong Kong OXFAM and HK$2 million was donated on 1 February. The Group summoned its staff for donation and touched by the Group’s action a lot of business associates also followed suit. Over HK$3.5 million was raised for the victims.

 

Facing the 5.12 Sichuan Wenchuan earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, all the staff in the Group joined together with one heart and soul and cared about the disaster area closely. All regional subsidiaries responded quickly, raising money and needed goods for the disaster area. Over 1.3 million yuan was raised right away. The Group cancelled its annual celebration on Lu Ban Festival, and donated all the budgeted expenditure. Over 20 million yuan was donated towards the disaster relief works including money to be spent on re-building schools in the disaster area. Chairman of the Group Mr. Kong Qingping paid a visit to Du Jiangyan City, a severely-hit area during this earthquake. He made on-site observation and mourning, as well as delivered his sympathy to the victims, demonstrating blood band spirit between corporate leader and people in the disaster area.

 

In the year, the Group continued to promote education by making donations to build up three primary schools in mainland China including “The China Overseas Xinhu Hope Primary School” in Jingyue Economy Developing Zone of Changchun City, “The China Overseas Sanxia Hope Primary School” in Huolong Village, Panlong Town, Yunyang County of Chongqing City, and “The China Overseas Special Education Primary School” in Du Jiangyan City of Sichuan Province. The China Overseas Xinhu Hope Primary School was quickly completed in the middle of August in 2008 with only 92-day of construction period and was already in use. The Group donated more than 6 million yuan for setting up the school which has an area of 18,000 sq m. The school has 12 classes and is equipped with various facilities, such as staff rooms, multifunctional classrooms, micro-computer classrooms and color asphalt tracks etc.. With speedy yet careful construction for the other two projects, more children will soon be provided with high quality education facilities. The Group will continue to make more contributions towards Chinese domestic education in the suburb and backward areas.

 

The Group’s subsidiary in Dalian took active part in “Caring Property Developer Education Assistantship Scheme” and subsidized needy students who got the admission to universities nationwide. The donation helps more excellent students to fulfill their dreams. Therefore, the Dalian Company was awarded as the “2008 Dalian Charitable Education Assistantship Property Developer” by the local government.

 

During Easter Holidays, the Group organized around 40 Hong Kong employees and paid a charitable visit to The China Overseas Qinglong Hope Primary School and The China Overseas Sanquan Hope Primary School. During the visits, the team visited needy students and reached multi-level contacts.

 

In the China Overseas Class of The Sanquan Hope Primary School, tuition fees of dozens of students’ are donated by China Overseas employees. Through aid schemes such as “China Overseas Class”, and “Pairs Forming”, periodic visits, and activities such as “A letter to the uncles and aunties of China Overseas”, “Article writing — China Overseas in my heart”, which were organized by the Hope school authority, intimate communication between students and China Overseas employees was greatly enhanced, enabling China Overseas employees to understand more of the needs of the school and the students.

 

Chongqing Company, a subordinate of the Group organized dozens of property owners to visit China Overseas Sanquan Hope Primary School and attended tree planting activities, through which these owners not only knew more about the situations of the needy students in remote areas, but also understood the social responsibility that China Overseas takes as a real estate corporate, thus enhancing more social recognition towards the charity works done by the Group.

 

In June 2008, the Group gathered a big group of owners in our projects in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai to visit poor students in the remote areas of the Qinghai Province, bringing them lots of daily necessities and making donations of over 400,000 yuan towards education subsidies and over 200,000 yuan to a hospital.

 

China Overseas Property Services Limited, a subsidiary of the Group in Hong Kong, for the fourth consecutive year, was named as a Caring Group by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. Its Charity Team in the past years took active participation in the various volunteer service activities and were both awarded by The Hong Kong Social Welfare Department the honor of “Volunteer Service Gold Certificate”. In this year, the Charity Team participated in many activities in Hong Kong and the Mainland such as “Visiting the Elderly of Lions Club in Victoria Peak”, “TREATS Journey to Integration 2008”, “St. James’ Settlement — show your love with Zong Zi”, and “Volunteers’ Journey to Qingyuan City” & etc.. The Charity Team actively helps children and teenagers, encourages employees to care about the rehabilitated children and teenagers in the society, and establishing partnership with the NGO ‘TREATS’. In order to know children and teenagers’ needs, the team gathered and talked with children and teenagers from various backgrounds and with different capabilities by organizing many kinds of large-scale fund-raising events, community promotion and eduction activities.

 

On 8 March 2008, the Group together with China Travel Group invited members of The Hong Kong Single Parents Association living in Tin Shui Wai to visit The Equestrian Venue for The Olympics 2008 and projects under construction for The East Asian Games 2009, and finally to celebrate the International Women’s Day with happiness and joy together with Dr. Li Lok Sze and Dr. Lee Wing-King.

 

The Group continued to emphasize its community responsibility amid the ever-expanding ?nancial crisis, and proposed to overcome the challenges jointly together with its employees. At the same time, the Group consistently believes that employees are the key capital in the organization. The Group dedicates to maintain staff stability and to continue with staff quality enhancement, so as to provide a strong base to build a brighter future after the financial crisis.

 

The Group firmly believes in the importance of human resources management. Systematic staff recruitment, training and incentive schemes are the key drivers for the healthy and sustainable development of any organization. They are useful for the enhancement of personal capability and development. Long-term development of the Group and staff’s personal development are closely inter-related. This is a pre-eminent feature of the Group’s corporate culture and human resources management style.

 

In 2008, the Group was awarded “Top 10 Enterprises”, and “Excellent Result Prize”, as well as “Best Employer” and “New Enterprise in Ranking Table” by the university students in mainland China for its excellent performance in human resources management. These awards also clearly demonstrated recognition by the public for the Group’s human resources management in the past years.

 

At the end of 2008, the Group had a total of 11,397 employees, including 114 at the Group’s headquarters, 2,029 in the property business, 9,012 in property management and 242 in the infrastructure business. By geographical location, 1,080 employees were working in Hong Kong and Macau, and 10,317 employees in mainland China. The staff in infrastructure business has been reduced significantly because of disposal of most of the relevant assets in the past 2 years. The middle and senior managerial staff in all business lines and departments remains stable in the year.

 

Through cultivation in the past years, the “Sons of Sea” and “Sea’s Recruits” Schemes have become a famous brand in the property industry in mainland China. This year, the Group recruited more than 200 staff from fresh graduates of leading universities in the mainland China through the upgraded “Sons of Sea” Scheme; in the meanwhile, the “Sea’s Recruits” Scheme has become an effective channel for recruiting experienced talents. This year, Recruitment Day was launched in thirteen cities in the mainland.

 

The Group aims to become a “learning style” enterprise, through multilevel and comprehensive training; through tailor-made training courses, the Group aims at improving employees’ skill and enhancing career development. In this year, the Group enhanced the training courses for fresh employees recruited through “Sons of Sea” and “Career Foundation Schemes”; the Group organized “Blue Sea Scheme” for technical employees as well. By making best use of the internal resources and the regional platform, through group training and or remote video training, training works was more efficient and systematic. Capability of staff was thus enhanced and their desire to enrich knowledge was effectively met. The Group totally organized six hundred and twenty trainings of various types, with over eleven thousand staff attending.

 

In order to implement our human resources strategy and to enhance the technical skills and management capabilities of our middle and senior management, the Group organizes systemic training in accordance with their personal requirement, thus providing a platform and channel for them to catch up with new business concepts and skills. In this year, Nankai University-China Overseas EMBA Class was opened to middle management staff of the Group. Seven seminars were conducted with good effects and the human resources capital of the Group was greatly strengthened.

 

The Group keeps injecting environmental protection element into the design and construction of the property projects. Besides placing emphasis on external appearance and internal facilities, energy conservation, trash reduction and air purification are closely attended to. The Group also widely applies the concept of friendly environment in estates managed by us through active promotion of recycling of old clothes, waste batteries and used computers. Provision of latest environment related information in club houses to enable the residents to get abreast with the latest development. Furthermore, to demonstrate the Group’s concern and care about environment, the Community Chest Green Day is also taken as the China Overseas Environmental Protection Day. Environmental protection events are organized on that day to promote staff awareness towards environment protection. The Group will do its best at all time to build a green community.

 

Since 1997, the Group has continued to hold the annual show called “Voice of China Overseas”. The show is a demonstration of the Zhong Hai corporate culture and provides a platform for the staff to show their skill, ideas and feelings. The event was held this year on 26 July 2008 in The Shenzhen Grand Theatre. It exhibited not only the innovation, ambition, community responsibility of the Group during its development in the past years, but also the fighting spirit of its staff as well as the prosperous and wonderful world around us. One hundred and ninety-seven people from the various business sectors of the Group, the buyers of the property units and teachers and students of The China Overseas Sanquan Hope School participated in the show.