Sell Your Skills, Not Your Degree

by Reyna Gobel,MBA

Focus Your Career Goals

Do you already know what you want your next career move to be? If so, you can jump ahead to the section on creating a skills-based resume. If you don't, you have several options.

First, make a list of what you are looking for in a new career. For instance, are you thinking about changing jobs because you no longer want to sit in a cubicle for eight hours a day? Then your list should include something like "must involve being away from my desk at least four hours per day." Similarly, you may want to have a job that doesn't require a lot of overtime. Consider your preferences for required travel or working on projects in teams or independently. You may not get everything you want, but brainstorming is a great start.

Next, conduct research using descriptions of what you are looking for in a career. Ignore jobs you know are outside of your field of interest. For instance, if somehow "lion tamer" comes up in your search - and your friend's cat makes you nervous - you should eliminate it from any further discussion.

Based on your search results, narrow research to careers that fit at least five out of 10 things you want in a new career. Pick five careers for building a skills-based resume.

University career centers can help you with the following:

• Career tests to help you find what you might like to do next
• Job placement
• Resume review and workshops

Volunteering

Still not sure what your next move should be or need guidance in defining your career goals? Volunteer for a charity organization and/or call the career center at your old university for help. Remember to bring the list of what you are looking for in a new career position with you.

Volunteers at nonprofit organizations are often given as much responsibility as they want to have and extra guidance because they are working for free. You could learn leadership and training skills while showing newer volunteers the ropes or marketing and sales skills while helping to promote charity events. Let volunteer coordinators know what your skills are, so they can assign tasks to help you move forward.

Create a Skills-Based Resume

Step 1: List all jobs you've held.
Jot down at least five tasks you performed in each job. For instance, working in teams to create ad campaigns, helping customers find the right products within your company's product line, making travel arrangements for industry conventions or negotiating prices with suppliers.

Then, under each task, write down how you completed this task. Not only will you see one-word skills such as "organizing" or "problem solving", but you'll also find the expanded details you need for adding specifics to your resume. You will not copy your job listings into your resume, but this exercise will be the basis for step three.

Step 2: Browse career sites for your skills.
Select the new career fields in which you are interested. Then, enter descriptions of your skills one at a time into the search box.This will help you determine the specific position titles that could work with the skills you have. Pick five job listings to mull over and study the full descriptions.

Step 3: Showcase skills that fit descriptions of your desired positions.
Pick two skills you possess that match the job listings you selected. Create separate skills sections for your resume for each position. For instance, a resume for an event planning position could list travel planning and problem solving as skills. Skills you could use for a merchandising manager position might include organization, negotiation and/or market analysis.

After picking two of your skills per job, add five to 10 bullets under each skill with your accomplishments in this area. The bullets should be similar to the bullets in step two, but your accomplishment listings will be more detailed.

Step 4: Format your resume.

• Put your name, address, and contact information at the top.
• Objective - Limit your objective to one sentence that specifies an objective directed at the specific position to which you are applying. Don't write that you are looking for new experiences in a creative field. Specify what you want to do for that company.
• Have a section for education below your skills. You want your skills to stand out more than your degree.
• Summary of your experience. List all your post-college jobs, your dates of employment and the city and state. If you have a lengthy career history, limit your previous jobs section to where you developed the skills in your resume. Volunteer positions can be included.
• Limit your entire resume to one page.

The Bottom Line

Most people will change careers at least once in their lives; some will change occupations multiple times. If you went back to school each time, you'd take on a new professional title: lifetime student. Use your professional skills to catapult you into a new career field instead.

How to use Scenarios in Excel

(From Office.com)

Switch between various sets of values by using scenarios

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A scenario is a set of values that Microsoft Office Excel saves and can substitute automatically on your worksheet. You can create and save different groups of values as scenarios on a worksheet and then switch between these scenarios to view the different results.

If several people have specific information that you want to use in scenarios, you can collect the information in separate workbooks, and then merge the scenarios from the different workbooks into one.

After you have all the scenarios you need, you can create a scenario summary report that incorporates information from all the scenarios.

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Overview

Scenarios are part of a suite of commands called what-if analysis tools. When you use scenarios, you are doing what-if analysis.

What-if analysis is the process of changing the values in cells to see how those changes will affect the outcome of formulas on the worksheet. You can use scenarios to create and save different sets of values and switch between them. You can also create a scenario summary report, which combines all the scenarios on one worksheet. For example, you can create several different budget scenarios that compare various possible income levels and expenses, and then create a report that lets you compare the scenarios side-by-side.

Kinds of what-if analysis There are three kinds of what-if analysis tools in Excel: scenarios, data tables, and goal seek. Scenarios and data tables take sets of input values and project forward to determine possible results. Goal seek differs from scenarios and data tables in that it takes a result and projects backwards to determine possible input values that produce that result.

Like data tables, scenarios help you explore a set of possible outcomes. Unlike data tables, scenarios from several different worksheets or workbooks can be merged. Scenarios make it easy to gather data about possible outcomes from a variety of sources, and then combine the data.

Each scenario can accommodate up to 32 variable values. If you want to analyze more than 32 values, and the values represent only one or two variables, you can use data tables. Although it is limited to only one or two variables (one for the row input cell and one for the column input cell), a data table can include as many different variable values as you want. A scenario can have a maximum of 32 different values, but you can create as many scenarios as you want.

Scenario basics

Creating scenarios Suppose that you want to create a budget but are uncertain of your revenue. By using scenarios, you can define different possible values for the revenue and then switch between scenarios to perform what-if analysis.

Note This section explains how to use scenarios, and shows sample data and the results of applying scenarios that use that data. It does not provide step-by-step instructions.

For example, assume that your worst case budget scenario is Gross Revenue of $50,000 and Costs of Goods Sold of $13,200, leaving $36,800 in Gross Profit. To define this set of values as a scenario, you first enter the values in a worksheet, as shown in the following illustration:

Changing cells have values that you type in.

The result cell contains a formula that is based on the changing cells (in this illustration, =B1-B2).

You then use the Scenario Manager dialog box to save these values as a scenario, name the scenario Worst Case, and specify that cells B1 and B2 are values that change between scenarios.

Note Although this example contains only two changing cells (B1 and B2), a scenario can contain up to 32 cells.

Now suppose that your best case budget scenario is Gross Revenue of $150,000 and Costs of Goods Sold of $26,000, leaving $124,000 in Gross Profit. To define this set of values as a scenario, you create another scenario, name it Best Case, and supply different values for cell B1 (150,000) and cell B2 (26,000). Because Gross Profit (cell B3) is a formula— the difference between Revenue (B1) and Costs (B2)— you do not change cell B3 for the Best Case scenario.

After you save a scenario, it becomes available on the list of scenarios that you can use in your what-if analyses. Given the values in the preceding illustration, if you chose to display the Best Case scenario, the values in the worksheet would change to resemble the following illustration:

Changing cells

Result cell

Merging scenarios There may be times when you have all the information in one worksheet or workbook that is required to create all the scenarios that you want to consider. However, you may want to gather scenario information from other sources. For example, suppose you are trying to create a budget for a larger company. You might collect scenarios from different departments, such as Payroll, Production, Marketing, and Legal, because each of these sources has different information to use in creating scenarios.

You can gather these scenarios into one worksheet by using the Merge command. Each source can supply as many or as few changing cell values as you want. For example, you might want each department to supply expenditure projections, but only need revenue projections from a few.

When you collect different scenarios from various sources, you should use the same cell structure in each of the workbooks. For example, Revenue might always go in cell B2 and Expenditures might always go in cell B3. If you use different structures for the scenarios from various sources, it can be difficult to merge the results.

Tip Consider first creating a scenario yourself, and then sending your colleagues a copy of the workbook that contains that scenario. This makes it easier to be sure that all the scenarios are structured the same way.

Scenario summary reports To compare several scenarios, you can create a report that summarizes them on the same page. The report can list the scenarios side by side or present them in a PivotTable report. A scenario summary report based on the preceding two example scenarios would look something like the following:

Note By default, the summary report uses cell references to identify the changing cells and result cells. For this example, names were created for those cells to make the summary report easier to read. If you create names for the cells before you run the summary report, the report will contain the names instead of cell references.

A note appears at the end of the summary report explaining that the Current Values column represents the values of changing cells at the time the Scenario Summary Report was created, and that the cells that changed for each scenario are highlighted in gray.

Create a scenario

Before you create a scenario, you should have an initial set of values already on the worksheet. To make scenario summary reports easier to read, you should also consider naming the cells that you plan to use in scenarios.

1. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click What-If Analysis, and then click Scenario Manager.

2. Click Add.
3. In the Scenario name box, type a name for the scenario.
4. In the Changing cells box, enter the references for the cells that you want to specify in your scenario. For example, if you want to see how changing the values of cells B1 and B2 will affect the outcome of a formula based on those cells, enter B1,B2.

Note To preserve the initial values for the changing cells, add a scenario that uses those values before you create additional scenarios that use different values.

5. Under Protection, select the options that you want.

Note These options apply only to protected worksheets. For more information about protected worksheets, see the See Also section.

• Select Prevent Changes to prevent editing of the scenario when the worksheet is protected.
• Select Hidden to prevent display of the scenario when the worksheet is protected.

6. Click OK.
7. In the Scenario Values dialog box, type the values that you want to use in the changing cells for this scenario.
8. To create the scenario, click OK.
9. If you want to create additional scenarios, repeat steps 2 through 8. After you finish creating scenarios, click OK, and then click Close in the Scenario Manager dialog box.

Display a scenario

When you display a scenario, you switch to the set of values that are saved as part of that scenario. The scenario values are displayed in the cells that change from scenario to scenario, in addition to the results cells. For example, using the preceding scenarios, if you display the Best Case scenario, cell B1 displays 150000, cell B2 displays 26000, and cell B3 displays 124000.

1. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click What-If Analysis, and then click Scenario Manager.

2. Click the name of the scenario that you want to display.
3. Click Show.

Note After you close the Scenario Manager dialog box, the values from the last scenario that you displayed remain on the worksheet. If you saved your initial values as a scenario, you can display those values before you close the Scenario Manager dialog box.

Merge scenarios

1. Select the worksheet in which to store the merged scenarios results.
2. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click What-If Analysis, and then click Scenario Manager.

3. Click Merge.
4. In the Merge Scenarios dialog box, click the arrow next to Book and select a workbook that contains scenarios that you want to merge in your results.
5. In the Sheet box, click the name of the worksheet that contains scenarios that you want to merge.
6. Click OK to merge the scenarios from the selected worksheet into the current worksheet.

The Merge Scenarios dialog box closes, and the scenarios that you merged now appear in the Scenario Manager dialog box.

7. Repeat the preceding four steps as needed until you have merged all the scenarios that you want.

When you are finished, the scenarios that you merged are all part of the current worksheet. You can close the Scenario Manager dialog box, or leave it open to continue your analysis.

Create a scenario summary report

1. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click What-If Analysis, and then click Scenario Manager.

2. Click Summary.
3. Click Scenario summary or Scenario PivotTable report.
4. In the Result cells box, enter the references for the cells that refer to cells whose values are changed by the scenarios. Separate multiple references with commas.

Notes

• Scenario reports do not automatically recalculate. If you change the values of a scenario, those changes will not show up in an existing summary report, but will show up if you create a new summary report.
• You don't need result cells to generate a scenario summary report, but you do need them for a scenario PivotTable report.

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is a step in a risk management procedure. Risk assessment is the determination of quantitative or qualitative value of risk related to a concrete situation and a recognized threat (also called hazard). Quantitative risk assessment requires calculations of two components of risk: R, the magnitude of the potential loss L, and the probability p, that the loss will occur.

Methods may differ whether it is about general financial decisions or environmental or public health risk assessment.

(From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_assessment )

Full text of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's speech at Summer Davos 2010

Consolidate the Upward Momentum and Promote Sustained Growth
(Translated Version)

Address by H.E. Wen Jiabao
Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China
At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010 (The summer Davos)
Tianjin, China, 13 September 2010

Professor Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me begin by extending congratulations on the opening of the fourth Annual Meeting of the New Champions, the Summer Davos, and a welcome to you all. At the crucial juncture when the world economy is slowly recovering, the meeting will explore the way forward for future development under the theme of "Driving Growth Through Sustainability". This is highly relevant and significant, and I wish the meeting full success!

The past two years have seen China emerge as one of the first countries to achieve an economic rebound and maintain steady and relatively fast economic development under extremely difficult and complex circumstances. We owe our achievements to the comprehensive implementation of the stimulus package. At the height of the international financial crisis, China's economic growth rate dropped by a big margin. Many enterprises completely or partially suspended operations, and some even closed down. Many workers lost their jobs and a large number of rural migrant workers had to return to their home villages. In view of this, we acted immediately to introduce a stimulus package. From the second quarter of 2009, the downward trend in economic growth was quickly reversed. The economy grew by 9.1% in 2009 and 11.1% in the first half of 2010. Urban employment has kept expanding, people's income has been increasing, and social stability and harmony has been maintained. As a Chinese saying goes, one would never fully appreciate the difficulty unless he has experienced it in person. For a country like China with 1.3 billion people, without a certain rate of economic growth, full employment and people's well-being can only be empty talk. The stimulus package has enabled us to not only maintain the current economic growth and social stability, but also, and more importantly, secure the sound momentum of economic development. The severe external shock did not cause a big fluctuation in China's modernization process. This is of major and far-reaching significance.

In tackling the international financial crisis, we have always given top priority to transforming the economic development pattern and restructuring the economy. In the past two years, domestic demand, consumption in particular, has played an increasingly strong role in driving economic growth. Total retail sales in 2009 rose by 16.9 percent in real terms, the fastest since 1986. This good momentum is continuing and retail sales in the first half of this year grew at roughly the same rate as the same period of last year. The upgrading of the industrial structure has been accelerated. In the first seven months of this year, the value added of high-tech industries increased by 17.7 percent year on year, 0.7 percentage point higher than that of the industries above a designated level. Infrastructure development has been strengthened. On 1 August 2008, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, China's first top-class high-speed rail with full intellectual property, was put into operation, shortening the travel time between Beijing and Tianjin to only 30 minutes and binding the two major municipalities as one. The Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway that went into operation on 26 December 2009 set the world record of the longest and fastest high-speed railway completed on an uninterrupted basis. Solid progress has been made in energy conservation, emissions reduction and environmental protection. Last year, we shut down small thermal power plants with a total capacity of 26.17 million kilowatts and phased out inefficient production capacity of 16.91 million tons of steel, 21.13 million tons of iron and 74.16 million tons of cement. By the end of this month, we will have eliminated an additional amount of inefficient production capacity, including 8.25 million tons of steel, 30 million tons of iron and 91.55 million tons of cement. Energy consumption per unit of GDP has been reduced by 15.6 percent in the first four years of the 11th five-year plan period. Regional development has been more coordinated. In 2009, the growth rates of value added of industries above a designated scale in the central and western regions were 1.1 and 4.5 percentage points higher than the national average respectively. In the first half of this year, such growth in the central region was 3.1 percentage points higher than the national average, and that in the western region on a par with the national average. Also in the first half of this year, the central and western regions' contribution to the value added of industries above a designated level in the national total increased to 38.8 percent from 38.1 percent of the same period in 2008. What is more important is that we have made all-round arrangements for accelerating the transformation of economic development pattern and economic restructuring from a macro and strategic perspective. All these will give a strong boost to the stable and healthy development of China's economy in the long run.

We have implemented a pro-active fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy with an unprecedented intensity, and at the same time successfully kept fiscal and financial risks under control. In the past two years, China's budget deficit and government debt have been kept below 3 percent and around 20 percent of the GDP respectively. The asset quality of banks and their ability to fend off risks have improved. The capital adequacy ratio and NPL ratio now stand at 11.1 percent and 2.8 percent respectively, both in the safe territory. This being said, we are keenly aware of the latent fiscal and financial risks, especially the debt risks of the financing platforms of local governments. This is not a new problem, yet the risks have somewhat increased in recent months. We have formulated the measures to strengthen the regulation of those financing platforms and implementation is well underway. In the face of the sudden international financial crisis, the extraordinary policy measures that we have adopted are necessary and these measure have played a positive role. Yet some negative impacts are hardly avoidable. What's important is to keep those negative impacts within a scope that we can manage. In this sense, we have done a good job in balancing the need of promoting positive effects with that of reducing negative ones. Taken as a whole, the results of our stimulus package are good.

By implementing the stimulus package, we have not only maintained China's economic stability and relatively fast economic growth, but also made important contribution to the world economic recovery. At a time of negative economic growth for major developed countries, the fast economic stabilization and rapid economic growth of China and other major developing countries greatly boosted international confidence in overcoming the financial crisis and provided a strong impetus to the world economic growth. In 2009, China's imports totaled 1.0056 trillion U.S. dollars, and its trade surplus dropped by 102 billion U.S. dollars. In the first seven months of this year, China's imports reached 766.6 billion U.S. dollars, a surge of 47.2 percent year on year. This shows that China's economic growth has provided major development opportunities for the multinationals and created huge demand for major economies and neighboring countries. It has become an important engine for the world economic recovery.

To sum up, from both the near and long-term perspective and in both the real economy and the fiscal and financial field, our stimulus package, policies and measures are timely, forceful, effective and suited to China's realities. They are the right choice that will bring benefits to both the current and future generations and serve the interests of the world. China's economy is now in good shape, featuring fast growth, structural improvement, rising employment and basic price stability. Growth of some major economic indicators moderated in the second quarter of this year. This is mainly due to the high level of the base figures and our proactive macro-control measures. We have the confidence, conditions and capabilities to maintain steady and fast economic development. In exercising macro-control, we will take it as a central task to appropriately handle the relationship between maintaining steady and rapid economic development, adjusting the economic structure and managing inflation expectations, and we will take policy stability as the main focus. While maintaining the continuity and stability of our policies, we will make macro-control measures more targeted and flexible to consolidate and strengthen the sound momentum of development.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The underlying impact of the international financial crisis has not been fully eliminated, the world economy has yet to enter a benign cycle of steady growth, and systemic and structural risks are still prominent. We need to cement and build on what we have achieved in countering the financial crisis. We need to take into consideration both the immediate needs and long-term development and, while continuing to energize the recovery, create conditions for sustainable development through structural reform. This is a common task for all countries. In case of China, there is a lack of balance, coordination and sustainability in the economic development. The main problems include the unreasonable economic structure, weak capabilities for scientific and technological innovation, rising resources and environmental constraints, uneven urban-rural and regional development and lack of coordination between economic and social development. Some of these problems are inescapable in our current stage of economic development, and some are caused by inadequate institutional reform. To effectively address these deep-seated and structural problems, we will take an integrated approach that balances near-term macro control with long-term development and advances reform and opening-up in the broader context of scientific development. Only in this way can the Chinese economy achieve greater and more sustainable development. For now and in the time to come, we will focus our efforts in the following fields.

- We will pursue balance growth of domestic and external demand and establish a long-term mechanism to expand domestic demand, consumer demand in particular. The Chinese market is one with the largest potential in the world. To fully tap the potential and effectively unleash the domestic demand holds the key to long-term and steady development of China's economy, and represents an important means to meet the prominent challenges in the economy. We will speed up the reform of the income distribution system, and raise the proportion of individual income in the national income and the proportion of the primary distribution that goes to wages and salaries. We will create conditions for more people to earn income from property, reverse the trend of widening income gap as quickly as possible, and boost the sustainable growth of people's income and consumer spending. With a commitment to coordinated development between urban and rural areas and between different regions, we will take active and prudent steps to advance urbanization, and allow eligible rural migrant workers to gradually become urban residents in line with the local conditions. We will accelerate the building of the new countryside and improve rural infrastructure and public services. We will continue to implement the overall strategy for regional development, push forward the development of the western region and the reinvigoration of the old industrial bases in northeast China and other places, energize the development of the central region, cultivate new drivers for domestic demand, and open up new space for the growth of domestic demand in rural areas and central and western regions. At the same time, we will continue to make full use of both the international and domestic markets. China's economy is an open economy, and China is both a major exporter and a major importer. We do not pursue surplus in foreign trade. China runs a trade surplus with the United States and Europe, yet a trade deficit with Japan and the ROK. We have a surplus in the processing trade, yet a deficit in general trade. Our export growth is rapidly recovering, yet our import has grown even faster. We cannot and will not pursue development with our door closed. We will expand domestic demand and at the same time actively stabilize and expand external demand, and strive to achieve balanced development of domestic and external demand.

- We will spur economic development through innovation and promote scientific and technological advances and upgrading of the industrial structure. This is a strategic priority if we are to fundamentally ease the resources and environmental constraints, adapt ourselves to the adjustments in the international demand structure and new changes brought by the upgrading of domestic consumption, raise the quality and efficiency of our economic development and national competitiveness across the board, and promote sustainable economic development. We will integrate our efforts in strengthening the capacity for scientific and technological innovation with those for improving the modern industrial system. We will upgrade the traditional industries with advanced technologies, nurture a number of internationally competitive enterprises with their own intellectual property and well-known brands, and build a number of world-class modern industry clusters which can serve as growth drivers, so that China can move industry clusters which can serve as growth drivers, so that China can move from a big manufacturing country to a strong manufacturing country. We will firmly grasp the new trend in future scientific and technological advancement, provide stronger policy support and planning guidance, actively build the emerging industries with strategic importance, develop new pillar industries as a faster pace, and strive for leap-frog development. We will accelerate the opening up of the service industry both domestically and externally, foster an enabling policy and institutional environment for its development and increase its proportion in the national economy.

- We will continue to conserve resources and protect the environment, and raise the efficiency in resources utilization and capacity in tackling climate change. To conserve resources and protect the environment is China's basic state policy. We must accelerate the formation of an industrial structure, production model and consumption pattern that are conducive to energy and resources conservation and eco-protection to promote harmony between man and nature. We will further improve laws and standards, strengthen accountability evaluation in meeting environmental targets, and advance the development of circular economy. We will make all-round efforts to save energy, water, land and materials and make comprehensive use of all kinds of resources, enhance the conservation and management of all natural resources, and take a holistic approach to protect and repair the eco-environment. We will energetically develop low carbon industrial, construction and transport systems, increase the forest carbon sink and speed up the R&D, demonstration and industrial application of low carbon technologies. We will comprehensively enhance our capacity for tackling climate change, and actively carry out international cooperation against climate change under the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities".

- We will strike a balance between economic and social development and strive to ensure and improve people's livelihood and promote social equity and justice. To improve people's livelihood and extend the benefits of economic development to all is the fundamental goal of economic and social development. And to meet the essential needs of the people and free them from worries for daily necessities is an important responsibility of modern government. Many countries now face the challenge of high unemployment. China is also confronted by a rather severe employment situation. There are almost 800 million people of working age in China, equivalent to the workforce of all developed countries combined. The annual increase of workforce in the job market far exceeds the number of jobs available. The oversupply of labor and structural labor shortage exist side by side. We will make employment expansion a priority target in economic and social development, implement a more pro-active employment policy, vigorously create new jobs, and encourage self-employment to promote full employment. We will enhance the government's capability in providing public services, gradually establish a fairly complete and sustainable system of basic public services that covers both urban and rural areas, and promote equal access to social security and basic medical and health care services. The issue of housing is both an economic issue and more importantly, a major issue affecting people's livelihood and social stability. To stabilize the housing price and ensure housing availability is an important responsibility of governments at all levels. We must further rectify the market order, improve the land, tax and financial policies, accelerate the establishment of a long-term mechanism for the healthy development of the housing market and curb investment and speculative demand. We need to guide the market towards greater supply of ordinary commercial housing, speed up the development of low-income housing and build public rental housing in order to form a rational structure of housing supply and meet the diverse housing needs.

- We will deepen reform and increase the dynamism and vitality for sustainable development. China's development and progress would not have been possible without reform and opening-up. And to achieve the modernization goal of building a prosperous, democratic, culturally-advanced and harmonious country, we still need to rely on reform and opening-up. With China's reform endeavor at a crucial stage, we must advance the reforms in all areas with greater determination and courage. We must deepen comprehensive reforms in the economic, political and other fields to enable the entire system to better meet the needs of developing a modern economy and building socialist democracy, push forward social equity and justice and facilitate the free and all-round development of the people.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China's development is open development. China's opening-up is long-term, comprehensive and mutually beneficial. We will uphold all policies conductive to opening-up. China is committed to creating an open and fair environment for foreign invested enterprises. China gives high priority to intellectual property protection and has already made this a national strategy. We are ready to conduct exchanges and dialogue with other countries in this field. I wish to reiterate here that all enterprises registered in China according to Chinese laws are Chinese enterprises. Their products are made-in-China products. And the innovative products based on their research and development are created-in-China products. All foreign invested enterprises registered in China enjoy national treatment. In government procurement, China gives equal treatment to all products produced in China by foreign invested enterprises and Chinese invested enterprises alike.

China's huge market volume, sound infrastructure, strong industrial support ability and stable and fair market environment are attracting more and more multinational enterprises to invest and establish business in China. China is now one of the world's largest foreign investment destinations. More than 470 of the top 500 global companies have established their presence in China. By July this year, China had received 1.05 trillion U.S. dollars of foreign investment in cumulative terms, ranking the first among developing countries for 18 years in a row. In the first seven months this year, foreign investment in China increased by 20.7 percent over the same period last year. Foreign invested enterprises on the whole enjoy good operation in China and have reaped good returns. Many have become the bright spot and profit center in the global business growth of their parent companies. All of these demonstrate that the efforts of the Chinese government to foster a favorable investment environment have been recognized by the investors and bolstered foreign investors' confidence. We will continue to improve the foreign-related economic laws, regulations and policies, and improve the business environment for foreign investors in China. We sincerely welcome enterprises from all countries to actively participate in China's reform and opening-up process, and hope that all types of enterprises will strictly abide by China's laws and regulations, run businesses in China according to law, and share the opportunities and benefits of China's prosperity and progress.

Thank you.