Talent shortage remains major concern for businesses

Finding and retaining key management and R&D employees are main problems for both Chinese and foreign companies in China, according to two surveys charting these groups. These were conducted by Shanghai-based China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) showed Tuesday.

One survey of foreign executives measured various aspects of doing business in China.

While foreign executives listed the human resources problem as their top concern in one of the surveys, their Chinese counterparts felt "excellent HR management … strong company culture and values, recruiting, training and retaining key employees are essential factors in outperforming the competition in China - yet they are difficult to execute," the school said in a press release.

Other issues troubling foreign executives include fiercer competition from Chinese competitors, rising labor costs and unclear and inconsistent laws and regulations, the survey found.

Meanwhile, the other survey done by CEIBS on Chinese entrepreneurs found that they are most concerned about the economic growth slowdown in China.

"China will be the last major economy to emerge from the global crisis," Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Peking University, predicted in a newsletter Tuesday.

"China will be forced to address and reverse the high savings rate, and it will only be after this happens that China can be said to have emerged from the crisis. This may take a decade or more," he said.