August 2012 Volume 1, Issue 8
Inside this issue:
· Governor-General of The Bahamas Visited CCA Baha Mar Project
· CCA and ABC New York Signed Memorandum of Cooperation
· President Yuan Spoke at Canton Fair’s Promotional Conference
· CCA Executives Visited PANYNJ Chief Engineer
· ……
· Governor-General of The Bahamas Visited CCA Baha Mar Project
On August 22, 2012, His Excellency Sir Arthur Alexander Foulkes, Governor-General of The Bahamas, and his wife Lady Joan Eleanor Foulkes paid a visit to the Baha Mar project, accompanied by Mr. Shan Hu, Chinese Ambassador to The Bahamas, Mr. Xingfu Zhai, the Chinese Counselor, and other government officials. CCA Executive Vice President Tiger Wu and Senior Vice President Daniel Liu welcomed the delegation on their arrival and escorted Sir Foulkes in a walking inspection of the project’s jobsite. Sir Foulkes, along with Lady Foulkes and other government officials were greatly impressed by the neat and well-organized jobsite, saying: “I am very pleased to see the arrangement that the contractors have made for the workers for their recreation and comfort”. He more than once spoke favorably of the conditions of the site offices, workers’ camp, canteen, night school, library and other facilities and amenities during the short site tour.
After listening to the briefing on the project’s general planning and schedule by Mr. Tiger Wu at the site office, Sir Foulkes noted that the Baha Mar project, representing a tremendous vote of confidence in The Bahamas, would play a significant role in the local economic potentials as well as political stability. Chinese Ambassador Shan Hu spoke in favor of the fact that CCA not only puts emphasis on construction safety, quality management and construction duration control, but also pays close attention to managing and caring for employees under the guidance of people-oriented corporate culture. On behalf of CCA, Mr. Wu assured that the CCA Baha Mar team would hold on delivering a successful and outstanding project for the Caribbean.
The visit attracted attention from the local major media, with on-line broadcasting of an exclusive interview with Sir Foulkes and Mr. Tiger Wu.
· CCA and ABC New York Signed Memorandum of Cooperation
On August 16, 2012, CCA was invited to attend the Grand Opening of Agricultural Bank of China’s New York Branch, during which a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) was signed between the branch and the subsidiaries of eight big Chinese companies, including CCA. Linsen Zhang, Vice President and CFO of CCA, signed the agreement on behalf of the company.
Agricultural Bank of China, or ABC, is one of the “Big Four” banks in China. It is China’s third largest lender by assets. CCA’s parent company CSCEC has maintained a strategic partnership with ABC for many years. The signing of the MOC between ABC’s New York Branch and CCA has enabled the two organizations to carry forward the long-term strategic partnership, which has fortified CCA’s confidence in doing business in the American market.
CCA also attended the bank’s reception at the Waldorf Astoria New York.
· President Yuan Spoke at Canton Fair’s Promotional Conference
On August 14, 2012, President Ning Yuan delivered a speech at the Promotional Conference of the 112th Session of China Import and Export Fair (also known as Canton Fair) at Mandarin Oriental New York. Other speakers were Carmela Mammas, Director of the New York U.S. Export Assistance Center of the Department of Commerce, Ann Li, Executive Vice President of NYC Economic Development Corporation’s Center for Economic Transformation, and Mark Jaffe, President and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce. The conference was sponsored by the Chinese Consulate General in New York and the China Foreign Trade Center, and organized by the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC). About 200 guests made their presence including Chinese and American government officials and business representatives from the New York area.
President Yuan expressed his confidence in the prospects of Sino-U.S. trade and economic cooperation, hoping that America will take up to 15% to 25% of China’s non-bond overseas investment in the years to come.
Inaugurated in spring 1957, Canton Fair is China’s largest trade fair that is held biannually in Guangzhou, China. In the past 55 years, the fair has served as a platform for business communities from both China and abroad to explore business opportunities and reap the benefits of trade exchanges.
· CCA Executives Visited PANYNJ Chief Engineer
On August 30, 2012, Mr. Peter Zipf, Chief Engineer/Director of Engineering of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) welcomed a CCA delegation at his office, which included CCA Vice President Peter Wu, Senior Vice President Jie-Tai Huang, and CCA Civil Vice Presidents Art Blattner and Gaby Antoun.
CCA presented to Mr. Zipf and his team a brief overview of the company’s background and operations in North America, covering CCA’s parent company CSCEC. Although CCA is a familiar name to Mr. Zipf, this was the first time the Chief Engineer met CCA in person. He was pleased to learn that CCA, with more than 27-year operational experience in the U.S., has successfully completed many public infrastructure projects in the New York area and has hence built up an outstanding local team capable of carrying out works for the Port Authority.
While appreciating CSCEC and CCA’s achievement, Mr. Zipf and his team particularly expressed their interest in learning more about CCA’s projects in New York, South Carolina and The Bahamas. In the meeting, Mr. Zipf also briefed CCA on the upcoming construction projects of the Port Authority, encouraging CCA to participate in the procurement process.
Other attendees from the Port Authority included James Starace, Deputy Chief Engineer, Wallace Caban, Assistant Chief Engineer for Construction, and Mitchell Yonkler, Manager for Construction Procurements and Integrity Programs.
· Safety Meeting Held at Baha Mar Project
On August 7, 2012, a safety meeting, organized by the Chinese Embassy to The Bahamas, was held in the Baha Mar project office. Wang Quanhuo, First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy to The Bahamas hosted the meeting, which was attended by project vice presidents Jun Miao, Jun Li and Changzhen Wan. Shao Gang, project manager of the Airport Gateway project, and employees from the CCA Bahamas Safety Department participated in the meeting as well. Other local Chinese companies also sent representatives to join in the meeting.
Mr. Wang emphasized the importance of operation safety by listing out the 2012 statistics of accidents and enumerating various examples of safety management. Mr. Wang reaffirmed the social responsibility of Chinese companies in The Bahamas while putting forward specific safety requirements to all participating companies, which included: 1) strengthening legal education and optimizing management regulations; 2) respecting the local culture and treating each worker equally; 3) fulfilling social responsibility and cultivating healthy company culture; 4) fortifying on-site safety inspection and projection; 5) establishing emergency action plans..
Mr. Jun Miao reaffirmed the project team’s commitment to construction safety, saying the team would continue implementing safety awareness into daily work. Mr. Jun Li pointed out that the project executives have consistently put safety in the first place of on-site management while attaching great importance to social responsibility.
· New Employee Orientation at Bahamas Airport Gateway Project
On August 11, 2012, a new employee’s training was held at the office of the Bahamas Airport Gateway Project. All of the project’s new employees attended the training. Mr. Carter Cao, Vice President and Human Resources Director of CCA, the Human Resources Department and IT Department participated in the training at CCA’s H.O. in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Mr. Cao presented a brief history of CSCEC and CCA, and highlighted some key points in the CCA Employee Policy and Manual. The attendees were impressed about the company’s rapid development history, especially the past 10 years.
Project Manager Steven Shao introduced the Timberline System to the team. He briefed the function of the program and the overall performance of each application. The introduction was made with examples of how this program is used for the gateway project. This introduction served the purpose of giving people who were new to the program a basic understanding of the program and the key points of how to study the program through training materials and practices.
At the end of the training, the IT Department showed some useful functions and features of the company’s internal website to benefit employees who were not familiar with the website. The training succeeded in presenting valuable information to new employees, which is conducive to improving their confidence and overall work efficiency.
· Milestone Achieved at Chapin High School Additions and Renovation Project
On August 16, 2012, the Chapin High School Additions and Renovation project successfully turned over a new media center, a parent drop-off loop and a student parking lot to the owner. The partial delivery of the project marked the project’s first milestone achieved.
"We should be ready to hand over the administration office area to the school by the end of this year", said John Miller, the project manager. "We are wrapping up some structure work and will move on to interior finishes very soon". Some of the remaining works at the site include building the new classroom wing, the new gym area, the field house, sports fields, a new kitchen and cafeteria, etc.
Although the school’s operating on a daily basis brings much more challenge in carrying out the new construction and renovation, the project team has been able to follow the construction plans through efficient communication and coordination. When finished by the end of 2014, the new Chapin High school will become the home for over 1,300 students and 89 teachers.
As a high profile project located at the heart of the Chapin Township, the project has been in the spotlight since the groundbreaking. CCA South Carolina aims to build the Chapin High School into a showcase project.
· Madam Gong Paid a Visit on CCA
On August 18, 2012, Ms. Gong Huihong, Deputy General Manager of the Concessional Loan Department of the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM Bank), visited the CCA H.O. in Jersey City, NJ during her visit to the U.S. Ms. Gong came to the U.S. as a member of the delegation headed by Mr. Li Jinzao, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce. CCA Vice Presidents Mike Mei and Linsen Zhang greeted Ms. Gong and her colleague, and showed them around CCA’s corporate office. Ms. Gong was impressed by CCA’s fast growth since her last visit in 2009 when she accompanies Chairman Li Ruogu of the EXIM Bank to the U.S.
Ms. Gong making time out of her busy schedule to meet with CCA executives has reflected the bank’s strong commitment to the strategic partnership between the two organizations. She expressed her confidence in the long-term cooperation between CCA and the EXIM Bank, saying that the bank takes CCA as the optimal partner in the U.S. market and would be more than happy to explore the market with CCA in the many years to come.
· Soccer Game Held at Baha Mar Project
On August 18, 2012, CCA Baha Mar Project’s first soccer game was closed successfully. After five-round and ten-game’s furious competition, CCIEI, one of the project’s subcontractors, took the championship with a one goal difference. The Technical Department finished as the first runner-up team, while the Commercial Department got the third place. The Fields Department and the MEP Department were presented with the Participation Awards. Han Xu, the number nine player from the Commercial Department, won the Top Scorer title with five goals. Gong Lei, the number eighteen player and the captain of the CCIRI team, won the MVP title. Working as hard as the soccer players, the cheerleaders used up their techniques to cheer up players and audiences to make the games more exciting and attractive.
The Baha Mar project team has been holding various activities, especially sports, to enrich employees’ life in their leisure time. This soccer game not only united all departments together through teamwork spirit but also provided an opportunity for employees to do exercise and physical training. After the game, all the departments expressed their strong determination in after-work training to prepare for the championship of the next game.
· CCA Sponsored NJ Chinese Festival Open
On August 25, 2012, the New Jersey Chinese Festival Table Tennis Open, or the NJ Chinese Festival Open, was held at the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center located in Dunellen, New Jersey. As the sponsor representative, CCA Vice President Jack Yang attended the tournament and presented awards to winners.
NJ Chinese Festival Open is a two star sanctioned table tennis tournament by the United States Table Tennis Association (USATT), which is the non-profit governing body for table tennis in the United States. By sponsoring the event, CCA hopes to support local Olympic hopefuls and talented children aged between 6 and 18 in broadening their athletic exposure, thus increasing their chances to succeed.
Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, CCA is committed to giving back to local communities and contributing to the development of local economy.
· 2012 Junior-Level Employee Qualifications Review Closed
On August 29, 2012, CCA concluded the last round of the 2012 junior-level employee qualifications review launched by the Overseas Operations of CSCEC, CCA’s parent company. All together 15 expatriate employees from Jersey City, South Carolina and The Bahamas participated in the review, and 10 senior management personnel sat on the judging panel, including CCA vice presidents Tiger Wu, Jack Yang, Peter Wu and Lilin Cao.