As Chinese become more wealthy and beauty-conscious, its
cosmetics market is surging and cosmetic chemist has emerged as a
new profession in China.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Security on April 25 approved
cosmetic chemist as a new profession and said China had 60,000
chemists working in the cosmetics industry at the end of 2006
The ministry predicted the number of cosmetic chemists will rise
by 20 percent every year.
An official of the ministry said on Sunday that chemists are
urgently needed in China to improve competitiveness of Chinese
cosmetics and to meeting the huge market demand.
By the end of 2006, China had had more than 3,800 cosmetics
enterprises and the annual cosmetics sales exceeded 100 billion
yuan in 2006, according to the ministry.
However, domestically-made cosmetics had less than 20 percent of
the domestic market, according to Zhang Xiaomei, member of the
National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC).
A number of Chinese cosmetics firms have been taken over by
foreign competitors. A recent example is the takeover of Mininurse,
a popular Chinese brand by France's L'Oreal.
Zhang said the government should support the development of its
own cosmetics brands by spending more on technology upgrading and
training of specialists.
(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2007)