China Economy Forum

[Piotr]

13 states, including US ally Canada, join AIIB
Fri Mar 24, 2017 9:55AM

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) says it has approved 13 new applications to join it bringing the total membership of the bank which was initiated by China to 70.

The AIIB announced in a statement posted on its website that it was the first time that it welcomed new members since its inception.

The newcomers include five regional states such as Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Fiji, Timor Leste and Armenia – as well as eight non-Asian countries such as Canada, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Peru, Venezuela, Republic of Sudan, and Ethiopia.

"I am very proud that AIIB now has members from almost every continent," Reuters quoted AIIB President Jin Liqun as saying in the bank’s statement. "We anticipate further applications being considered by our Board of Governors later this year."

The inception of the AIIB came in 2014 when China moved to create an independent mechanism to invest in infrastructure projects in the Asia-Pacific region.

Authorities have said that the bank aims to provide financial facilities for a chain of development projects including the construction of dams, ports, power plants and telecommunications networks across Asia.

The AIIB is seen as an emerging rival to powerful Western-led financial institutions such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

It is feared by the White House to be a new Chinese policy to increase the influence of the world’s second largest economy at regional and international levels.

Despite opposition from Washington, many US allies including Australia, Britain, German, Italy, the Philippines and South Korea have agreed to join the AIIB.

Source: http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/03/24/515445/13-states-including-US-ally-Canada-join-AIIB

 

[samsara]

The highlighted sentence would be better used to describe Indian Govt. organizations. Chinese SOEs are totally different animals from your understanding. All Chinese military industries are SOEs, and you know what they have achieved.

That persona knows a little on economic development and industrial capabilities, just look at his quite ridiculous and hollow yet diligent comments he lives in his own universe... better save your efforts from addressing him.

 

[TaiShang]

China's 'unicorns' nearly double to 131: official
(Xinhua) 10:24, March 27, 2017

BEIJING, March 26 -- China had 131 billion dollars worth of private start-ups by the end of 2016, nearly doubling the figure of the year before, said an official with Ministry of Science and Technology.

Zhang Zhihong, director of the ministry's Torch High Technology Industry Development Center, made the remarks while opening an institute for small and medium enterprise research in Tianjin over the weekend.

He used the term "unicorn," rarely used by Chinese officials, which refers young, unlisted companies with a market value of over 1 billion U.S. dollars, based on private funding sources.

China's unicorns are spread over 16 cities, but mostly in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou. The majority are innovation-driven tech businesses, Zhang said.

A report published by the torch center earlier this year said half of China's unicorns are in Beijing's Zhongguancun, home to China's three super-unicorns worth over 10 billion U.S. dollars: Xiaomi, Didi Chuxing, and Meituan.

One third of Zhongguancun's unicorns were born after 2014. They focus on four domains -- e-commerce, culture and entertainment, Internet finance, and transportation, according to the report "Development of China's Unicorn Enterprises in 2016".

In fact, Zhongguancun is second only to Silicon Valley as the most concentrated area for tech unicorns in the world, the report says.

Zhang said a pro-innovation business environment, conductive policies, and good services are key to the growth of unicorns.

"Unicorns have become important engine to maintaining medium-high growth and to transforming industry," Zhang said. "Their emergence is key to development of the sharing, smart, and platform economies."

 

[خره مينه لګته وي]

China’s influence on global finance grows as US scales back input

Superpowers’ goals diverge, with PBoC aiding trade while Trump retreats into isolation

Ireland, Canada, Ethiopia and Sudan are understood to be among nations set to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank © Bloomberg

World finance ministers will next month descend on Washington for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. For the first time since they were founded, it is not clear that some ministers will be welcomed.

This month, Donald Trump, US president, submitted a budget that cut World Bank contributions by $650m and reduced US participation in the IMF. As the US scales back its participation on the global stage, China has been scaling up. Ever since the financial crisis, Chinese institutions have been providing lifelines to foreign countries and billions of dollars in development finance. China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, is playing a growing role in providing a backstop for international liquidity.

In the wake of the financial crisis, Zhou Xiaochuan, the PBoC governor, raised eyebrows when he said “the desirable goal of reforming the international monetary system . . . is to create an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”.

In addition to strong words, the PBoC governor has taken some steps. According to a forthcoming paper by Daniel McDowell, a professor at Syracuse University, the PBoC has made available about $550bn in local currency swaps around the world.

As Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University economist, has noted in a new book, these swaps do not mean the renminbi is taking over. The US dollar is still the world’s major currency and its Federal Reserve made unlimited amounts of dollars available in the wake of the crisis.

That said, China’s swaps are huge, helping to facilitate trade and may pave the way to bigger things to come. In addition, China is also leading by example. In a step more in tune with what the framers of the Bretton Woods agreements intended, the PBoC has been re-regulating capital flows to mitigate financial instability and prevent a huge devaluation in its currency. At the same time, the Trump administration is pledging to roll back the financial regulations put in place after the crisis.

China has emerged as a leader in development finance as well. The global wing of China’s national development bank, the China Development Bank, has a loan book of close to $400bn. Its partner, the Export-Import Bank of China, holds approximately $300bn. The two have a larger basket of assets than the World Bank and all the regional multilateral development banks combined. In addition to these two banks, China has created about $116bn in bilateral and regional funds, such as the Silk Road Fund, that will invest in China’s “Marshall Plan”, the Belt and Road initiative.

Other vehicles include the China-Latin America and the China-Africa Development funds, which are providing support for infrastructure and industrial transformation. Of course, China has also taken the lead in creating two new development banks — the Asian Infrastructure Investment (AIIB) and the New Development banks — that begin with $50bn in start-up capital but aspire to have close to $350bn by 2020.

What is more, China’s institutions appear to be more flexible. As Justin Yifu Lin, former chief economist at the World Bank, notes in a new book he co-wrote (Going Beyond Aid: Development Cooperation for Structural Transformation), China’s development institutions blend concessional and non-concessional financial instruments with grants and commercial sector involvement in creative ways that are unimaginable for Washington-backed institutions. Jin Liqun, head of the AIIB, recently told the Financial Times: “Now that China has developed, it is our turn to contribute.”

On many levels, China’s contributions could not come at a better time. The financial crisis proved that the IMF and the Fed need more firepower to prevent and mitigate a crisis. What is more, the world economy needs to invest $6tn a year over the next 15 years to plug gaps in developing country infrastructure and to rebuild the neglected infrastructure of industrialised countries. And although great progress has been made, there are still more than 700m people living in extreme poverty on the planet.

The Trump administration’s proposed cuts to global economic institutions appear to be yet another sign of a US retreat into isolationism. Rather than withdrawing, Washington should be leading the way to embrace China’s efforts and figure out ways to co-ordinate with, and complement, China’s new global economic prowess.

Kevin P Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University’s Pardee School for Global Studies, where he co-directs the Global Economic Governance Initiative. His latest book is “The China Triangle”. Twitter: @KevinPGallagher

https://www.ft.com

 

[JSCh]

China’s largest ever gold mine found in Shandong with potential value of over $22 billion
(People's Daily Online) 08:46, March 29, 2017

World-class gold mine with 382.58 tons of reserves has been found in Xiling, east China’s Shandong earlier this year, with a potential value of more than $22 billion (RMB150billion), announced Shandong Gold Group Co., Ltd. during its press conference in Beijing on March 28, 2017. It is believed to be China’s largest gold deposit in history.

The gold mine is located in the Laizhou-Zhaoyuan region of northwest Jiaodong Peninsula, east China’s Shandong. The special geological characteristic of this region helped to form the country’s major gold deposits cluster, which has the largest gold reserves and production in China.

According to reports, Xiling gold deposit is more than 2,000 meters long and part of it has a thickness of 67 meters. Currently, 382.58 tons of gold reserves have been prospected with an average gold grade of 4.52 g/t. And 550 tons of gold resources with more than $22billion (RMB150billion) potential economic value can be expected in two years. If producing on a scale of 10,000 tons every day, the gold deposit can produce gold continuously at full capacity for 40 years.

 

[shadows888]

China’s largest ever gold mine found in Shandong with potential value of over $22 billion
(People's Daily Online) 08:46, March 29, 2017

World-class gold mine with 382.58 tons of reserves has been found in Xiling, east China’s Shandong earlier this year, with a potential value of more than $22 billion (RMB150billion), announced Shandong Gold Group Co., Ltd. during its press conference in Beijing on March 28, 2017. It is believed to be China’s largest gold deposit in history.

The gold mine is located in the Laizhou-Zhaoyuan region of northwest Jiaodong Peninsula, east China’s Shandong. The special geological characteristic of this region helped to form the country’s major gold deposits cluster, which has the largest gold reserves and production in China.

According to reports, Xiling gold deposit is more than 2,000 meters long and part of it has a thickness of 67 meters. Currently, 382.58 tons of gold reserves have been prospected with an average gold grade of 4.52 g/t. And 550 tons of gold resources with more than $22billion (RMB150billion) potential economic value can be expected in two years. If producing on a scale of 10,000 tons every day, the gold deposit can produce gold continuously at full capacity for 40 years.

How big is this compared to other global deposits?

 

[JSCh]

How big is this compared to other global deposits?

The media just say world class size.

From this,

World's top 10 gold deposits | MINING.com​

http://www.mining.com/web/worlds-top-10-gold-deposits/
The no. 10 | Obuasi | 29,830,000 Oz Gold = 845.66 ton

China might not have the largest mine, but she is the world no. one gold producer by quite a margin.

List of countries by gold production - Wikipedia​

 

[Get Ya Wig Split]

China's GDP likely to grow 6.8% in Q1: think tank

BEIJING - China's economy is likely to grow by 6.8 percent year on year in the first quarter of the year as production activities and investment picked up, according to a Chinese government think tank report Wednesday.

The firming trend in the fourth quarter last year has continued into the first quarter of 2017, according to the National Academy of Economic Strategy (NAES), citing a huge rise in factory-gate prices, rebounding corporate profits and increasing imports.

Consumer prices will rise by 1.4 percent in the first three months of this year, according to NAES, which is affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Despite downward pressure, China's economy has been operating in a good state," said Wang Hongju, a researcher with NAES. "The focus of macro-economic policies should be put in supply-side restructural reforms to boost potential output in the long run."

NAES estimated that China's economy would expand by 6.7 percent in the first half of the year as industrial production was likely to increase moderately in the second quarter, while investment would see slightly slower growth.

Consumption will grow steadily in the April-June period, but it will be difficult to find improvement in exports, according to the report.

The Chinese government trimmed its 2017 growth target to around 6.5 percent, the lowest in a quarter of a century.

The report said the Chinese government should guard against risks in the property and financial sectors by properly managing monetary and land supply "floodgates."

To curb excessive growth in house prices in certain cities, except for purchase restrictions, the government should also work to improve market supply and keep monetary expansion under control, according to the report.


people cn

 

[onebyone]

Sinopec Mulls Hong Kong, Shanghai Retail Unit IPO in 2018
Bloomberg News
31 มีนาคม 2560 09:59 GMT+7

• China’s oil refining giant considering dual listing option
• Seeking to raise as much as $10 billion from retail unit IPO

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. is considering a dual listing for its retail business, which could take place next year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The world’s biggest oil refiner, known as Sinopec, is mulling a plan to sell shares first in Hong Kong and then in Shanghai, the people said, asking not to be named as the details aren’t public. The dual offering is one option under consideration and no final decision has been made, they said. Bloomberg reported in December that the Beijing-based company asked banks to submit proposals for the IPO to raise as much as $10 billion in Hong Kong.

The board of the retail unit would decide the timing and details of the listing, Chairman Wang Yupu said during the company’s annual earnings briefing Monday, without providing further details. A Sinopec spokesman reiterated Wang’s comments Friday.

The IPO will provide a jolt to market-oriented reforms encouraged by the government of President Xi Jinping, which have stagnated in the past two years, and may widen the investor base outside China. It would also raise funds as the company begins to boost spending for the first time since 2013 and comes under government and shareholder pressure to increase dividends.

Sinopec’s retail operations include about 30,600 fuel stations under its own brand as well as a network of convenience stores. It proposed a listing of the retail business in 2014, when it sold a 29.99 percent stake for 107 billion yuan ($15.5 billion) to a group of investors including China Life Insurance Co. and billionaire Guo Guangchang’s Fosun International Ltd.

Sinopec separately said this week that it was invited by Saudi Arabian Oil Co. to invest in its own IPO, which could be the world’s biggest. The Chinese company may be aiming to start its listing before the offering by the oil exporter known as Saudi Aramco as it may suck up market liquidity, according to Gordon Kwan, head of oil and gas research at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong.

— With assistance by Keith Zhai, and Heng Xie

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ong-shanghai-retail-unit-ipo-in-2018-j0x8q2yp

 

[RISING SUN]

Fallout from fall of Chinese executive who sealed copper mine deal in Afghanistan
The disgrace last week of the businessman who won a deal in 2007 for China to develop a copper mine in Afghanistan, which was the largest foreign investment deal in the war-torn country at the time, has highlighted the lack of progress on the project over a decade.

Shen Heting, the former general manager of the China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC), a state-owned company, was expelled from the Communist Party for corruption at home, according to a notice from China’s State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission, Beijing’s state assets watchdog. Being expelled from the party is a de facto political death sentence for a state company executive.

Shen’s downfall wasn’t related to China’s controversial Mes Aynak copper mine, but the failure of Shen’s consortium to profit from the headline-grabbing deal over the last decade exposes pitfalls in Beijing’s state-backed strategy of investing abroad to obtain resources and influence.
The deal was deadlocked by multiple issues including China’s concern at security problems in the war-torn country and a refusal by the Afghan government so far to renegotiate the contract terms in line with difficulties obtaining some necessary mining materials inside the country. In addition, local residents, archaeologists and environmentalists worldwide have strongly resisted the mining project as last ditch efforts are made to unearth and preserve the site and its treasure trove of Buddhist artefacts.

The stalled project about 25 miles southeast of Kabul is a reminder of possible risks for Chinese investment abroad as President Xi Jinping promotes the “One Belt, One Road” initiative to expand Chinese influence in more than 60 Eurasian countries via trade and investment.

“What is happening with the Chinese investment in Afghanistan shows that the future of some of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ projects is not a straight path,” said Wang Lian, a professor at the Department of International Politics at Peking University.

“Countries with internal security problems like Afghanistan are likely to lag behind more on cooperation with China than some others,” Wang said.

“China can manage its corrupt personnel and improve the management of state companies, but there is nothing much it can do about its partners’ internal conflicts, because China has always adopted a non-interference approach,” he added.

In 2007, Shen’s MCC and another state-owned company, Jiangxi Copper, won the rights for 30 years to extract, smelt and process raw copper at Mes Aynak, for a price of $3 billion. It was the largest-ever foreign investment deal in Afghanistan then and sparked talk of Beijing making profits in the region while Western countries, led by the United States, fought tough battles against Taliban insurgents.

Shen and Afghanistan’s then minerals and finance ministers attended a signing ceremony in Kabul in April 2008. At a groundbreaking ceremony at the mine in July 2009, Shen was the star of the event, sporting a white turban and a chapan, the traditional Afghan coat, as seen in pictures on the website of the Chinese embassy in Afghanistan.

Back in Kabul, Shen held talks with then Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who congratulated Shen on the project, according to a report by an official notice from the Chinese embassy posted in July 2009. Shen met Karzai again in 2012 at the Presidential Palace in Kabul to discuss the project, which had fallen behind schedule.

Shen, who by then held the position of party general secretary of MCC,resigned from the company in 2014, also ending his role in the consortium.

Brent Huffman, the director of Saving Mes Aynak, said delays in the mining project had bought some time for local archaeologists who are working on the site to preserve as many historical relics as possible. He added that the Chinese company had increased its influence over the site despite no mining having yet begun.

“MCC has relocated and demolished six villages, built several compounds ... roads, power stations, sewers,” Huffman said.

The Afghan deal Shen sealed a decade ago continues to test China’s capabilities in managing complex projects beyond its borders.

Last September, China announced the completion of a cargo train service infrastructure that linked with northern Afghanistan to trade mechanical equipment, information technology products and clothes from China for some of Afghanistan’s natural resources, including oil and copperfrom the mining project. However, Afghan business news portal Wadsam reported on March 3 that no train has run on the line since it was completed six months ago.

“It is more of a symbol for China to show that it is still eager to include Afghanistan in its One Belt One Road project,” Wang said.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as:
Dealmaker in stalled Afghan mine deal disgraced
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/poli...fall-chinese-executive-who-sealed-copper-mine

 

[Get Ya Wig Split]

China's Q1 GDP growth may quicken to 6.9 pct: CICC

BEIJING, April 3 (Xinhua) -- China's GDP growth is likely to accelerate in the first quarter of the year following a pick-up in industrial activity and improving domestic demand, according to a Chinese investment bank.

China International Capital Corporation (CICC) said in a research report that GDP growth could quicken to 6.9 percent in the first quarter from 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016.

CICC expected China's retail sales of consumer goods to increase 10.2 percent year on year in March, accelerating from the 9.5 percent rise registered for January-February.

Industrial output growth may slow slightly from 6.3 percent in the first two months of the year to 6.1 percent in March because of a higher comparative base from last year, according to CICC.

It also projected fixed asset investment to grow 8.4 percent in the first three months of the year, with the consumer price index rising 0.9 percent in March.

China is scheduled to release its first-quarter economic data, including GDP growth, fixed asset investment, industrial output and retail sales, on April 17.

The country's manufacturing purchasing managers' index came in at 51.8 in March, higher than 51.6 recorded in February, reinforcing signs that the economy is firming up. The index has stayed above the boom-bust line of 50 for eighth months in a row.

Source: Xinhua

 

[onebyone]

China’s service sector projected to reach 72% of economy by 2030 which is about Japan’s current level
brian wang | April 7, 2017


China is projected to grow the service share of the economy over the next 13 years.

China should reach a service level share of about 72% in 2030. This will be about the level of Japan and Germany today. The US and France have nearly 80% of the economy made up of service.

Generally more advanced economies have a greater share of services.

2016 51%
2020 59%
2025 66%
2030 72%

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/04/chinas-service-sector-projected-to-reach-72-of-economy-by-2030-which-is-about-japans-current-level.html

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

China’s service sector projected to reach 72% of economy by 2030 which is about Japan’s current level
brian wang | April 7, 2017


China is projected to grow the service share of the economy over the next 13 years.

China should reach a service level share of about 72% in 2030. This will be about the level of Japan and Germany today. The US and France have nearly 80% of the economy made up of service.

Generally more advanced economies have a greater share of services.

2016 51%
2020 59%
2025 66%
2030 72%

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/04/chinas-service-sector-projected-to-reach-72-of-economy-by-2030-which-is-about-japans-current-level.html

NO!

More advanced countries do not necessarily have a higher services share.

I hope China refuses this stupid notion of service sector hegemony.

Germany is a far far more advanced country compared to France, or even US. An advanced country makes stuff, does research, and not sell pizzas.

 

[shadows888]

NO!

More advanced countries do not necessarily have a higher services share.

I hope China refuses this stupid notion of service sector hegemony.

Germany is a far far more advanced country compared to France, or even US. An advanced country makes stuff, does research, and not sell pizzas.

The rest of the world cannot absorb the manufacturing capacity of 1.45 billion Chinese. it's not possible for China or USA to be "Germany", at least in a healthy global economy.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

the rest of the world cannot absorb the manufacturing capacity of 1.45 billion Chinese. it's not possible for China or USA to be "Germany", at least in a healthy global economy.

Well with rising incomes a lot of output can be consumed in China itself.

Apart from that you can always stop domestic resource extraction. If you are facing with too much trade surplus, just stop mining coal and oil in China, and start importing. Keep a healthy national strategic reserve for strategic purposes.

A lot of service sector jobs are not primary producing jobs. They are reliant on other sectors income.

I hope China doesn't fall into this stupid notion that somehow people serving as waiters in restaurants is better or equal to that of workers on factory floor.