Chinese Economy/Development thread (updated regularly)

[中国万岁-ProsperThroughCo-]

Lifting standards for all

China and the US can teach each other about education
Vivien Stewart and Heather Singmaster
Dec 13, 2010

The latest global school report card is out, with Shanghai and Hong Kong SAR coming top of the class. A new Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development survey of 15-year-old students around the world ranks the cities as number one and two. They also lead a growing list of Asian countries and places now reaping impressive benefits from dramatic reforms and deep investment in education.
It's a different story across the Pacific. The United States - a leader in education in the 20th century - is ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science, and 25th in mathematics, according to results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa). When all three scores are averaged out, America comes 26th out of 65 places.

What can the United States learn from the strong performance of Asia? And, is there anything Hong Kong and Shanghai can still learn from America, despite its disappointing results?

Hong Kong and Shanghai have significantly expanded their education systems over the past two decades and, around 2000, started major reforms in the structure of schools, curriculum, and assessment. While each took different paths, their systems share features that contribute to their high rankings:

Both have rigorous standards and a strong core curriculum, especially in mathematics and science, whereas in America, educational standards vary widely between states. Students are allowed to choose among many different levels of courses, and many opt out of more advanced, and tougher, courses.
Schools in Hong Kong and Shanghai enjoy considerable autonomy in educating their students to the standards. However, because they exist within a coherent centralised education system, they yield results.
In contrast in the United States, authority for education is diffused across multiple levels of governance, from state to state and district to district. Standards, resources, teacher preparation and assessment are often inconsistent and not aligned. This enormous variation in educational opportunity shows up in the Pisa results.

In China, a stronger emphasis is placed on recruiting and supporting high-quality teachers and principals. Teachers follow a tradition of close teamwork, meeting regularly to improve their classroom skills and curriculum. A higher proportion has degrees in mathematics and science than their US counterparts. Meanwhile, in the United States, teaching has become a less attractive occupation in recent years. There are severe shortages of mathematics, science and language teachers and high drop-out rates in the first five years of teaching. Many teachers feel isolated in their classrooms and find little help when they want to improve their work.
Students in Hong Kong and Shanghai work very hard in school and spend a lot of time outside school studying, compared to US students. While many parents believe their children spend too much time in exam preparation, the belief that effort and hard work pay off is, nevertheless, a powerful driver of student achievement.
Before Hong Kong and Shanghai carried out their education reforms, their policymakers studied education systems around the world, including America's, to gather the best ideas.

Traditionally, the Chinese education model emphasised knowledge transmission while American curriculum and instruction is stronger at teaching students how to question and think for themselves, solve problems, and apply ideas. These skills are likely to be in high demand in a modern knowledge and innovation economy. Recognising that not all students learn the same way, the United States also has many types of schools, and many second-chance opportunities for students, with less reliance on an examination funnel.

In many respects, Shanghai and Hong Kong, on the one hand, and the United States, on the other, are mirror images of each other. Hong Kong and Shanghai have educational systems that deliver a fairly high level of education effectively on a broad scale, but the educational content and teacher methods need to be updated. The US has a great deal of innovation, research, and modern teaching methods but has not created a system that delivers high-quality education to all students.

There are also common challenges across the Asia-Pacific region: how to assess problem-solving and creativity, how to harness the power of technology to transform teaching and learning, how to continually raise the quality of teaching, and how to educate an increasingly diverse body of students, including migrants.

No country has a monopoly on educational excellence. As we face the task of preparing our students for success as workers and citizens in this increasingly interconnected world, we have much to learn from each other.

The Asia Society, an international organisation, with offices in the United States and around Asia, has long brought together education policy leaders, teachers, and students from the Asia-Pacific region to do just that. And, as US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has said: "We have a great deal to learn from other nations that are out-educating us today."

As the United States seeks to revise its Elementary and Secondary Education Act with the goal of providing a world-class education for all its students, it will be looking across the Pacific and around the world to learn from the experiences of other countries.

Vivien Stewart is senior adviser for education, and Heather Singmaster is senior programme associate at Asia Society in New York, asiasociety.org

Supply of engineers challenges atomic plan

Safety not major worry for mainland's programme to expand nuclear power plants
Eric Ng
Dec 13, 2010


The availability of qualified engineers is the biggest challenge facing the mainland's ambitious programme to expand the number of nuclear power plants, rather than issues of safety, uranium supply, or public opposition, according to industry experts.
Building the plants is not a difficult task, they say, but manning them with engineers with sufficient operating experience will be the ultimate test of whether growth targets can be reached.

Lloyds Register's nuclear business director Jerzy Grynblat said in an interview with the South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583, announcements, news) that to qualify as "experienced", nuclear-plant operators required eight to 10 years of on-the-job practice, compared with the five-year construction period for a plant.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Nuclear Energy Asia conference organised by the International Quality & Productivity Centre in Hong Kong last week, Grynblat said this staffing requirement posed the greatest challenge to the country's nuclear-power expansion plans.

Lloyds Register provides independent safety audits and risk-management services. Its risk-analysis software is used in about half of the world's nuclear power plants.

Zhao Chengkun, vice-chairman of the China Nuclear Energy Association, said the human-resource challenge came in the form of availability of high-level management and technical specialists. He would not give an estimate of a personnel shortfall, saying this would depend on the number and pace of new project approvals.

Zhao said a nuclear plant with two 1,000-megawatt reactors would require 700 to 1,000 engineering staff to support its operation and regular maintenance, although not all of them were required to be nuclear specialists.

China is expected to build 60 nuclear reactors in the next two decades, meaning it could require up to 30,000 engineers.

According to the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute, the number of undergraduates enrolled in nuclear engineering in China surged to 3,900 last year from 2,300 in 2008 and 1,946 in 2007.

Grynblat said any human-resource shortfall would have to be filled domestically, as importing foreign talent was not an option, given shortages in developed nations, where public adversity to nuclear power has stifled plant expansion and training of new engineers.

"The situation is like a camel's double humps, where qualified engineers are mostly either over 55 years old or between 25 and 30 years of age, with a big gap in the middle," he said.

The central government will unveil in March the National People's Congress' updated target for installed nuclear power-generation capacity in 2020, but the industry widely expects it to be about 70 gigawatts, up from 10GW currently. It also envisages 30GW of new plants to be under construction by then.

In 2005, Beijing was planning for a 2020 installed capacity of 40GW and 18GW being built. "Now, it looks like this target will be reached by 2015," Zhao said.

China has nearly 20 years of experience operating nuclear power plants since the Qinshan Phase 1 plant was commissioned in Zhejiang province in 1991, and has since introduced technology from Russia, France, Canada and the United States. It has absorbed foreign technology and successfully developed the capability of building plants completely on its own.

Not only is it ready to mass-produce nuclear reactors using mature and well-proven technologies, it is also expected to become a major exporter of reactors in the future.

The sheer size of China's plan to scale up the industry's capacity means it will be in a cost-leadership position alongside India, which also plans to expand the number of its reactors by several-fold in the next decade, said NERA Economic Consulting vice-president Edward Kee.

Despite concerns that the low quality of China's uranium ore will threaten security of the supply of nuclear fuel, supply should be sufficient until at least 2020, Zhao said.

Nor is safety a big concern, even though it is always the No1 priority for the industry anywhere in the world. "China has a very good nuclear-safety record and ranks above world average," said Grynblat. "It also has a very young fleet of plants."

He said the mainland's nuclear industry was well aware of the human-resource challenge, and had been keeping more engineers than required at its current fleet of nuclear power plants to prepare for the sharp rise in demand for qualified people.

Zhao said the government had in recent years put more resources into academic and on-the-job training, with the number of universities offering nuclear science and engineering degrees rising to more than 10 from four a few years ago. Beijing's Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Xian Polytechnic University and Harbin Engineering University were the earliest to offer such courses.

State-owned nuclear-plant developers China National Nuclear Corp, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp and China Power (SEHK: 2380) Investment Corp have also set up their own professional training units, Zhao added.

Xu Mi, the China Institute of Atomic Energy's chief engineer, played down concerns of a looming engineer shortage.

"As long as we have countermeasures, I'm not worried," he said. "For example, my institute is providing two-year professional training courses for university graduates with non-nuclear engineering degrees to fill the gap."

However, industry executives said one other challenge was the promotion of public acceptance of nuclear power, especially given that more plants will be built in inland lake or riverside locations that are relatively close to population centres.

Grynblat said that as long as transport safety regulation is maintained, and promotion of safety records to the public is done properly, he was not too worried.

"Experience in other nations has shown that people living closer to nuclear power plants actually have more positive opinions of them, since they are more informed about them," he said. "For example, in Britain, local people are more worried about job losses and the impact on the local economy when plants are decommissioned rather than safety."

 

[Brotherhood]

China to become dominant force in global economic growth - People's Daily OnlineDecember 13, 2010

According to data from the third quarter of 2010, China's economic growth rate stood at 9.6 percent, which means the rate has begun to slow. The International Monetary Fund said China's economic growth accounts for almost one-fifth of the world total, and China's purchasing power is only one-fourth of the world total.

In 2009, China accounted for 46 percent of the world's total consumption of coal, aluminum and zinc and the consumption of the crude steel was twice as much as the total of the European Union, the United States and Japan, according to figures released by the World Coal Institute.

In addition, demand for mobile phones in China will exceed the combined demand of all other countries in the world.

Global exports to China increasing

Since the global financial crisis, China's market demand has boosted the economic recovery of neighboring countries and even the world, especially in driving the rapid price rebound of bulk products, such as crude oil and iron ore, according to the General Administration of Customs.

In the first three quarters of this year, the price level of imports of primary products saw an increase of 37 percent and the actual volume of imports grew nearly 24 percent after discounting price rises, which is significantly higher than that of other major economies, and they are more dependent on China's imports.

Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said recently that China has become a key export market for many countries. China was the largest export market of Japan, Australia, South Korea, ASEAN, Brazil and South Africa and the third of the United States and the European Union and India. And the proportion of China's exports to these countries will see growth at different levels.

China strives to reduce trade surplus

China has realized the importance of imports and its policy has gradually transferred from encouraging exports and restricting imports to advocating trade balance, an expert told the overseas edition of People's Daily.

Chinese government facilitated the customs clearance in imports in 2010.

In the commodity structure, before the 2008 financial crisis, the industrial raw materials and capital goods had a higher share in China's imports. While in 2010, for the purpose of balanced trade, imports of autos and spare parts saw a higher growth, most of which were imported from the United States, Europe and developed countries. It was helpful in addressing bilateral trade imbalance.

As of October 2010, the exports and imports volume amounted to 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars, an increase of 36 percent from the same period of last year, of which, exports account for 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars, up 33 percent and imports make up 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars, growing 41 percent.

The growth rate in imports is higher than that of exports, which is helpful to reduce trade surplus as well as ease the pressure of RMB appreciation.

China's role is crucial

Analysts say China's timely economic stimulus policies ensured domestic economic stability and development since the 2008 financial crisis. While suffering the impact of the global recession, China still achieved rapid economic growth.

The economic growth led to the high demand for capital goods and industrial products. China's imports of these goods play significant role in promoting exports for the developed countries and newly-industrialized countries.

In addition, China's demand for a large number of raw materials due to its industrialized production is good news for the exports-oriented and resource-dominated developing countries.

China's rapidly economic growth played crucial role in the current world economic environment, and China will become the dominant force in global economic growth in the future, said the World Economic Forum President Klaus Schwab in a speech.

By Liang Jun, People's Daily Online

 

[Brotherhood]

100-million-ton oil field discovered in Gansu - People's Daily OnlineDecember 13, 2010

The oil exploration in Gansu Province made a breakthrough recently when a 100-million-ton oil field was found in the northeast of Xifeng City, Gansu Province.

Petro China Co. has discovered this oil field in Gansu Province with proven reserves of more than 100 million metric tons or 7.3 billion barrels, according to the state-owned Xinhua news agency.

The oil field was found by Petro China's subsidiary Changqing Oilfield Co., which is exploring areas of the Ordos Basin across the northern provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi, and Shanxi, and the autonomous regions of Ningxia and Inner Mongolia.

The proven petroleum reserves in east Gansu have reached 3.3 billion tons, according to the latest prospecting report, accounting for 38 percent of the total reserve of the whole Ordos Basin. The provincial government of Gansu is actively building a petroleum and chemical energy base in the area.

Changqing Oilfield Co.'s annual oil and gas output is currently 35 million tons of oil equivalent, and is expected to rise 43 percent to 50 million tons a year in 2015, according to Xinhua.

By People's Daily Online

 

[dataminer123]

Petro China Co. has discovered this oil field in Gansu Province with proven reserves of more than 100 million metric tons or 7.3 billion barrels, according to the state-owned Xinhua news agency.
By People's Daily Online

1 tons= 7+ barrels,
100 million tons should be 730 million barrel.

 

[unicorn]

China to Appeal Trade Ruling on Tire Dispute
By ANDREW BATSON

BEIJING—China's commerce ministry said it would appeal a World Trade Organization ruling that upheld U.S. restrictions on imports of Chinese-made tires, despite doubts from experts on whether it could prevail in the next round of a high-profile trade dispute.

China had gone to the WTO to challenge President Barack Obama's decision in September 2009 to levy tariffs of up to 35% on Chinese tires in response to what the U.S. said was a surge in tire imports from China that was hurting U.S. competitors. The case was an emotional one, since the U.S. move made use of a so-called safeguard mechanism, spelled out in China's WTO accession agreement, that is unique to China and allows trading partners to restrict imports from it without meeting the same burden of proof required for other countries' goods.

After a year of hearings and legal maneuvering, the WTO's dispute-settlement panel ruled Monday that the U.S. had been within its rights to impose the tariffs. The loss for China was not surprising, trade experts said, since the country had clearly agreed to the safeguard mechanism when it joined the WTO. But China fears that the U.S. victory could embolden other countries to block more shipments from the world's largest exporter.

"The Chinese side is deeply concerned about the possible negative impact from the panel's decision," the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Tuesday on its website, adding that it "will carefully study the panel's report and lodge an appeal at an appropriate time, in order to protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese industries."

Chinese government and industry officials had warned after the U.S. move last year that the tariffs could trigger large layoffs in China's tire industry. But it's unclear whether those fears have been born out. China doesn't publicize detailed employment data. The China Rubber Industry Association, one of the groups that complained last year, declined to comment Tuesday.

The Commerce Ministry's statement didn't mention any impact on Chinese jobs. Rather, it argued that the U.S. gained little from the restrictions, pointing to figures showing that U.S. tire imports have increased and jobs in the U.S. tire industry have decreased this year. "While the special safeguard measures caused a significant decline in China's tire exports to the U.S., the U.S. turned around and increased imports from other countries," it said in the statement.

The timing of the WTO ruling was inconvenient for China. It came as a large delegation of Chinese officials, led by Vice Premier Wang Qishan, arrived in Washington on Monday night for the latest round of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, a regular series of talks on a range of bilateral economic disputes.

Monday's loss isn't China's first at the WTO, and because it focuses on the safeguard provisions, rather than a broader complaint about the way China manages its economy, its implications are limited.

Still, some Chinese specialists worry the ruling could be damaging if it encourages others to follow suit.

"China's appeal only served to make the U.S. protectionist tariffs seem more legitimate," said Tu Xinquan, deputy director of China Institute for WTO Studies in Beijing. "The WTO's ruling may just further aggravate the situation and encourage more countries to follow the U.S." in restricting imports from China, he said.

Beyond its planned appeal at the WTO, China's response is likely to be limited. The country has increasingly channeled its trade grievances through the WTO, which it joined in 2001, winning most of the cases it has brought to dispute-settlement panels.

And there is a limited window for the U.S. or other countries to use the disputed procedure to block Chinese imports. The "transitional safeguard mechanism" that China agreed when it joined the WTO in 2001 will expire in 2013, though that won't affect countries' ability to pursue normal antidumping or anti-subsidy cases against Chinese goods.

 

[Brotherhood]

China GDP to hit 37 trillion yuan mark in 2010: gov't think tank - People's Daily OnlineDecember 15, 2010

A leading Chinese government think tank in a research report issued Wednesday predicted that China's economy in 2010 would grow 10 percent year on year with gross domestic product (GDP) reaching 37 trillion yuan (5.56 trillion U.S. dollars).

In its annual Blue Book of China's Society, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) noted that in 2010 China had made great efforts to keep its macro economic policy consistent and its economy had begun to recover.

China's GDP stood at over 34 trillion yuan with an economic growth of 9.1 percent in 2009.

Income levels continued to rise steadily among both urban and rural residents in 2010, while the income growth rate of rural residents was forecast at over 8 percent, outpacing the rate of their urban counterparts, the blue book said.

On life quality of Chinese residents, the book said overall life satisfaction of urban and rural residents was declining and people were less satisfied with their economic status, occupation and social security.

Further, migrant workers who belong to the "80s Generation" were found to work longer but earned less than those migrant workers born before the 1980s.

Migrant workers who were born in the 1980s accounted for 45.6 percent of the Chinese migrant worker population, according to the book.

Source: Xinhua

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

China GDP to hit 37 trillion yuan mark in 2010: gov't think tank - People's Daily OnlineDecember 15, 2010

A leading Chinese government think tank in a research report issued Wednesday predicted that China's economy in 2010 would grow 10 percent year on year with gross domestic product (GDP) reaching 37 trillion yuan (5.56 trillion U.S. dollars).

In its annual Blue Book of China's Society, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) noted that in 2010 China had made great efforts to keep its macro economic policy consistent and its economy had begun to recover.

China's GDP stood at over 34 trillion yuan with an economic growth of 9.1 percent in 2009.

Income levels continued to rise steadily among both urban and rural residents in 2010, while the income growth rate of rural residents was forecast at over 8 percent, outpacing the rate of their urban counterparts, the blue book said.

On life quality of Chinese residents, the book said overall life satisfaction of urban and rural residents was declining and people were less satisfied with their economic status, occupation and social security.

Further, migrant workers who belong to the "80s Generation" were found to work longer but earned less than those migrant workers born before the 1980s.

Migrant workers who were born in the 1980s accounted for 45.6 percent of the Chinese migrant worker population, according to the book.

Source: Xinhua

The govt estimation is always very conservative, i think next year's figure will likely be 40 trillion yuan.

 

[Brotherhood]

China's ODI reaches $47 bln for Jan-Nov - People's Daily Online December 15, 2010

China's overseas direct investment (ODI) in non-financial sectors in 122 countries and regions reached 47.56 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of this year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced Wednesday.

The investment covered 2,786 overseas enterprises for the period, said ministry spokesman Yao Jian at a press conference held in Beijing.

The country's non-financial ODI in the first 11 months was just under last year's total of 47.8 billion U.S. dollars.

Yao said the investment mainly went to China's Hong Kong, and countries including Australia, the United States and Russia. The majority of the investment went into mining, manufacturing, transport and the services sector.

Yao also forecast the nation's total non-financial ODI would amount to 220 billion U.S. dollars during the five years ending in 2010, which would make China the fifth largest investor around the world, up 13 places from its ranking five years ago.

Meanwhile, business volume in overseas-contracted projects during the first 11 months hit 74.25 billion U.S. dollars, up 14.6 percent year on year, Yao said.

The value of new contracts signed during the period was also up 3.6 percent year on year to reach 110.3 billion U.S. dollars, ending nine months of decline, Yao said.

In November alone, the value of new contracts signed reached 14.95 billion U.S. dollars, up 90.6 percent compared to one year earlier, Yao said.

Source: Xinhua

 

[中国万岁-ProsperThroughCo-]

Pearl River deal barges ahead

Charlotte So
Dec 16, 2010

China Merchants Holdings (SEHK: 0144) (International) and Chu Kong Shipping Development are teaming up to develop a Pearl River transshipment business to benefit from Guangdong's low-carbon policies over the next five years.
Deep-sea-terminal operator China Merchants has agreed to invest HK$131 million in the Chu Kong River Trade Terminal company, a subsidiary of Chu Kong, in exchange for a 20 per cent stake in the company that operates 10 feeder ports along the Pearl River.

China Merchants executive director Yu Liming said his firm's West Shenzhen terminals handled more than 10 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year, of which 2.5 million were transshipment cargo from feeder ports along the Pearl River Delta. Yu said the transshipment cargo market could grow by millions of TEUs due to cost advantages and environmental issues.

Factories in the western Pearl River Delta could save 20 per cent of transportation costs, up to 1,000 yuan (HK$1,170) per TEU, by using barges instead of trucks to transport cargo to the sea ports for export, he said.

Emission cuts are another advantage of barges over trucks.

"One barge can deliver about 100 TEUs and replace at least 50 trucks on the road," Chu Kong Shipping chairman Hua Honglin said.

The Guangdong government is encouraging the use of barges along the river. It has put reducing emissions on the agenda for the province's 12th five-year plan, which begins next year.

"We need to educate the factory owners in the Pearl River Delta to get accustomed to transshipment by jointly promoting the transportation model," Yu said.

Transshipment in Hong Kong accounts for one-third of total throughput, compared with just one-quarter in West Shenzhen port.

Both companies will combine their information technology networks after joining up for the transshipment joint venture.

In the first 11 months of this year, container volume at West Shenzhen rose 26.7 per cent year-on-year to 10.7 million TEUs.

Volume at the river ports operated by Chu Kong rose 19 per cent to 1.92 million TEUs.

China Merchants said full-year throughput would increase nearly 20 per cent year on year for all the ports in which the company has a stake, including West Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Tunnel connects last county without a road

Fiona Tam
Dec 16, 2010


Finally, every county in China is connected by road.
And the people of Metok county in the Tibet Autonomous Region will at last, after several doomed attempts, have a link to the outside world.

It is a remote, forbidding place that is almost entirely surrounded by the Himalayas and other mountains. Access is limited, but with the blasting of 150 kilograms of explosives yesterday, all that is about to change.

The blast removed the last obstacle to a three-kilometre tunnel through the mountains, and by the end of next year, Metok will for the first time have a highway.

With a population of 11,567, Metok, which adjoins India in the south, was the last of 2,100 counties on the mainland that lacked a highway.

The Galongla Tunnel, built at an altitude of 3,750 metres, is the key to the 117-kilometre project, which will lead to Bome county.

With total investment of 950 million yuan (HK$1.11 billion), it is also the most expensive county highway on the mainland.

Soldiers from the Ministry of Transport spent two years building the tunnel. Another 90 kilometres of highway between the end of the tunnel and Metok county, in Nyingchi prefecture, are still to come.

It will drastically shorten travelling time between Metok and Bome counties, as the journey through the tunnel will take just 30 minutes.

Zhou Haitao , a government official who worked in Metok for five years, was quoted by Xinhua as saying it was a life-threatening adventure every time he crossed the mountains at an altitude of 4,000 metres.

China has tried several times to build a road to link Metok with the outside world, but landslides, snowslides, mud-rock flows and heavy rain destroyed all attempts - and also made mountain roads impassable for nine months of the year.

In 1962, eight million yuan was invested to build a road, but the plan was abandoned after eight workers died in the rough conditions. Only eight kilometres had been constructed. In 1975 a natural disaster scuttled another attempt costing 24 million yuan, although about 80 kilometres was completed that time.

It is harsh terrain, with elevation dropping from 7,000 metres to 200 metres below sea level. The county is also cut off by six rivers.

Over the past decade many porters who carried food and daily necessities to the county by foot have died in avalanches or landslides.

Such isolation means that daily necessities are expensive in Metok. Travellers report paying 10 yuan for a bottle of water, 20 yuan for a kilogram of rice, and 50 yuan for a meal at an average restaurant - prices much higher than in the rest of the Tibetan region.

Some 140 billion yuan has been spent on development in Tibet since 2001, including a number of major to link it with the rest of China. Tibet's fifth civil airport opened in November, and at least six new railway lines in and around Tibet are in the works.

 

[dataminer123]

Tunnel connects last county without a road

Hope this news will not get on Joe Shearer's nerves

 

[Brotherhood]

China's foreign trade to top 2.9 trillion USD this year: minister - People's Daily Online December 16, 2010

China's foreign trade is expected to exceed 2.9 trillion U.S. dollars this year, and the country expects its trade and international payments to be more balanced over the next five years, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said Thursday.

In an interview with Xinhua, Chen said it is very likely that China could become the world's largest exporter and the second largest importer by the end of the year due to the strong growth in exports and imports.

Also, China's retail sales of consumer goods will top 15 trillion yuan (2.25 trillion U.S. dollars), of which 450 billion yuan (67.53 billion U.S. dollars) will be spent in online shopping, he said.

China's imports and exports rebounded sharply this year from the recession level in 2009. Its foreign trade jumped 36.3 percent year on year to 2.67728 trillion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of the year, according to the latest customs figures.

Retail sales of consumer goods in the January-to-November period reached 13.92 trillion yuan (2.1 trillion U.S. dollars), up 18.4 percent from the same period last year.

As for the 12th Five-year Plan period (2011-2015), Chen said the ministry would aim to make its trade and international payments more balanced, thus creating a better investment environment to attract high-end international capital.

He said the next five years would be a crucial period for Chinese enterprises to invest overseas.

"The country encourages competitive enterprises to go global with efficient risk-control measures," he said, adding, "We will give them more public service and more effective legal protection in this regard."

Chen said China's outbound direct investments in non-financial sectors would probably surpass 50 billion U.S. dollars this year, or about half of foreign direct investment China receives this year.

"I estimate the proportion will be much higher in the future," he added.

The minister said China's consumption stimulus measures, such as the rural home appliance subsidy program, and vehicle and home appliance old-for-new trade-in purchases, might continue as long-term policies after improvement.

"To be specific, our measures to stimulate rural consumption could continue after necessary adjustments, but stimulus measure to boost auto sales should be adjusted," he said.

To boost the economy amid the global economic downturn and spur the use of clean and fuel-efficient cars, the Chinese government reduced the car-buying tax and handed out vehicle trade-in subsidy since 2009. Such measures are due to expire by the end of this year.

Chen said the ministry would continue vehicle trade-in subsidy for the sake of environmental protection and the use of clean fuel rather than just boost the general auto sales in the country.

Source: Xinhua

 

[Brotherhood]

Exporters urged to focus on emerging markets - People's Daily Online December 17, 2010

China, now the second-largest industrial trading nation, will further spur machinery and electrical product exports to emerging markets next year to establish a diversified sales network and seize global business opportunities, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

"Exporters of machinery and mechanical products should strengthen their business next year in emerging economies and shift their market structure from developed economies to a global profile while consolidating exports to the United States and European Union markets," said Jiang Yaoping, vice-minister of commerce.

According to the ministry, China has become the second-largest machinery and electrical products trading country in the world owing to robust demand and fast growth worldwide.

"We have seen export volume surge in emerging markets in recent years, which helps promote the machinery and electrical industries' share in the country's total exports," Zhang Yujing, president of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME), told China Daily.

"By contrast, it's relatively difficult to substantially increase exports to the US and EU markets, which are struggling with an economic slowdown and have repeatedly imposed anti-dumping measures on products imported from China this year," Zhang said.

Machinery and electronic products, including automobiles, appliances and mechanical equipment, represent the biggest exporting category in China.

From January to November, exports in this category jumped by 32.7 percent to 842.74 billion yuan ($126.45 billion), accounting for 59 percent of the country's total exports.

The CCCME said China will become the world's leading exporter of machinery and electronic products by the end of this year.

Jiang of the ministry said China's machinery and electrical product exports have rebounded from the negative increase exporters suffered from the global financial crisis.

"To grasp business opportunities in the global market, Chinese exporters should step up efforts to increase exports to emerging markets, enhance autonomous innovation and set up their own distribution networks abroad," Jiang said.

Althought the US and EU remained China's major export markets, exporters have yielded great profits in emerging markets, such as the Middle East, Africa and South America.

Zhang of the CCCME said Chinese-made products are popular in these regions because of the high ratio of performance to price.

Unlike developed countries, where Chinese manufacturers mostly subcontract for foreign brands, China's exporters have taken great efforts to develop independent brands in emerging economies.

TCL Corporation, one of China's largest household appliance makers, said it plans to establish production bases in Pakistan and South America to widen its reach and strengthen its brand abroad, as it sees significant benefits in emerging markets.

"We should invest more in emerging markets, where we expect to reap a good return as TCL grows into a global brand," Li Dongsheng, chairman of TCL Corporation, said.

On Thursday, the CCCME named 83 companies as the top exported brands in the machinery and electrical industry and promised to further support their business.

"Both the government and the chamber of commerce should make a commitment to develop Chinese brands into international big names, as part of an effort to transform China from a large trading country to a strong trading nation," Jiang of the ministry said.

Source:China Daily

 

[中国万岁-ProsperThroughCo-]

4 news articles for now - three about Taiwan, one about South Africa

SCMP
Taiwan eyes solo-tourist bonanza

Ralph Jennings
Dec 18, 2010

The Grand Formosa Regent, an imposing 21-storey hotel in central Taipei, is preparing an itinerary for free-roaming mainland travellers expected in Taiwan for the first time as early as February after more than two years of more restrictive group tours.
On the "must-see" list for the visitors is the National Palace Museum, for a look at its 654,000-piece Chinese art collection, followed by a meal at Silks Palace - the super-fancy restaurant next to the museum operated by the Grand Formosa.


"They may come for business but will have additional travel needs. And the Palace Museum is the first place mainland Chinese tourists usually choose to visit," the hotel's publicity head Beth Tsai said.

Also coming under fresh scrutiny ahead of the arrivals is the hotel's conference hall equipment and special deals on its 538 guest rooms.

The Grand Formosa is just one Taiwan enterprise bracing itself for the first wave of solo mainland tourists who are eager to see on their own terms an island that is well known at home but has been largely inaccessible due to tough entry rules.

Taiwanese officials are keen to give the chronically flat US$190 billion services sector a lift, with businesses complaining they have been passed over by tightly controlled mainland group tours. Two years ago Taiwan allowed mainland tour groups entry after all but banning them for decades.

The services sector has sagged over the past five years as islanders, finding their wages stagnating and high-paying jobs scarce, spent less on luxuries. The global financial crisis took another bite, triggering a deep recession in early 2009.

Hotels, travel agents, bus operators and others who might have complained before are now preparing for 300 to 500 individual mainland travellers a day at first - the number the government will likely allow - with the possibility of many more if the first wave works out.

By comparison, there are already about 2,700 mainlanders a day who visit as part of group tours.

Following the pattern of the mainland's lifting of restrictions on tourists visiting Hong Kong, Taiwan plans to offer individual visits firsrt to residents of the mainland's wealthiest cities, where wages easily reach 8,000 (HK$9,300) to 10,000 yuan per month, and to require steep pre-trip deposits as incentives to return home. That means the rich travel first.

Among the services under review in Taiwan's hospitality sector are private shuttle buses, hire cars, hotel menus geared towards mainland tastes and signage in simplified Chinese characters.

"If they're travelling on their own, what they'll need most is vehicles for two or three people, plus a guide," Shen Ya-ching, operator of Taipei-based Green Tours, said. "And if there are just one or two, they'll need a driver. I'm thinking to go in these directions."

As mainland travellers start choosing what to do in Taiwan, they could spend money anywhere and go where they please thanks to a common language. Major cities, such as Taipei and Kaohsiung - the easiest to get around by bus or commuter rail - are expected to draw the most solo mainland travellers. Big department stores including Pacific Sogo and Mitsukoshi in Taipei should draw customers curious about luxury brands made or sold cheaply in Taiwan.

"Price would be a factor, and also maybe Taiwan's stuff is more reliable in terms of the risk of knock-offs," said Liang Kuo-yan, president of the Polaris Research Institute in Taipei.

"Taiwan will open mostly to tourists with money. Most of that money will be spent in cities, on luxury goods, even international brands, and maybe watches and jewellery."

Urban department stores need only flash the neon to reel in mainland tourists. "They will stay mainly in cities, where it's easy to get around and the sightseeing possibilities are more numerous," said Winston Hsieh, a director with Martin Travel Service in Taipei.

Until Taiwan's mainland-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou's government opened to group tours in 2008, most mainland travellers were kept out on security concerns as the two sides competed for diplomatic attention and occasionally flirted with war. Beijing still claims sovereignty over Taiwan, a self-ruled island just 160 kilometres from the mainland coast.

So far this year nearly a million mainland tourists have visited the islands in groups, but just a handful of merchants have benefited.

Operators tend to rely on the same hotels and restaurants for every group. Visitors on group tours also lack time to shop at random, as guides rush them around from breakfast until well after nightfall. Those conditions have raised the appeal of individual travel.

"I've met some mainland Chinese tourists. It seems like they just get on and off buses, spending 15 to 30 minutes before the driver takes them to some other place," said Lana Ma, 33, a white-collar worker in Beijing who wants to see Taiwan on her own. But she has no set itinerary save for the usual scenic spots such as Sun Moon Lake and Alishan, both in the mountains of south-central Taiwan.

"There's still quite a market to be developed yet," said Achim Hake, general manager of the seven-month-old, 286-room Palais de Chine, a five-star Taipei hotel that is adding simplified characters to the in-room signage and reworking the menu for mainland tastes.

"We're doing some preparations. I believe at a later stage we'll be quite prepared," he said.

While Taiwan's 102 tourist-grade hotels have the money to make changes targeting mainland tourists, smaller services businesses are holding back until after the first wave of arrivals.

"Only four-star or five-star hotels are doing this, because the cost is substantial," said Anthony Liao, standing supervisor with the Taipei Association of Travel Agents.

His agency is reworking its online bookings website to provide mainlanders with better access.

Still, some merchants see no need to add or change services for self-guided mainland tourists. The Chinatrust Hotel at Sun Moon Lake, for example, expects mainland tourists as the lake area is a must-see for those who have read about it in textbooks.

The hotel expects to reel people in naturally. "They'll be here next year," said hotel publicist Amanda Tsai. "We are optimistic and prepared with everything."

The Palace Museum, already saturated with mainland group tours, will make no changes but hopes tourists visiting as individuals will spend longer in the museum than their group peers do, as guides rush them through in under an hour and back to their bus.

Sellers of only-in-Taiwan souvenirs such as pineapple cakes and high-mountain oolong tea leaves, which can be easily packed away at scenic spots for gifts back home, should also rake in money by just opening their doors.

The same goes for restaurants. Mainland travellers who are normally picky about food away from home may test the limits in Taiwan, as they have read about specialties such as bubble tea and night market seafood.

"The language is the same. It's easy for everyone to talk," said Hsieh of Martin Travel. "So basically there's no problem."

Moves to improve HK-Taiwan ties

Fanny W. Y. Fung
Dec 18, 2010

Hong Kong will soon upgrade its tourism office in Taipei, a further step in improving ties between Taiwan and Hong Kong.
A delegation from the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council, which was launched in May, yesterday arrived in the city for a three-day trip. Its local counterpart, the Hong Kong-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Co-operation and Promotion Council, visited Taipei in August - the first meeting between the two bodies.

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan said the Tourism Board had submitted application documents to Taiwanese authorities for turning its existing representative office into one with full-blown functions to promote tourism. Now the office only handles inquiries.

"At the moment, the Hong Kong Tourism Board just has an officer [in its Taipei office]. What we are now doing is to upgrade it to be a fully-fledged representational office of the Tourism Board, with a strengthened and enhanced role," said Lau, who met the delegation as a vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong council.

The Taiwanese group, for its part, announced plans to launch a fund next month to encourage Hong Kong academic institutions and other groups to travel to Taiwan for cultural exchange activities. Subsidies will cover air tickets, insurance, venues for hosting events and other costs.

"We highly regard exchanges between the young people of Taiwan and Hong Kong," Lin Chen-kuo, chairman of the Taiwan council, said.

The two councils have agreed to hold a joint cultural summit in April.

Lin also met Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen. During the 20-minute meeting at Government House, he suggested that Hong Kong waive all visa requirements for visitors from Taiwan.

"Hong Kong has granted visa-free entry to visitors from some 170 countries, but why not Taiwan? Aren't we brothers?" Lin said at a press conference afterwards. He said Tsang had agreed that arrangements should move toward that direction.

The cultural subcommittees of both councils will meet today to further discuss co-operation plans.

FT
China enters South African platinum sector

By Simon Mundy in Johannesburg
Published: December 18 2010 02:29 | Last updated: December 18 2010 02:29
China is to enter the South African platinum sector in a transaction worth $877m, its biggest mining investment in the country, as it continues to target Africa as a source of raw materials.

The deal, announced on Friday, will be China’s second-largest investment in the continent outside the energy sector. The state-owned miner Jinchuan Group and the China-Africa Development Fund will take a 45 per cent stake in the junior miner Wesizwe Platinum for $200m, as well as funding a $27m stake for black investors in line with South African black empowerment rules.

The Chinese entities have further committed to raise $650m in project finance to develop Wesizwe’s Frischgewaagd-Ledig mine. Jinchuan – China’s biggest platinum producer, which acquired Canada’s Continental Minerals for $434m in September – will take all platinum group metals produced at the mine.

The investment was a long-term bet in anticipation of growing platinum demand, said Dominic O’Kane at Liberum Capital. China’s hitherto limited interest in African platinum contrasts with its heavy investment in other extractive industries on the continent.

But tighter environmental restrictions, as well as burgeoning automobile markets in China and other developing countries, will increase demand for the metal, which is used in catalytic converters. South Africa has about 80 per cent of the world’s platinum reserves.

“So far they haven’t had a pressing need to strike up strategic alliances with platinum producers – platinum, relative to iron ore or copper, is not such an in-demand metal in China at the moment,” Mr O’Kane said. “But it will be increasingly so over the next 20 years.”

Arthur Matshiatshidi, Wesizwe chief executive, told the Financial Times that the equity investment would be concluded around the beginning of March. The project finance would be drawn down gradually once the equity finance was exhausted, which would be about 18 months later.

Wesizwe had been an “easy kill” for China, Mr Matshiatshidi said. “Our project is generally touted as one of the best unmined resources on the Bushveld Complex [in the north of South Africa] … But the capital markets have been very limited so we didn’t have many funding alternatives to pursue.”

With finance assured, Frischgewaagd-Ledig is expected to begin full production in 2015, with an output of 350,000oz of platinum group metals a year.

Wesizwe – whose share price has fallen by nearly 90 per cent in three years amid shareholder infighting – was unlikely to be the last Chinese investment in South African platinum, said Percy Takunda at Imara SP Reid, a brokerage. “I’d be very surprised if the Chinese just want to come in and participate at that kind of level,” he said, noting that bigger producers such as Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin dominated smaller companies that depend on them to refine their product.

Last week an unnamed Chinese state-owned company held talks on the $100m acquisition of Aurora Empowerment Systems, a troubled gold mining company part-owned by the nephew of Jacob Zuma, South African president. The biggest Chinese investment in South Africa was Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s $5.5bn purchase of a 20 per cent stake in Standard Bank in 2008.

AU Optronics to build China LCD plant

By Ralph Jennings in Taipei
Published: December 17 2010 16:19 | Last updated: December 17 2010 16:19
Taiwan’s AU Optronics has won the first-ever government clearance to set up an LCD factory in China, a company representative said, in a key boost to the long-term competitiveness of Taiwan’s tech sector.

The island’s Ministry of Economic Affairs gave AU the go-ahead on Friday – after nine months of deliberation – to invest $3bn on a factory near Shanghai that will produce 7.5-generation liquid crystal displays, said company publicity manager Freda Lee.

“We are the first Taiwanese company that has been allowed the go to mainland China to set up this kind of LCD factory,” Ms Lee said in a telephone interview. “And now demand from Chinese television makers is on the rise.”

AU supplies LCDs to Dell, Sony and Hewlett-Packard. It is in a race with other Asian LCD makers as demand for the parts increases among Chinese hardware makers. AU’s South Korean rivals LG Display and Samsung Electronics won approval from China last month to set up plants.

“The significance is that LG and Samsung have their permits and Taiwan doesn’t want to be left behind,” said Sebastian Ho, a sector analyst with Yuanta Investment Consulting in Taipei. “If this field wants to see double-digit growth, especially in supplying television makers, the future is in China.”

AU’s China factory will open in 2012. It will not set production targets or determine the factory staff size until negotiating permits with Chinese officials, Ms Lee said.

Taiwan began allowing applications for LCD factories in China only from the start of the year after overcoming fears about allowing transferring technology to a political rival with a reputation for copying trade secrets from overseas.

AU’s cross-town rival Chimei Innolux has not applied for a similar factory in China but is getting ready to put in a bid, analysts believe.

In exchange for the go-ahead, Taiwan’s economic ministry asked AU to set up four new plants at home. It will spend T$400bn ($13.2bn) on two solar plants and two 11th generation LCD plants between 2012 and 2022, Ms Lee said.

Taiwan is aggressively trying to develop solar energy as an economic pillar. Officials also want big companies to expand locally to keep jobs onshore.

 

[Brotherhood]

China produces own million-kilowatt-level nuclear tech - People's Daily Online
December 20, 2010

China's first fully self-developed No. 1 unit reactor pressure vessel of the Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Station, manufactured by China First Heavy Industries (CFHI), was completed on Dec. 18 and sent to Hongyanhe of Liaoning Province.

After testing, all of the equipment's technical indicators meet the requirements, signifying that China has independently developed the capacity to create million-kilowatt nuclear equipment.

Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Station is China's first million-kilowatt nuclear power station, and it began construction during the 11th Five-Year Plan period.

In accordance with the requirements of the National Development and Reform Commission, China has now basically achieved the ability to produce domestically-made second generation million-kilowatt nuclear power equipment through the development of four units during the first phase of the project.

By People's Daily Online

 

[Brotherhood]

Economist: China's portion of world growth in 2010 possibly 20% - People's Daily OnlineDecember 21, 2010

Ba Shusong, noted Chinese economist and senior researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, told People's Daily that a preliminary estimate has set world economic growth for 2010 at more that 4.5 percent with 60 percent of that coming from the emerging markets. China is expected to contribute 20 percent, while the G3, namely the United States, the European Union and Japan, will generate 25 percent.

The global economy is showing a clear, albeit mild, recovery. And the main engine lies in emerging economies, including China. However, the conflicting monetary policies of developed countries and emerging markets have produced uncertainties in the global market. This has triggered widespread concerns over the recovery prospects in those G3 countries.

The G3 have injected more money to give a kick-start to their sluggish economies, while the emerging markets are tightening the money supply to reign in inflation and control asset bubbles.

However, whether and when the money in G3 nations will flow into the real economy from the financial market remains a question. That is the problem facing the U.S. economy.

Ba said low, stable growth would be a more realistic expectation for the global economy. That, however, does not mean a cycle of recession.


By Li Jia, People’s Daily Online