Archive for November, 2007

Chinainvestor will add world economy news

Chinainvestor.net will add world economy news

Polarization between town and country to harm social stability

Chinanews, Beijing, November 22 – According to a report on the building of a well-off society by the National Statistics Bureau, the gap between town and country in China is widening, despite the fact that China is witnessing a rapid economic growth.

The report reveals that there are four major problems with the building of a well-off society.

The first is economic development. China’s economic development index in 2006 was 63.82%, and its GDP index was only 42.26%. It means that China still has to work harder to improve its overall economic volume and the level of industrialization and urbanization.

The second is social harmony, which refers to filling the regional gaps and narrowing the polarization between urban and rural areas. The key task of the government in the next few years will also be the development of education and basic insurance.

The third is the development of public utilities. The last but definitely not the least problem is environment. China must make its industry energy-efficient and cut down pollution as much as possible. The usage of land will also be a headache.

China has a small proportion of large cities, expert

Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 22 – At present, large cities account for only a small proportion in the total number of Chinese cities. China has a large number of small and medium cities. However, these cities are not very well developed. At present, some local governments were making efforts to develop the scale of some medium cities. It is hoped that with several years of hard work, some medium-sized cities might grow into large cities in years to come, said Wang Juelin, vice director at the Policy Research Center under the Ministry of Construction, on Wednesday.

He made the statement while attending a Sino-German City Management Forum held in Beijing.

In China, urban construction work started at a relatively later time. For a long time, China had focused its attention on the construction of a few big cities. As a result, the distribution of big, medium and small cities is in an unbalanced state. In China, many large cities are centered in the eastern and northern parts of the country, with very few in the middle and western regions. Although China boasts a large number of small and medium cities, many of them do not develop very well, Wang said.

At present, China has 656 cities that are subdivided into districts, 48 metropolitan cities, 65 large cities, 222 medium cities, 325 small cities and 20,600 incorporated towns. Experts say that Chinese metropolitan cities with a population of around one to two million develop best in regard to their social, economic and environmental construction; for large cities with a population of 500,000-1,000,000, they are in the middle level in their city construction; for small cities with a population under 200,000, their city construction is the worst among the three groups.

In terms of quantity, the medium and small cities should be considered as the mainstream in China’s economic development. The prosperity of Chinese economy might, to a large extent, rely heavily on the development of these small and medium cities. At present, some local governments are trying to develop some middle-sized cities in their regions by providing some preferential policies, increasing the input to upgrade city infrastructure and placing some key industrial sectors in these cities. It is expected that, with these efforts, some middle-sized cities will become a member of the large cities group in China in the new few years, Wang said.

Buddhist pilgrims go to Tibet to pay homage

Chinanews, Lhasa, Nov. 22 – Recently, many Tibetan Buddhism believers went to Lhasa to pay homage to Sakyamuni, the Great Buddha. Every day, hundreds of Buddhists gathered at Potala Palace or Jokhang Temple to say prayers. The religious boom boosted local catering business.

In Tibet, many local residents believe in Tibetan Buddhism. Jokhang Temple is regarded by many Tibetan Buddhism believers as a holy place because the statue of Sakyamuni, brought by Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty when she came to settle in Tibet well over a thousand years ago, is placed there. Traditionally, when the autumn harvest season is over, many farmers have much free time and they will like to take this time to go to Lhasa to pay homage to the Buddha. In recent years, as many farmers and herdsmen live a better life, they are even more willing to travel far for their religious worship. The believers fully enjoy the freedom of religious belief as advocated by the Chinese government.

Over the past few days, this reporter saw that early in the morning, dozens of religious believers would kneel down for a long time to perform ritual kowtow. At an intersection between Deli Street and Norbulinka Street, passing cars often stopped by to let the religious believers go across the street first. In China, religious believers are respected.

In Lhasa, there are about 1,700 sites for religious believers to perform rituals. There are also 46,000 monks and nuns living in various monateries in Tibet. Due to social stability, Chinese people enjoy a prosperous life and religious believers also enjoy their freedom of religious belief.

Wuhan kids admire good-looking teachers

Chinanews, Wuhan, November 22 – According to a poll among elementary and high school students in Wuchang District, Wuhan, most of them admire good-looking teachers.

The survey is designed to find out what kind of teachers are the most appealing to students, and no multiple-choice questions were included in order to avoid the possibilities of misleading the youngsters.

Most of the respondents say that a teacher must be appealing him/herself or his/her lectures won’t be popular. Of course, the teachers who pay more attention to their appearance than their lectures will not be welcomed.

Rice from the US found in Beijing supermarkets, now destroyed

Chinanews, Beijing, November 22 – The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) of China announced that some rice imported from the US, labeled as Mahatma Extra Long Grain Enriched Rice, had been found in two Jenny Lou’s Supermarkets in Beijing. Now the rice has been destroyed.

The rice was produced by Riviana Food Inc

Currently, GAQSIQ has announced that it will illegal to import rice from the US, no matter it is transgenic rice or not.

China, US and Canada jointly cracked a drug trafficking case

Chinanews, Guangzhou, Nov. 22 – On Tuesday, the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court judged a cross-border drug trafficking case that invovled one overseas Chinese Canadian and three others in China. By collecting money in China, the four drug traffickers used it to buy some cocaine in Panama,from there, the cocaine was packaged with white sugar to be shipped to Toronto, Canada. During the shipping, however, the drugs were discovered and conficated in New York, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

In August 2006, the four criminal suspects, Huang Zhi Yong, 28, an overseas Chinese Canadian, Huang Weijun, 39, a native of Taishan, Guangdong Province, Chen Weixiong and Chen Hui (the last two were handled in a separate case), gathered in a coffee bar discussing how to buy, ship and sell the drugs.

They finally decided that Chen Weixiong would buy the cocaine and Huang Zhi Yong would remit the money to Panama, where Chen Hui would buy the cocaine and ship it to Canada. Later, Cheng Weixiong collected 80,000 US dollars and he handed the money to Huang Zhi Yong. From November 2006 to January 2007, Huang Zhi Yong and Huang Weijun came to an underground bank in Guangzhou’s Huadu District several times, where the two suspects remitted 100,820 US dollars to Chen Hui in Panama. There Chen Hui used the money to buy some cocaine and he then packaged the cocaine into some containers, claiming to local customs office that he was trying to ship some white sugar to Canada. In order to keep himself informed of the latest development of the matter, Chen Weixiong, who knew nothing about computers, told Huang Zhi Yong and Chen Hui to contact each other by email.

On January 6, 2007, when the cocaine was shipped to New York, local police detected the drugs in the containers. The drugs, weighing 24,500.4 grams, were later confirmed by police to be cocaine. Police in New York then reported the case to Canadian police. And Canadian police arrested the suspects in Canada when they were delivering drugs. On January 17, 2007, Chinese police arrested Huang Zhi Yong and Huang Weijun, who were lying low in Yingde, Guangdong.

New steps to control investment

Nov. 22 – The government is to strengthen the management of all new investment projects and will pull the plug on any that do not have appropriate approval.

Analysts said the measure is designed to stop the economy from overheating.

According to a document published Wednesday by the State Council on its website, all new projects must be properly authorized and abide by land use, energy efficiency, market access and environmental protection criteria.

Relevant departments must establish records for investment projects valued at more than 50 million yuan ($6.7 million) and submit all relevant information to upper-level governments, the document said.

In addition, from the start of next year, detailed information on all such projects must be made available to the public via the Internet, it said.

Projects found to be breaking the guidelines will be halted immediately and offenders punished, it said.

The document said there have been too many new investment projects in recent years, some of which have failed to follow relevant laws and regulations. Coupled with loose management and poor law enforcement, these have led to excessively fast investment growth and too much duplication.

The government has been increasingly concerned with the speed at which the economy has been growing, with figures for the first three quarters showing year-on-year growth of 11.5 percent.

It has said it must prevent the “relatively fast” economic growth from worsening and becoming overheated.

The central bank has raised the interest rate five times this year and commercial banks’ reserve requirement ratio – the proportion of money they must hold in reserve – nine times.

Inflation remains one of the government’s key concerns, following consumer price index growth of 6.5 percent in October, matching the decade-high figure reported in August.

Adding to policymakers’ concerns, urban fixed-asset investment rose 26.9 percent year-on-year in the January to October period, up from 26.4 percent in the first nine months, according to official figures.

Although the authorities did not reveal how fast fixed-asset investment grew in October, it could be as much as 30 percent – an acknowledged danger line – analysts have said.

Chen Jijun, senior analyst with Beijing-based CITIC Securities, said: “I think there will be further tightening measures to rein in the fast-expanding economy, especially in the real estate sector.”

There might not be a blanket tightening, which could spark a slump in investment, but it will be industry-specific, he told China Daily.

Those that consume large amounts of energy, for example, might be dealt the hardest blow by the regulators, he said.

Goldman Sachs (Asia) forecast in its latest research note there will be two more 27-basis-point interest rate hikes by the end of the year, and lowered its real GDP growth forecast for next year to 10.3 percent.

China has 140,000-plus private-owned medical institutions

Chinanews, Beijing, November 22 – Currently there are more than 300,000 medical institutions in China, including 140,000-odd private-owned ones. Private-owned medical institutions take up 20% of the total number of medical institutions in Beijing, Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Jilin.

“We have a large number of private-owned TCM institutions, which have contributed a lot to the health of the Chinese people,” said Wang Guoqiang, Vice Minister of Health.

Chinese share prices slump heavily

Shanghai Composite Index on Nov. 22, 2007.(Xinhua Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>

Shanghai Composite Index candlestick chart(Xinhua Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) — Chinese share prices on Thursday slumped heavily as the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, plunged 230 points, or 4.41 percent, to 4,984.16 points at the close.

    Heavy-weights such as PetroChina, China Pingan and Citic Securities led the downward trend.

    PetroChina, the country’s largest oil producer, lost 4.64 percent to 35.11 yuan on the fourth day of its entry into the Shanghai Composite Index list.

    China Pingan dropped 7.78 percent to 106.89 yuan. Citic Securities slumped 6.39 percent to 87.24 yuan.

    Less than 100 stocks gained in the two markets which saw more than 1,200 losses. This could be a reaction to the corrections of the U.S. and Hong Kong markets, dealers said.

    Analysts said the market is under pressure resulting from insufficient capital, as capital chasing sales of new stocks was locked in by the subscription process and the government’s tightened monetary policy began to bite.

    The heavy loss dampened investor sentiments as the combined turnover on the two bourses (Shanghai and Shenzhen) shrank to 99.6billion yuan from 103 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

    The Shenzhen Component Index on the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange dived 798.8 points, or 4.77 percent, to 15,949.36 points.

    The Hushen 300 Index, accounting for 60 percent of the nation’s stock market value, was down 225 points, or 4.5 percent, to 4,772.62 points.(One U.S. dollar equals 7.41 yuan)

Expert: China’s excess liquidity surpasses central bank’s expectations

    BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) — A senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on Sunday said the latest reserve requirement ratio hike has revealed that China’s excess liquidity has risen beyond the expectations of the central bank.

    Peng Xingyun, of the CASS Institute of Finance and Banking, told Xinhua that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) had raised the ratio before releasing its financial figures for October, indicating the bank’s concern. Full story

WB: China economy to grow 10.8% next year 

    BEIJING, Nov. 16 — East Asian economies are likely to remain healthy next year despite the impact of the widening subprime lending crisis in the U.S. and the renewed increase in crude oil prices, the World Bank said Thursday. The region’s rapid growth is also reducing poverty, although income inequality is expanding.

    Led by domestic demand, growth in emerging East Asia, which excludes Japan, is expected to exceed 8 percent this year for a second year in a row, and to moderate slightly next year, the bank said in its half-yearly update on the region’s outlook. Japan is likely to grow about 2 percent this year and 1.8 percent in 2008, it said. Full story

China Enterprises Index loses 1.97%

    HONG KONG, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) — The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index went down 351.67 points, or 1.97 percent, to close Thursday’s trading at 17,485.46.

    The H-shares index, initiated in August 1994 and readjusted on Sept. 10, 2007, tracks the overall performance of 43 Chinese mainland state-owned enterprises listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.Full story