16 january 2013 BEIJING — China’s industrial production has been stabilizing as the government’s pro-growth measures gained traction, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Thursday. “Industrial production…
16 January 2013 BEIJING – The central government has earmarked 6.93 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) and 27.26 billion yuan to support agricultural modernization and public health services, respectively, in 2013,…
16 January 2013 BEIJING – The government has approved local maritime zoning plans submitted by the city of Shanghai and the southern provinces of Guangdong and Hainan, respectively, for the 2011-2020…
16 January 2013 BEIJING – The government has approved local maritime zoning plans submitted by the city of Shanghai and the southern provinces of Guangdong and Hainan, respectively, for the 2011-2020…
16 January 2013 VIENTIANE – With its inevitable rise, China has become a “positive influence” on the economical growth and cooperation of its neighbors in Southeast Asia, Malaysian Prime Minister…
16 january 2013 BEIJING — China’s foreign trade will continue to pick up in the fourth quarter of the year, theMinistry of Commerce told Xinhua on Thursday. Exports growth jumped to 9.9 percent year-on-year to $186.35 billion in September, up from 1percent in July, and 2.7 percent in August, official data showed. China’s foreign trade hit $2.84 trillion in the first nine months, up 6.2 percent year-on-year. “In view of the economic situation home and abroad, the country’s foreign trade in the fourthquarter is expected to maintain the rebounding momentum that emerged in September andgrow at the average speed seen in the first three quarters,” said Yao Jian, spokesman for theMOC. However, Yao cautioned that China still faced a “grim and complicated environment” in foreigntrade, saying global demand remains anemic while international competition and trade frictionswere intensifying. The sovereign debt crisis in Europe and a slow recovery in the US have sapped China’sexports, a major driver of growth in the world’s second largest economy. Apart from boosting foreign trade, the MOC will continue to support the domestic consumptionwith various measures to facilitate distribution, crack down on counterfeits and develop e-commerce, Yao said. Retails sales are likely to stabilize and improve further in the fourth quarter as governmentreforms promote fairer income distribution to benefit the poor, the social security network willcontinue to expand and the shopping season approaches, Yao said.…
16 january 2013 BEIJING – The United States Congress’s latest report on Chinese tech firms Huawei and ZTEdoes not represent a “final conclusion” and the focus of the report is to exchange moreinformation, US Ambassador Terry Kramer said Thursday. Kramer, a telecommunications expert and head of the US delegation for the World Conferenceon Information Telecommunications (WCIT), said at a news conference in Beijing that thereport, which was released by the House Intelligence Committee on Oct 8, does not representthe position of the administrative branch. Kramer said there is a great deal of room for economic and business cooperation between thetwo countries. In the report, the committee suggested that US companies should avoid buying equipment fromHuawei and ZTE. The two companies have been described as being under the control of theChinese government and having entered the US market through unfair means.…
16 january 2013 LONDON – China’s investment deals in Europe first surpassed Europe’s in China in the firstquarter of 2012, with 32 investments from China’s mainland and just 26 deals made byEuropean companies in China, according to a PwC report released on Thursday. The report, “China Deals; A fresh perspective,” from PwC’s emerging markets group, showedthere has been a steady rise in the value and volume of mainland Chinese investments inEurope over the last six years despite recent signs of a slowdown in China’s economic growthand the continuing uncertainties of the eurozone crisis. Chinese investments in Europe increased from just 11 deals in 2006 to 61 in 2011, while thosefrom Europe to China declined from a peak of 163 deals in 2006 to a low of 85 in 2009,narrowing down the gap between the two sides. Meanwhile, Europe’s investment to China has recovered since 2009 as European investorspushed for growth through deals in China’s faster growing market. In 2011, European investorscompleted 125 deals in China. Chinese state-owned enterprises have led the way in investing in Europe, as noted by thereport, and its privately owned businesses are now also looking to expand by acquiringcompanies overseas and in a range of sectors. PwC’s report said that Germany and France have surpassed Britain’s dominant investmentrelationship with China in either way in recent years. Germany has become the biggestEuropean destination for Chinese M&A transactions in the past 15 months, while 2011 sawFrance overtake Britain as the largest investor in Chinese M&A. The report also said Chinese companies have generally bought smaller percentage stakes inEuropean businesses but for larger sums of money, whereas European investments tended toinvest smaller sums for large stakes, due to different focus in the investment strategies ofChinese and European businesses. Most valuable deals done by the Chinese in Europe were in the energy, utilities, mining andinfrastructure sectors, with 12 of the 20 largest deals since 2006 were in these sectors andseven were worth between one and six billion euros. In terms of deals volume, the most transactions are in industries such as industrial products,telecoms, media and technology, and retail and consumer. Allan Zhang, a director at PwC who advises on outbound deals from China, said that the on-going eurozone uncertainties, in the eyes of some Chinese investors, have improved theirchances of striking good deals with debt-ridden European companies. “With their growing awareness of European assets, Chinese bidders are likely to become morecommon in the future. Britain-based asset holders should therefore be seriously consideringChina as a means of achieving full or partial exits from their investments,” Zhang said. However, according to Zhang, “because of the lengthy Chinese regulatory process, they needto think about engaging with Chinese investors earlier and managing an active and effectivecommunication process to have the deal done in good time.”…
16 January 2013 Speaking at the 7th China-Singapore Forum in Singapore on Tuesday, Song said both the economic restructuring and the adjustment in the education system are expected to help…
16 january 2013 China has surpassed the United States for the first time since 2003 as the world’s largestrecipient of global foreign direct investment in the first half of 2012, showing that globalinvestors are still confident in the world’s second-largest economy despite its economicslowdown. FDI inflows to China amounted to $59 billion in the first half of this year, despite a year-on-yeardecline of 3 percent from $61 billion in the first half of last year. Meanwhile, FDI flowing to the US reached $57.4 billion, a decline of 39.2 percent from a yearearlier, according to the Global Investment Trends Monitor released by the United NationsConference on Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, on Tuesday. “China’s biggest attraction to global investment is now its huge market, contrasting the long-time low cost, which is now ranked third or fourth,” said Zhang Xiaoji, director of the ForeignEconomic Relations Development at the Development Research Center of the State Council, atop government think tank. “The economy is anyway growing in China, outperforming the US and the European Union,which are suffering medium- or long-term troubles.” Global FDI inflows reached $668 billion from January to June in 2012, a decline of 8 percentfrom the same period of 2011, as the economic recovery “suffered new setbacks in the secondquarter of 2012”, said the report. “FDI flows will, at best, level off in 2012 at slightly below $1.6 trillion because the slow andbumpy recovery of the global economy, weak global demand and elevated risks related toregulatory policy changes continue to reinforce the wait-and-see attitude of many transnationalcompanies toward investment abroad,” the UNCTAD projected. FDI inflows to the EU declined by 3.8 percent year-on-year to $175.9 billion for the first half of2012 while inflows to North America were down by more than one-third due to a dramatic 39.2percent year-on-year fall in inflows to the US, according to the report. However, the UNCTAD also said that “FDI flows to the US might be stronger in the second halfof 2012” in view of early indications. The value of cross-border mergers and acquisitions in the US in the third quarter of 2012 weredouble those of the first half of the year, while some further acquisitions are “already takingplace or announced in the fourth quarter”, according to the report. Developing economies for the first time absorbed half of global FDI in the first half of 2012,despite a decline of 5 percent year-on-year. “China is experiencing structural adjustments in their FDI flows, including the relocation oflabor-intensive and low-end market-oriented FDI to neighboring countries,” said the report. Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations demonstrated strong attraction forglobal foreign direct investment. FDI inflows to Cambodia surged by more than 165 percentyear-on-year in the first half, while inflows to Thailand rose by 62.1 percent and inflows to thePhilippines increased by 10.6 percent, according to the report. “For investment oriented with low costs, pulling out is normal and will continue in the futureowing to China’s rising costs and appreciation of local currency,” Zhang said. Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said that China is “adjusting its useof FDI, which is developing positively and healthily despite a slight decrease of FDI inflow thisyear”. FDI flowing to China stood at $83.42 billion from January to September, down 3.8 percent froma year earlier, while September saw China’s FDI drop 6.8 percent year-on-year to $8.43 billion,according to the ministry. Meanwhile, the services sector used nearly $39.5 billion in FDI, or 47 percent of the country’stotal, a decline of 1.8 percent year-on-year in the first nine months, though it would be anincrease of 1.6 percent if the real estate industry is excluded. The HSBC preliminary manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, a main economic indicator,rose to 49.1 in October, the highest level in three months, supported by recovery of domesticdemand and business confidence while economists hold that China’s economic growth isreversing its slowdown after registering growth of 7.4 percent in the third quarter, the slowestpace in 14 quarters. However, Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary-general of the United Nations Conference onTrade and Development, said that “the current trends of investment flows to developingcountries, particularly to Asia, are worrisome, and the challenge for channeling FDI into keydevelopment sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture and the green economy remainsdaunting”.…
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