Monthly Archives: November 2015

Business, China

Alibaba to expand exposure of branded products to rural China

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HANGZHOU, Nov. 12 (Greenpost) — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba will make more oversea brand available at its rural service stations during the upcoming Chinese new year, it announced Thursday.
Alibaba said will begin a campaign in mid-January to promote local specialty products to urban online shoppers and more than 500 overseas products to rural buyers ahead of the Spring Festival, a time when families tend to shop more to prepare for the celebration.
Chinese online retailers, chief among them Alibaba and JD.com, have been seeking to unlock the consumption potential in rural China. Alibaba and JD.com have both established physical stations in rural areas with computers and products displayed to educate rural Chinese on how to shop online.
Alibaba said it has built more than 8,000 rural Taobao stations where villagers can shop on Alibaba’s online marketplace and bring their own farm produce and local specialties to sell online.
It added the upcoming campaign marks the first time more than 500 global brands will be exposed to rural consumers through its Taobao stations.
Such stations have increased branded products’ exposure to rural consumers whereas a less developed physical retail infrastructure in rural China has limited farmers’ choices.
A study by consulting firm Bain & Company found online retail has reduced the disparity in sales of branded products between China’s top and lower tier cities, thanks to the growing penetration of the internet in China. Enditem

 

News

Commission to protect copyright of Beijing’s ACG industry

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    BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Greenpost) — Beijing set up a copyright protection commission for its animation, comic and game (ACG) industry on Tuesday to further the industry’s protection of intellectual property.
The ACG Commission of Capital Copyright Industry Alliance, an organization led by the Beijing government, consists of more than 80 members that include state-owned and local enterprises, universities and research institutions.
The organization will take a variety of measures to counter problems in the ACG industry such as a dearth of original work, an incomplete industrial chain and insufficient protection for copyright, according to Wang Ying, the commission director.
Wang Yefei, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Copyright, hopes the commission will have a good impact on the ACG industry in Beijing and around the country.
Beijing’s ACG industry has seen great development in recent years, with its gross output value standing at around 37.2 billion yuan (5.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, a year-on-year increase of 69 percent and accounting for about one third of the country’s total output value last year.  Enditem

 

News

China’s satellite expo held in Beijing

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BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Greenpost) — A satellite exposition was held  in Beijing on Nov 12-15, displaying more than 6,000 new products and academic achievements.
The three-day exposition, Satellite Application China 2015, will attract nearly a hundred specialists, scholars and entrepreneurs from the aerospace and satellite application industry.
Products to be exhibited include a test communication satellite co-designed by private companies and universities, personal outdoor terminals supported by BeiDou navigation and a new domestic-made satellite communication system.
Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office, said BeiDou navigation has already been applied in the regional network.
BeiDou services are expected to cover most countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road by 2018, and offer global coverage by 2020, Ran added.
The exposition is held by the China Users Association for Satellite Communications, Broadcasting and Television and the Electronics and Information Industry Sub-Council of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.  Enditem

Business, China

China Headlines: Stock market to play bigger role in China’s economy

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BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Greenpost) — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s latest remarks on the stock market have charted a course for future reforms and signaled a bigger role for the market in supporting the economy, analysts said.

During a meeting of top economic officials on Tuesday, Xi urged the development of a stock market with sound financing functions, regulation and investor rights protection.
By giving priority to the financing role of the stock market, the president’s call was a response to some deep-seated problems plaguing the market, such as excessive controls on initial public offerings (IPOs) and rampant insider trading, many economists observed.
“Xi’s remarks set the future direction for stock market development,” said Xu Gao, chief economist of Everbright Securities. “The market has not performed well as a financing vehicle, which should actually be its fundamental role.”
Unlike in more mature economies like the United States, the stock market only contributes a small part to corporate financing in China.
Direct financing, including stocks and bonds, took up less than a fifth of the country’s total social financing, according to official data for the first eight months of 2015.
While the government tries to expand the share of stock financing, the public often sees the market as a tool for money grabbing by listed firms instead of a platform for value investment.
To let the stock market play a better role in financing, the government needs to improve its rules in various ways, including overhauling the current approval system for IPOs and reducing interventions in their pricing, said Li Xunlei, chief economist with Haitong Securities.
Investors should also be allowed to use more effective legal means, such as class action lawsuits, to protect their legitimate interests and increase compensation costs for listed firms who cook the books, according to Lin Caiyi, chief economist of Guotai Junan Securities.
China’s stock market has seen rapid development, but listing and trading is still distorted by administrative forces and imperfect regulation rather than based on corporate performance.
For example, IPOs are limited in number and require authorities’ approval, while the supply of funds is unrestricted as millions of individual investors seek returns that are better than bank interest rates.
As a result, the prices of newly listed shares are usually pushed high, providing hefty profits for original shareholders of the listed companies.
Meanwhile, lack of truthful information disclosure and frequent insider trading often lead to market volatility, causing losses for retail investors.
The problems became more evident during a market rout in summer. Regulators suspended IPOs in July after the main market index plunged 30 percent from its June 12 peak.
Last week, authorities announced a resumption of IPOs and introduced significant changes to IPO procedures, allowing investors to subscribe without paying into escrow accounts in advance, giving more priority to information disclosure instead of pre-IPO approvals, and simplifying procedures for smaller IPOs.
The moves were viewed as preludes to a change of the current approval-based IPO system to a registration-based one, giving a bigger say to the market while improving regulation.
The reforms were in line with Xi’s vision to develop a stock market with “sound financing functions,” which will help reduce the funding costs for Chinese companies and prevent economic risks, Li said.
Chinese firms have seen their debt burden soar since the global financial crisis, as an industrial glut and weak trade hurt their profits and slowed the economy.
The ratio of debt owed by non-financial firms to the country’s GDP reached 317 percent in 2014, compared with 195 percent in 2007.
A healthier stock market will also boost China’s innovation drive, which is at the core of economic upgrades and demands more financing with an appetite for risk, said Lu Qiang, a researcher at Genial Flow Asset Management.
“A lot of innovation-based companies will be formed and then disappear. Their financing cannot rely on banks, which favor big firms with mature operations and steady cash flow,” Lu said.
He expects faster reforms of the stock market, including the introduction of a registration-based IPO system and new boards that cater to the financing needs of tech firms and smaller companies.  Enditem

 

China’s satellite expo opens
BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) — A satellite exposition opened on Thursday in Beijing, displaying more than 6,000 new products and academic achievements.
The three-day exposition, Satellite Application China 2015, will attract nearly a hundred specialists, scholars and entrepreneurs from the aerospace and satellite application industry.
Products to be exhibited include a test communication satellite co-designed by private companies and universities, personal outdoor terminals supported by BeiDou navigation and a new domestic-made satellite communication system.
Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office, said BeiDou navigation has already been applied in the regional network.
BeiDou services are expected to cover most countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road by 2018, and offer global coverage by 2020, Ran added.
The exposition is held by the China Users Association for Satellite Communications, Broadcasting and Television and the Electronics and Information Industry Sub-Council of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.  Enditem

Business, China

China’s progress in IPR protection, anti-counterfeiting

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   BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) — Public satisfaction improved regarding the government’s work against fake products and intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement in 2014, according to a new report.
Public satisfaction with government work in IPR protection rose 4.5 percent year on year to 69.4 percent in China in 2014, according to the China Annual Report against IPR Infringement and Counterfeit, released Thursday by the Office of the Leading Group for the Campaign against IPR Infringement and Counterfeit, a government body under the Ministry of Commerce.
There were fewer counterfeit-related complaints among 800,000 respondents in the latter half of 2014 compared to the previous period, according to the report, which was compiled based on work reports of government bodies both at the central and local levels.
China has toughened its stance against IPR infringement and fake products through a variety of measures, but challenges have emerged with the rise of e-commerce. According to a report delivered to Chinese lawmakers earlier this month, only 58.7 percent of items sold online were genuine or of good quality last year.
Chai Haitao, an official with the Office of the Leading Group, said rampant IPR infringement and fake products on the Internet have posed a challenge for supervisors.
“We hope that the report will awaken China to the importance of IPR protection and help improve merchandise quality,” Chai said at a press release for the report.
Lin Xiuqin, the report’s executive editor-in-chief, said that the publication is a display of government determination to fight illegal activities in the market.
The Chinese version of the report was released Thursday in China and globally. An English version is expected to be published in the near future.  Enditem

 

文化卫生

第26届斯德哥尔摩国际电影节开幕

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北欧绿色邮报网报道（记者陈雪霏）－－第26届斯德哥尔摩国际电影节11日正式开幕。今年电影节的主题聚焦于“迁徙”。

DSC_4295电影节主任塞纽斯在接受本网记者采访时说，我们有个栏目叫聚光灯下，我们主要反映流动人口的状况，这个主题也符合当前的时代主题。

因此，本届电影节围绕的都是由于人口的流动而造成的生活窘境。以色列影片《巴巴》反映的是一个农场里的孩子向往叔叔在城里的生活，这种心态导致父亲（坚持在农村）和叔叔（因厌恶沉重的火鸡场而跑到美国）分道扬镳。

美国电影《迈克尔》反映的是美国印第安人失去家园以后在城市边缘的流浪生活，朝不保夕，冷暖不均，最后，导致杀人的境地。

瑞典电影《瑞典人的爱情理论》反映的是瑞典女人不愿意和男人生孩子，而选择匿名人工授精，独立自由的绝对化导致的严重后果和社会分裂。《震荡之后》反映的是学校暴力，恃强欺弱的丑陋现象。《今晚她又撒野了》反映的是一个梦想当演员，试图扮演瑞典大文豪斯特文堡的《朱莉小姐》的角色，结果遇上一对男同性恋的变态故事。

印度影片《Parched》反映的是印度乡村妇女依然在受包办婚姻的痛苦，依然在受因为女孩要负担婚礼费用的痛苦，但最终他们也开始反抗。

开幕第一天，中国导演赵亮的电影《Behemoth》, 《悲兮魔兽》反映的是北方煤矿和钢铁厂里工人的劳动场面，私企劳工条件不能保证，造成很多尘肺病人，同时也不排除这些地方是北京雾霾的帮凶。影片放映后受到观众的热烈鼓掌。

赵亮在回答为什么要拍此纪录片时，他说，“我想观众也应该看出来了吧，我做这个影片不是大的商业运作影片，而是我个人想表达的一种状态。其实，这些年在北京生活的人们都知道，早上起来你的日程安排，是否要出去动，早上起来都要看一下关于空气质量报告，如果超过100，就不能出去。生活是直接被环境问题所困扰，我在考察期间也在想，这些灰尘和有害气体是从哪儿来的，在电影里揭示了一部分。在全球化背景下，我想让观众看到在我们享受美好舒适生活的同时，看到这些产业工人，看到环境付出的代价。尤其是在第三世界国家。我恰恰举了一个中国的例子，在全球情况下环境问题也是人类面临的一个巨大问题。”

赵亮还强调，在影片所表现的主题当中，其实每个人都在扮演其中的角色，那就是在用煤钢开采生产运输等的巨大链条来满足人类追求舒适的欲望。但值得反思的是，我们急匆匆建起来的高楼大厦，有一部分成了“鬼城”，并没有多少人住在那里。

总之，记者所看过的大部分电影都反映了在流动和迁徙过程中，人们所遭遇的各种不幸，给人震撼，激发人思考。人们相信，在聚光灯下照一照，渴望状况能有所改善。

赛妞斯说，去年第25届电影节期间来看电影的人数达到历史最高纪录。渴望今年来人更多。她说，这也是瑞典人对付黑暗天气的一个办法。每年11月，瑞典的天气一般都是阴雨连绵，让人感觉非常压抑难受。也就是在这种时候，电影节开始了，人们可以在室内享受艺术，然后，圣诞灯在市中心点亮，等过了圣诞节，人们又开始了新的一年。

今年首部上映的影片将是希腊的《龙虾》。该片导演Lanthimos将获得斯德哥尔摩远见奖颁奖。

英国电影导演Stephen Frears将获斯德哥尔摩电影节终生成就奖。瑞典的纪录片《我是英格丽》将在电影节期间放映。

演员Ellen Burstyn因为电影《爱丽丝再也不住这儿了》将获得斯德哥尔摩成就奖。

Business, Energy

China Focus: Social capital eyes booming EV charging market

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BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — China’s electric vehicle (EV) charging sector, with an estimated market size of over 100 billion yuan, has been witnessing waves of investors vying to break into the lucrative business.

At an exhibition of charging technology held here on Friday, active players including Nari Technology (600406.SH), TGOOD Electric (300001.SZ), Nancal Energy & Engineering, and Wanbang BJEV all put on display their latest EV charging products and technology.

TGOOD Electric alone has set up EV charging joint ventures in 30 cities across China and plans to build 60,000 power poles in more than 80 cities by the end of this year. In an effort to further consolidate its market presence, TGOOD said it would invest an additional 4 billion yuan to expand the company’s charging network across the county next year.

Wanbang BJEV will have 10,000 power poles established nationwide by the yearend and plans to double the figure by March 2016.

In the meantime, cooperation between enterprises is getting deeper. Nancal Energy & Engineering has teamed up with leading Chinese refiner Sinopec to build multiple charging stations in Beijing and several other cities.

China’s major power grid operator the State Grid, another leading performer in the charging market, had build up 618 charging stations and 24,000 power poles by the end of 2014. The power grid giant is moving forward to build more charging networks along China’s highways and in more major cities and the Being-Tianjin-Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta regions.

The central government expects to establish a comprehensive charging network that could accommodate five million electric vehicles by 2020, said the State Council in late September.

In order to support the operation of 5 million electric vehicles, China needs to build up 4.8 million charging poles and 12,000 charging stations, which means that at least 960,000 charging poles should be built every year by 2020, said Tong Guangyi, vice-director of the Power Department of the National Energy Administration.

The direct market size of the EV charging sector would surpass 130 billion yuan in light of the booming demand, said Tong.

More than 40,000 public EV charging poles had been set up across China by the end of September, according to data provided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. (Edited by Shi Chunjiao, shichunjiao@xinhua.org)

China, Indepth, News, Opinion

Xi-Ma meeting of great historical significance

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By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, Nov. 9(Greenpost)–Chinese leaders Xi Jinping from the Mainland and Ma Yingjiu from Taiwan shook hands on Nov. 7 during a meeting in Singapore.

This scene has been spread all over the world among Chinese and overseas Chinese. It has been such a striking historical scene.

Many people say the handshaking was the first time since 1949.  Some others think this was the first time since the Chongqing meeting between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-skek.

This meeting was arranged under very careful consideration by the two sides. First, the two leaders just call themselves leader, not president. They call themselves Sir, not comrade.  It shows the eagerness from Taiwan side to be closer to the Mainland and the humbleness from the Mainland to be closer to Taiwan.

It is well-known that the Mainland has always welcome Taiwan to come back and never abandon the idea to unite Taiwan to the Greater China, even with the principle of “one country, two systems” like Hong Kong.

People in the Mainland always treats Taiwan as an indispensable, inalienable part of China. If Taiwan wants to be independent, the Mainland will even resort to force.

So there is no problem for the mainland to open its arms to hug Taiwan. But for a long time, Taiwan has been very advanced and didn’t like to be too close with the mainland except to do business.

However, with the rapid development of the mainland over the past 30 years, to be united or to clear the hurdle of all kinds has become the common call of people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Even ten years ago, I talked with a Taiwan Primary School teacher.

“I think we should have direct flight so that I won’t travel home through South Korea or Hong Kong.” She said.

Another woman who worked in Shenzhen said she felt at home in the Mainland.

“I work in Shen Zhen, it feels at home. I have no problem to be in the Mainland. There are a lot of working opportunities here. ”

Chinese economy has spilt over  great attraction for the Taiwanese. Meanwhile, Taiwan also becomes very attractive.

Tens of thousands of mainland Chinese would like to choose Hong Kong and Taiwan as its first choice to go abroad because it is nearby, people talk common language and the most important is that it is not that expensive.

Chinese people do not fly to Europe or America immediately if they travel as a tourist due to language barrier and economic reasons.

Thus, there is such a strong demand among people to be convenient to step on each other’s soil.

There is strong emotions between the two sides too. Many Chinese in the mainland remember that song of Gu Lang Yu. And it was so popular in the mainland in the 1980s. They call it “Treasure Island Taiwan”.

Finally people see the shaking hands of the two handsome leaders feeling like real brothers.

In his speech, Xi said  that the two sides have the capability and wisdom to solve their own problems indicating that there is no need to have outside intervention.

Xi said the two sides are brothers with the same blood and thread even if the bones are damaged.

Ma has proposed five detailed proposals for improving bilateral relations. He said the two sides are in the best relations since 66 years ago.

Analysts hold that the meeting shows Xi’s confidence and flexibility. His meeting with Ma is to help Ma to become better during the election. The CPC likely hopes Ma can win and continue to rule Taiwan.

With improvement of relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Street, there will be no use for the US to send its ships into the South China Sea.

The meeting is conducive to the world peace and some people even said they should be recommended to be Nobel Peace Prize winner. Why not?

Business, China, News

China Focus: China’s listed stockbrokers’ A shares expected to regain strength as earnings improved

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   BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — China’s listed stockbrokers witnessed remarkable profit growth in October after suffering from profit declines in September thanks to a round of market bull run since the beginning of October.

Analysts deem that foundation for rebounding of the stockbrokers’ stocks is mature as their valuation has come to a reasonable level after over five months of deep correction and the negative factors in the industry have been digested.

 

— Stockbrokers’ profits bottom out in October

According to the financial results released by the listed brokers on Thursday, an overwhelming majority of the listed stock brokerage companies made profits in October. CITIC Securities Co., Ltd. (600030.SH), Haitong Securities Co., Ltd. (600837.SH) and Guotai Junan Securities Co., Ltd. (601211.SH) ranked top three by profit earnings, which recorded a net profit of 1.3 billion yuan, 1.12 billion yuan and 891 million yuan in the month, surging 95.19 percent, 33.08 percent and 87.3 percent from that of the previous month, respectively.

Meanwhile, many brokers achieved a net rise of over 100 percent, of which Pacific Securities (601099.SH), Sinolink Securities (600109.SH) and Orient Securities (600958.SH) saw a net rise of 400 percent, 180.05 percent and 157 percent as compared with that in September.

Although the stockbrokerage companies’ earnings were heavily hit by market plunges since June, the whole industry still enjoyed higher growth in both revenue and net profit in the first three quarters of the year as compared with the corresponding period of 2014.

As indicated in the third-quarter financial reports, the 24 listed brokers as a whole generated revenue totaling 311.92 billion yuan in the first nine months of the year, jumping 161.4 percent year on year. Their combined net profits stood at 130.72 billion yuan, rocketing 210.2 percent on a yearly basis.

For the whole industry, China’s 124 stockbrokerage companies posted a combined net profit of 192.465 billion yuan in the first three months of the year, of which 119 ones realized profits, according to statistics from the Securities Association of China.

 

— Multiples favorable factors expected for stockbrokers

Stockbrokers’ shares posted sharp surges since November 4 with all the brokers’ shares rising by a daily limit up of ten percent. The strong momentum extended in the following two trading days and the index tracking the block realized its biggest weekly gain of nearly 30 percent since December 2014.

The robust rebounding of the stocks was interpreted as an inflection of market expectation for improved earnings of the stockbrokers in 2015.

Haitong Securities deems that along with the regulator’s clearing work to illicit stock trade accounts and activities approaching an end and the negative effect from de-leveraging work on brokers’ margin trade business being digested, the negative factors on the stockbrokerage companies have been gradually fading out.

Shen Juan, an analyst with Huatai Securities, thinks that a string of upcoming reforms including introduction of a classification system for companies listed on the Over-The-Counter (OTC) stock market, revision to the Law of Securities and an adoption of a registration mechanism to replace current approving mechanism for new share offerings is expected to bring bigger opportunities for stockbrokers.

Meanwhile, improved market sentiment, recovery of trading vibrancy, expansion of margin trade turnover will also cast positive impact on the stockbrokers, Shen added.

 

— China’s 13th Five-Year Plan to benefit stockbrokers

Many analysts believe that the just-released proposal for China’s 13th Five-Year Plan has also given strong impetus to the stockbrokers’ shares.

According to the Proposal, China will actively foster a more transparent and healthier capital market, pushing ahead reform on stock and bond issuing and trading systems, raising proportion of direct financing and lowering leverage ratios in the next five years. China will also push forward two-way opening-up of the domestic capital market and gradually remove restrictions on investment quota for both domestic and overseas investors.

Analysts hold that the stockbrokers’ earnings in investment banking business are expected to be largely fattened thanks to the policy support for direct financing in the next five years. (Edited by Li Xueqing, lixueqing@xinhua.org)

Business, China

China Focus: China’s PPI drop expected to expand further in Oct.

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   BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — China’s producer price index (PPI) is expected to drop by 6 percent in October from a year earlier, 0.1 percentage point more than in September, according to forecasts from a range of institutions.

For the whole year of 2015, the index may fall 5 percent, expanding 3 percentage points from 2014.

As analysis show that affected by the negative growth of PPI in over three years running, the real economy is struggling with a weak recovery and although the monetary policy has been eased all the way, its effect has not been transmitted to the majority of enterprises. Under the pressure of slowing economic growth, more stimulus measures will be taken at once, experts predict.

Although oil prices rebounded in October, prices of coal, steel, chemical products and other production materials have been staying at low levels, and deflation in the industrial sector will continue, experts believe.

The Bank of Communications forecasts the PPI will decrease 6.1 percent in October. It also says that commodities prices still have potential to decline and the drop of the price index for purchasing raw materials has accelerated due to imported deflation. For the whole year, it predicts the PPI may fall between 5 percent and 5.4 percent.

Over 40 months of negative PPI growths have exerted a serious influence on the real economy. The deflation in industrial sector has caused profits of non-financial companies lower than financial costs, led to a falling value of collateral and rising ratio of bad loans in banks, made it difficult for a huge amount of money to enter into the real economy and further worsened the debt burdens of enterprises and local governments, said Zhang Ping, vice director of the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The deterioration of profitability of industrial companies has also been transmitted to downstream companies, general equipments, special equipments, automobile and machinery building industries have all been affected, says Dong Wenyan, an analyst at China Academy of Telecommunication Research.

China’s central banks have lowered the interest rates and the RRR for several times this year, but it’s still far from enough, says Xu Gao, chief economist at Everbright Securities. In his opinion, the weak investing willingness of the real economy has slowed the transmission speed of the monetary easing policies to the real economy and when the transmission effect works remains to be observed.

Xu believes against the headwinds to the economy, more stimulus policies are in expectation. On one hand, more measures will be applied to channel funds from the financial system to the real economy and relieve financing pressures; on the other hand, proactive fiscal policy will be further implemented to coordinate with monetary policy. He also predicts that the central bank is likely to cut the RRR again to replenish domestic liquidity against the capital outflows. (Edited by Yang Qi, kateqiyang@xinhua.org)

Business, China

China pilots MAH system for medical products in some provinces, cities

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   BEIJING, Nov. 6 (-Greenpost) — Ten provinces and cities of China will carry out the marketing authorization holder (MAH) system for medical products under a trial program, the Chinese central government has decided.

Under the trial program, R&D organizations and researchers of medical products in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong and Sichuan are allowed to apply for the drug approval number and assume the responsibility for drug quality.

In the past, only medicine producers had access to the drug approval number in China. Medicine producers had to get a drug approval number from China Food and Drug Administration before they could produce a certain medical product.

In the 10 provinces and cities involved in the trial program, the marketing authorization holders and producers of medical products are separated. The holders can entrust the production to different drugmakers and take the responsibility for the safety, effectiveness and quality of medical products.

The MAH system is expected to arouse enthusiasm of researchers and promote innovation in medical products, said Xu Jinghe, head of the law department under China Food and Drug Administration.

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Business, China

Bank of China launches global commodity business centres in Singapore

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   SINGAPORE, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — Bank of China(BOC)launched two global commodity business centres in Singapore, the bank announced at the China and Singapore Commodity and RMB Summit on Friday.

The global energy commodity business centre and the global commodity repo centre based in Singapore are set up as BOC eyes Singapore’s location as the crossroads of Southeast Asia’s major shipping routes, the bank said.

It said that Singapore is also the largest global fuel trade as well as the world’s second largest agribusiness trade centre and oil refining hub.

During the summit, BOC and International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) also inked an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on six key areas, said IE Singapore Chairman Seah Moon Ming in his opening speech.

Under the MoU, BOC will provide 50 billion Singapore dollars (35.7 billion U.S. dollars) of financial services to support enterprises from China and Singapore, which invest into countries along the “Belt and Road” region, while IE Singapore will facilitate the introduction of enterprises to BOC.

Other collaborations include setting up a new trade ecosystems in Singapore, and both parties will jointly promote RMB internationalization.

Singapore is the first regional financial center outside China to have a yuan clearing bank. And in 2014, it has surpassed London to become the second largest renminbi off-shore center in the world.

“We are optimistic that these initiatives will strengthen the relationship between IE Singapore and Bank of China, and also between Singapore and China. And in the process, assist Singapore enterprises in their international efforts, as well as Chinese enterprises internationalizing through Singapore,” said Seah. Enditem

News

China’s child policy change positive for economic growth: economist

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 SYDNEY, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — China’s plan to allow all couples have two children is positive for its growth despite not reversing a shrinking population, an economist told Xinhua here on Friday.

Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC, said the demographics are often overplayed, as urbanization potential in China “is enormous” while children are becoming more educated.

“So young people joining the labor force even though becoming less and less, actually are far superior educated than those leaving the workforce, raising human capital in the economy,” Neumann said.

Neumann said the policy change aids China’s rebalancing away from the old industrial-led growth to its consumption services, effectively increasing investment in education, healthcare and areas of consumption.

The policy change, which will see China abandon its decades-old one-child policy, was proposed at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held from Oct. 26 to 29. Enditem

 

Business, China, Green-tech

MIIT mulls over telecom industry reform

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BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is mulling over a fresh round of telecom industry reform, said Zhang Feng, chief engineer of MIIT, on Thursday at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

Zhang said the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward deepening telecom industry reform further in the 2016-2020 period. The development and integration of enterprises are decided by market demands. MIIT is mulling over the progress and orientation of telecom industry reform.

As the authority discloses expectation for telecom industry reform, share prices of Besttone Holding (600640.SH) and China Unicom (600050.SH) once rose to the upper limits, and those of Shaanxi Broadcast & TV Network Intermediary (Group) (600831.SH), Datang Telecom Technology (600198.SH), Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group (600804.SH) and ZTE Corp. (000063.SZ) also increased immediately.

Thanks to the stimulus policy that encourages private capital invest in broadband operation, operating revenue of Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group rose 12.00 percent year on year in the first three quarters of this year to 5.75 billion yuan and the net profit attributable to shareholders of parent company soared 41.5 percent to 597 million yuan.

Chinese authority licensed pilot operation of virtual carriers on December 26, 2013 and there are 42 virtual carriers so far. The pilot scheme will be ended at the end of this year and formal licenses are expected to be issued next year.

Guotai & Junan Securities held that the reform on state-owned telecom enterprises has begun and significant investment opportunities are likely to exist in the near future.

An analyst with CITIC Securities suggested A-share investors to pay attention to listed companies under Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group, FiberHome Technology Group, China Potevio, and China Electronics Corp. (Edited by Luo Jingjing, luojj@xinhua.org)

Business

Minister says China’s industrial output growth expected to remain above 6 pct in 2015

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   BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — The growth in China’s industrial output, a main measure of economic output, is expected to remain above six percent on a yearly basis for the whole year of 2015, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said at a press conference on Friday.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China’s industrial output grew 6.2 percent from a year ago in the January-September period.

Industrial output, officially called industrial value added, is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises that have an annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan. (Edited by Ding Lei, dinglei@xinhua.org)