All posts by 北欧绿色邮报网

After 15 years working in the mainstream media in China, I came to Sweden to establish my family. After almost ten years of freelancing for other media, now I created this website, www.greenpost.se hoping to spread information in sustainable development, sharing life experiences with readers both in China and Sweden, serving as a bridge. I enjoy the good environment in Sweden, fresh air, clean water, blue sky and beautiful flowers. 陈雪霏，女，1966. 摩羯座，满族，出生在辽宁省凌海市，班吉塔镇，地藏寺村。兄弟姐妹6个当中最中间的一个。和二哥一样是全科人，就是哥姐弟妹都有，幸福感很强。万能血型，很容易打交道。喜欢高大上，但同情弱者，追求平等，公平正义，善良，是环保主义者，提倡节俭，从不浪费一粒粮食。创立瑞中桥绿色科技文化公司就是为中瑞绿色科技文化牵线搭桥。 教育程度：英国米德赛思大学可持续发展领导力硕士，英语和国际政治双学士，文学和法学学士。新西兰坎特伯雷大学访问学者。 工作经历，中国国际广播电台工作15年，驻津巴布韦两年，采访过南非总统曼德拉，津巴布韦总统穆加贝。 2008年采访过瑞典首相赖因费尔特。 2006-2010 人民网驻斯德哥尔摩特约记者。 2010-2012 新华社斯德哥尔摩报道员 2012-至今中国国际广播电台英语环球广播自由撰稿人 《环球时报》，《生命时报》特约记者。 《北欧时报》副社长，英文主编，《北欧绿色邮报网》社长，主编。 chenxuefei7@hotmail.com, wechat: chenxuefei7, facebook: chenxuefei7
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China Headlines: Interest rate liberalization in last mile

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China Headlines: Interest rate liberalization in last mile

BEIJING, June 3 (Greenpost) — After a series of reforms, China’s decades-long endeavor to free up the interest rates is finally reaching the last mile.

On Tuesday, China’s central bank issued a regulation for financial institutions to issue large-denomination certificates of deposit, known as CDs, to individuals and companies, which analysts hail as a key step forward towards the full liberalization of interest rates.

The certificates are tradable deposit agreements that allow lenders to bypass the interest rate controls. Currently, China has removed its grip on lending rates, but the ceiling on deposit rates is still retained at 1.5 times the benchmark.

“The introduction of the CDs is a milestone in pushing China’s interest rate reform through the last mile,” Deng Haiqing, an analyst with CITIC Securities, said.

MARKET IMPACT

The participation threshold for purchasing a CD is set at 300,000 yuan (about 48,860 U.S. dollars) for individual investors and 10 million yuan for institutions, according to the central bank.

Interest on the certificates will be mainly determined by the market. Banks and investors can set a fixed or a floating rate, using the Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor) as a benchmark.

Shibor, which measures costs of interbank borrowing that is not under state control, stood at 3.191 percent for six-month loans and 3.4080 percent for one-year loans on Wednesday.

The current interest rates for six-month and one-year ordinary deposits cannot exceed 3.075 percent and 3.375 percent, respectively.

With higher returns and less risks due to the deposit insurance system already in place, the CD scheme is expected to offer banks new channels to lure deposits at a time when they are under vehement attack from other wealth management products and a booming stock market.

Central bank data showed outstanding yuan deposits stood at 125.76 trillion yuan as of the end of April, up 9.7 percent year on year. The growth slowed 4.6 percentage points from a year earlier.

Lou Lili, general manager of the strategy and innovation department under Evergrowing Bank, a Chinese joint-stock commercial bank, said the certificates of deposit tailored to investors will further enrich investment options in China’s financial market.

“Meanwhile, the certificates’ tradable feature will help enhance deposit liquidity,” Lou said.

But at the same time, the freedom to price the rates is likely to set off fierce competition among the lenders, which may translate into higher financing costs for the struggling real economy, a report by Huatai Securities warned.

In the long term, however, liquidity flow will become more market-oriented once interest rate liberalization is realized, the report added.

INTEREST RATE LIBERALIZATION

Interest rate liberalization is a significant part of China’s pledge to allow the market to play a decisive role in allocating resources.

Zong Liang, a finance researcher at Bank of China, said Tuesday’s introduction of CDs would enhance banks’ capability to independently decide the price of interest rates, and nurture social expectations of market-based rates.

Since 1996 when the country removed its control over inter-bank lending rates, China has taken incremental steps toward interest rate liberalization, including a move in July 2013 to scrap the floor limit for bank lending rates and, later, a guideline for piloting negotiable deposit certificates on the interbank market.

On May 1, the long-awaited deposit insurance scheme was put in place, which was considered a precondition for China to free up deposit rates

At a press conference on the sidelines of the national legislature’s annual session, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said in March that the possibility for China to fully liberalize its interest rate mechanism is “very high” this year.

And with Tuesday’s introduction of the CDs, Guojin Securities predicted that the grip on deposit rate will be completely removed by the end of 2015.

TIMELINE

In 1996, China removed control over inter-bank lending rates.

In 2004, the central bank scrapped an upper limit for banks’ lending rate and allowed a downward flotation of no more than 10 percent from the benchmark lending rate.

In July 2013, the central bank fully scrapped the floor limit for banks’ lending interest rate.

In December 2013, the central bank gave green light to the issuance of inter-bank negotiable certificates of deposit, which expanded banks’ financing channels and encouraged market-based interest rates.

In May 2015, China began implementing the deposit insurance scheme, which is regarded as an important part of financial safety and a precondition for China to free up deposit rates.

On May 10, 2015, the central bank lifted the upper limit of the deposit rate’s floating band to 1.5 times the benchmark from the previous 1.3 times, granting banks more pricing autonomy.

On June 2, 2015, the central bank allowed banks to issue certificates of deposit to both individual and institutional investors, less than two years after the issuance of certificates were rolled out among banks. Enditem

Source  Xinhua

Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson

chenxuefei7@hotmail.com

 

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China Focus: China reforms public institution leadership recruitment

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China Focus: China reforms public institution leadership recruitment

BEIJING, June 3 (Greenpost) — China has adopted new measures to select management of public institutions, such as allowing headhunters to participate in the process.

Reforms of the personnel system are key to reforming non-profit non-governmental organizations, a process that has been under way for years, said Prof. Wang Yukai of the Chinese Academy of Governance.

Wang has been studying public institution reforms for years and is a government consultant on public administration.

According to a regulation issued Tuesday by the general office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, a more competitive selection process will be introduced, including entrusting “relevant agencies” to select leaders. According to Wang, such agencies may include headhunters.

The regulation will help implement reforms of public institutions and make them provide better service to the public, Wang said.

China has more than one million public institutions founded using state assets. They mainly engage in education, technological, cultural, and health services.

However, their close relations with government have hindered their development and burdened public finance. Authorities have said that they will not approve new public institutions.

Reforms of public institutions are expected to make their management more like that of for-profit companies in order to adapt to market competition.

Wang said an appointment system for public institution management teams should be promoted, as stipulated by the regulation, in order to rid them of reliance on “iron rice bowl” positions — secure and lifelong jobs that have been highly sought after.

The regulation also ordered implementation of a tenure system for members of management teams, stating that a person may not hold a post for more than ten years in a public institution.

The regulation stresses that candidates must have both integrity and ability to act as part of the management team, and they should possess both political integrity and professional competence. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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China Focus: China’s banking industry expected to unveil mixed ownership reform

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China Focus: China’s banking industry expected to unveil mixed ownership reform

 

BEIJING, June 2 (Greenpost) — Several Chinese banks have launched plans to optimize ownership structure or improve management framework by spinning off some business, signaling that China’s banking industry may unveil the curtain of mixed ownership reform in 2015.

Expectations for some banks’ mixed ownership reform moves have driven a new round of banking stocks rally recently, leading by shares of the Bank of Communications (BOCOM, 601328.SH; 03328.HK).

The BOCOM said in its semiannual report that “as a public company, the bank boasts a mixed ownership with state-owned capital, private capital and foreign capital, and the bank is actively drafting the plan to deepen the mixed ownership reform,” said a report from the Economic Information Daily on Tuesday.

Although BOCOM’s reform plan hasn’t been disclosed yet, the bank’s president Niu Ximing said early in the year that the state controlling structure framework would not be changed, but the inner ownership will be adjusted.

The Bank of Beijing (601169.SH) also disclosed in April the bank is making up employee stock ownership plan but it’s still in the initial stage. Meanwhile, China Merchants Bank (600036.SH) also said in April its board of directors approved its initial plan of employee stock ownership.

Moreover, Minsheng Bank (600016.SH) announced in November 2014 it would issue no more than 1,408 million A-shares and raise about 8 billion yuan for its employee stock ownership plan.

Zong Liang, vice director of the international financial research institute of the Bank of China, said mixed ownership reform is closely related to employee stock ownership, on the one hand, employees would be encouraged to be more efficient and on the other hand, employees would be able to share fruits of the reform and play the role of supervision as a shareholder.

The state-owned investment company Central Huijin Investment Ltd. has recently reduced its holdings in China’s top four banks, which is also believed to be a sign of the start of the ownership reform.

Central Huijin decreased its stakes in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (601398.SH; 01398.HK) and China Construction Bank (601939.SH; 00939.HK) from 46 percent to 45.89 percent and from 5.05 percent to 2.14 percent, respectively.

Ma Kunpeng, a banking analyst at Sinolink Securities, said through large transactions and directional transfer, state controlled shares would be taken over by private capital.

Besides ownership structure reform, experts suggest banks should be allowed to conduct investment in various ways to improve management framework. Yao Yudong, head of the financial research institute of the People’s Bank of China, said China could consider allowing banks to set up or invest in P2P finance, third-party payment or even e-commerce companies.

Everbright Bank (601818.SH) and SPD Bank (600000.SH) have launched plans to spin off their wholly owned subsidiaries of wealth management business. China Merchants Bank, Minsheng Bank and Industrial Bank (601166.SH) also reportedly have intentions to split their subsidiaries.

The market is generally optimistic about the industry’s ownership reform, Ma said. “The reform is likely to directly bring opportunity of valuation increase to banking stocks, and we expect to see big news as catalysts from June,” he said.

China’s A-share listed banks such as BOCOM, Bank of Beijing, Everbright Bank (601818.SH), SPD Bank (600000.SH) and Industrial Bank (601166.SH) would be the companies to watch. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor: Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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China Voice: South China Sea issue should not hinder China-U.S. ties

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China Voice: South China Sea issue should not hinder China-U.S. ties

BEIJING, June 1 (Greenpost) — A series of actions and words by the United States are an overreaction on the South China Sea issue, which only lead to their international credibility being affected.

A U.S. anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft flew over waters off China’s Nansha Islands last month. Onboard the aircraft was also a CNN team, which claimed they had been given permission by the Pentagon.

Clearly the United States wanted to play up China’s island construction activities to portray it as a threat to regional stability.

Speaking on his way to Singapore to attend the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security forum last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter called for an end to island-building in the South China Sea, despite the fact that Beijing has repeatedly elaborated that China’s construction on the islands, besides meeting necessary defense needs, mostly serves civil purposes.

For a long time, the South China Sea has maintained peace and stability with the freedom of navigation fully upheld. China’s construction activities on the Nansha islands and reefs are entirely within China’s sovereignty. They are lawful, justified and reasonable and do not affect or target any particular country.

China’s sovereignty, rights and interests in the South China Sea have been consistently upheld by successive Chinese governments and established over a long history, with ample historical and legal basis.

China’s stand has been firm and clear: It will not want anything that does not belong to it, but it will ensure each inch of land it owns safe and sound.

Currently, China and ASEAN countries have identified a “dual track” approach on the South China Sea, which calls for disputes to be resolved through negotiation and consultation between parties directly concerned and for China and ASEAN member states to work together to maintain peace and stability.

Progress has been made in consultations on a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC), and the COC is meant to be a set of rules for China and countries in the region rather than rules set by outsiders.

One thing for sure, the United States is not a party concerned with the South China Sea issue. Stirring up trouble in the region will only make it unpopular.

If unnecessary anxiety by the U.S. and oversensitivity to the South China Sea issue is developing to the severity that hurts the stability and development of the Asia-Pacific region, it will run against the common aspiration of the people and countries of the Asia-Pacific region and be detrimental to the United States itself.

On the whole, the China-U.S. relationship is developing on a steady track, the stability brooks no disturbance or troublemaking. More importantly, both sides should properly handle disputes so as not to distract the overall direction of the bilateral ties. The world’s most important bilateral relationship deserves to be cherished.

The South China Sea issue will not and should not become an obstacle of the China-U.S. ties. Washington should be aware of this and be discreet in its words and deeds. Enditem

Editor’s note: This article doesn’t represent Greenpost’s view.

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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China Headlines: Beijing holds breath for effective smoking ban

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China Headlines: Beijing holds breath for effective smoking ban

BEIJING, June 1 (Greenpost) — A downtown hotpot restaurant was the first business to get an official warning for breaking Beijing’s toughened smoking ban, as inspectors swooped to enforce the new regulation on Monday.

On the first day of the ban, which prohibits smoking in all indoor public places, workplaces, and on public transport, authorities sent more than 1,000 inspectors to government agencies, hospitals, schools, hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues to ensure it is being followed.

The inspectors found cigarette butts in the hotpot restaurant’s washroom on Monday morning, with the restaurant also failing to publicize the smoking complaint hotline 12320 on its no-smoking posters.

Inspectors said they will visit again in two days to check the restaurant’s compliance, and warned of a fine up to 100,000 yuan (1,614 U.S. dollars) if it fails to comply.

The new ban was passed by Beijing’s municipal legislature in November. Individuals caught smoking in public places may be fined 200 yuan (32 U.S. dollars), while businesses will have to pay up to 100,000 for failing to discourage smoking on their premises.

As the world’s largest tobacco maker and consumer, China has more than 300 million smokers, almost the size of the U.S. population, and another 740 million people are exposed to second-hand smoke each year.

Ma Yongsheng, who runs a restaurant in Beijing, canceled a wedding banquet reservation on Monday, as a guest insisted on smoking during the meal.

“If we continue to host guests who smoke, we’ll surely be fined,” Ma said.

At Beijing Capital International Airport, people gathered at two designated outdoor smoking areas to have a last puff as indoor smoking rooms in the airport’s three terminals have all been closed.

While regulators has vowed strict implementation, some still doubt the feasibility of the new ban and fear authorities’ resolve to curb smoking could taper over time and leave the ban as ineffective as its predecessors.

Beijing has had smoking bans in place since as far back as the 1990s, and stepped up the campaign before the 2008 Olympics, but the bans have always been weakly enforced.

A Xinhua reporter spotted people smoking indoors in a downtown hospital on Monday.

“I hope the government’s momentum to curb smoking can last this time,” said someone with the screen name “@skywalker” on microblog Sina Weibo. “Just don’t let this ban become another barely-enforced policy nobody remembers after six months.”

At a bus stop during the morning rush hour, a volunteer asked scores of people to finish smoking elsewhere before lining up.

“Most stub out their cigarettes at our request but that’s the most we can do,” the volunteer said. “We are not authorized to fine those who refuse to obey the ban.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) suggested mobilizing the public to help enforce the ban.

“If you see someone smoking in a restaurant, tell them to stop! Talk to the manager or owner, or call the national health hotline 12320 to complain,” said WHO China Representative Bernhard Schwartlander.

China signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2003.

“Beijing’s ban on smoking indoors is consistent with China’s commitment to the FCTC of protecting the health of non-smokers through enhanced legal support,” said Wang Qingbin, a professor with China University of Political Science and Law who helped draft the new smoking ban.

The new ban also serves as a test case for a similar move nationwide. Draft legislation for a national ban has been published to solicit public opinions.

In April, China’s top legislature adopted an amendment to the Advertisement Law, banning tobacco advertising in mass media, in public places, public vehicles and outdoors.

China also raised consumption tax on cigarettes at the wholesale level on May 10, a move expected to cut cigarette consumption by 4 to 5 percent and add 100 billion yuan to annual tax revenue.

Data from local price monitoring departments across the country shows the tax rise has largely been passed on to consumers. Cigarettes priced under 20 yuan per pack have seen a price hike of between 0.5 and one yuan. Those priced above 20 yuan have generally been subject to a price rise of around two yuan.

Angela Pratta, who leads the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative in China, has urged the government to lead by example in enforcing the ban.

“Strong enforcement is critical to ensuring the effectiveness of smoke-free laws, so too is leadership. Senior officials and leaders in government offices need to lead the way by setting an example and supporting enforcement efforts,” Pratta said. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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China Focus: China ramps up public cyber security awareness

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China Focus: China ramps up public cyber security awareness

BEIJING, June 1 (Greenpost) — China on Monday officially kicked off its second Cyber Security Week, part of the country’s effort to raise awareness amid growing Internet users and rising cyber attacks.

Jointly held by top state level departments, including the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the ministries of education and public security, the event intends to help the public better understand Internet security risks and enhance their ability to protect themselves.

This year’s event aims to cultivate cyber security awareness among teenagers in particular, said head of the CAC Lu Wei.

“Cyber security isn’t just about national security and national development, but also concerns the immediate interests of every Internet user,” he said.

Lu’s words are in line with a recently released white paper on China’s military strategy, which said “cyberspace has become a new pillar of economic and social development, and a new domain of national security.”

He also urged the public to raise their cyber security awareness, voluntarily resist online pornography and groundless rumors and abide by the law on the Internet.

The week-long event came after a series of cybersecurity incidents and Internet service outages that stoked concern among the public about online data safety.

Alipay, China’s largest online payment platform, reported anomalies on Wednesday, which were found to be linked to optical fiber glitch. The next day, Ctrip.com, China’s largest online travel agent, scrambled to fix a service outage problem after its website and mobile platform went down Thursday morning.

Though both companies claimed that no user data was compromised, the incidents still put Chinese Internet companies’ security measures to the test. Many Internet users have urged Chinese Internet companies to improve their data security since the incidents.

Lyu Lisheng, director of domestic Internet security firm Keen, said Chinese Internet companies would prefer to expand their user scale and market share first, while ignoring cyber security measures.

The opening event also released a report on Chinese netizens’ cybersecurity awareness. According to Hong Jingyi, who surveyed 254,000 people, Chinese Internet users may fall victim easily to cyber attacks, online malwares and online security breaches.

The survey found that some 81 percent of netizens seldomly change their passwords, 76 percent use the same password for multiple online accounts while 44 percent use birthday and phone numbers as their passwords. In addition, some 16 percent use the most common passwords such as “123456” or “abcabc.”

In terms of making transactions via public Wi-Fi, the report said 83 percent are vulnerable to be taken advantage of by hackers.

With China’s new “Internet plus” strategy and encouragement for people to start their own business, cyber security is of ever more importance, said some experts.

“Without cyber security, there is no way the ‘Internet Plus’ strategy can be successful,” said Li Yuxiao, a professor on Internet governance from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Enditem

Source   Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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China Focus: Golden decade expected for IT application in China’s medical care industry

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China Focus: Golden decade expected for IT application in China’s medical care industry

 

BEIJING, June 1 (Greenpost) — Stock prices of many Shanghai and Shenzhen listed companies with the concept of information technology application in medical care sector has more than doubled and outperformed the market since February this year. This is a reflection of investors’ expectation for great growth potentials in China’s medical care informatization drive.

Indeed, along with implementation of the nation’s new medical reform scheme, concrete policies in favor of the industry’s development have followed, such as a five-year plan for informatization in the medical and health sector.

Aside from governmental support, social investment in the sector is expected to warm up quickly.

A China Securities Journal report on Monday predicts that the total investment in this field is expected to hit 34 billion yuan in 2016 and the coming decade will be a golden period for the industry’s development.

The medical information construction includes tele-medical information systems, regional medical information platforms, and hospital intelligent management systems, and the former two are fully supported by the government.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has appointed five regions, including Ningxia, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou and Tibet, as telemedical information pilot zones. And each will be given 120 million yuan or 200 million yuan as supportive funding by the Ministry of Finance.

Both the government and grassroots medical organizations have more rigid demands on the development of regional medical information platforms. The current investments in such platforms are much less than the average of developed countries.

Confident in the outlook of regional medical information platforms, investors on the domestic capital market have begun to pay attention to companies related to the field.

Nearly 50 institutional investors recently visited Chongqing Adtech Co Ltd, one of the leading companies in regional medical information for market research.

Analysts say that, as a main shareholder of Adtech, Hainan Haiyao Co Ltd (000566.SZ) can get the whole medical data of Chongqing local people.

Since February the share prices of many medical information concept stocks such as Hainan Haiyao (000566.SZ), WinningSoft (300253.SH), and Wonders Informaiton (300168) have more doubled. (Edited by Bai Jiechun, baijc@xinhua.org)

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson 

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Interview: Formal signing of China-S.Korea FTA to enhance economic cooperation

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IN-DEPTH

 

Interview: Formal signing of China-S.Korea FTA to enhance economic cooperation

 

SEOUL, June 1(Greenpost) — The formal signing of the China-South Korea free trade agreement (FTA) will further enhance economic cooperation between the two neighbors as the free trade accord will facilitate a productive competition, experts here said.

Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Sang-jick formally signed the bilateral FTA in central Seoul Monday, three years after the two countries began talks on the deal in May 2012.

After Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Seoul in July 2014, negotiations on the free trade pact made fast progress. President Xi and his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye announced the conclusion of substantive negotiations on the deal in Beijing in November 2014, and the two nations initialed the FTA three months later.   “The formal signing means a signal flare to more deepened economic cooperation between the two nations,”Han Jae-jin, senior research fellow at the Hyundai Research Institute, said in an interview.

Han said South Korea seemed to have joined all China-led global projects for economic integration, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as well as the bilateral FTA, to go together with the Chinese economy, one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

The implementation of the FTA was expected to intensify competition between companies of the two countries as China has been changing its focus from labor-intensive industries to technology-innovative ones. Competitiveness of Chinese manufacturers was forecast to advance at a fast pace in terms of technology, management and finance.   “China’s attention is moving from low value-added industries to high value-added ones like IT and chips where competition will get fiercer between South Korean and Chinese companies,”said Han.

The researcher, however, said that the two economies can advance together, while competing with each other, as” opportunities will come together with the crisis.”

China’s Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo were increasingly eroding the market shares in the global smartphone market of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, South Korea’s tech giants. There were many Chinese companies going global and competitive such as the Alibaba Group.

After the bilateral FTA comes into force, Chinese firms could make inroads into the South Korean market through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to secure higher technological competitiveness and brand value of South Korean companies.

South Korean firms can take the free trade pact with China as an opportunity for making a foray into the world’s largest consumer market. The FTA would further open Chinese markets, and South Korean firms would face eased regulations.   “South Korean companies should see the Chinese market as a place where they compete with Chinese and global companies in high-tech industries, not as a place where they can manufacture products with low labor costs,”said Han.

The researcher said that South Korean companies could succeed in the world’s No.1 consumer market only when preparing for the changing trend in China toward high value-added, innovative industries and consumer demand for higher-quality products.

Jee Mansoo, research fellow at the Korea Institute of Finance ( KIF), said that the formal signing of the bilateral FTA drove China and South Korea into a closer relationship economically, but he cautioned that benefits from the deal may be lower than expected given the narrower width of liberalization and the slower pace of opening compared with other free trade accords.

Under the accord, South Korea will eliminate tariffs on 92 percent of all products from China within 20 years after the FTA implementation in return for China abolishing tariffs on 91 percent of all South Korean goods.

Other free trade deals tend to eliminate tariffs on as much as 99 percent of all products within five years after the implementation.

Jee, however, noted that the low-level of FTA between China and South Korea would reduce possible damages to farmers and industries of both countries, adding that it would be affordable FTA for people of the two nations. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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China expects bumper summer crops

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China expects bumper summer crops

BEIJING, June 1 (Greenpost) — Favorable weather conditions and an increase in cultivated land will see large grain harvests this summer, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOC) said Monday.

Sweeping rainfall across most parts of China in April, an important period in the wheat growth cycle, and summer-crop farmland increasing by 1 million mu (66,667 hectares) to 415 million mu had been good for crops, the MOC said.

The ministry is upbeat of the outlook for harvests this summer as long as favorable weather conditions continue and there are no natural disasters in the coming weeks.

Harvests of wheat and early-season rice begin around the end of May and continue until the beginning of July.

China’s summer-crops yield grew 3.6 percent from a year ago to 136.6 million tonnes in 2014, nearly a quarter of which came from central China’s Henan Province. Enditem

Source  Xinhua

Editor   Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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China to make Silk Road documentary

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China to make Silk Road documentary

BEIJING, June 3 (Greenpost) — China National Documentary Film Group (CNDF) announced on Wednesday that it will shoot a TV documentary about countries along the Silk Road.

The documentary, named “The Silk Road in a New Century”, will focus on history, culture and the economies of more than 10 countries along the ancient route.

A crew will set out in July to travel about 16,000 kilometers across Asia and reach its final destination of Italy in September.

“Cultures along the Silk Road are colorful, and economic potential in this region is great. I hope Chinese people can understand these countries better through a lens,” said CNDF board chairman Gao Feng.

In history, the Silk Road served as a business and cultural link between Asia and Europe. It has regained attention since Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed an economic belt of countries along the route in September 2013. Enditem

Source  Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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Three million jobs created in EU due to trade with China: study

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Three million jobs created in EU due to trade with China: study

 

BRUSSELS, June 1 (Greenpost) — About three million Europeans have jobs because of export from the European Union (EU) to China, according to a study released on Monday here by EU institutions.

The share of employment supported by EU export increased from 9.3 percent in 1995 to 13.6 percent in 2011, said the study on impact of extra-EU trade on income and jobs, which was jointly published by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission.

In total, over 31 million jobs in the EU depend on exports.

Citing the data from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), the study found that 10 percent of EU export related employment was driven by the sales of goods and services to China in 2011, or three million jobs was given to Europeans in all EU member states due to trade with China in that year.

Though the United States is taking a lead in trade with the EU by now, China is taking ground from it, figures indicated.

Compared with 1995, the share of EU employment supported by EU-China trade went up to 10.1 percent in 2011 from 2.29 percent. Meanwhile, the U.S.-related figures in the same period dropped from 20.5 percent to 14.6 percent.

According to the report, among the EU member states, Germany, Britain and Italy created the highest number of jobs in EU exports to the rest of the world.

In 2011, Germany created some 7.1 million export related jobs domestically, of which 15.1 percent were driven by its sales of goods and services to China, said the report.

Meanwhile, in Finland and the Netherlands more than 15 percent of the employment supported by EU exports was dependent on the Chinese market. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Business, China, Energy, Green-tech, Indepth, News, World News

Beijing’s largest coal-fired boiler house retired

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Beijing’s largest coal-fired boiler house retired

BEIJING, June 3 (Greenpost) — The largest coal-fired boiler house in urban Beijing was shut down on Tuesday, as part of the government’s plan to cut pollution in the capital city.

The boiler house, which has four boilers with a total capacity of 80 tons of vapor per hour, accounts for over a fifth of the total coal-fired boiler capacity in urban Beijing and provides heating for a rail equipment manufacturing company and 20,000 local residents.

The boiler house, located near the famous Marco Polo bridge in Fengtai District, will be replaced with three gas-fired boilers before November, when the city’s centrally controlled heating is turned on for the winter.

The boiler house used 40,000 tons of coal and emitted 54 tons of sulfur dioxide, 57 tons of nitric oxide, 45 tons of dust and 1 ton of volatile organic compounds per year.

Beijing plans to close all coal-fired boilers in urban areas by the end of this year, according to a government work plan released in April.

Of the four major coal-fired power plants in Beijing, three have been closed so far and the last is scheduled to be closed next year. They will be replaced with four gas-fired power plants.

Beijing is aiming to limit annual coal consumption to 15 million tons in 2015 and 10 million tons in 2017. Enditem

Source  Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Business, China, Exchange, Indepth, News, World News

China, Central and Eastern Europe make breakthroughs in infrastructure cooperation

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China, Central and Eastern Europe make breakthroughs in infrastructure cooperation

 

Stockholm, June 3 (Greenpost) — Chinese enterprises and their partners in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have made new breakthroughs in infrastructure cooperation in recent years. The Chinese enterprises have actively followed up and participated in the projects of bridge, power station, highway and flood control in those countries, said Xu Xiaofeng, deputy head of Department of European Affairs under Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Wednesday.

Chinese enterprises have participated in construction of projects such as Belgrade’s Danube-spanning bridge and the Kostolac power plant in Serbia, Serbia’s E763 highway, highway projects in Macedonia, thermal power plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.

China is the largest trade partner of the 16 CEE countries in Asia, while Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary are the top three trade partners in the CEE for China.

In recent years, the bilateral trade between China and CEE countries has grown steadily.

According to Chinese customs statistics, the bilateral trade increased to 60.2 billion US dollars in 2014 from 52.1 billion US dollars in 2012, representing a rise of 15.6 percent.

In the first four months of 2015, their bilateral trade value amounted to 17.6 billion US dollars, down 6.4 percent year on year. Enditem

Source  Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Business, China, News, World News

Consumption contributes more to China’s GDP growth

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Consumption contributes more to China’s GDP growth

Stockholm, June 3 (Greenpost) — Consumption contributed more to China’s economy last year, while investment growth declined.

Consumption contributed 50.2 percent to China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2014, 0.2 percentage points more than the previous year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday.

Investment contributed 48.5 percent, down from 54.4 percent in 2013, and net exports contributed 1.3 percent to 2014 GDP growth, up from the negative 4.4 percent contribution rate the previous year.

China’s economic growth over the past two decades relied heavily on capital investment and exports. To steer the economy onto a more sustainable track, the government has been trying to encourage more domestic consumption, rather than over relying on investment and exports.

GDP last year was 64.08 trillion yuan (10.47 trillion U.S. dollars), up from 58.97 trillion yuan in 2013.

Consumption amounted to 32.83 trillion yuan, up from 30.1 trillion in 2013.

GDP grew 7.4 percent last year, the weakest annual expansion in 24 years. The official growth target was set at around 7 percent for 2015 by the Chinese government in March at the annual session of the National People’s Congress. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Business, China, Indepth, News, World News

China Focus: Chinese firms sail on int’l capacity cooperation boat

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China Focus: Chinese firms sail on int’l capacity cooperation boat

BEIJING, May 25 (Greenpost) — Chinese enterprises are gaining a stronger presence abroad off the back of motions to deepen international industrial capacity cooperation, while this effort is creating a new domestic economic growth engine.

State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC), the world’s largest utility company, last week in Brazil witnessed a groundbreaking ceremony of an ultra-high voltage electricity transmission project at the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam, which was attended by visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

This was SGCC’s first overseas transmission project. It will help provide safe and reliable energy and support social development in Brazil.

Global industrial cooperation is a priority for China against the backdrop of a slower domestic growth pace and unsteady global economic recovery. The creation of jobs and the identification of new growth engines are on top of many governments’ agendas, experts said.

Li, a proponent of industrial capacity cooperation, signed trade agreements worth 27 billion U.S. dollars during his visit to Brazil.

The Belo Monte project is testimony of the nation’s “going global” drive. Advanced equipment produced by SGCC subsidiaries have found their way to more than 80 countries including the United States and Germany, with total export volume surging to 3 billion yuan (490 million U.S. dollars) last year, up 29 percent from 2013.

China is now the world’s largest manufacturing exporter, with total goods export volume reaching 14.4 trillion yuan last year. Mechanical and electrical equipment and high-tech products amount for 56 percent and 29 percent respectively.

There is also a pressing need for the going global of high-end industrial capacity to support growth, as the competitiveness of certain traditional industries is waning due to rising operational costs for exporters, said Zheng Yuesheng, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs.

China is strengthening industrial capacity cooperation worldwide, moving production lines abroad, which creates jobs in other countries while boosting China’s exports, analysts said.

The government has issued a list of prioritized sectors in which it wishes to enhance such cooperation, including steel, non-ferrous metals, construction materials, railways, electric power, chemicals, textiles, automobiles, telecommunications and machinery.

“Proactive efforts to further open up have paved the way for manufacturers to go global,” Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Liu Lihua wrote in a recent article.

Against the background of industrial upgrades, companies should aim to increase exports of products with high added-value, relabeling themselves as service exporters rather than just goods exporters and creating globally renowned brands, Liu said.

China should get used to its shifting role to capital exporter from capital importer, while Chinese firms should tap into foreign markets and hone their competitiveness, said Zhou Mi, a researcher with the Ministry of Commerce.

The country became a net capital exporter for the first time last year when outbound direct investment (ODI) outnumbered capital inflows. ODI grew 14.1 percent year on year in 2014, sharply eclipsing the 1.7 percent growth recorded for foreign direct investment. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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