Category Archives: Business
business news from China, Sweden and the world.
PBOC allows qualified foreign institutions to trade, after filing, interest rate swap on interbank market
BEIJING, July 15 (Greenpost) – Chinese central bank – the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) released late Tuesday a circular permitting qualified foreign institutions to trade, after filing, interest rate swap and other products on the domestic interbank market.
The decision was made to further boost foreign institutional investors’ investment in domestic interbank market.
Upon publication of the circular, such foreign institutions as foreign central banks, international financial organizations, and sovereign wealth funds are approved to file for recording to the PBOC before trading cash bonds, bond repos, bond lending, bond forwards, interest rate swap, forward rate agreements and others PBOC allows.
What’s more, foreign institutions are free to decide their investment size, according to the PBOC circular. Enditem
Source Xinhua
Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
China central bank regulates overseas action in interbank market
BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) — The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, issued a notice on Tuesday regulating overseas investment in the country’s interbank market.
Institutional investors, including foreign central banks or monetary authorities, international financial institutions and sovereign wealth funds, are now required to register with the PBOC before investing in the interbank market.
After registration, investors can trade bonds in spot and forward markets, conduct interest rate swaps, and trade forward rate agreements. They will be free to decide on the size of their investment.
“Overseas institutions should be long-term investors and conduct business in China’s interbank market based on the reasonable need to preserve and increase the value of assets,” said the PBOC. Enditem
China’s electroplating industry to embrace standard management
Continue reading China’s electroplating industry to embrace standard management
China to stick to prudent monetary policy: PBOC
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China nods local gov’nt bonds to be collaterals for banks’ Treasury cash deposits
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China can promote healthy development of capital market: premier
“China is and will face various challenges and risks during economic expansion. We will never take them lightly,” Li told a conference on the current economic situation on Thursday, according to a cabinet statement released Friday. |
China H1 foreign trade drops 6.9 pct
China H1 foreign trade drops 6.9 pct
BEIJING, July 13 (Xinhua) — China’s foreign trade dropped 6.9 percent year on year to 11.53 trillion yuan (1.89 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2015, official data showed on Monday.
Exports rose slightly by 0.9 percent from a year ago to 6.57 trillion yuan, while imports slumped by 15.5 percent to 4.96 trillion yuan, according to data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
Trade surplus expanded 1.5 times to 1.61 billion yuan in the Jan.-June period.
In June, foreign trade decreased by 1.9 percent from the previous year, with exports rising by 2.1 percent and imports falling by 6.7 percent, data showed.
Trade surplus in June jumped by 45 percent to 284.2 billion yuan. Enditem
China’s fiscal revenue rises 13.9 pct in June
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China to deepen reform to boost innovation and entrepreneurship
| BEIJING, July 15 (Greenpost) — China will remove more vocational qualification and certification requirements to support creation of new businesses and bring forth new ideas.
A total of 62 vocational qualifications, including web advertising brokers and port cargo handling workers, will be abolished, according to a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday. The qualifications used to be required as a threshold to for people to enter the profession. “China has been strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship,” the statement read, “and will continue reform to remove unreasonable constraints for market entities, to let the market play the key role in allocating resources.” Meanwhile, the government also promised to stabilize the exchange rate of the yuan at a reasonable and balanced level. Source Xinhua Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson |
More firms established in H1 amid improving business environment
BEIJING, July 15 (Greenpost) — The number of newly registered enterprises in China continued to rise in the first half of 2015, official data showed Wednesday, indicating growing enthusiasm for innovation and entrepreneurship.
The number of new firms jumped 19.4 percent from a year ago to 2.1 million in the first six months, according to data released by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC).
“This growth shows that a creative, entrepreneurial spirit has been stoked by business reform,” said Yu Fachang, a SAIC spokesperson.
By the end of June, there were around 74.20 million business in China, up 7 percent from the end of 2014, data showed.
The number of new firms registered in the service sector accounted for 80.3 percent of the total, or 1.607 million during the first six months, the SAIC data showed. This is a 22.6 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
Yu said this reflected improvement in China’s economic structure, with the service sector playing a bigger role in growth and job creation.
Amid an economic slowdown, China has been improving business registration processes since last year, removing the minimum capital requirements, replacing annual company inspections with a reporting system and loosening site requirements for businesses.
Easier market access and an improving environment for businesses also boosted employment at privately-owned enterprises.
A total of 264 million people were working in the private sector as at the end of June, an increase of 14.54 million from the end of 2014. Enditem
China Voice: BRICS a stabilizer of global economy
BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) — A BRICS group with deepened cooperation will not only serve its five member countries and other developing nations, but also stabilize and even boost the world economy.
In upcoming days, leaders of the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — will meet in Ufa of Russia for the seventh BRICS leaders meeting.
They met for the first time in 2009, launching the bloc’s cooperation mechanism. Since then, the BRICS have shown vitality and innovation through cooperation, with deepened participation in global governance.
Now these countries will set up the New Development Bank (NDB). The institution’s board of governors will hold its first meeting in Moscow to appoint members of the board of directors and the management.
The NDB shows that the BRICS bloc has transformed from a political concept to a real force for reform in the international community.
With the bank’s funding, developing countries, especially the African states, can improve their infrastructure, rather than struggling with the limited funds the current international agencies provide them.
The new development bank will cover the shortcomings of the global financial system. It is not intended to overturn the current system, but to encourage investment from developed countries and other developing countries with an open and inclusive mind.
The BRICS has become an importance platform for exchanges and cooperation among the world’s major emerging economies. It has brought real benefits for the member states, and also earned a good reputation among the international community.
This new cooperation mechanism pointed to an important trend: emerging economies are playing bigger roles in global issues.
Global economic recovery remains slow. While trade globalization agreements are still being negotiated, the Western countries and Russia are introducing sanctions against each other, and the developed and developing countries have not yet reached agreement on how to balance economic development and climate change.
Under such circumstances, the BRICS leaders’ meeting in Ufa has critical significance as cooperation among them will not benefit not only themselves but also the world economy.
Although the five countries are at very different stages of their development, they will still become new growth poles for the world economy.The five have contributed half the world’s economic growth in the past 10 years.
They have complementary industrial structures. Sufficient labor, abundant resources and large markets give them great opportunities for development.
The five countries are also important players in both their continents and international affairs. In multilateral platforms such as the UN and the G20, they are playing bigger roles than ever before, thus their booming economies can drive the whole global economy through their deepened cooperation with other countries and international organizations. Enditem
Source Xinhua
Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
AIIB agreement signed, China-led bank takes key step forward
BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) — A China-initiated multilateral bank that has dominated media headlines for months took a key step forward on Monday, with the signing of an agreement that outlines the framework and management structure for the institution.
Representatives of the 57 prospective founding countries of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) gathered in Beijing for the signing ceremony in the Great Hall of the People. Australia was the first country to sign the document.
The 60-article agreement specified each member’s share as well as the governance structure and policy-making mechanism of the bank, which is designed to finance infrastructure in Asia.
Seventy-five percent of the bank’s share is distributed among Asian and Oceanian countries while the remaining 25 percent is assigned to countries outside the region. As the bank expands its membership, countries outside of the region can expand their stake, but the portion cannot exceed 30 percent. Each member will be allocated a share of the quota based on the size of their economy.
China, India and Russia are the three largest shareholders, taking a 30.34 percent, 8.52 percent, 6.66 percent stake, respectively. Their voting shares are calculated at 26.06 percent, 7.5 percent and 5.92 percent.
China’s stake and voting share in the initial stage are a “natural outcome” of current rules, and may be diluted as more members join, China’s Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin said in an interview with Xinhua.
“China is not deliberately seeking a veto power,” Shi stressed.
Being the largest shareholder does not mean China will have veto power over major issues. Instead, China will closely watch and balance other members’ interests, said Tang Min, with Counselors’ Office of the State Council, who previously worked for the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Speaking at Monday’s ceremony, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said the new bank will uphold high standards and follow international rules in its operation, policies and management to ensure efficiency and transparency.
The bank, headquartered in Beijing, will possibly set up regional offices in other countries. It will be led by a president with a five-year term that can be extended once.
The articles do not say who will be the president, but said the president will be chosen from Asian member countries using an “open, transparent and excellent” selection process.
Jin Liqun, former vice finance minister of China, is secretary-general of the interim multilateral secretariat for establishing the AIIB.
After signing the agreement, representatives from prospective founding countries will return home with the document for legal adoption.
The AIIB was proposed by President Xi Jinping in October 2013. A year later, 21 Asian nations, including China, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore, signed an agreement to establish the bank.
After the new bank garnered support from countries like Britain and Germany, much focus has been trained on whether the U.S. and Japan, the world’s largest and third largest economies, will join.
While stating that the U.S. will not join the AIIB at present, U.S. President Barack Obama said the country looked forward to collaborating with the new development bank “just like we do with the Asia Development Bank and with the World Bank”in April.
Despite outside worries that a new investment bank will challenge the established order of multilateral lenders, the IMF, World Bank and other leading global lenders have welcomed collaboration with the new bank to fill Asia’s infrastructure gap.
Statistics from the ADB show that between 2010 and 2020, around 8 trillion U.S. dollars in investment will be needed in the Asia-Pacific region to improve infrastructure.
“We view the AIIB as an important new partner that shares a common goal: ending extreme poverty. With strong environment, labor and procurement standards, the AIIB will join us and other development banks in addressing the huge infrastructure needs that are critical to ending poverty, reducing inequalities, and boosting shared prosperity,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement after the signing ceremony.
Chinese officials have reiterated that rather than being a competitor, the new bank will complement the current international economic order and enable China to take more global responsibility.
The bank will start operation at the end of the year under two preconditions: At least 10 prospective members sign the agreement and the initial subscribed capital is no less than 50 percent of the authorized capital.
“We are confident of working with related parties to accelerate legal procedures and push for the official set up of the AIIB before the year end,” Lou said.
TIMELINE
October 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the bank.
October 2014, 21 Asian nations, including China, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore signed an agreement to establish the bank.
March 12, 2015, Britain applied to join the AIIB as a prospective founding member, the first major western country to do so. France, Italy and Germany quickly followed suit.
March 31, 2015, China announced that 57 countries joined or applied to join the AIIB as prospective founding members before the deadline.
Until May, five rounds of talks were held and consensus was reached on all key elements, such as the bank’s purpose, membership, capital subscription, voting powers and decision-making structures.
June 29, 2015, delegates of the 57 prospective founding countries of the AIIB gathered in Beijing for the signing ceremony of an agreement to lay the legal framework and management structure for the bank. Enditem
Source Xinhua
Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
Interview: Europe should recognize China as market economy to further bilateral relationship: former Italian PM
by Matt Burgess
SYDNEY, July 9 (Xinhua) — Maybe it is time for Europe to change policy and officially recognize China as a market economy to further the China-EU trade relationship, said former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta.
The key issue to creating links in the China-EU relationship is China’s market economy status, Letta told Xinhua in an exclusive interview here.
Analysts believe this status could be approved in 2016, a year Letta predicts will be a major turning point for the China-EU relationship.
“It could be recognizing by the EU of the market economy status, it could be the year we can launch the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations,” Letta said.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made a strong appeal for the early conclusion of a bilateral trade agreement with the EU at the recent China-EU summit in Brussels at the end of June.
However, establishing a China-EU FTA will be a very complicated process, Letta said.
“There are many fields from agriculture to protection of intellectual property and so on and we need to solve all together, ” Letta said.
Engagements in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as well as the “Belt and Road” strategy are important steps in strengthening Europe’s economic ties with Asia, Letta said.
The Silk Road Economic Belt, together with the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, commonly known as the “Belt and Road” initiatives, were proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.
“I think (the AIIB) was an important and decisive step on behalf of the Chinese leadership,” Letta said. “It was important
for EU countries to follow this step, to react in a positive mode. This is why Italy as well as the main EU countries decided to apply for the membership.”
Letta, who is a visiting scholar at the University of Technology, Sydney, said Europe is too focused on domestic political issues, such as the Greek debt crisis, which is taking up too much of the member states’ energy.
“I think the EU must focus the great opportunities we have around the world,” Letta said.
In an on-stage conversation with former Australian Foreign Affairs minister and Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) Bob Carr at the University of Technology, Sydney on Tuesday night, Letta said “I exactly think that the future of the world will be Asian-driven,” noting that was why he is in Australia.
Letta said Australia was not susceptible to the “virus,” the global financial crisis, because of the links with the Asian region.
“We need, as all western countries, change our mind, change our way to do business and to try to create permanent links,” Letta said. Enditem
Source Xinhua
Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
Roundup: China’s methanol car maker invests Iceland’s leading new energy producer
REYKJAVIK, July 3 (Greenpost) — China’s Geely Holding Group, known as the world’s leading methanol vehicle manufacturer, inked a deal on Friday to make an investment of 45.5 million U.S. dollars in three years to Iceland’s Carbon Recycling International (CRI), known as the world leader in power to methanol technology.
Addressing the agreement signing ceremony, Li Shufu, founder and chairman of Geely Holding Group, said, “it is no doubt that methanol will be widely used as its advantages compared with gasoline fuel will be more and more prominent. I believe the cooperation with CRI will greatly promote Geely’s development in clean energy for vehicles.”
CRI produces renewable methanol, marketed under the Vulcanol brand, from carbon dioxide, hydrogen and electricity for energy storage, fuel applications and efficiency enhancement.
Methanol is a clean burning, high octane fuel that can be blended with gasoline for automobiles and used in the production of biodiesel or fuel ethers and reduces carbon emissions by more than 90 percent compared to fossil fuels.
“The investment of Geely to CRI will enable carbon recycling expand into China as well as into Europe. It will accelerate the deployment of our technology in China as well as in Europe. It will facilitate the development of methanol fuel cars,” said K-C Tran, chief executive officer of CRI.
Geely became the first auto manufacturer in China to begin conducting research and development into methanol vehicle solutions in 2005, and has since acquired dozens of patents.
It’s Englon SC7 sedan was the first methanol-fuelled car to receive approval from China’s ministry of industry and information technology.
Scientific studies indicate that methanol-fuelled cars generate as much as 80 percent fewer fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions than traditional gasoline-powered equivalent and cost an average of 40 to 50 percent less to fuel.
“In this sense, Geely group is a natural investment partner for CRI. With the deepening of this partnership, we will explore the possibility of promoting methanol vehicles that will meet local standards here in Iceland and other European countries,” Li added.
Describing Geely’s cooperation with CRI as an important practice to realize their commitment to the global sustainable development, Li said, “Geely is unique in researching and manufacturing methanol vehicles around the world, and so is CRI in converting carbon dioxide into methanol. The cooperation between these two companies will promote the development of the clean energy and the carbon cycle economy.” Enditem
Source Xinhua
Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson