China News n Matters

[zuoom]

[youtube=425,350]WJ6ROnxqT3I[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ6ROnxqT3I

saw it via : http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=265387

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

unless new technology breakthrough, energy will always associate with carbon emissions.

looking forward for the day when burning will not introduce carbons, only heat

[Cobra]

China government misused billions of dollars: audit - (Agence France-Presse - 8/28/2008 4:55 AM GMT)



Chinese government departments embezzled, misused or mismanaged billions of dollars last year, the nation's auditor said in an annual report that often leads to a slew of graft charges.

The tax office, the education and commerce ministries, and the department responsible for censoring China's television programmes were among the government organs found to have been found guilty of misusing public money.

In his report delivered to parliament on Wednesday, Auditor General Liu Jiayi said 14 central government officials had already been detained for their roles in embezzling or misusing 4.52 billion yuan (660 million dollars).

Another 41.7 billion yuan (six billion dollars) had been mismanaged, according to the report that was published on the audit office's website and carried prominently in the state-run press on Thursday.

Among other major findings, an audit of nine major financial insitutions linked to the government, including the Agricultural Bank of China, showed 14.2 billion yuan had been used illegally, the China Daily newspaper said.

The investigations into the finance sector had led to 140 suspects being handed over to judicial authorities for prosecution.

China's state auditor is required by law to audit the government's central budget, which includes the transfer of payments to the regions, official investments and use of social security funds.

President Hu Jintao has repeatedly acknowledged that corruption is one of the greatest threats to the legitimacy of the ruling Communist Party.

The government regularly announces major crackdowns on graft in official ranks, such as the audit office report, in an effort to show the population that efforts are being made to extinguish corruption.

Nevertheless, corruption within the government and society in general remains a major problem for China.

[zuoom]

similar issue in Singapore, but in a different way.

[77LostBoy77]

Not surprised.... I have some frens from china, their parents are with the government sector and its all about under table money ... Really corrupted. But depends how we look at it too.

[vesfreq]

similar issue in Singapore, but in a different way.

Ermm... Honest mistakes.

[zuoom]

Not surprised.... I have some frens from china, their parents are with the government sector and its all about under table money ... Really corrupted. But depends how we look at it too.

take it as indirect/unofficial taxes.

similar situation in Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, etc.   

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

actually the authority don't need to embezzle, they just need to print more $$$.

[zuoom]

Oct 23, 2008
China, S'pore sign FTA
   

Trade between the two countries reached US$47.15 billion (S$71 billion) in 2007. Singapore is China's eighth largest trade partner and the seventh largest investor. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING - CHINA and Singapore on Thursday signed a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) ahead of the seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to be held here.

RELATED LINKS
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PEOPLE
The signing of the FTA was witnessed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who kicked off his China visit on ednesday afternoon.

Negotiations for the China-Singapore FTA began in October 2006. Previous reports said the FTA covers trade in goods, rules of origin, trade remedies, trade in services, movement of natural persons, investment, customs procedures, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and economic cooperation.

Trade between the two countries reached US$47.15 billion (S$71 billion) in 2007. Singapore is China's eighth largest trade partner and the seventh largest investor.

Mr Wen Jiabao said during his meeting with Lee Hsien Loong prior to the signing of the FTA onThursday morning that the pact signals a leap forward in the bilateral ties between the two countries, Xinhua news reported.

He said relations between China and Singapore had always been friendly, cooperative and creative.

Lee Hsien Loong agreed that the growth of the bilateral relations between the two sides, especially the FTA, was 'a testimony of the strength of our relationship and reflects our intention to broaden our exchanges and ties,' he said.

He said the ASEM is held during major development in the financial sector worldwide, and provides 'opportunities to exchange wills in the instable environment.'

'It is important for Asian countries to work together, exchange wills, and maintain the dynamic and stamina which characterise the past decades of Asia development,' he said.

via : http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_293912.html

[zuoom]

$217.5b to rebuild Sichuan 
 
BEIJING - CHINA will spend 1 trillion yuan (S$217.5 billion) over the next three years to rebuild areas ravaged by the Sichuan earthquake, local media reported on Thursday, citing the country's top planning agency.

The May 12 quake killed 80,000 people and left about 10 million homeless as whole villages were razed across a broad swath of south-west China.

The funds would have the goal of making 'basic living standards and economic development match or exceed pre-quake levels', the Beijing News said, citing the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The budget, allocated to 51 of the hardest-hit counties in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, would include 120 billion yuan for health, education and other basic services, the NDRC said in a notice on its website.

Other funds would be divided among housing construction, industrial development, environmental protection and big-ticket infrastructure projects, including a multi-billion yuan railway connecting Sichuan capital Chengdu with the quake-damaged town of Dujiangyan.

The quake reconstruction budget follows calls from Chinese officials for swift measures to lift government spending to cushion the impact of the global financial crisis.

China plans to spend 5 trillion yuan on roads, waterways and ports in the next three to five years, a massive increase over initial budget plan of 2 trillion yuan, according to a report in the semi-official China Business News on Wednesday.

Chinese media has also reported that the government has approved a total of 2 trillion yuan for railway investment since the start of 2004, of which 1.2 trillion yuan has already been spent.

 
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20081106-98831.html

via : http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=348937

[zuoom]

Tuesday December 16, 9:19 PM
China economic growth 'could slow to near 20-year low'

China's economy could end 2008 with its weakest growth in nearly two decades, economists said Tuesday, following the release of data for November that was far worse than expected.

A string of stimulus measures are likely to not fully kick in until the second or third quarter of 2009, making the last quarter of this year and the following three months the toughest to pull through, they said.

A range of economists contacted by AFP forecast growth of between five to 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter of this year.

"Our forecast is rather pessimistic," said Tao Dong, an analyst with Credit Suisse in Hong Kong, who forecast growth in the final three months of 2008 to be six to 6.5 percent.

He said China had not posted growth that low since the country began publishing quarterly economic data in 1995.

Before that, the country recorded full-year growth of 3.8 percent in 1990.

It then roared into gear and never again posted annual growth of less than 7.6 percent, even during the Asian financial crisis.

Xing Ziqiang, a Beijing-based economist with China International Capital Corporation, backed Tao's assessment that the last three months of 2008 would likely see the worst economic growth since records began, and possibly longer.

Xing forecast growth of five to 5.5 percent in the final quarter.

China published a series of economic data for November over the past week that showed the world's fourth largest economy was feeling the impacts of the global crisis much harder than initially expected.

Among the chief concerns, exports posted their first fall in more than seven years, dropping 2.2 percent in November after growing 19.2 percent in October.

The inflation rate also dropped abruptly to a 22-month low of 2.4 percent in November from 4.0 percent in October, reversing worries on soaring prices seen early this year and raising the spectre of deflation.

Meanwhile, industrial output growth eased dramatically last month to 5.4 percent, compared with this year's peak of 17.8 percent in March.

The latest data, released on Tuesday, showed urban fixed asset investment -- a key measure of spending on productive capacity -- rose 26.8 percent from January to November, down 0.4 percentage points from the first 10 months.

Beijing has taken many measures to boost domestic demand and cushion the impact of collapsing export markets, including four interest rate cuts since September that reduced the one-year lending rate from 7.47 percent to 5.58 percent.

A 586-billion-dollar stimulus package was also announced in November that focused heavily on big infrastructure projects.

In its latest effort, the government said over the weekend it would raise money supply by 17 percent next year.

However economists said it would take many months for the impacts of such measures to kick in, with much of the new spending on projects such as railway construction.

Amid this backdrop, the government is expected to act again soon.

Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Tuesday there was room for more interest rate cuts, indicating another one could come late in December or early next year.

More plans to cut taxes, increase credit to small and medium-sized companies and subsidise low-income families are also likely to come out, depending on how the economy responds to current stimulus measures, economists said.

Nevertheless, China's economy, after posting double-digit growth for the past five years, is still widely forecast to absorb the global crisis better than much of the rest of the world.

Huang Yiping, an economist with Citigroup in Hong Kong, forecast growth of 8.2 percent in 2009, and said the stimulus measures were an important factor.

"It would be even lower without the policies," he said.

via : http://forums.delphiforums.com/3in1kopitiam/messages?msg=3944.1

===========

might not be a bad thing for China herself. finally a breather for her local people.

however, for such an adjustment.. this might just be too much for others to take.

[zuoom]

reading in China based forums. the 6% growth is the magic number to keep the people employed.

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forumdisplay.php?gid=2&fid=33

[zuoom]

China's economy faces its most difficult year yet due to a US-led global economic downturn and the ravages of inflation at home, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday.

In a closing press conference at the annual parliamentary meeting, Wen said his government faces the conflicting tasks of trying to create jobs through fast-paced economic growth while also battling inflation and excessive investment and credit.

ADVERTISEMENT
"I am afraid that this year could be the most difficult year for the Chinese economy," Wen told journalists.

"It is difficult because of the uncertainties both inside and outside the country."

China's economy boomed at an 11.4 percent clip last year, with inflation rising 4.8 percent for the year. Prices continued to climb to a near 12-year monthly high of 8.7 percent in February.

Wen's government has targeted eight percent economic growth for 2008, while vowing to maintain inflation at 4.8 percent for this year.

"China is a developing nation of 1.3 billion people, so we must maintain a certain speed of economic development to resolve the employment pressures," Wen said.

"To obtain these goals we need to address the problems of unstable, uncoordinated and unsustainable economic development."

Inflation has emerged as a key political concern in a country where sharp price rises have traditionally stoked unrest.

Wen said China was concerned about the falling US dollar and the state of the US economy, but reiterated that domestic conditions would determine the nation's monetary and fiscal policies.

"I am paying great attention to the world economy, I am especially deeply worried about the US economy," Wen said.

"What I'm worried about is that the US dollar continues to depreciate. When will we see it hit the bottom? What kind of monetary policy will the US take and what direction will its economy take?"

The US subprime loan crisis was not only driving down the dollar, but also interest rates and stock markets around the world, Wen said, all the while pushing up the price of oil to over 100 dollars per barrel.

With China increasingly interlinked with the global economy, a world economic downturn would impact domestic growth, he said.

"I am deeply aware that this is a big challenge to China, but I can tell everyone that China's economy is fundamentally sound," he said.

"The tight monetary and prudent fiscal policy that China is carrying out stems from China's actual situation, mainly characterised by excessive growth in investment, overly fast growth in the money supply and credit and a trade surplus rising too fast."

China has been under pressure from trading partners like the United States to let its currency appreciate, saying its current value makes Chinese exports more competitive abroad, hurting the exports of other countries.

Wen said that over the past two or more years, the Chinese yuan had appreciated 15 percent against the dollar and in recent months the pace had been faster.

Further adjustments to China's interest rate and foreign exchange rate would only come after the potential benefits and harms of such moves were fully understood, Wen said.

Following his remarks, China's central bank announced it would raise its reserve ratio a half percentage point to 15.5 percent on March 25.

The rise in the reserve ratio, the amount of money that commercial banks must hold in reserve, was aimed at mopping up excess liquidity in the economy, the bank said.

"Wen is saying that inflation is still the number one priority, but we also sense a deeper concern over the global economic situation compared to earlier," said Li Wei, a Shanghai-based economist for Standard Chartered.

"He is saying they will watch and wait on interest rate hikes or the further appreciation of the yuan. This seems to be the mood of the government, they don't want to rush into things."

via : http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/080318/1/4fb3t.html

http://www.celicasg.org/index.php?topic=2774.0

--------------------

Premier Wen Jiabao : "China's economy faces its most difficult year yet"

when he speaks, we should listen.

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

listen and do nothing

[zuoom]

[SIZE=14py]China and the Hotel California Effect in Banking
Monday, 5 January 2009

Fancy a Stay at the 'Hotel California'? Foreign Direct Investment, Taxation and Firing Costs.  Holger Gorg
University of Nottingham - School of Economics; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

For those still confused there are lyrics in the Eagles classic song of the same name (the final 3 lines) that read:

We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

Routes out of China will be difficult to negotiate [FT]

Last week UBS became the first overseas bank to offload its stake in a Chinese bank in a move expected to trigger a wave of divestments.

Foreign financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, HSBC, TPG, Temasek, Allianz and Royal Bank of Scotland own stakes in leading Chinese lenders worth tens of billions of dollars.

These holdings were mostly acquired in 2005 and 2006 when Beijing was keen to import western capital and expertise to help reform its moribund banking sector.

Many in Beijing and elsewhere are now asking whether the likes of RBS will be tempted to sell out and book handsome profits in order to help repair balance sheets strained by the financial turmoil.

As some of the foreign banks position themselves for possible divestments, many are also wondering what happened to all the talk about “strategic partnerships” and “risk management assistance” that accompanied the original investments.

With names such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and RBS on their share registers, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of Communications that were technically bankrupt a few years earlier were able to achieve higher valuations when selling shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

UBS was considered to be in a slightly different category from the banks that signed up for “strategic partnerships” because its $500m investment in BoC was always considered a financial investment – a “pay to play” commitment that helped it to win a lucrative mandate to advise on the $10bn Hong Kong listing of Bank of China in June 2006.

Last week, UBS decided that the 1.3 per cent stake was no longer core to its strategy and sold it – for $835m – as soon as a three-year lock-in period expired.

UBS stressed that it was “committed” to its relationship with BoC and to its other mainland businesses.

“The Chinese stock market is in a terrible situation right now and if all the big foreign investors are running away from the banks then that would hurt confidence even more and the government would not be keen to see that happen,” said Wu Yonggang, an analyst with Guotai Junan, a Chinese brokerage.

Stake sales will also be limited by the need to find buyers for the shares.

“Banks round the world are reviewing non-core holdings and many will no doubt decide to sell their Chinese bank stakes,” says one banker in Hong Kong. “But these share sales can not all come at the same time as they will not be digested by the market.”[/SIZE]

via : http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?t=14435

-----------

i recall reading that people are dropping the bank of China stake... but could they?

[tags] BoC

-----------

o, paul. we can do something.

jump.

either way, jump into the unknown.
or jump off. ie: to take a hard beating, n cut loses.

that decision however is oneself to take.