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How to Do Business with China, through Hong Kong & Setting up Business in China? - last update Feb 8, 2003 Hong Kong, China & Hawaii News Archive for Year 2002 Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle Weekly Update e-Newsletter
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News Updates on SARS It is amazing with a down economy and most small businesses are struggling that Hawaii lawmakers would support raising nearly $100 million in new taxes...... - By Lowell Kalapa, Hawaii Tax Foundation Go to Hawaii Reporter for complete story April 30, 2003
China: China’s State General Administration of Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA) on April 25, 2003 published at its website: www.cnca.gov.cn the Announcement No. 38 postponing the mandatory enforcement date of the CCC Mark from May 1, 2003 to August 1, 2003. The decision was made on April 23, 2003......Please enter here for complete story from U. S. Dept of Commerce Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday appealed for international understanding over the mainland's Sars crisis, asking for faith that his government could cope with a "grave situation". Amid growing panic in Beijing about the spread of Sars, the capital yesterday reported its biggest one-day rise in infections - 152. Shanghai will limit the number of new luxury housing projects this year after officials called for measures to cool the overheated property market, the city's Housing and Land Management Bureau said. Beijing's acting mayor warned on Wednesday the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) situation in the Chinese capital was ''severe'' and that a shortage of hospital beds was preventing patients getting timely treatment. ''The CPC Beijing Committee and Beijing municipal Government believes that at the present time the situation in Beijing remains severe for Sars prevention and treatment,'' acting mayor Wang Qishan said at a press conference. Cong Fukui, a former vice-governor of Hebei, was yesterday sentenced to death with a two-year repreive on corruption charges, Xinhua reported. The sentence was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province. Cong, who served at the vice-governor post from July 1997 to July 200, and three other officials were arrested in 2000 for embezzling around 9.3 million yuan (HK$8.7 million) in an investment and loan scheme. He was expelled from the Communist Party a year later. Hong Kong: Donations to Project Shield were declared tax-deductible yesterday, giving a boost to the campaign to help Hong Kong's frontline medical workers. Supporters in Hong Kong and around the world have donated more than $8.4 million over the past five days. The family of a male nurse who died of Sars after working on high-risk wards was yesterday offered the chance to give him a permanent burial at Gallant Garden, a site reserved for people who die while performing exceptional acts of bravery. Hong Kong doctors yesterday produced reassuring news for parents preparing to send their children back to primary school from next week onwards: the Sars virus seems to be less aggressive in the very young than in teenagers and adults. Hong Kong stocks shook off weeks of depression to hop on board a surging regional stock market rally yesterday after the World Health Organization (WHO) signaled the Sars outbreak may have peaked in most Asian countries except China. April 29, 2003 Hong Kong: The WHO announced last night that Hong Kong's atypical pneumonia outbreak had peaked, but cautioned that its travel advisory would remain in place until there are no new cases of infection. Donors yesterday sent the Project Shield appeal to buy protective outfits for Hong Kong's frontline medical workers through the $6 million mark - enough to buy more than 200,000 suits for doctors, nurses and other health workers.
A coalition of local businesses believes Hong Kong's economy can be revived swiftly if consumers forget their Sars fears and get out and spend. More than 3,000 buyers attended a houseware and gifts fair in Hong Kong yesterday, which organisers said was higher than expected in view of the Sars outbreak. The Sars outbreak would probably trim economic growth in the region's developing countries by only a small margin, it was predicted yesterday. The Asia-Pacific electronics industry remains stable despite the outbreak of atypical pneumonia, according to a survey. Only 2 per cent of all mobile-phone subscribers in Hong Kong have registered for the so-called 2.5G or general packet radio service network (GPRS), compared with 62 per cent in South Korea, according to the local regulator, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta).
Around 2,000 villagers torched a school building earmarked as a severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) quarantine centre, ransacked government offices and overturned cars in China's first reported instance of social unrest related to Sars, officials said on Tuesday. The mayhem in Chagugang town, a rural area not far from the heavily populated port city of Tianjin, happened on Sunday night after the Tianjin Government decided to convert a school into an isolation facility for people suspected of having contact with Sars patients. Four out of every 100 workers in Shanghai now come from outside the city, as rapid economic growth and greater integration with the rest of the Yangtze River delta create more jobs. Many Shanghai companies have traditionally favoured local residents, but construction and service-sector jobs are mainly filled by migrant workers. Some 2,959 companies from the two provinces set up operations in Shanghai last year, up by 34 per cent from 2001. Their registered capital reached 15.1 billion yuan (HK$14.3 billion), up 30.5 per cent. In 2002, the Shanghai government also signed 8 billion yuan worth of deals for 158 co-operative projects with the two provinces. The Ministry of Communications issued an emergency circular yesterday demanding that local officials stop disrupting the national transportation system as part of efforts to stop the spread of Sars to their provinces. Xinhua said last night that some provinces also had placed unauthorised restrictions on freight transportation. "The ministry maintains that such actions have severely undermined social stability and will probably also undermine the nationwide transport of essential medical equipment and materials used in the fight against Sars," the agency reported. Mini-bus and saloon maker Brilliance China Automotive Holdings says it expects a rebound in earnings this year after initial start-up losses of its saloon venture knocked 27.7 per cent off its net profit to 650.84 million yuan last year (about HK$609.96 million), down from 900.26 million yuan in 2001. Chairman Wu Xiaoan said the saloon venture, which will ultimately be able to produce 70,000 of its Zhonghua saloons and 30,000 BMW models, would be the company's growth driver. The company will spend up to 800 million yuan this year to bolster annual mini-bus production capacity to 120,000 units from the present 70,000 units. April 28, 2003 Hong Kong: People across Hong Kong yesterday sent messages of gratitude to medical staff battling the Sars outbreak, while their donations pushed Project Shield through the $3 million mark. Taiwan yesterday announced that people arriving from Hong Kong, the mainland and other Sars-infected areas will be placed in quarantine on arrival. The Hong Kong government yesterday warned of the "adverse implications'' arising from Taiwan's move to quarantine visitors, and urged the island's authorities to lift what it described as "unnecessary'' measures. Twelve people in Hong Kong died of atypical pneumonia yesterday, giving the city the world's highest death toll from the outbreak. China: US President George W. Bush has offered to help China curb the spread of Sars. Mr Bush spoke by telephone to President Hu Jintao over the weekend. He offered his condolences for the victims and said the US would provide "any possible support and assistance" in the battle to curtail the spread of the deadly virus, Xinhua reported yesterday. More than 4,000 people have been quarantined in the capital. Schools, cinemas and other entertainment complexes have been closed and road blocks set up in an effort to stop infected people spreading the disease. Inspectors were disinfecting trains, buses and the wheels of cars yesterday, and performing random temperature checks on people leaving the city. Wolfgang Preiser has learned a special lesson as an adviser to the World Health Organization (WHO) battling Sars on the front lines for the past five weeks - rumors can be true on the mainland. While health experts like Dr Preiser are more used to dealing with scientific facts, rumors of Sars cases led experts to Beijing military hospitals, where they found patients were being left off the city's official tally.
The Bank of China (BOC) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) are facing charges of fraud for their alleged involvement in the liquidation of Tele-Art, a bankrupt consumer products components maker, once listed on Nasdaq. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin wound up a weekend visit to China saying he saw a new spirit of openness in relations between the two countries. "I have the impression of a certain opening-up," Mr Raffarin said before he departed for Paris. "Up until now I had the feeling that relations [between France and China] were very formal and not very concrete at all," he said, speaking after signing a series of trade deals including one for the sale of 30 Airbus passenger planes and another for the building of a conventional power station. The French prime minister, who arrived on the mainland on Friday, was the first Western leader to visit the country since the new government took over in March. He also braved warnings about the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. At a meeting with members of the French community in Beijing before leaving China, Mr Raffarin urged them not to panic in the face of the outbreak. "We must face with determination, cool-headedness and clarity the difficulties we have to overcome," he said. The two prime ministers oversaw the signing of a 30-plane deal between Airbus and the Civil Aviation Administration of China in a deal that is expected to be worth more than one billion euros (HK$8.6 billion). April 25 - 27, 2003 Hawaii: Fear of SARS Hurting Hawaii Chinatown, Business and Hawaii's Tourism - "It's scary," said Johnson W. K. Choi, tax consultant and president of the Hong Kong China Hawai'i Chamber of Commerce. "A lot of people are very, very concerned." .....Please enter here for complete story from Honolulu Advertiser
Cathay Pacific Airways on Friday sought to assure passengers that it would safeguard their health and combat the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) inside aircraft cabins. International credit rating agency Fitch Ratings cut its outlook for Hong Kong's currency yesterday, saying the outbreak of atypical pneumonia will hurt the economy, unemployment, deflation and the government's finances. Fitch's ratings for the dollar had been higher than that of other agencies. Economic growth in East Asia this year will be nearly a percentage point lower than last year as the outbreak of atypical pneumonia takes its toll on business and tourism, the World Bank said yesterday. Sars will cost East Asian economies US$15 billion this year. Analysts are
warning that Cathay Pacific Airways could be facing the worst year in its
history, as the airline's directors meet next month to consider the
unprecedented move of slashing its previously announced final dividend payout
for the past financial year. China is expected come under the spotlight for failing to stem the initial outbreak of Sars in its territory when East Asian health ministers meet here on Saturday over the crisis which has wreaked havoc on the region. That China did not alert the world to the fact of a mysterious form of pneumonia infecting people in the southern province of Guangdong as early as November has sparked criticism from its Southeast Asian neighbors and other countries. Analysts say delegates to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ministerial meeting, a prelude to a regional Sars summit in Bangkok on April 29, are likely to seek greater openness and transparency from the mainland. Despite their frustrations, however, Asean countries are unlikely to openly confront Beijing over its earlier cover-up because the mainland remains a huge export market, they say. WHO officials have also predicted the virus would exact a greater toll on Shanghai. But they said the number of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) cases in Shanghai would probably be less than in Beijing and Shanxi province - the two hardest-hit areas of the mainland. WHO experts in Shanghai are continuing their visits to hospital and the Shanghai Centre for Disease Control. They will return to Beijing on Saturday. On Wednesday, the WHO advised against travel to Beijing and Shanxi province. Beijing has accounted for more than two-thirds of the mainland's Sars cases. Chinese airlines signed contracts at a ceremony on Friday to buy 30 Airbus A320 and A330 planes. The signing ceremony between the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the European aircraft manufacturer took place at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. It was inked in the presence of visiting French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Other deals set to be concluded during Mr Raffarin's visit are likely to involve French engineering and transport group Alstom, insurance company Groupama and bank Credit Lyonnais, sources said. New figures from the World Trade Organization (WTO) show China's merchandise exports jumped 22 percent last year to $325.6 billion, while imports rose an equally impressive 21 percent to $295.2 billion. No other trading nation in the top 10 came even close to that level of growth. The world leader, the United States, saw its exports fall 5 percent in 2002 from the previous year. Exports by third-ranked Japan rose 3 percent, while second-ranked Germany posted a 7 percent rise. China's two-way trade flow totaled $620.8 billion, behind the U.S. with $1806 billion, Germany $1105.5 billion, Japan $752.4 billion and France $655.9 billion. Rounding out the top 10 are the U.K. with $615.7 billion, Italy $493.1 billion, Canada $480.1 billion, Netherlands $461.1 billion and Belgium $408.9 billion. Of total world merchandise trade flows of just over $13.1 trillion, the top 10 traders accounted for $7.4 trillion, or 56 percent. The U.S. share is 13.78 percent, while China has 4.73 percent. But even if China's economic growth this year contracts from its first-quarter rate of 10 percent to about five or six percent for the full year, its trade growth is likely to well outstrip that, as it continues to receive the lion's share of offshore investment into Asia. At anywhere near a 10 percent growth rate in merchandise trade, China will overtake France by the end of this year and begin closing on Japan, which has long held the mantle of Asia's greatest trading nation. China ranks No. 10 in services, with two-way trade of $81.5 billion. In contrast, U.S. services trade in 2002 was $486.2 billion, followed by Germany on $237.7 billion, U.K. $219 billion, Japan $170 billion and France $148.3 billion. Asia's other export-dependent economies also rate high on the global trade ladder. In merchandise exports, Hong Kong ranks at No. 11, followed by South Korea at 12, Taiwan 14, Singapore 15, Malaysia 18, Thailand 24 and Australia 25. April 24, 2003
A detective police constable was found guilty on Wednesday of accepting bribes to provide assistance to a criminal suspect, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Thursday. Businesses hit hard by the Sars outbreak will receive help through cheap bank loans to pay staff wages under a $3.5 billion scheme announced yesterday. The Airport Authority is poised to unveil a package of measures aimed at helping airlines and franchise operators at Chek Lap Kok ride out the downturn in air travel through Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Tourism Board and the hotel industry will launch a worldwide campaign to restore travellers' confidence when the Sars outbreak is brought under control.
China: Vice-Premier Wu Yi is expected to be appointed health minister in what is seen as an unprecedented move to oversee the massive national effort to combat the Sars virus. The World Health Organisation last night advised against travel to Beijing after a further 105 Sars cases were reported in the city, where experts say the number infected has yet to peak. Mainland intellectuals have launched an Internet signature campaign urging the government to keep its promises on Sars. Beijing suspended classes in schools yesterday, giving an extended break to 1.7 million children. A team from the World Health Organization gained access to a Shanghai military hospital yesterday, as experts continue to probe the number of Sars cases in the city. The Chinese Football Association (CFA) will suspend all matches nationwide due to the escalating Sars outbreak, state media reported yesterday. Shanghai Auto Show is closing three days early, highlighting the threat which the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak poses to the mainland's economic prospects. Shares in Chinese companies took a pounding on the Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges yesterday as growing fears over the Sars outbreak washed away investor perceptions that the mainland was a haven of stable and robust growth. April 23, 2003 Hong Kong: Hong Kong's frontline workers in the battle against Sars are about to be rewarded with the establishment of a $200 million fund to support medical staff. Amid a sea of anti-Tung sentiment, the shock sackings of two senior officials in Beijing over their mishandling of the Sars outbreak are poised to usher in subtle changes and more uncertainties in the Hong Kong political scene. Cathay Pacific Airways last night announced further temporary flight cuts due to plunging passenger demand in the wake of the atypical pneumonia outbreak and the war in Iraq. Hong Kong's largest banking group has seen no material business fallout as a result of the mounting public health crisis but says the government should do more to avert economic damage even if that worsens the Budget deficit. Many mainland insurance companies say Sars sufferers holding medical policies will largely be covered despite fine-print exclusions that seem to rule out compensation. China: Beijing authorities have begun a massive campaign to identify and isolate people who could be severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) patients, sending hundreds of investigators to round up those with symptoms, state press said on Wednesday. As of April 21, the number of proven Sars cases in Beijing stood at 588. An additional 666 suspected cases have been identified. Public schools in Beijing are to close Thursday for two weeks, affecting some 1.7 million students, the city's education commission said amid mounting efforts to stem the spread of the deadly Sars virus. Tests for primary, middle and high school students also have been postponed indefinitely, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Municipal Education Commission said Wednesday. The deadly pneumonia known as Sars bit deep into US-China educational exchanges overnight (HK time), as students returned home early from Chinese study trips and a prestigious international affairs school cut short spring studies in Nanjing. The last of around 45 students studying in the northeastern city of Harbin and Beijing on sojourns arranged through Washington firm CET Academic Programs arrived back in New York via Tokyo on Tuesday. Johns-Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), also based in Washington, said in a statement it had agreed with Nanjing University to end the semester, set to run to May 6, on April 22. April 22, 2003 China: Attendances and sales at the annual Guangzhou export fair have dropped dramatically due to fears related to the Sars outbreak. Organizers of the 12-day 93rd China Export Commodities Fair said the value of orders taken on the first six days of the event totaled US$2.2 billion (HK$17.16 billion), the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolitan News reported yesterday. The fair, which starts its final session on Friday, has been attended by about 15,000 foreign visitors, the newspaper said. The mainland's tourism industry has started counting the cost of the cancellation of the traditional long holiday for Labour Day, with some travel agencies describing the decision as nothing short of disaster. "It's a big loss and a real disaster for us. I don't know how much money we will lose since the cancellations are still coming in," said an executive of the Shanghai Spring International Travel Service.
Mainland stock prices were pummelled yesterday by mounting fears over China's worsening severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak. China Mobile (Hong Kong) has for the first time posted single-digit profit, confirming investor concerns that the mobile giant's rate of growth is slowing after years of expansion. Hong Kong: Easing the cash-flow problems of sectors suffering from the Sars outbreak will be the Hong Kong government's priority when it announces a long-awaited package of relief measures, an official source said yesterday. The sacking of two officials by the central government over reporting of the Sars outbreak on the mainland has put some pressure on Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to do a better job, according to academics and politicians. Two hundred thousand secondary school students will return to class today, wearing face masks and undergoing mandatory temperature checks, after a three-week suspension of classes because of the Sars outbreak. April 21, 2003 China: China fired its health minister and Beijing's mayor on Sunday after reporting an alarming spike in SARS deaths and cases in the capital, a tacit admission that officials had earlier hidden the extent of the disease. Chinese authorities said at least 12 more people were killed and 300 more were infected by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus, almost all in Beijing. They also canceled the week-long May Day holiday to discourage people from traveling and further spreading the disease.
China has not been invited to join Asean leaders for their one-day Sars summit later this month, a Thai foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday. The decision is an apparent U-turn after it was reported on Friday that China had been invited to attend the session. China plans to break up its tobacco monopoly over the next two years and permit one of its biggest tobacco firms to list on the stock market, mainland publication the Business Post reported yesterday. April 18 - 20, 2003 Hawaii: The Hawaii state Legislature is at it again - the majority is trying to raise Hawaii taxes an unprecedented $430 million. Hawaii business is paying the forth highest taxes in the nation. Rick Hamada of KHVH Radio and the Hawaii Reporter at http://www.HawaiiReporter.com are asking people to attend a rally coordinated by Rick Hamada during his morning broadcast from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. with the theme 'NO MORE TAXES!"
After more than a year of research, the highly anticipated report, “A New Economy in Hawaii. Benchmarking Hawaii’s Progress in the New Economy,” is now available to the business community. The nonprofit organization, Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs, today released 2,000 copies of its 72-page document (a four-color, glossy booklet). “It looks at the economy from a broad-based standpoint,” says William M. Kaneko, an attorney who also is the president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs. The report also goes beyond clichéd discussions of Hawaii as a high-tech center, he says. The report’s goal is to be a reference tool for public-policy decision-makers and business leaders. Download the complete report in PDF format (7.3 meg file size) Direct link to Hawaii Business Magazine China: DaimlerChrysler is closing in on a joint venture agreement to manufacture Mercedes sedans in Guangzhou, according to industry sources.
Businesses are giving everything from cash to stickers to virtual thank-you cards to help this weekend's Operation Unite cleanup campaign to fight Sars.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis will hurt the mainland's growth this year, a senior economics official said yesterday. April 17, 2003 Hong Kong: Hong Kong's schools will open in stages from next Tuesday, officials announced yesterday, after the number of new Sars cases and deaths declined for the first time in a week. The Secretary for Education and Manpower, Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, said that Secondary Three level and above would resume classes after the Easter break. Hopes rose in Hong Kong's battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) yesterday with the announcement that local scientists have made a breakthrough that will speed development of a vaccine. The leader of the research team at the University of Hong Kong, Professor Frederick Leung, announces the breakthrough in the genetic sequencing of the Sars virus yesterday. After weeks of fear, local university researchers say better treatment and drugs are on the way, while the death toll and infection rate drops on the same day a decision is made to reopen schools. A coronavirus specimen - weighing just one-millionth of a gram and taken from the lungs of a patient who died in Toronto - has played a key in the global fight against the deadly Sars. The outbreak of the deadly Sars virus has cost Asia nearly US$11 billion (HK$85 billion) and the figure could rise, it was reported on Thursday. China: Despite the Sars crisis, ratings agency Standard & Poor's yesterday upgraded from "stable" to "positive" its outlook for China's long-term, foreign-currency sovereign credit rating. Analysts say China needs to keep on the path to reform to stimulate growth. The foundations are being laid for a more market-oriented economy with less reliance on government spending to maintain growth.
April 16, 2003
Hong Kong's information technology (IT) market declined 13.8 per cent last year and would be hit even harder in the year ahead due to the Sars virus, research firm IDC Asia-Pacific said on Tuesday. China: Sina.com, one of the mainland's most popular Web sites, has joined about 200 Internet portals in a government-backed search engine alliance which challenges global giants such as Google. Guangdong's economy grew an impressive 13 per cent in the first quarter and is expected to grow by more than 11 per cent this year - despite the global slump and the atypical pneumonia outbreak, Guangdong Statistics Bureau director Pu Xinmin said yesterday.
April 15, 2003 China: China's economy grew by 9.9 per cent year on year during the first quarter, the fastest quarterly growth in six years, officials announced yesterday. Complementing the good news were other positive economic indicators, chief among them a rise of 17.2 per cent in industrial output, a 27 per cent surge in fixed-asset investment and a 40 per cent leap in foreign trade volumes. Foreign direct investment rose 57 per cent, to US$13.1 billion (HK$102.2 billion), the Ministry of Commerce also reported. Furthermore M2, the broadest measure of money supply, rose 18.5 per cent in March from a year ago, after rising 18.1 per cent in February. The government is encouraging state-owned banks to lend more to keep the economy growing by 7 per cent a year. Who wants to marry a Shanghai millionaire? An introverted millionaire with a hot temper, that is. A man claiming to be the wealthy chairman of a private company has placed adverts in several newspapers desperately seeking a virgin bride. He Xin, a lawyer handling the replies, said more than 1,000 women had responded to the ad - headed "Successful gentleman sincerely seeks ideal mate".
China: H-share Sinopec Beijing Yanhua Petrochemical, China's largest producer of resins and plastics, is holding joint-venture talks with foreign firms to capitalize on domestic demand. General manager Xu Hongxing said it was discussing a possible joint investment with German chemical and healthcare giant Bayer in producing rubber materials for China's car tyre industry. The company said it was also in talks with Japan's Mitsubishi Engineering about co-operation in plastic products used in the car industry and with Netherlands-based chemicals group DSM about producing rubber for the medical industry. Hong Kong: Heavy doses of potent anti-viral drugs will be given early to patients in a new Hospital Authority strategy to improve the effectiveness of treatment and ease the burden on intensive-care wards. However, a pharmacology professor warned the anti-viral treatments used - Ribavirin and steroids - could have serious side-effects including heart and liver damage and severe anaemia. Speaking at Legco's health services panel yesterday, Ko Wing-man, acting chief executive of the Hospital Authority, said: "In normal cases, doctors have to confirm diagnoses and weigh up the risk of the treatment before they prescribe drugs. However, the practice no longer works in this case. Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Thomas Yiu Kei-chung told Legco that the government had arranged for about 300 Home Ownership Scheme flats in Kowloon to be used as temporary hostels for medical staff who refused to go home to avoid infecting their families. April 14, 2003 China: President Hu Jintao made a crisis visit to Guangdong at the weekend, meeting Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa to discuss the worsening Sars situation. Mr. Hu's personal intervention - only revealed after his visit was over - came as Premier Wen Jiabao delivered the leadership's most serious portrayal yet of the dangers of the crisis. Urgent action was needed to stop it paralyzing the country, the premier said. He urged government officials to be fully aware of the "importance and urgency" of the prevention and treatment of Sars, saying it has "a bearing on the overall situation of China". The statements, made at a conference in Beijing on the control of the virus, underline the concern among the senior leadership, who until recently had not publicly acknowledged the outbreak. Mr. Hu said authorities were ready to meet the challenge presented by the outbreak of Sars. He also pledged to assist Hong Kong with medical supplies, and expressed confidence in the ability of Mr. Tung's administration to combat the virus. Mr Hu is the first senior government leader to visit Guangdong since the outbreak began. The secrecy surrounding his visit is unusual, given that the official media normally reports extensively on the activities of the leadership. Even government officials in Guangzhou seemed unaware yesterday that the president had been in the province visiting. "I don't know about this," said foreign affairs office spokeswoman Su Caifang. Guangdong is going ahead with its biannual Guangzhou trade fair this week despite the global concern over the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak. Hundreds of foreign participants have already cancelled plans to attend the 83rd China Commodities Fair, which starts tomorrow and runs in two sessions, the first until Sunday, and then from April 25 to 30. In a bid to reassure foreign visitors, organizers are taking a number of measures, including putting three hospitals with the most experience in treating Sars on alert and setting up medical teams at the fair venue and at hotels. Guangzhou International Travel Service's inbound manager, He Jiebin, said all her group clients for the fair, numbering about 1,000 people from India, Russia, Europe, the US and Malaysia, had cancelled. The world-recognized fair is very important to China because of the significant volume of export orders transacted. Last spring, the fair secured a record US$16.85 billion (HK$131 billion) in export orders - 14 per cent of China's total annual exports. Hong Kong: Japan's largest carriers are expected to miss first-half sales forecasts by a combined 100 billion yen (about HK$6.46 billion) as the Iraq war and the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) force airlines to slash hundreds of flights in the region. The Airport Authority said yesterday the Sars outbreak was hurting its core business, with more than 30 per cent of flights cancelled and passenger throughput down 60 per cent in recent days. Analysts have played down the prospect of Cathay Pacific Airways grounding its entire fleet. According to the RTHK Web site, the airline's director of corporate development Tony Tyler said the airline would have to respond to circumstances, but stressed it had no plans to ground its fleet. Bank of China International's head of transport and logistics research Michael Chan said: "Financially, Cathay is one of the strongest airlines in the world although it has been badly hit in the Sars crisis. "Cathay has reduced more than one-third of its capacity so far and there's room for a further cut." Cathay had liquid funds of HK$13.18 billion at the end of last year, enough to hold up the airline for 563 days even if it continues to lose US$3 million a day - a figure disclosed in Cathay's internal memorandum that was leaked to the media last Saturday. Hong Kong: Software giant Microsoft Corp has filed a complaint against Lucent Technologies to counter claims by Lucent that Microsoft's hardware partners were infringing on the telecommunications equipment maker's patents. April 11 - 13, 2003 Hong Kong: All passengers leaving Hong Kong will have their temperature taken at Chek Lap Kok airport before they are allowed to board a plane, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa announced yesterday in an attempt to reassure people overseas about the spread of atypical pneumonia. Cathay is carrying just one-third the number of passengers it did this time last year, with fears over the spread of Sars and conflict in Iraq prompting a collapse in air travel. The spread of Sars accelerated yesterday as Hong Kong saw its victim toll jump through the 1,000 barrier, with 61 new infections representing the biggest daily rise in 10 days. Guangdong and Hong Kong health officials held their first government-to-government meeting yesterday and agreed to set up an expert team within days to strengthen co-operation on Sars, including improving reporting mechanisms. China: Overseas buyers spooked by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) virus may be cancelling their trips to Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta. But Hong Kong's famously flexible manufacturers have hit on a range of measures to keep their trade alive. The Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges have put aside a fierce rivalry to launch a jointly developed range of energy derivative products, marking the first co-operative venture between the two centres. China's Shanghai Composite Index surged to a 26-week high yesterday, buoyed by hopes of accelerating economic growth and a more investor friendly regulatory environment.
China: CNBC Asia-Pacific has entered into a strategic partnership with Shanghai Media Group (SMG) under which the two companies will exchange content and split advertising revenue from shared programming.
April 10, 2003
Hong Kong: An aggressive price war between mobile operators will do little to hurt Sunday Communication's quest for its first profitability this year, according to group managing director Bruce Hicks. Sunday last week announced a HK$88 for 500 minutes monthly tariff plan - 10 per cent higher than the plans offered by four of its rival operators. Sunday, one of the two loss-making operators, trimmed its loss by 45 per cent to HK$117 million. No 1 mobile operator Hutchison Telecom also failed to make a profit last year. Mr. Hicks said last month that Sunday had made a profit in the first quarter, and promised the company would become profitable for the year.
Despite the atypical pneumonia outbreak, Beijing officials announced yesterday that the Boao Forum for Asia will continue as scheduled for May 18 and 19. Beijing stepped into the vanguard of the Chinese political reform movement yesterday, as city officials announced two broad-based programmes of administrative reform echoing those announced in Shenzhen last year. A US prosecutor warned that a human rights lawsuit against Li Peng - who was premier at the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protest - might have "grave consequences" for ties between the two nations. April 9, 2003
April 8, 2003 China: Affluence will meet effluence on the shores of Shanghai by 2007: the city plans to build a beach to cater to a growing middle class seeking leisure activities. Four design institutions are working on the five billion yuan (HK$4.7 billion) project, which will transform a 10km stretch of barren coast into golden sand. China: This month's Xin Caifu (New Fortune) magazine will release a list of the 400 richest people in China, a rival to that published for the past four years by the American Forbes magazine. Larry Yung Chi-kin, chairman of Citic Pacific, gets top billing as the richest mainland Chinese, worth US$736 million (HK$5.7 billion), according to the list. The New Fortune top 10 includes six of the same people who appear on the Forbes list for last year, which also put Mr Yung at No 1, with US$850 million in assets. New Fortune ranks Lu Guanqiu, chairman of car-parts company the Wanxiang Group, second with US$631 million, and Huang Guangyu, chairman of the home appliances and property conglomerate Pengrun Group of Beijing, third with US$564 million. Only one woman made the New Fortune top 10 - Chen Lihua, the chairman of the Fu Hua Group of Beijing, whose business is real estate and sandalwood furniture. It gave her assets as US$464 million. China: President Hu Jintao personally intervened to stop the closure of the controversial weekly newspaper 21st Century World Herald, according to high-placed mainland media sources. The tabloid was temporarily suspended on March 13 after publishing an interview with Li Rui, a liberal-minded party elder who was a former secretary of Mao Zedong. In a March 3 article, published to coincide with the National People's Congress meeting, Mr. Li called for more democracy within the Communist Party and criticized the leadership for not adequately promoting the rule of law. Mr. Hu has hinted that he has a progressive attitude towards the media. He reportedly told media officials that he disliked the format of China Central Television news broadcasts and publicly called for more real news coverage instead of a focus on officials at meetings and on inspection tours. Hong Kong: Hong Kong's CSL joined its Australian parent Telstra, Malaysia's Maxis, Singapore's MobileOne (M1) and Smart of the Philippines to form the Asia Mobility Initiative (AMI) and establish a common portal with high-speed application services. Five Asian mobile operators serving a combined 20 million customers formed an alliance yesterday to develop data services and capture data roaming revenue. Analysts believed the alliance was a step towards co-operation on a larger scale. Hong Kong's largest information technology firms are confident the contingency plans they have in place will get their businesses and employees through the atypical pneumonia crisis unscathed. Technology firms and academics are keeping basic education and business going in Hong Kong, despite the lingering public health crisis. China: Zhongguancun, the central government's 200-billion-yuan (S$43.4-billion) dream of a national high-tech park, will have to jostle with Beijing's Central Business District (CBD) in attracting top-notch tenants and talent. The irony is that the CBD, in the heart of the bustling Chaoyang district, does not even exist. Buildings on its drawing board are slated to be ready only in 2006. But already, high-profile organizations have announced plans to be based there. Among them is China Central Television (CCTV), which is constructing a US$600-million (S$1-billion) headquarters that boasts theatres, visitor centers and public amenities. CCTV will sit among five million sq m of office space, 2.5 million sq m of residential units and another 2.5 million sq m set aside for cultural and entertainment facilities. Developers have also tried to attract clients by advertising their proximity to the CBD and the wide array of restaurants, bars and even exclusive gyms in Chaoyang district, giving publicity to the mega project. April 7, 2003
The main winners: Best Film: Infernal Affairs Hong Kong: Canada announced its eighth death from Sars yesterday, as Chinese-Canadians in Toronto expressed worries over a racist backlash blaming them for the introduction and spread of the virus. Another death on April 1 is being investigated as a possible Sars case. A positive post-mortem diagnosis has not yet been made. Community leaders and anti-racism campaigners said Chinese-owned restaurants and businesses were facing unofficial boycotts. One restaurant in the largely Asian suburb of Scarborough took out newspaper advertisements to deny rumours that a kitchen worker had been infected.
China: World Health Organization director general Gro Harlem Brundtland has publicly criticised China for its handling of the deadly pneumonia outbreak, the BBC reported on Monday. April 4 - 6, 2003 Hong Kong: British Airways and Qantas announced last night that they are dropping non-stop Hong Kong services in response to the World Health Organization's travel advisory on the atypical pneumonia outbreak. It was a rare sight at Lowu: trains half-full and no queues in front of the immigration counters on the eve of the Ching Ming Festival, when tens of thousands of families usually dash across the border to sweep the graves of their ancestors on the mainland. The showcases of jewelers from Hong Kong, Singapore and China remained empty at the World Watch and Jewelry Show in Zurich this week. The traders were not allowed to present their products for fears that the SARS virus might spread. All hygiene black spots across Hong Kong will be cleaned to stop the spread of atypical pneumonia, Secretary of Home Affairs Patrick Ho Chi-ping said yesterday.
China: Intel's cancellation of developer forums in Taipei and Beijing may lend more weight to warnings by analysts who say severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) could eventually cripple the hi-tech industry if doctors can't control the disease soon. The China market helped chipmaker Intel avoid a decline in revenues last year, with the mainland's contribution jumping 37 per cent year on year to US$3.2 billion. A medical official yesterday apologized for China's failure to give the public more information about the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).
Growth Enterprise Market listing committee chairman Lo Ka-shui has resigned, adding to the uncertainty the board faces under the government's controversial stock exchange reform plans. The government will invite companies to stake their claims for the management contract of Hong Kong's HK$3 billion digital trade transport network (DTTN), according to logistics industry sources. Tradelink, the government's minority-owned vehicle for the electronic transmission of regulatory documents, yesterday presented its case to run the network to the Logistics Council. It is believed at least three other companies have made informal inquiries about forming and managing the DTTN. The DTTN, as laid out in the Accenture group's HK$5 million report on the initiative, is an electronic nerve centre through which all modes of trade transport can be managed and documented. The deadline for formal submissions is April 30. China: The China market helped chipmaker Intel Corp avoid a decline in revenues last year, with the mainland's contribution jumping 37 per cent year on year to US$3.2 billion. A team of World Health Organisation (WHO) epidemiologists arrived in Guangdong yesterday to search for answers about the origins of Sars. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) is effectively under control in Guangdong, the health minister said yesterday.
April 3, 2003 Hong Kong: The World Health Organization yesterday warned travelers not to visit Hong Kong or Guangdong, in an unprecedented move aimed at preventing the spread of atypical pneumonia. China: Under mounting criticism at home and abroad over its handling of the pneumonia outbreak, the central government yesterday suddenly opened a floodgate of co-operation and said the fight against Sars was a top priority. The first cases of Sars have been traced back to people eating or handling birds in Guangdong, according to a top health expert from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hong Kong: Struggling Cable & Wireless (C&W) has named a veteran of the telecommunications industry, Francesco Caio, as its new chief executive as it tries to restore confidence in the 131-year-old firm. April 2, 2003
China: The United States has issued its annual report card on China's human rights - and, for the first time in years, it praises improvements. Human rights are no longer being eroded in China, it says. The European Union, too, cited positive developments in a report yesterday. In a clear indication that China's rigid official news media has to change to stay relevant, the new propaganda chief, Li Changchun, has urged a different approach to covering government meetings and reporting on leaders. Former Premier Zhu Rongji's heavy-handed approach to cracking down on tax cheats was controversial but has proven to be extraordinarily successful. The central government announced yesterday that tax revenues had risen by more than 27 per cent year-on-year in the year to March, reaching 436 billion yuan (about HK$408.66 billion), up 95 billion from the previous period last year. "I hear many rich people are paying taxes these days," said Huang Yiping, China economist at US brokerage house Salomon Smith Barney in Hong Kong. Though tax revenues are up, the government still needs to address the tax discrimination against domestic enterprises, which pay a 33 per cent profits tax, while most foreign investors have been granted years of rebates off the 33 per cent profit tax. April 1, 2003
Hong Kong: Yet another investment bank has cut its forecast for Hong Kong's economic growth this year in the face of the atypical pneumonia outbreak. Several other banks are planning reports this week that may result in more lowered forecasts. Investors yesterday reacted to gloomy forecasts about the economic damage the widening outbreak of atypical pneumonia is inflicting on Hong Kong by sending the market to a 4.5-year low. The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong is forcing companies to turn to telecommuting as an increasing number of employees are being advised to work from home. International concern over the virulent, global outbreak of atypical pneumonia is growing with a fourth casualty in Canada and new possible cases reported yesterday in France. Inbound tourism has practically ground to a halt while hotel occupancy has fallen by up to 20 per cent amid the atypical pneumonia outbreak. China: China has installed safety systems to ensure that its first manned space shot, now just months away, does not end in a disaster like the final flight of the American space shuttle Columbia, state media said yesterday. The systems are designed to rescue astronauts from danger or mishaps at any time during the flight, according to an article on the website of the Communist Party's People's Daily. Astronauts can escape the pod before lift-off via cables, high-speed elevator or ejection seats, the article said. During orbit, they can exit the craft and be picked up by another spaceship. On re-entry, the stage during which Columbia broke apart, Chinese astronauts can escape by ejecting or reducing speed, said the article, entitled Safety of Chinese Astronauts Guaranteed and Emergency Escape Assured. March 31, 2003 China: Motorola plans to bid aggressively for other government and utilities contracts in Greater China after winning a US$69 million deal to upgrade the Hong Kong Police Force's mobile communications system. The United States firm will replace the police's existing CC2 system with the advanced CC3 in phases starting next year. It will provide nearly 10,000 wireless devices as well as integrating and maintaining the digital network. The system migration will be completed in 2006. "The system gives police access to license checks on vehicles and access to the criminal data-base," said John Cryer, director of business development for major projects for Motorola's Commercial Government and Industrial Solutions Sector (CGISS). He said all data transmission would be encrypted. Police in Beijing, Shanghai and Taiwan already used Motorola's communications systems, he said. Other customers in the region included the MTRC, Shanghai Pudong Airport and Taiwan High Speed Rail. The company was eyeing government units at state and provincial level in China as well as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. "We are targeting every single police force, government departments and railways," said John Gherghetta, Asia-Pacific vice-president of global marketing and sales for CGISS.
March 28 - 30, 2003
China: Germany's Infineon Technologies said on Thursday it had extended a deal with Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) to boost its output of computer memory chips. The move, which builds on a production deal agreed between the two companies in December, reflects Infineon's strategy of concluding manufacturing agreements with foundry partners, allowing it to increase output while keeping fixed costs down. TAIWAN: Watching its once world-beating computer manufacturing industry ebb away to China, is striving to acquire a new specialty - research and development. Taiwan faces a tough task in transforming its manufacturing economy into a knowledge-based one, despite its early victories in luring household names like HP, Dell and Sony to set up R&D centers. Two big question marks are Taiwan's lack of a large talented labor force and meagre domestic corporate spending on research. "I am kind of doubtful about the plan because the personnel problem can be a major obstacle," said Lin Chu-chia, an economics professor at National Chengchi University. "The quality of our R&D people in the design and application sector is not bad, but there aren't many of them," he said.
China: Guangzhou has been given the green light to start building a container terminal at Nansha and is in talks with potential foreign investors, according to a senior municipal official. Phase I construction of four berths at the port was formally approved last week by the State Development and Reform Commission and would be completed by September next year, Li Guorong, director of Guangzhou's Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation, said yesterday.
China: China's dominant offshore oil producer CNOOC, with a 16.1 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit last year to 9.23 billion yuan (about HK$8.66 billion), may buy downstream gas assets from its parent. Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical is studying the use of oil futures contracts as a hedging tool to better control crude costs, which accounted for 57.65 per cent of material costs last year. March 27, 2003
Newly formed power transmission giant State Grid Corp of China yesterday unveiled key growth targets and development policies for the mainland power industry. General Motors' (GM) mainland joint venture had a fourfold gain in profit last year after rising incomes and easier financing lifted sales of its Buick and Sail cars in Asia's fastest-growing market. The atypical pneumonia outbreak and the Iraq war have dealt a double blow to Guangzhou's economy as tourists cancel bookings and business travellers hold off on confirming plans to attend next month's giant China Export Commodity Fair. A Beijing university has formed an elite class that aims to turn its top students into Nobel Prize winners. Each of the 34 students from the Aviation and Aerospace University selected for the class has been assigned a noted academic to personally tutor them throughout the course. The university said it hoped to foster talent in the sciences and win Nobel Prizes for China. Of the more than 500 Nobel Prize winners to date, only a handful are ethnically Chinese, and most hold foreign citizenship. In recent years elements in the local media have highlighted this poor record. Hong Kong: Hong Kong's dominant free-to-air broadcaster, Television Broadcasts (TVB), avoided a profit decline last year, helped by a turnaround of its Taiwan television and publishing operations. Hong Kong and China Gas (Towngas) is planning to build a 30km pipeline as part of a scheme to partially replace its naphtha feedstock with cheaper natural gas. The Rolling Stones announced on Thursday that they have cancelled their concerts in Hongkong over the weekend citing fears over the fast-spreading atypical pneumonia which has claimed 10 lives in the city so far. March 26, 2003
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Members of staff at Tuen Mun Hospital
attend a memorial service for their colleague Lau Wing-kai, who died on Saturday
hailed a hero by Chief
Executive Tung Chee-hwa.
Shun Lee Catholic school pupils
in Kwun Tong have their temperatures checked with an infrared scanner yesterday.
China:
The Shanghai government is
considering a proposal to invest up to 10 billion yuan (about HK$9.37 billion)
over the next five years building a "cruise city" on the Shanghai waterfront to
receive luxury liners and tap a new market among mainland tourists.
Hong Kong:
Specimens of endangered Siberian tiger cubs are displayed among other illegal
animal specimens confiscated after a crackdown by police in Changsha, central
China, on Friday. Trade in endangered animals in China is punishable by fine,
jail and sometimes even life imprisonment in cases involving the Giant Panda.
China:
Hong Kong:
China:
Hong Kong:
