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December 31, 2005 - January 2, 2006 Happy New Year
Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho said 2009-10 would be "too early" for Macau to tackle political reform of its electoral system. Hong Kong on Thursday said it had partially lifted a ban on United States beef imports that became effective two years ago. About 35 South Korean protesters marched through Hong Kong on Thursday, demanding that charges be dropped against 11 family members and comrades arrested at a WTO riot in this city. The case of Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, whose detention on the mainland has entered its eighth month, is to be referred to prosecutors by the end of next week, the chief executive said. The value of new home loans drawn down by borrowers fell for the sixth consecutive month last month as fears of interest rate rises continued to weigh on an increasingly sluggish property market.
China is putting its marathon anti-graft crackdown online, launching a website for the public to report corrupt officials, state media said on Thursday. The site adds to efforts to assure China's public that the ruling Communist Party takes complaints seriously at a time when many say they face retaliation for reporting abuses. The new site is run by the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday. Liu Fengyan, the commission's deputy secretary, said it marks "another step forward by the government in curbing corruption through the introduction of strict prevention and punishment measures", according to Xinhua. Beijing has punished thousands of officials in an effort to stem graft and other abuses that have outraged China's public, threatening to erode acceptance of communist rule. On Tuesday, a former Cabinet minister was sentenced to life in prison on charges of taking bribes. The new website offers Chinese villagers and others a way to lodge complaints while avoiding local authorities, who some complain refuse to take action or retaliate against petitioners. Mr Liu said more than 67,000 songs with anti-corruption themes were composed and over 24,000 singing concerts held in the past year "to educate key officials about self-discipline", the report said. By 2020, renewable energy is expected to account for 15 percent of national consumption, up from the current seven percent.
China's stock indexes rose to the highest in two months Wednesday. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec, gained after it announced it would receive government subsidies to cover the cost of increasing oil prices. JAPANESE Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said yesterday that he will strive to develop friendly ties with China in 2006 after a year in which bilateral relations hit their lowest in decades. Political ties between the two nations went into deep freeze following a series of bilateral spats over history textbooks, disputed gas fields and violent anti-Japanese protests in several Chinese cities in April. Ties with South Korea have also soured over Japan's refusal to atone for wartime atrocities.
December 30, 2005
Retired officers upset by Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun's criticism of the police handling of WTO protesters called off a planned sit-in at the Caine Road cathedral just hours before it was due to start last night.
Analysts said that the entry into the IOPS would allow the country a say in international regulations about commercial pensions and promote the healthy development of the country's commercial pension market. By 2020, renewable energy is expected to account for 15 percent of national consumption, up from the current seven percent.
Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange has got the long-awaited go-ahead to trade sugar futures, an exchange official disclosed. However, the specific start date has not been decided.
Beijing reacted angrily yesterday to a US decision to place sanctions on six mainland companies for allegedly supplying Iran with military equipment and technology and demanded the trade bans be lifted. Information technology company Chinasoft International plans an outsourcing spending spree in China after its US$20 million capital injection from Microsoft and International Finance Corp (IFC) this September. December 29, 2005
An inquiry into allegations of insider dealing in securities of information technology group Vanda Systems and Communications Holdings - now called Hutchison Global Communications Holdings - has again been put on hold after complaints that hearings were being carried out unfairly. While many Hong Kongers are taking advantage of the brief interlude between Christmas and New Year to hunt for bargains, return unwanted gifts or sleep off lingering hangovers, a handful of locals are fighting desperately just to keep a roof over their heads. The mainland needs to tighten its criminal code to bolster its financial security and crack down on people manipulating the domestic and Hong Kong stock markets, according to Wang Maolin, a vice-chairman of the National People's Congress's (NPC) law committee.
Listing no longer required when approved, listing candidates will only need to sign a contract with the SSEwhich announced at the same time that the rules are amended to fit in with the new Securities Law and Company Law. The Sinopec Group, Asia's biggest oil refiner, will receive a one-time payment of 10 billion yuan (HK$9.61 billion) from the finance ministry to cover losses resulting from government price controls that prevent it from passing on the cost of imported crude oil to consumers. Mainland fabric makers face cotton price increases of as much as 15 percent and a squeeze on margins as the United States, the world's largest exporter of the commodity, eliminates export subsidies on the raw material in 2006, according to one manufacturer. Six city commercial banks in eastern China's Anhui province are merging in a bid to compete more effectively against their far bigger national rivals - the first such combination since mainland regulators eased restrictions that had precluded them from operating outside their home markets. December 28, 2005
China will spend an average of more than 1.5 billion yuan (US$185 million) annually in the next two years for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS almost double the 800 million yuan (US$98.7 million) earmarked for this year, Xinhua reported yesterday. Donald Tsang came away from what could have been a bad day with the boss Tuesday saying Beijing's support for his government is undiminished in the wake of last week's defeat of the government's political reform proposal. Hongkong Electric and its parent company Cheung Kong Infrastructure, both controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, will spend more than A$25 million (HK$141.7 million) to acquire and expand the telecoms business of its Australian subsidiary Powercor Holdings. What electricity giant CLP Power is touting as its latest "eco-friendly project" - the planting of about 30 bamboo palms on the roof of its new Tseung Kwan O substation - was actually just part of an "agreement" with star customer MTR Corp not to degrade the view of its new 33-hectare housing development, a CLP architect has revealed. Some 319,989 people left Hong Kong through different checkpoints on Boxing Day. The Immigration Department expects about 6.12 million people to travel through the checkpoints during the festive period, up 12.2 percent on the same period last year. A Hong Kong student was wounded during a shoot-out in a busy Toronto street that left one woman dead and six people injured. The deaths of two Hong Kong workers after a Macau construction site accident on Monday has brought calls for employees heading for the former enclave to take out adequate insurance cover and secure proper work permits.
China Energy Conservation Investment Corporation (CECIC), one of the country's flagship State-owned enterprises for alternative energy development, plans to invest at least 20 billion yuan (US$2.47 billion) over the next five years to build new projects across the nation. China raised interest rates on US dollar and Hong Kong dollar deposits yesterday, a move that analysts say is a response to higher interest rates on the international market.
An overwhelming 77 per cent of investors lost money on mainland stocks this year, with only 12 per cent making a profit and 11 per cent breaking even, according to a survey by China Securities Journal and Huading Market Survey Corp of Shenzhen. December 27, 2005
Lingbao Gold, China's second-largest gold miner, has already won orders to cover the full tranche allotted to institutional investors in the firm's HK$861 million initial public offering, and more will follow after the Christmas break, sources familiar with the deal said. The Hong Kong Housing Authority, which sold its entire stake in the Link Real Estate Investment Trust in an initial public offering last month, has come under heavy fire from politicians and some investors for failing to put in place safeguards that would protect the REIT's management from pressure by outside investors. Though their purchases have raised concern among politicians, the media and some investors, hedge funds are most likely buying big stakes in some local deals such as the Link Real Estate Investment Trust simply because they are attractively priced, market observers say. In a year that was marked by major government reshuffles, health scares and public unrest, Hong Kong has, quite convincingly, lived up to expectations that 2005 would be a banner year for the city's economic growth. Google and Microsoft Corp have ended their legal wrangling over the defection of Taiwan-born researcher Lee Kai-fu to the search engine firm in July that at times degenerated into a bitter public spat between the two technology giants. At first glance, Hutchison Whampoa's sale of a substantial stake in its telecommunications arm to a relatively unknown - in this part of the world at least - Egyptian operator bears all the marks of the conglomerate's recent history of using one-off gains to offset the spiralling cost of rolling out 3G.
Statistics with the SIPC show that only 2,000-plus Chinese enterprises, or every three out of 10,000 enterprises, have proprietary IPRs. Following the operational start-ups of 11 nuclear reactors in the south and east, China next year will begin building two nuclear plants which contain two reactors each, in Northeast China's Liaoning Province and East China's Shandong Province. US firm Citigroup, one of the world's leading financial services firms, has cleared the way for it to bid for a stake in Guangdong Development Bank (GDB) by ending the clause with its current Chinese partner which says it cannot invest in other Chinese lenders.
At least 26 people were killed and 11 injured in Zhongshan, Guangdong, when fire broke out at an unlicensed bar lacking the most basic fire escape facilities. The tragedy occurred at 10.55pm on Sunday at a bar in Tanzhou. Most of the victims were locals aged under 30 and none was reported to be from Hong Kong. December 24 - 26, 2005 Happy Holidays
Despite violent protests, traffic inconveniences and business losses caused by the World Trade Organization meetings taking over Wan Chai last week, Hong Kongers support the event because they think it will ultimately promote the SAR's reputation, a survey has found. The judge at the center of a high-profile Independent Commission Against Corruption case involving the secret recording of lawyer-client conversations erred when she failed to give the agency a fair chance to explain the bugging decision, the High Court has ruled. Hong Kong's only rape crisis center, which had been facing closure at the end of the year when its Jockey Club funding ends, was thrown a HK$1 million lifeline by the Community Chest. A doctor questions Hong Kong's strategy of relying on Tamiflu to fight bird flu after a strain resistant to the drug is implicated in deaths in Vietnam. But health chiefs are sticking by the antiviral. More than 6 million travellers are expected to pass through land border checkpoints during the Christmas and New Year holiday season, the Immigration Department said yesterday. Hang Seng Bank plans to sell its 43-year-old Hang Seng Building in Central next year and property consultants expect it to fetch more than $2 billion in light of a shortage of prime office space. New World Development will slash the size of its planned share sale by more than $2 billion in a move sources say will prevent some big-name investors facing scrutiny by the Takeovers and Mergers Panel. Businessman adventurer Simon Murray, best known for his role as Li Ka-shing's right-hand man at Hutchison Whampoa in the 1980s and 1990s, is joining Australian investment bank Macquarie as chairman of its Asian corporate finance arm.
Siemens will launch a massive campaign to tap into the business of digital television over the Internet, known as IPTV, in the Chinese market. China yesterday tried to allay fears it was a threat to its neighbors or the US by repeating in a State Council white paper it would remain peaceful. The paper was released by the State Council Information Office against a backdrop of mounting pressure from the US and Japan over the mainland's enormous economy and rising military power, and two days after the mainland revised last year's GDP figures upwards by 16.8 per cent.
China will set up asset-management companies (AMCs) as a platform to push forward the restructuring of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) next year, a senior official said yesterday.
Contracts for the design of the Ling'ao phase II nuclear project in South China's Guangdong Province were signed yesterday. For the first time in China's history, the number of employees working in private enterprise exceeded 100 million, and is expected to reach at least 180 million within the next five years, a 2005 survey found.
Information technology (IT) spending in this country is swelling, and the amount spent by China's financial sector looks likely to increase 10 per cent annually for the next three years. Listing candidate Lingbao Gold, the mainland's second-largest gold miner, has boosted the size of its planned initial public offering - the new year's first - by as much as 15 percent to up to HK$861 million after arranging to sell 12 percent of the shares on offer to a mainland competitor and a specialist investment fund, market sources said. The State Council has approved in principle a controversial plan by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to sell a 10 per cent stake to a consortium led by a Goldman Sachs fund but is holding out for a higher price, sources said yesterday. December 23, 2005
In a stinging blow to Chief Executive Donald Tsang, pro-democracy lawmakers have successfully struck down the government's constitutional reform package, likely bringing to an end any chance of widening the election base in the next election cycle. Hong Kong’s new exhibition centre, AsiaWorld-Expo, will be a significant boon to companies working in the territory, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen says. Speaking at the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Mr Tsang said the new facility at Hong Kong International Airport would help international and mainland companies to manage their businesses in East Asia. Hong Kong currently has a world-class exhibition centre in Wan Chai, but the increasing popularity of trade exhibitions and other international business events has encouraged the government to build another. The chief executive said the facility would also help companies access the growing China market. “A complementary role is to serve as a two-way springboard: for companies from around the world wishing to access the mainland, in particular the Pearl River Delta, and for mainland companies to launch themselves into the international marketplace,” he explained. Mr Tsang noted that a number of exhibitions to be held at the new centre in coming years would showcase Chinese goods and services.
Citigroup Inc is leading a bid of at least 22 billion yuan (US$2.7 billion) for 85 per cent of Guangdong Development Bank, the first State-owned Chinese lender to offer investors a majority stake, people familiar with the plan said.
Lenovo declared today to install William J. Amelio as its CEO to replace Steve Ward. Mr. Amelio was Dell's head of Asia Pacific operation before joining Lenovo and had been a veteran executive in NCR, Honeywell, AlliedSignal, and IBM. In Mr. Amelio's time with Dell, the company's sales in the Asia Pacific region doubled and the customer satisfaction improved. Mr. Ward will stay at Lenovo as an advisor to help smooth the transition. Lenovo's chairman Yang Yuanqing spoke of Ward highly, praising him for "successfully integrating two independent businesses into an international PC company and creating notable value for our shareholders." Ward, on the other hand, responded that it took Yang and himself much time to deliberate on the transition. He said he believed Lenovo, a great company, would make a great success in the future. Lenovo Group, Asia's largest manufacturer of personal computers, named William Amelio, a former executive with larger rival Dell, as its new chief executive as it prepares to launch an aggressive sales push after months spent consolidating its US$1.75 billion (HK$13.65 billion) acquisition of IBM's PC unit. In a major development, a joint venture of India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ( ONGC) and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has bagged some of Petro-Canada's assets in Syria in a 578 million US dollars deal.
December 22, 2005
The second-in-command at the Securities and Futures Commission has confirmed he will leave when his contract expires in the middle of next year, in the latest in a series of resignations at the market watchdog over the past two years. Hong Kong consumers have overcome their fear of online security issues to hand Visa 248 per cent year-on-year growth in the third quarter, spending US$45 million on overseas transactions in the three months to September.
Wuhan Iron & Steel Group has agreed to pay 6.5 billion yuan (US$805 million) to own 51 per cent of the State-owned Liuzhou Iron & Steel Group, boosting its production capacity by a third. Chinese workers are rushing to finish a temporary dam meant to reduce the impact on a Russian city of 580,000 people from a river-borne chemical spill, a Chinese official said. Analysts expect that the sharp upward revision of gross domestic product will lead to more foreign pressure on Beijing to further appreciate the yuan and to speed up reform of the country's rigid foreign exchange regime.
Guangdong yesterday revised its 2004 economic output upwards by 17.6 per cent following the revision of national economic data. The new figure for gross domestic product last year is 1.88 trillion yuan. December 21, 2005
Hongkong Electric Holdings, the smaller of the two electric-power suppliers in Hong Kong, is seeking a A$600 million (HK$3.46 billion) term loan to help refinance its Australian subsidiary's existing debt, sources close to the deal said.
Privately owned, Hong Kong-based CR Airways, which serves mostly Chinese and Philippine destinations, has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire 40 Boeing aircraft over the next five years. PCCW chairman Richard Li, whose media business includes NOW Broadband TV, is in talks to buy out Hong Kong Economic Journal, a Chinese- language financial newspaper. Despite a year beset with high-profile court cases which questioned the conduct of its officers, the Independent Commission Against Corruption gave itself a pat on the back Tuesday for another year of work well done, while announcing that the morale of staff is "quite high." During a surprise visit to neighborhoods financially hit by the World Trade Organization conference, leading officials, including Chief Executive Donald Tsang, called on people to help these areas rebound but said there will not be any compensation doled out to the affected businesses. Hong Kong-based container ship firm MSC Ship Management agreed to plead guilty and pay a US$10.5 million (HK$81.6 million) fine in connection with an oil spill in Boston Harbour in May 2005, officials said overnight (HK time).
China will scrap all agricultural taxes, putting an end to a levy that has burdened China's farmers for 2,600 years in China.
Chinese teenager Ding Junhui confirmed his status as a snooker superstar in the making when he beat six-time world champion Steve Davis 10-6 to win the UK Championship here on Sunday.
The deputy chief of general staff of the People's Liberation Army, who once warned China could use nuclear weapons in a conflict over Taiwan, will step down this month, Hong Kong's Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po said. December 20, 2005
Huaneng Power International, the biggest Hong Kong-listed mainland electricity producer, has bought 20 percent of a finance firm, a move that may help future financing activities. Thirty-three out of 88 Hong Kong-listed companies that faced financial difficulties between 1998 and last year ended up in liquidation, a sign that firms are incapable of recovering after being hit by a financial crisis, according to a survey conducted by accountancy firm Grant Thornton.
Researchers in Hong Kong have uncovered a genetic quirk that may explain why some people fell sick with SARS during the outbreak of the pneumonia-like disease in 2003 while others remained healthy. Chief Secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan said on Monday the government will make changes boosting the proportion of elected officials on a panel that chooses the territory’s leader as part of a reform proposal backed by Beijing but denounced by protesters.
The Shanwei local government has defended the handling of the protest in Dongzhou that ended in fatal police shootings two weeks ago. Reforms of the mainland's electricity sector aimed at breaking the monopoly of the power conglomerates have failed because of inadequate government support and an ineffective regulatory system, an industry watchdog report says. Two hedge funds have joined a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which recently received approval to buy 10 per cent of the Bank of China (BOC). December 19, 2005
Shares in Link REIT, in which UK- based hedge fund Children's Investment Fund Management has accumulated roughly an 18 percent stake, fell 9.6 percent Friday after the Securities and Futures Commission tightened disclosure requirements on real estate investment trust shareholders. GZI Real Estate Investment Trust, the first REIT to be sold in Hong Kong by a mainland company, raised HK$1.8 billion after pricing its initial public offering at the top end of the indicative range on the back of strong investor demand, market sources said. Emperor Entertainment Hotel, a casino hotel firm controlled by tycoon Albert Yeung, expects the HK$1.5 billion Macau gambling property it will open next month to turn a profit in two or three years.
Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong on Saturday evening condemned the violence exerted by anti-World Trade Organisation (WTO) protesters on Hong Kong streets.
Sunday Communications shareholders sold the stock yesterday after PCCW's $401.3 million privatisation bid failed, but analysts expect the unprofitable mobile operator to turn around soon. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China's largest contract chipmaker, is expected to produce 90 nanometer chips by the first quarter of next year, closing the technology gap with its Taiwanese counterparts, a company official said yesterday.
The UN Development Program published its "China Human Development Report 2005" Friday in Beijing, calling on the Chinese gov't to fight social inequality.
The crude oil output of the Tarim oilfield in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region this year hit 10 million tons Friday, sources with the Tarim Oilfield Company said. China declared on Dec. 15 that export of some resource products, including rare earth, coke and refined oil would be put under control. Refined oil in processing trade, particularly, will be constrained strictly. China's largest commercial bank launched the nation's first chip bank cards on Friday that are compliant with the EMV standard, currently the safest bank card standard globally. PetroChina, the nation's biggest oil producer, is in talks with its parent company about buying PetroKazakhstan assets through a joint venture, the Hong Kong-listed oil company announced on Friday.
December 14 - 18, 2005
China Orient Asset Management Corporation is inviting international bidders to an auction of 3.12 billion yuan's (US$385.1 million) worth of non-performing assets (NPAs) due to be held early next year. New World Development, the Hong Kong property developer controlled by billionaire Cheng Yu-tung, is selling HK$3.33 billion in new shares at an 11 percent discount to its last trading price, market sources said.
For the thousands of demonstrators descending on Hong Kong to protest this week's gathering of world trade ministers, free trade boosters have a ready reply: look around you, see how free trade has transformed this city. Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp plans to retender its Tuen Mun station property development, which attracted only one developer's bid, after it renegotiates the land conversion premium with the Hong Kong government.
Most people had been expecting chaos, but rush-hour traffic on the eve of the WTO conference was surprisingly light yesterday, with one driver making his cross-harbour journey in half the normal time. French farmer and unionist Jose Bove, best known for his actions against the "McDonaldisation" of food, was allowed into Hong Kong last night after being detained for six hours at the airport following diplomatic intervention.
China's national social security fund has secured permission from the central government to buy stakes in two of the country's Big Four state banks for a combined 20 billion yuan (HK$19.2 billion), following its purchase of shares in Bank of Communications last year. China's booming economy, already the seventh largest in the world, has been understated by as much as US$300 billion, the country's first nationwide economic census has discovered.
The pace of consumer price rises last month was markedly below that for the year to date, prompting some economists to warn the data could signal a looming return of deflation on the mainland. The yuan exchange rate was "properly adjusted" this year and took into account effects on China's neighbours and the rest of the world, Premier Wen Jiabao told a regional meeting yesterday. December 13, 2005
Macao's income from direct gaming tax is expected to reach 16 billion patacas (two billion US dollars) this year, a new high in the history, local media reported Monday. The Macao Post Daily quoted Tam Pak Yuen, Macao's Secretary for Economic and Finance, as saying that the year-on-year growth of the casino tax income will thus amount to around 8.8 percent. Hong Kong remains on high alert despite ungrounded fears of a demonstration by anti-globalization protesters Sunday turning violent. Wan Chai residents said that, while they welcome the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference and the thousands of protesters in ideological tow, so far they aren't getting much out of it. The Children's Investment Fund Management, or TCI, a British-based hedge fund, made its third major foray into the Hong Kong equity market this month, subscribing to shares in property-to- energy conglomerate Sinolink Worldwide Holdings' HK$546 million placement. Crown Macau, a joint venture between Stanley Ho's Melco International Development and Australia's largest casino operator, plans to arrange a syndicated loan of up to HK$4.8 billion to help fund a hotel and casino project in Macau, market sources said.
China is drafting the law on recycling-based economy, and the country's top legislature is scheduled to deliberate the draft law in 2007. Major industrial enterprises in Beijing realized 16.7 billion yuan (2.1 billion US dollars) in value-added output in November, a growth of 16.6 percent over the same month of 2004 in comparable prices, according to latest data provided by the municipal bureau of statistics.
Pakistani mangos and oranges will be imported into China at zero tariff from January 1, 2006, while Chinese-made textile machinery and organic chemicals will enjoy free duty in Pakistan at the same time. Dangdang.com, a mainland online bookstore, hopes to fund its expanding internet auction business by attracting venture capital investors next year as a prelude to seeking a Nasdaq listing by 2007. Mainland property and power group Sinolink Worldwide Holdings, which has just announced a tie-up with New York-based Rockefeller Group to set up a fund to invest in the mainland property market, will raise $546 million through a top-up share placement to finance its existing property development activities. Taiwan's semiconductor makers are losing their competitive edge after they were restricted from tapping the Chinese mainland market, the chief executive officer of a leading Chinese microchip company told a Taipei newspaper on Monday. December 12, 2005
In the continuing aftermath of Sunday's protest for full democracy, Chief Executive Donald Tsang is poised to announce the elimination of appointed district councillors in three phases - provided lawmakers pass the government's controversial political reform package this month, sources said.
With garbage dumps rapidly reaching their saturation point, the government plans as early as 2008 to charge people for the trash they throw out as part of a comprehensive overhaul in the city's waste policy, the government said. Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong's second-largest real estate developer by market value, is likely to make its first foray into Singapore's prime shopping district in partnership with CapitaLand, after making the top bid of S$1.38 billion (HK$6.34 billion) for a retail- residential site atop Orchard Road subway station.
Wheelock and Co, a Hong Kong-listed property developer that also has interests in ports and pay-television, said underlying profit jumped 64 percent for the first half of its fiscal year thanks to higher apartment sales. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which is urging banks and other lenders to use its composite rate as an interest benchmark, said the rate was 2.33 percent for the third quarter ended September, almost three times the rate in the first quarter. City Telecom, Hong Kong's second- largest residential fixed-line telephone service provider, said it plans to boost headcount by about 12 percent next year to strengthen its sales force amid increased competition. With a plethora of fundamentally divisive issues still unresolved, Secretary of Commerce, Industry and Technology John Tsang called next week's World Trade Organization ministerial meeting, which he is chairing, "100 fateful hours for world trade," and urged the arriving national delegations to come to the table with optimism and a spirit of cooperation. Australia's dominant telecommunications firm, Telstra, announced on Friday that its wholly owned unit Hong Kong CSL would merge with New World Mobility to become the largest mobile phone company in Hong Kong.
Businessmen from 202 countries invested in China this year, involving 600 billion US dollars covering almost all fields like the service, manufacturing and rural infrastructure construction sectors.The high-tech and trade service industries were most favored by overseas investors. The total throughput at Shanghai port for the whole year is expected to hit 443 million tons, ranking first in the world.
All death-sentence appeals will be heard in open court from next year, the Supreme People's Court has announced a move experts say would raise transparency and deliver full justice in cases involving capital punishment. US software big name BEA plans to conduct acquisitions in China to increase its presence in the Chinese market, especially within the fast-growing telecommunications sector, said the company Chairman and Chief Executive Alfred Chuang in Beijing. December 9 - 11, 2005
Mainland enterprises are expected to increase their spending on information technology (IT) to improve their research and development (R&D) capabilities, according to a survey. Guangzhou Investment Co Ltd's (GZI) Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), the first mainland REIT to be listed overseas, is expected to receive a strong response from Hong Kong investors and set a good example for mainland property developers, analysts say.
ParknShop, a supermarket chain operated by Hutchison Whampoa's retail arm AS Watson, said sales by comparable stores may have single digital growth next year, and it sees no potential for product price increases. John Tsang, the chairman of next week's World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference, is optimistic the gathering will see progress leading to a successful conclusion of the Doha round in 2006. Hong Kong's largest labor group has added its voice to the chorus of protest awaiting next week's World Trade Organization ministerial conference, urging the government to stand up for SAR workers at a time they describe as particularly desperate for those in the local construction and printing industries. Tourists have been advised to go shopping or visit amusement parks to avoid protests and possible traffic snarl-ups arising from the World Trade Organization's Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong next week. The government was committed to promoting Hong Kong as a leading asset-management centre in Asia, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang said on Thursday.
The first audited circulation figures for Hong Kong's newest free dailies have confirmed a new dynamic in the intensifying battle for newspaper readership and advertising revenue.
The sequencing the dog genome sheds light on both the genetic similarities between dogs and humans and the genetic differences between dog breeds The banker's confidence index continued its soaring trend for the sixth consecutive quarter after dropping to its lowest point in the second quarter of last year and making its record high of 78.4 percent in the fourth quarter of this year. The banking climate index surged to 67.2 percent in the fourth quarter, a record high of this year. Although China's monthly textile export volume exceeded 10 billion US dollars for the consecutive five months this year, its year-on-year growth rate has slowed down. In the first ten months of this year, China exported its textile goods to 224 overseas markets. Senior employees working for multinational firms in China have received on average a 4-5 per cent salary increase this year, according to a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates, a global human resources firm.
China United Telecommunications, parent of the mainland's second-largest mobile phone operator, China Unicom, plans to sell six billion yuan (HK$5.76 billion) of asset-backed securities in the largest such sale so far, market sources said. China plans to trim its budget deficit by about 1.7 percent to 295 billion yuan (HK$283.32 billion) in 2006 while continuing to wind down infrastructure spending, the official China Securities Journal said. China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has expressed interest in acquiring US$10 billion (HK$78 billion) of assets in dismembered Russian oil group Yukos, state press reported on Thursday. Shanghai yesterday began a Communist Party meeting designed to set policy for next year, as the city grapples with how to deliver economic growth despite more competition from other centers and central government moves to dampen property speculation. The mainland's biggest oil company, PetroChina, has formed an alliance with Kuwait Petroleum Corp, paving the way for the construction of an oil refinery and a petrochemical plant in Guangdong at an estimated cost of US$5 billion. December 8, 2005
Two Chinese companies, Fittec International Group and Xiwang Sugar Holdings, have raised over HK$1 billion in initial public offerings amid surging demand from retail investors for newly listed stocks, market sources said. Hong Kong retail sales growth slowed for the third month running in October as the projected boost from the opening of Disneyland lagged analysts' expectations and rising interest rates damped consumer spending. Hutchison Whampoa will outsource management of its British third-generation (3G) mobile-phone network to Swedish wireless equipment maker Ericsson, a deal worth more than £1.1 billion ($14.8 billion) and a bellwether of potential developments in the industry.
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A man checks a traditional lantern,
which is used as a New Year decoration, on Thursday in Shanghai. Shanghai
residents are busy preparing to usher in the Year of the Dog, and the Chinese
New Year, called the Spring Festival, which falls on January 29. 
Staff of the Mandarin Oriental wave
farewell to the last guests yesterday as the hotel shuts for an eight-month
renovation. But many of them and - they hope - visitors who have become like
friends since the Mandarin opened in Central in 1963 will be back. Local guest
Catherine Carlton hopes it won't end up "all glass and no personality". Don't
worry, said general manager Peter French, the ambience will be preserved. Luca
Birindelli, the last to check out, was in no doubt how big a task that will be.
The Italian, who has spent nine of the past 18 years there, said: "Keeping the
unique blend of English mid-60s elegance with Chinese touches is going to be the
biggest challenge."
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
greets State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan at yesterday's opening of the Hong Kong
administration's new office in Beijing, located close to the central government
complex.
Luo Chaogeng, president of China Eastern
Airlines (left) pops the corks with David Pang, chief executive of the Airport
Authority, to celebrate the opening of the first business office of a mainland
carrier in Hong Kong. Mr Luo said while he was confident jet fuel prices on the
mainland would soon be liberalised, he dismissed reports that air ticket prices
would be deregulated in the near term.
Fishermen toss their catches into
the air during the celebration of the winter fishing festival at Chagan Lake in
Jilin province. The traditional festival started on Tuesday and ends on February
6. The amount of fish caught will be limited to a total of 2,000 tonnes.
A model displays a dancing suit that creates drumbeats to her steps in a
computer at ITC Fashion and Textile Resource Centre at Polytechnic University.
Nicholas Tse plays a misunderstood
scoundrel in Chen Kaige's The Promise. He tells Donald Asprey why the role was
such an easy fit after two relatively quiet years away from the spotlight.
Ministers and lawmakers take a break
from their tour of Wan Chai to share a meal with Paul Chung Kan (centre back),
the owner of the Victoria City Restaurant. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
apologised yesterday to businesses in Wan Chai and Causeway Bay for damage to
their trade during the World Trade Organisation conference - but assured them
things were going to improve.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes
vice-president of China sales Robert Laird and CR Airways chairman Chen Feng
celebrate after the signing of the memorandum. Newly appointed CR Airways
chairman Chen Feng is confident the company will maintain its air traffic rights
despite industry speculation that they will be lost when the business is
acquired by Hainan Airlines.
Workers watch as the last beam
for the 249.9-metre Beijing Yintai Centre is put in place. It is the city's
tallest building and when completed the 63-storey skyscraper will house a hotel
and flats.
S
Korean protesters scuffle with police officers near the Hong Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre on Saturday. Hundreds of protesters fought riot police on
Saturday in the most violent demonstrations since trade ministers from around
the world began meeting five days ago. Thousands of people were stranded in Wan
Chai yesterday when police halted public transport as hordes of South Korean
farmers went on the rampage.
Paul Chan Mo-po (centre), who runs his own accounting firm, was last night
elected president of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants for
the next year. Moores Rowland Mazars senior partner Mark Fong Chung (right) and
KPMG partner Carlson Tong Ka-shing were elected vice-presidents. Mr Chan said
his priorities were working with the government to introduce the proposed
Financial Reporting Council to investigate accounting scandals and lobbying the
government to change the law on limited liability partnership of accountants.
Chances of a breakthrough in this week's
troubled World Trade Organisation talks appeared to receed further yesterday
when United States negotiators suggested on the eve of the meeting that a deal
on cotton should be part of a larger agricultural agreement.
A lot is on the mind of Pascal Lamy,
director-general of the World Trade Organisation, which opens its ministerial
conference in Hong Kong today. Labour standards, for one. Yesterday, Mr Lamy
told trade unions he supported the inclusion of standards for workers. He urged
labour leaders to ensure they have enough lobbying capacity and leverage on
their governments to make sure labour standards are included in WTO negotiations
after next year.
Fresh pork proves popular at this
Chongqing market, but food prices overall only rose 1.6 per cent year on year
last month.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
and his wife Selina Tsang Pou Siu-mei start the Lifeline Express Walkalong for
Light on The Peak. The Lifeline Express is an eye hospital on a train which
offers free surgery to cataract patients in rural China.
Standard Chartered chief Peter
Sullivan says Hong Kong's prime rate is still 25 basis points behind the US
increases. The lender, however, will not exceed an expected rise in US Fed funds
rate.
Hong Kong is a great destination. I
love it. It's out of this world. But within my lifetime, I want to be sending
people literally out of this world. I plan to open the Virgin Space Hotel, a
20-room luxury property located in orbit around the moon.
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp
chairman Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen receives an honorary degree yesterday from his
alma mater, Chinese University of Hong Kong. The trained economist rose from
Shamshuipo's backstreets to the pinnacle of Hong Kong's banking sector and was
cited for his
contribution to public life
and community service in the city. Other leading figures to be honored included
former Kuomintang leader Lien Chan.
Dongfeng Motor Group chairman Xu Ping (right) celebrates the stock market
trading debut of the mainland carmaker with Anthony Lo Kai-yiu, a member of the
listing committee, yesterday. Mr Xu had every reason to be cheerful as the
stock, which was expected to make a flat debut in view of the competitive
marketplace in which the firm operates, beat market forecast by surging 8.75 per
cent above its offer price of $1.60 to $1.74.
