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How to Do Business with China, through Hong Kong & Setting up Business in China? - last update Feb 8, 2003 Do you know our dues paying members attend events sponsored by our collaboration partners worldwide at their membership rates - go to our event page to find out more! After attended a China/Hong Kong Business/Trade Seminar in Hawaii...still unsure what to do next, contact us, our Officers, Directors and Founding Members are actively engaged in China/Hong Kong/Asia trade - we can help! China Projects Bidding Information - update daily Scholarship & Grants
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June 28 - 29, 2006
Attempts by Australia's Macquarie Bank to mount a renewed bid for PCCW's main telecom and media assets with the aid of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp could be designed to make the deal more palatable for Beijing, despite the Australian tycoon's checkered business record in the mainland, analysts said. Shimao Property, a Shanghai-based developer, has raised HK$3.72 billion by selling new shares at HK$6.25, the bottom end of the indicative range, because of poor market sentiment as well as deep concerns over the mainland's latest real estate cooling measures, market sources said. Hong Kong-listed China Life Insurance and its parent have paid a combined 4.65 billion yuan (HK$4.51 billion) to purchase 500,000 new shares in Shanghai-listed CITIC Securities, allowing the parties to form a strategic alliance as part of the central government's plans to permit more interaction among the country's banking, insurance and brokerage industries.
Mainland and SAR creative and digital industry operators should strengthen their cooperation in the light of favorable conditions brought about by the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, visiting Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference chairman Jia Qinglin said Wednesday.
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference chairman Jia Qinglin is expected to give Hong Kong a handover anniversary gift today by announcing plans to make it easier to conduct yuan-denominated business in the city.
Archaeologists have discovered remains of what may prove to be the country's first foreign worker, who labored on the mausoleum of China's first emperor. China's State Council, the cabinet, said in a circular that the country's insurers can invest their funds overseas to expand their investment horizons. China's fiscal revenue soared almost 20 percent in 2005 to hit a record 3.16 trillion yuan (395 billion U.S. dollars), Finance Minister Jin Renqing said on Tuesday. A leading Chinese central bank official said that countries around the world should gradually rely less on the U.S. dollar for trade and their foreign exchange reserves. The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors on Tuesday approved 218 million U.S. dollars in a loan for infrastructure projects in northeast China's medium-sized cities to enhance the performance and quality of their existing urban transport infrastructure. China has publicized plans to build Tianjin into a financial center in the north by introducing a range of reforms in the city's Binhai New Area.
China Southern Airlines, the mainland's largest carrier in terms of fleet size, has signed a agreement ultimately leading to membership of the SkyTeam alliance.
June 27, 2006
Hong Kong Economic Times, which publishes a local Chinese-language financial newspaper of the same name, reported its fiscal second half earnings rose 35.5 percent on higher advertising sales. Hong Kong-listed Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing, one of world's largest containerboard makers, has announced a 44 percent growth in net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31. The fact that fruit and vegetables containing high levels of chemicals are entering Hong Kong shows that the government's food-inspection system has failed to keep pace with growing abuse of pesticides in mainland agriculture, a green group warns. To launch Beijing's next major boost to Hong Kong's financial and professional services, the chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Jia Qinglin, will make the Monetary Authority his first stop when he arrives this morning before paying a visit to a middle-class family during his 55-hour whistle-stop visit to the SAR. Hong Kong Disneyland has introduced an unlimited-visit summer pass to stimulate business going into the last quarter of its first year. Hong Kong on Monday reported an 8.2 per cent growth in gross domestic product for the first quarter of 2006 over a year earlier, figures published on Monday showed The government would adopt a 'zero tolerance' approach to used clothes collection cages on streets, Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Monday. The bidding war that has emerged over PCCW has turned into a political hot potato for all parties involved - majority shareholder Richard Li Tzar-kai, the Chinese government and rival suitors Macquarie Group and TPG-Newbridge Capital. Shenzhen Bus Group, in which Kowloon Motor Bus Holdings owns a 35 per cent stake, plans to raise at least US$100 million in an initial public offering in Hong Kong early next year, sources said.
Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu has called on northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to unite all ethnic groups in the region for faster economic and social development. Australian PM John Howard's upcoming visit to China reflectsa readiness to accept Beijing's growing economic and political clout as an opportunity, not a threat. Australian Prime Minister John Howard will pay a two-day visit to China from today to promote gas exports and plans for a free-trade deal with the booming, energy-famished economy. China's economy will grow by 10.3 percent in the first half of 2006, then slow marginally for a full-year expansion of 10 percent, the central bank said in a new report. China's Ministry of Finance said on Monday it would issue the country's first ever savings bonds, worth up to 15 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion), offering Chinese citizens a new investment option. China Everbright International, a Beijing-backed investment company, said Monday it will pay 400 million yuan (HK$388.6 million) to acquire two waste water treatment plants from the Jinan municipal government to strengthen its presence in the mainland's burgeoning environmental protection industry. China Airlines, Taiwan's largest air carrier, said it plans to apply for permission to fly cargo to China, after the island's government eased restrictions on transport links to the mainland.
June 26, 2006
The Earth is running a slight fever from greenhouse gases, after enjoying relatively stable temperatures for 2,000 years, according to a research.
The government's HK$5.1 billion Tamar development project will go ahead following a landslide 40-10 victory in the Legislative Council's Finance Committee Friday - but the controversy continues as legislators still have a host of unanswered questions on how the government will proceed with the money. The administration has presented a thick bundle of amendments to its surveillance bill, hoping to appease jittery lawmakers as time winds down on the legislative year - potentially depriving Hong Kong of a vital law enforcement tool. Hong Kong’s low HIV infection rate owed much to the unstinting efforts of the Red Ribbon Centre of the Department of Health, Selina Tsang Pou Siu-mei said on Friday. The government on Friday proposed tougher penalties on forms of cruelty to animals such as beating, kicking and torturing them.
China's population will peak at 1.5 billion in the mid-2030s, but it will begin to gradually drop after reaching the peak.
The Chinese currency on Wednesday strengthened to below 8 against the US dollar at inquiry system for the first time since the reform of RMB exchange rate mechanism last July.
China is poised to issue new regulations which would allow insurers to invest in more stocks, asset-backed securities and property and take part in venture capital projects, the China Securities Journal said.
An Olympic construction official has been linked to an apparently deepening graft investigation that has already brought about the downfall of a former Beijing vice-mayor, but Beijing Games organisers were silent on the issue yesterday. United States-based data storage system company EMC on Friday said it planned to invest an additional US$500 million (HK$3.9 billion) in China by 2010, extending its push into Asia. June 23 - 25, 2006
A steering committee headed by Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui Si-yan will be formed to promote Hong Kong as a regional education hub. Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung made the announcement Wednesday as lawmakers passed a motion raised by Jasper Tsang Yok-sing in support of the move. Speaking at a Legislative Council debate on the motion, Li agreed with Tsang's motion, which is to develop Hong Kong into a regional education hub. "[Creating an education hub] can help Hong Kong attract talent, enhance its competitiveness and help broaden the horizons of local students," Li said during the motion debate. He said the ratio of admissions for non-local students in government-funded tertiary education has been rising in the past decade, from 2 percent in 1993 to 10 percent in 2005-06. Computer programming errors were not the sole cause of the two-hour breakdown of Lantau's Ngong Ping 360 cable cars last Saturday, according to a source who told The Standard about a combination of factors including underestimating how humidity at the site would affect sensors, disconnection of staff walkie-talkies and a lack of staff training. East-Asian countries had reformed their financial markets since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, but more needed to be done, Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong said on Thursday. Total employment in Hong Kong's private sector grew by 2.0 per cent, or 47,200 people, in March compared with a year earlier, latest figures released on Thursday showed.
The first exclusive BMW clothes store opened in Beijing Oriental Plaza, selling men and women formal clothes, sports and casual wears and clothes ornaments. China aims to increase the number of software export bases to up to 15 by 2010 to boost the fledgling software export and outsourcing industry.
Profits of China's iron and steel industry in the first five months dropped 37.4 percent over the corresponding period of last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday. China will spend at least 34 billion yuan (4.3 billion U.S. dollars) to phase out persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in 10 years, a Chinese environmental official said on Wednesday. Average housing prices in Guangdong rose by 10 per cent year on year in the first five months of this year, with prices in Guangzhou increasing 15 per cent, the provincial Bureau of Statistics said. The Bank of China, the country's second-biggest lender, has set its share price for an initial public offering in Shanghai, raising 20 billion yuan (HK$19.5 billion) in the mainland's biggest IPO ever. Chinese flagship carrier Air China on Thursday said it had proposed buying the shares of unit China National Aviation Co that it did not already own in a deal worth up to $3.2 billion. June 22, 2006
The government has been liaising with the mainland to prevent its fishing vessels entering Hong Kong waters to fish, Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong said on Wednesday. Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong said on Wednesday Hong Kong had set up new measures to help SAR citizens who get into difficulty overseas.
Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend a meeting of dialogues between the Group of Eight (G8) and developing countries in St. Petersburg in July.
China's banking regulator is likely to complete a revised administrative rule soon that would allow foreign banks to deal with renminbi retail business across the country. China finally agreed to a 19 per cent iron ore price increase from the world's three big miners but lashed out on Wednesday over "flawed" negotiations which ignored the country's interests and simply forced it to fall into line and pay more. June 21, 2006
Retrofitting existing government offices to the highest standard would cost about HK$250 million, or less than 5 percent of the proposed price tag to build a new government headquarters at Tamar, according to a study. Hong Kong services companies are in line for more preferential access to the mainland under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa), the city's director-general of trade and industry says. A call by unionists yesterday for paternity leave to be made a legal right for working fathers was brushed aside by the government.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Monday ordered commercial banks to further cut back on lending, following last Friday's move that requires them to keep more reserves at the central bank.
China and India are the favoured markets of investors living outside their home countries, while fears about corporate governance standards in emerging markets have waned, according to a brokerage firm's survey on Monday. The Chinese government will firmly pursue its financial reform and continue to push forward opening-up in financial sector according to its WTO commitments so as to improve the ability of supervision and risk-prevention, Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju said on Monday.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, the mainland's second-biggest oil company, has agreed to buy an oil- producing unit of a venture controlled by BP in Beijing's first significant energy asset in Russia. The resignation of US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, a leading architect of Washington's China policy, is unlikely to affect bilateral ties, according to mainland analysts.
China Life Insurance, the mainland's largest insurer, plans to take a 16.77 per cent stake in Citic Securities, the second most profitable domestic brokerage last year, in a deal worth at least 4.18 billion yuan. Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the largest futures exchange in the United States, will launch the first yuan futures and options contracts this summer to capture growing investor demand to hedge against the Chinese currency. Liu Xiaoguang, the chairman of Beijing Capital Group, the parent firm of Hong Kong-listed Beijing Capital Land, was arrested on Saturday in connection with a corruption scandal involving former Beijing vice-mayor Liu Zhihua, sources said. Swiss investment bank UBS has obtained written preparatory approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission for its 1.7 billion yuan plan to take management control of troubled Beijing Securities. June 20, 2006
A consortium thought to be led by Hong Kong investor Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings is considering joining a bid battle for Associated British Ports, London-based newspaper The Business said Sunday.
Disgruntled bus drivers will conduct a territory-wide "slow drive" today that could lead to a full-scale strike by Wednesday after pay negotiations with bus operators broke down Sunday. Hong Kong's unemployment rate fell to a 57-month low of 4.9 per cent between March and May, from 5.1 per cent in the three months to April due to a sustained economic revival, official figures showed on Monday. The mainland's largest lender, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), has delayed its planned US$12 billion (HK$94 billion) initial public offering in Hong Kong to October, a newspaper reported Monday.
Lenovo is still struggling to improve its profit performance. Lenovo is still a relatively unknown brand in US despite the extensive media coverage in recent years.
The bank plans to sell up to 10 billion yuan-denominated A-shares, or 3.886 percent of its share capital, on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, making it the number one heavyweight in China's stock market. China's Social Security Fund will invest more than 18 billion yuan (2.25 billion U.S. dollars) in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Worried that it may be selling industrial assets to foreigners too cheaply, China will tighten screening of deals and impose new curbs on foreign acquisitions in its heavy industry, a Beijing-funded newspaper said.
Many visitors to the Chinese capital - who often find themselves stranded in the daily traffic gridlock and choked by toxic smog - must ask themselves what it will be like in August 2008 when millions of officials, athletes and tourists from around the world congregate for the Beijing Olympics.
The path to global expansion is getting narrower for Chinese telecommunications equipment vendors as their multinational rivals merge and transform into more formidable industry suppliers. June 19, 2006
The government will soon propose an alternative site for the controversial central poultry slaughtering plant. Since proposing a site for the slaughterhouse in Sheung Shui in April, the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau has faced strong opposition to the project from local residents. A top international school in Beijing is locked in a tug of war with angry parents - mostly expatriates, Hong Kong residents, and mainlander returnees - after announcing a 700 per cent fee increase. Minority shareholders in China Resources Cement, whose profit slumped 85 percent last year, have voted overwhelmingly to accept a HK$428 million privatization offer by the Hong Kong-listed company's controlling shareholder.
Hong Kong-listed China COSCO Holdings, the mainland's biggest container shipping company, said it expects average freight rates, which dropped in this year's first quarter, to rebound in the second half due to strong cargo demand, particularly during the summer peak. Shares in Next Media, publisher of the Apple Daily newspaper, rose 5.5 percent Thursday after the company reported a more-than-threefold increase in earnings in the fiscal year ended March 31, as its Taiwanese operations broke even for the first time.
Workplace discrimination in Hong Kong has increased markedly in the past five months, a sign that many employers are still unfamiliar with anti-discrimination legislation, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission. Sun Hung Kai Financial will pay more than $4 billion to buy out the entire 50 per cent stake of privately held United Asia Finance from its parent firm Allied Group as part of its strategy to enter the mainland securities market, sources familiar with the deal said.
Hopson Development Holdings, one of China's largest developers, said mainland property sales have almost doubled since the central government announced its latest round of real estate speculation curbs in late May.
Ping An Insurance, China's second-largest life insurer, has entered into exclusive talks to buy more than 60 per cent of Shenzhen Commercial Bank from the government, sources say. June 16 - 18, 2006
The government has no plans to change its seven-year residency qualification for welfare assistance, the health chief said Wednesday. Hong Kong Commercial Radio on Thursday was fined $140,000 and ordered to broadcast an apology for holding a controversial poll asking listeners to name an actress they would most like to sexually harass.
The number of reported drug abusers in Hong Kong in the first quarter of the year has fallen, figures released on Thursday show. Construction work in Hong Kong shrank in the first quarter of 2006 — following completion of some large projects, government figures released on Thursday showed. Ping An Insurance (Group) has approached undercapitalised Everbright Bank about taking a stake in the medium-sized lender, industry and regulatory sources say, as China's second-biggest life insurer seeks to remodel itself as a financial services firm.
JETRO Chairman Mr. Osamu Watanabe recently said that talks on the free trade zone between Japan and China were not likely to be launched until 2008.
China will further cut import taxes on some cars and auto parts as of July 1, the Ministry of Finance announced Thursday. The Foreign Exchange Trade Center announced by the authority of the People's Bank of China on June 15 that the parity rate of the Chinese currency on the inter-bank foreign exchange market is 7.9999 yuan against 1 US dollar. Germany's biggest lender Deutsche Bank AG has raised its stake in Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co Ltd, the Chinese partner of German engineering group MAN AG, to 5.21 per cent. Yutong said so yesterday. China reported Thursday a 30-percent- strong year-on-year growth of urban fixed asset investment in the first five months of 2006, following the State Council's warning to "firmly curb" the trend.
Disputes between China and Germany over money and opposition from the Ministry of Railways threatened a proposed 35 billion yuan high-speed maglev line between Shanghai and Hangzhou, industry sources said yesterday. China Mobile has cut prices for its international roaming calls in Sichuan and Zhejiang province in a move that is likely to bite deeply into the market share of China's fixed-line operators. June 15, 2006
Datang International Power Generation, the second-largest Hong Kong- listed mainland electricity producer, may lower its dividend payout ratio over the next two years as it seeks to cut reliance on coal by investing in renewable energy power projects, analysts said. David Li Kwok-po, a prominent business leader and legislator, has expressed concern over Hong Kong's diminishing attractiveness as a regional base for US- based companies, adding to worries that its competitive advantages may be undermined by growing pollution problems and decreasing financial incentives. Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung on Wednesday dismissed suggestions that the soil at the Tamar site has been contaminated by dioxin, a highly toxic chemical..
China Life said the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ended a probe into its HK and US IPO in 2003, and no action was recommended. Air China, China's biggest air carrier, plans to get listed on the Chinese mainland later this year, a company official said on Wednesday. Contracts and credit agreements worth US$2 billion are expected to be signed at the Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) summit that starts tomorrow, a senior official said yesterday. Stephen Roach, chief economist of Morgan Stanley, said in his latest economic review that although China is more influential than any other economy in the world in terms of pushing up global demand for bulk commodities, the new policy made by the Chinese leadership indicates a major shift of the country's growth model --- from high-resources consumption manner to low-resources consumption. He believes this strategy would not only facilitate China's sustainable development, but also well serve the global economy.
Aviation organizations of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan have agreed to open chartered flights for more traditional festivals in addition to the Spring Festival.
The annual sales income of China's software industry will climb to 1.3 trillion yuan (162.5 billion U.S. dollars) by 2010, as against 390.1 billion yuan (18.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005, according to a prediction recently. A Chinese shoemakers' alliance says it will send a delegation to attend a hearing organized by the European Union Trade Commission on the levy of anti-dumping taxes on Chinese shoes.
New World China Land, a unit of New World Development, has secured three bank loans totaling more than 1.4 billion yuan (HK$1.36 billion) to partly fund its mainland property projects. Eight out of 10 mainlanders say they are satisfied with the way things are going in China, according to a survey, in a sign that robust economic growth is outweighing social tensions over the income gap between rich and poor.
China Petrochemical Corp, the parent company of listed China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), is considering subscribing for shares in the mega initial public offering of Russia's second-largest oil and gas producer Rosneft. China Postal Savings Bank, the latest financial institution to be created by Beijing, is seeking to raise at least $2 billion in an initial public offering as early as next year, according to sources. June 14, 2006
Cathay Pacific Airways says cargo handling capabilities at Hong Kong International Airport will be stretched in three years despite a counter-claim by Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals, or HACTL, the world's leading air cargo terminal operator, that it is able to meet demand for at least the next 11 years. The initial public offering of Shui On Land drew a lackluster response from investors on its first day of retail subscriptions, signaling a break in the IPO fever that has gripped the market since the beginning of the year. Hong Kong-listed Kowloon Development plans to invest more than one billion yuan (HK$969 million) to build the first phase of a housing project in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province in northeastern China. Tom Online, controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, is to pay up to 600 million yuan (HK$581.4 million) for mainland mobile-phone content provider Infomax to offset a loss of income as the Chinese government tightens rules on methods of paying phone bills. Hong Kong is in danger of losing its competitiveness as a result of the mainland's continued economic growth, the Commission on Strategic Development has warned ahead of its executive committee meeting today to be chaired by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) said on Tuesday it would begin implementing the government's five-day working week from July 1 This follows the lead of other leading government departments in Hong Kong. A Hong Kong-China construction industry delegation is visiting the Philippines and Cambodia to explore infrastructure development opportunities there, Permanent Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Lo Yiu-ching said on Tuesday. Henderson Land Development has shelved its $3.9 billion real estate investment trust as sentiment towards the property trusts has soured in the face of a more volatile global market, sources said.
Preferential taxes may have been a major attraction for foreign companies investing in China but that could all be about to change.
China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, have risen above $900 billion as a result of the nation's growing trade surplus. According to statistics released by customs yesterday, exports reached US$73.1 billion last month, up 25.1 per cent year-on-year, while imports reached US$60.1 billion, up 21.7 per cent. China will build five liquid natural gas (LNG) tankers in the next three years to cope with rising demand for the import, according to a ship maker here on Monday. The sacking of an allegedly corrupt Beijing vice mayor who was in charge of overseeing construction projects for the 2008 Olympics will not affect the Games, organizers said. The mainland economy showed no signs of cooling down last month despite an intensified clampdown by the central government, with official data released yesterday showing yet another record trade surplus and a pick up in inflation. June 13, 2006
Chronically ill welfare recipient Chow Chin-sun will start seeing his life savings of HK$60,000 evaporate from next month when he has to start paying monthly bills of HK$20,000 for medications that will no longer be subsidized for a disease public hospital doctors have been unable to diagnose.
A listed company chairman, his lover
and a veteran solicitor were convicted on Monday of conspiring to prevent a
potential witness from assisting the ICAC’s investigations into an alleged
market manipulation. Semtech International Holdings chairman Derek Wong Chong-kwong,
his lover Mandy Chui Man-si and his lawyer Andrew Lam Ping-cheung were found
guilty of a joint charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, local
radio reported. Higher courts in Hong Kong have ruled more often against the government in cases involving the Basic Law than lower ones, according to the first study on the subject by a central government think tank. The annual volume of initial public offerings in Hong Kong is unlikely to slow and could increase over the next two to three years, even though there are no more mega-sized deals by China's financial institutions in the offing. Shui On Land, the mainland developer seeking to float shares in Hong Kong, will spend up to four billion yuan to relocate existing residents at its project developments in Shanghai this year.
The Honolulu-based U.S. Coast Guard cutter Rush arrived in east China's coastal city of Qingdao on Sunday afternoon, kicking off a five-day visit at the invitation of China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS). Rush is the first major Coast Guard vessel to visit China since World War II, according to Capt. Dana Ware, commanding officer of Rush. The 115-meter ship and its crew of 190 were warmly welcomed by Chinese counterparts and local people upon its arrival at the Qingdao Pier. Major General Chen Weiming of the MPS Border Control Department and Vice Admiral Charles D. Wurster of the U.S. Coast Guard addressed the welcoming ceremony. During Rush's stay in Qingdao, the two sides will conduct professional law enforcement exchanges, which will serve to enhance international cooperation in the area of law enforcement at sea. Both Chinese and U.S. law enforcement teams will also hold a forum to discuss and demonstrate techniques for boarding and searching suspected vessels, sharing information in combating at-sea crimes. Rush crew members will also participate in friendly events such as basketball and cultural tours with the Chinese counterparts to deepen mutual understanding. China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) in May rose 1.4 percent year on year, said sources with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday. The growth rate was higher than the 1.2-percent rise in April. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said Sunday that a group of South Korean buyers would leave for China this week as an effort to reduce the country's increasing trade surplus with China. China is considering a change in energy policy to encourage the wider use of ethanol in a bid to allievate the nation's worsening air pollution.
China National Coal, a unit of the mainland's largest exporter of coal, is in talks with some of world's largest coal firms to take strategic stakes as it plans to file an initial public offering application in Hong Kong this month to raise US$1 billion, people familiar with the situation said. June 12, 2006
Hong Kong will soon allow Taiwanese to visit the territory for up to seven days without having to pay for an entry permit, the government said on Friday.
China's actual foreign direct investment(FDI) in 2005 amounted to 72.4 billion U.S. dollars, up 19.42 percent over that of 2004, the revised statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce showed here Thursday.
Bank of China's A-share offer price has been set at between three yuan and 3.10 yuan (HK$2.90-HK$3) after the China Securities Regulatory Commission approved its mainland listing Friday, sources said. CEC Telecom, the mobile-phone manufacturing subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed consumer electronics firm Qiao Xing Universal, plans to seek a listing on the same board to raise US$150 million by the fourth quarter of this year. June 9 - 11, 2006
Cathay Pacific Airways and Hong Kong Dragon Airlines would probably wrap up talks on Thursday about Cathay's bid to take over the smaller carrier that has highly coveted routes to the booming mainland market, a person familiar with the negotiations said. The Independent Commission Against Corruption has arrested four people, including a disc jockey and a deputy head of Radio Television Hong Kong, on corruption-related charges.
The ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said on Thursday Macau may overtake the Las Vegas Strip as the biggest gaming market in the world in terms of revenue within the next few years.
China's national planning agency has approved Airbus' selection of Tianjin for the location of its A320 jets assembly line, the first outside the aircraft maker's European base. China has strengthened the enforcement of IPR protection laws and launched campaigns against violations, Bo said while meeting European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
The cabinet yesterday gave in principle approval to a draft anti-monopoly law which would provide a free and fair competitive environment to all enterprises. Multinationals will be allowed to invest in the Chinese currency-dominated A share market through their investment subsidiaries in China as of July 1. June 8, 2006
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Hong Kong:
Mission Hills vice-chairman Ken Chu
says the new construction will be financed through property sales and internal
cash flow. Shenzhen's Mission Hills, the world's largest golf facility, plans to
add a $1 billion, 1.61 million square foot retail, entertainment and hotel
complex to its mix of apartments, villas, tennis courts and 10 golf links, says
group vice-chairman Ken Chu.
China:
Premier Wen and Australian PM Howard opened
the first ever Sino-Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in south
China's Guangdong on Wednesday.
Wen Jiabao and John Howard arrive
for a ceremony to mark the official opening of the liquefied natural gas
terminal in Dapeng, Shenzhen, under a US$25 billion contract. Premier Wen Jiabao
yesterday hailed Australia as a reliable energy partner for China as the two
countries officially launched a liquefied natural gas project in Guangdong.
An eel farmer goes about his business
in Xiantao, Hubei. Finance Minister Jin Renqing announced on Tuesday that 297. 5
billion yuan was allocated to boost rural development and increase farmers'
incomes last year, up 13.3 per cent from 2004.
Hawkers offer ice to thousands of
people packed into a stadium in sweltering heat to look for jobs at an
employment fair in Nanjing, Jiangsu province yesterday. Vast numbers of
graduates each year are finding it increasingly hard to find well-paying jobs.
Models dressed and painted in the
colours of various national teams ramp up World Cup fever at Park Central in
Tseung Kwan O as the competition heads into the nail-biting knock-out stage.
Many shopping malls are running similar events to cash in on the excitement.
HKMA chief executive Joseph Yam says even
if some funds had left Hong Kong, he was unconcerned about panic withdrawals.
Overseas institutions bought
property worth US$3.4 billion on the mainland last year. Beijing plans to
restrict purchases of real estate by foreign investors to reduce speculation and
prevent a property bubble, a government official said yesterday.
A blueprint for the old Kai Tak
airport runway, released by the administration Wednesday, met with mixed reviews
as a number of lawmakers and activists questioned the sustainability of the
largely commercially focused design. Under the preliminary outline development
plan, the site will provide 700,000 square meters of Grade-A office space - with
a plot ratio of up to 9.5 - more than that at Island East and almost four times
the area proposed in one of the original concept plans. The runway will also
house 17 large hotels, providing a total of 6,800 new hotel rooms - the
equivalent of half of the hotels in Tsim Sha Tsui. Hotel operators will be
responsible for building adjacent public facilities, such as a bus terminus, a
government source said. A two-berth cruise terminal, helipad and 50,000-capacity
sports stadium have all been retained from the three concept plans to ensure the
site becomes a tourism and sports hub. While the government will undertake
development of the controversial cruise terminal to "avoid allegations of
collusion with developers," the source said tenders will still be invited for
the operation of services at the terminal. About 90 hectares of road network,
comprising 25 percent of the site area, will be provided to link the site to the
surrounding districts of Kowloon City, Kowloon Bay and Ngau Tau Kok, and an
underwater trunk road will link the runway to Kwun Tong and Tseung Kwan O. The
site is expected to become one of the city's four new "icons" - including the
Tamar headquarters, the Convention and Exhibition Centre and the West Kowloon
cultural district - centered around Victoria Park. The government could reap
more than HK$200 billion from the expected sale of residential, office and hotel
sites, industry observers said.
Mike Roberts of McDonald's and
Sinopec president Wang Tianpu. Mr Roberts says half of his firm's new stores
will have drive-through.
Yuan Bin, director of marketing for the Beijing Olympics Organising Committee,
will address representatives of more than 500 leading brands in New York
tomorrow.
Secretary for Security
Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong officiates yesterday at the passing-out parade for 38
customs inspectors on completion of their 32-week training programme. The
ceremony was held at the Customs and Excise Training School in Tuen Mun.
Liu Yongqing (second right), wife of
President Hu Jintao, and spouses of representatives at the Shanghai Co-operation
Organisation summit view a paper-cut show. 
Workers tend a furnace at the Hebei
steelworks of Handan, an attractive takeover target as it is the most important
mill in the province. China's 11th-largest steel producer, Handan Iron & Steel,
is fighting a hostile takeover by the country's No 1 producer, Baoshan Iron &
Steel, in a Chinese version of the Mittal-Arcelor battle.
The number of bicycles on mainland
roads has dropped dramatically since the 500 million recorded in the late 1980s.
China cities must put cyclists back on the road by restoring bicycle lanes in a
bid to cope with worsening pollution, energy shortages and traffic chaos,
according to a top official.
Shenhua and Sasol have been in talks on
the stakes and the transfer of technology in the mainland company's coal-to-oil
projects. Shenhua Group Corp, the parent company of Hong Kong-listed China
Shenhua Energy, is close to signing an agreement to co-operate with South
African coal-to-oil producer Sasol on the construction of mainland coal
liquefaction projects, according to a senior official of the company.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
(centre) takes his first ride on the Tung Chung cable car, describing the view
of Lantau as very impressive. The Ngong Ping 360 cable car runs from Tung Chung
to Ngong Ping village and the Big Buddha. Its trial run started last Thursday
and official services are scheduled to begin on June 24. 
Chinese President Hu Jintao makes a speech at a session of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation in Shanghai Thursday June 15, 2006. During the session
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited China, Russia and other Central
and South Asian nations to convene a special meeting to boost energy
cooperation.
Despite high oil prices, Air China reported profit growth of 1 per cent last
year while rival mainland carriers posted losses. 
A cheerleading team from a Korean
university gees up more than 2,000 Korean fans at Victoria Park last night
before the start of their nation's World Cup match against Togo. The fans were
also treated to an outdoor screen to watch the game live and demonstrations of
taekwondo and traditional percussion performances.
Folk craftsman Xu Zhiqiang displays one of
his works in Bozhou city, Anhui province. A large-scale clay sculpture entitled
Children Welcome The Olympic Games was shown in Bozhou on Monday. Xu
spent more than four years creating the more than 1,400 statues of children.
The main proposals by the Shanghai stock
exchange are to allow a 20 per cent daily trading limit on A shares and end a
ban on same-day buying and selling of stocks. 
Two dragon boat teams from Boston in
the United States slug it out on the city's Charles River in Boston in a
500-metre dash. Sunday's rowers were paddling for a place in the national finals
in New York in August. The national winners will go on to compete in the Hong
Kong International Dragon Boat Races next year.
Cathay's takeover
of Dragonair puts severe pressure on competitors, who must now consider their
own alliances. The takeover would make a combined Cathay and Dragonair dominant
as feeder to and from mainland China through Hong Kong, which currently accounts
for around 70 percent of arrivals in China. Dragonair serves 23 mainland cities
from Hong Kong, while Cathay - ranked 16th-largest in the world in terms of
revenue passenger kilometers and a member of the "oneworld alliance" - has been
limited to servicing directly only Beijing and Xiamen. "The link-up will attract
even more transit passengers on Cathay and Dragonair through Hong Kong," said
analyst Karen Chan of Credit Suisse First Boston (Hong Kong). And Chan says
that, currently, there is no real equivalent of the Cathay- Dragonair
combination.
Cathay Pacific Airways may gain air
rights from Dragon Airlines to Shanghai this year after it buys out the rival,
according to Air China's senior management. "We are cost sharing, profit sharing
and route sharing after the buyout deal," Air China chairman Li Jiaxiang said
right after a press conference. "It is not an important issue who flies the
Shanghai route," he added. Cathay, which resumed flights to the mainland in 2003
after a 13-year absence, has been slow in getting access to the world's most
populous nation. It flies only to Beijing and Xiamen in the southeast, and has
cargo flights to Shanghai. In the first round of talks with the mainland on
April 10, Cathay did not obtain approval to open its third mainland destination.
Dragonair and China Eastern Airlines are the only carriers that fly passengers
between Hong Kong, which is Asia's third busiest airport, and the mainland's
commercial center of Shanghai. "We badly wanted a significant presence in the
mainland," Cathay chairman Christopher Pratt said. Dragonair's network "fits
very, very well." Dragonair flies to 23 destinations in the mainland from Hong
Kong.
China Mobile Limited yesterday acquired
almost 20 percent of Phoenix Satellite TV Holdings Limited from News Corp, a
breakthrough in China's regulatory system on telecom and broadcasting networks.
A police officer flags down a bus during
a search for a robbery suspect who fled in handcuffs last night. About 6pm,
three South American women entered a jewellery and clothing shop near Southorn
Playground in Wan Chai. Suspecting they were thieves, the shopkeeper called
police, who arrived soon after the trio fled. With the shopkeeper's help, police
managed to arrest and handcuff one suspect. However, while she was being
searched, she bit an officer's arm and fled. Roadblocks were set up and buses
stopped to check for the woman. Late last night, she was still at large.
