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Aug 31, 2006
Hong Kong-listed Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical (0338) saw its first-half net profit plummet 99.7 percent to 5.69 million yuan (HK$5.56 million) - and warned its net profit for the first nine months would also drop substantially. Cathay Pacific Airways (0293) plans to increase its New York and San Francisco services as rivals target long- haul routes for expansion. The Ngong Ping 360 cable car system on Lantau is expected to open before National Day, or what is known in the mainland as the Golden Week, the operator said. India has barred a Chinese company, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings, from participating in a project to build a container port in Mumbai, citing security concerns, a senior port official said on Wednesday.
A Hong Kong delegate to a top
national advisory body yesterday urged the chief executive to consider joining
regional trading blocs to bolster the city's export economy.
Power stations in Guangdong emitted around 700,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide last year - the fifth highest amount from China's provinces, a mainland planning expert said on Wednesday.
Jinjiang International Hotels Development, the mainland's largest hotel operator, is in talks with international hoteliers including Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts over selling a strategic stake in the run-up to the company's US$300 million initial public offering, sources said. Should the company invite an overseas chain as a strategic investor, the share offering could be pushed back to early next year, a person familiar with the situation said. Originally, a sale as early as the third quarter had been planned. UBS and BNP Paribas are arranging the share sale. Jinjiang Hotels, which manages about 250 four- and five-star hotels in Beijing, Shanghai and in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, runs Peace Hotel, a 100-year-old building on the Bund in Shanghai which with the Raffles Hotel in Singapore were Asia's most opulent hotels in the 1930s. "[Overseas investors] will improve the quality of service at the hotels because the [mainland] operators still do not do five-star very well," said Tung Tai Securities associate director Kenny Tang Sing-hing. "If you want to improve the service and attract more different travellers, then you need them." Jinjiang Hotels, which saw a 13 per cent rise in net income to 98 million yuan in the first half on sales of 466 million yuan, also runs Jinjiang Inn, a chain of three-star hotels spread across 10 provinces. Jinjiang Hotels plans to open 16 more hotels and inns by the end of 2008. It also operates a travel agency, fast-food outlets and a taxi-leasing service. "For five-star hotels the outlook is good but in the three and four-star sector competition remains quite high now and will remain so because barriers to entry are low," Mr Tang said. US-based Starwood, which runs several hotel chains including the Luxury Collection, Sheraton, St Regis and Westin, operates 28 hotels in the mainland, Taiwan and Macau and has another 28 being built. Fairmont of Canada, which does not have a presence in China, was bought this year by Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and private equity firm Colony Capital. Colony owns the Raffles brand of hotels and operates one hotel in Beijing. China attracted a record 120 million foreign tourists last year, ranking fourth among the world's most popular travel destinations. Foreign visitors spent US$29 billion in China while mainland travelers spent US$67 billion Aug 30, 2006
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines is planning to lay off a significant number of its support staff when its ownership passes to Cathay Pacific Airways (0293), said a source close to the situation. The Malaysian parent of Hong Kong- listed Parkson Retail Group (3368), a major department store operator in the mainland, is seeking to reduce its majority stake by selling up to HK$1.33 billion worth of shares to institutional investors. Police and government officers raided Hong Kong's only unlicensed radio station Tuesday evening, arresting one man and issuing verbal warnings to two others in a long-anticipated sting against Citizens' Radio which is operated by activist Tsang Kin-shing.
While local media associations have joined in the chorus condemning published photographs showing Cantopop singer Gillian Chung Yan-tung undressing, they have stopped short of calling for law reform, saying freedom of the press in Hong Kong continues to remain too sensitive an issue. Hong Kong's political elite on Tuesday said they would look into calls by a Hong Kong pop star to tighten privacy laws after she was secretly photographed semi-nude by a tabloid-style magazine. Despite strong public and political party opposition, Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen is likely to make a proposal for a goods and services tax after the consultation period ends in March, a Liberal Party legislator said Tuesday.
Visiting United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab Tuesday in Beijing warned that there would be no winners if the Doha Round of trade talks eventually collapsed. China is to begin construction of a refinery and a machinery plant in Hefei, capital of eastern Anhui Province, which can turn out one ton of bio-oil from every two tons of crop stalks. Zhejiang Expressway (0576), China's largest toll-road operator by market value, reported its first-half earnings grew 8.9 percent due to increased traffic on its highways, as well as higher income from auxiliary operations such as filling stations and restaurants. China will send a first batch of air marshals for training in the United States in an indication of strengthening cooperation between the two nations on combating terrorism, state media said on Tuesday. Aug 29, 2006
In the latest twist to its war on illegal bookmaking, the Hong Kong Jockey Club announced a cash rebate it hopes will take up to 20 percent of racing bets away from underground pools. The nomination of Hong Kong film Exiled for the Golden Lion Award at the upcoming Venice Film Festival shows that its director, Johnnie To Kei- fung, belongs in the pantheon of modern cinematic masters, said acclaimed actor Francis Ng Chun-yu. Hong Kong needs to get involved now in helping to draw up China's next five-year plan or risk being left by the wayside, a cross-border business leader warned yesterday.
A report on CLP Power's choice of location for its liquefied natural gas terminal will be studied with "sensitivity" and "wisdom", rather than being driven solely by pressing time concerns, the government's top environment adviser said.
China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd will increase its coal output by 15 million tons annually within the next five years to make the company the world's biggest coal producer, Shenhua's top official said in Hongkong Monday.
Japan's trade with China jumped almost 10% in the six months to June, setting a record high for a seventh straight year despite diplomatic frictions.
China has received over 13,000 patent applications from US patentees in the first half of this year, a large increase compared with the same period in 2005, said the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC) yesterday announced that it had launched legal action against Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) over the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets. The mainland's largest oil refiner, China Petroleum & Chemical (0386), reported a better-than-expected 8.9 percent increase in first-half net profit, boosted by strong growth in upstream exploration business amid soaring oil prices. Dalian Port (2880), the largest container terminal operator on northeast China's Bohai Sea, said net profit for the six months ended June jumped 55 percent, driven by growth of its core businesses and bank interest income. The recruitment of a 100,000-strong team of volunteers for the Beijing Olympics kicked off in the capital yesterday, less than two years ahead of the event, with Hong Kong applicants expected to be considered next year. China's State Council is blocking bond sales totalling as much as US$3 billion by three government agencies on concern that they would make the problem of managing the yuan even more difficult, market sources said. Tsingtao Brewery, China's largest beer producer, posted a 22.5 per cent rise in first-half earnings, thanks to increased sales in the booming mainland market drowning out rising competition. Aug 28, 2006
St James' Settlement yesterday stepped up its bid to get the government to reconsider its HK$100 million plan to transform the 80-year-old Blue House on Stone Nullah Lane in Wan Chai.
China announced Friday its revised rules on qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) in a bid to attract more non-speculative overseas investment for its stock markets.
An inspection by the National People's Congress found that the mainland has made little progress in controlling water and air pollution and treating industrial waste, top legislators have been told. China's gold jewellery demand in the second quarter of 2006 fell 2 per cent to 54.5 tonnes from the same period last year as high prices curbed purchases, a senior industry official said. Aug 25 - 27, 2006
Hong Kong's public order and rule of law was under siege and severe challenge just hours after bashed Democratic Party vice chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan had left the confines of Queen Mary Hospital, with his solicitor firm receiving another threatening letter in which a razor blade was enclosed.
Hong Kong's top organizer of equestrian events for the 2008 Olympics says the summer humidity could pose problems, although the Hong Kong Observatory is conducting a two-year micro-weather monitoring program near the events' sites in Sha Tin and Sheung Shui to gather precise data on typical weather in August. Hong Kong businessmen who own polluting industries in the Pearl River Delta are now paying the price, with up to 20 percent of them forced to suspend operations or close down, a manufacturers group has revealed. The Hong Kong Jockey Club, one of the territory's largest charitable organizations, has unveiled a trio of initiatives worth HK$300 million aimed at helping the deaf and the dyslexic, and preserving the city's collective memory. The Hong Kong Jockey Club donated HK$1.03 billion to charitable causes in 2005-06, a slight increase of 0.69 per cent year-on-year, despite record turnover.
The one-way permit scheme under which mainlanders can be reunited with their families in Hong Kong needs to be reviewed in the light of the city's changing population and falling birth rate, a think-tank said yesterday. The consumer rights watchdog yesterday added its weight to calls for legislation to regulate the sales of uncompleted flats in Hong Kong, ahead of today's four-party meeting to discuss recent sales strategies.
The authorities last year cracked down on more than 50 money-laundering cases involving more than 10 billion yuan, the central bank said yesterday in a report. China and Viet Nam will accelerate oil and gas exploration and extraction in the border waters of the Beibu Gulf, according to a joint statement released yesterday evening.
China's government may issue its first high-speed wireless license within six months, an executive said, opening up a market with more subscribers than the combined populations of the U.S. and Japan. The Chinese government has banned employers from imposing overtime on staff or exposing them to the sun and heat as parts of the country experience the worst heat wave in 50 years. Aluminum Corp of China (2600), the mainland's largest alumina producer, also known as Chalco, plans to invest 60 billion yuan (HK$58.56 billion) over the next five years to boost its production capacity, as well as funding acquisitions to tap the growing domestic demand for metal. Giant US retailer Wal-Mart, one of the world's most staunchly anti-unionist companies, has seen its first Communist Party branch established at one of its outlets in Shenyang, Liaoning province. Almost 12 times as many "suspicious" foreign exchange transactions were recorded on the mainland last year than in 2004 amid intensifying government efforts to crack down on illegal fund flows, the People's Bank of China reported yesterday. Aug 24, 2006
Deutsche Bank Group Chief Economist Norbert Walter said the global economic upswing was slowing, particularly in the United States, which he blamed on higher interest rates and oil prices, and stagnating house prices. China's legislature is considering its first ever law to ban the sale of cigarettes and alcohol to the country's 300 million young people below the age of 18. China and the United States are carrying out their commitments to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) and both sides are encouraged by recent progress, two U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR) officials said here on Tuesday. President Hu Jintao on Monday exchanged views with U.S. President Bush on the phone on cementing economic dialogue and promoting bilateral trade ties. There were more than 798 million telephone users in China at the end of July, with cell phone users topping 431 million, said the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) on Monday. The composite index of Shanghai Stock Exchange bounced up 3.13 points to close at 1,601.15 points after a day of fluctuations on Monday, the first day of trading since the central bank announced a rise in interest rates.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a Monday press release that 480 irregularities involving a total of 520 million yuan had been uncovered from January to June of the year. Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has called for rapid and sound economic and social development in ethnic minority areas in west China.
Waste-water tariffs will be extended to all cities and towns - including more than 270 cities that lack treatment facilities - by the end of this year to tackle the nation's worsening water pollution. Chongqing's worst drought on record may have been intensified by a massive methane leak from a natural gas field outside the city owned by China National Petroleum Corp, an atmospheric scientist claimed yesterday. Bank of Communications (Bocom), the mainland's fifth-largest commercial lender, forecast stable lending growth in the rest of the year despite government austerity measures, after announcing a 31 per cent jump in first-half profit as customers borrowed more. China National Heavy Duty Truck, the mainland's third-largest heavy truck maker, has spurned Volvo of Sweden from taking a strategic stake in the company as it prepares for a US$500 million initial public offering in Hong Kong later this year, market sources said. The Shanghai government's pension fund management arm is suing two companies controlled by Zhang Rongkun, Shanghai Electric Group's former director, in a move to retrieve about 3.45 billion yuan of the fund. Jiangxi Copper, the largest mainland producer of the metal, said its first-half earnings more than doubled, thanks to rising copper and gold prices, as well as increased sales. Aug 23, 2006
Hong Kong stocks skidded Monday in their biggest one-day percentage decline in two months as China's move to raise interest rates unsettled investors, prompting a broad sell-off, down 322 points. China Merchants Bank (0133), the mainland's sixth largest commercial bank, plans to sell new shares in Hong Kong at a premium over its domestic market shares by the end of September, people familiar with the situation said Monday. Value Partners, the third-largest shareholder of troubled aluminum extrusion product maker Ocean Grand Holdings (1220), is to make full provision for its US$4 million (HK$31.2 million) investment in the debt-ridden company, according to Cheah Cheng Hye, chief investment officer and founder of Value Partners. Despite a 35 percent drop in its annual net profit, Hang Lung Properties (0101) has secured through private negotiations a coveted plot of land in Pok Fu Lam, which it wants to develop into a luxury housing project with an estimated price tag of HK$1 billion. Tom Group (2383), a media company controlled by Li Ka-shing, said it plans to acquire publishing businesses in Taiwan and outdoor advertising assets in the mainland before the end of the year in an attempt to offset lower second-half sales in its Internet unit, Tom Online (8282).
Hong Kong's economic growth is likely to have moderated in the second quarter, as a slowdown in the United States, its biggest trading partner, hurt the territory's exports, economists said.
Four international restaurant chains recently opened four new restaurants at Tsim Sha Tsui Centre, saying they plan to create a modern dining hub called “Al Fresco Lane”.
The central government is encouraging home buyers to use mortgages from public housing funds, as regulators tighten controls on loans from commercial banks.
Construction of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo site officially started on Saturday, a symbolic moment as the city bids to turn the multi-billion dollar project into a spectacular reality. The yuan hit a post-revaluation high Monday, bonds sank and stocks ended flat after the most aggressive monetary tightening since authorities stepped up efforts to cool the economy in April. Vietnamese communist party chief Nong Duc Manh heads to China on Tuesday intending to reassure Beijing that their bilateral ties are not endangered by Vietnam’s new partnership with the United States. President Hugo Chavez of oil-rich Venezuela visits China this week to buy tankers and seal an oil exploration deal amid a rapid increase in energy sales to fuel China’s booming economy. China is facing a "funding gap" as it plans to dramatically expand its railway network, forcing it to consider allowing more foreign investment and a greater role for the market, state media said on Monday. State Grid Corp, the larger of China's two power distributors, is planning to raise at least US$5 billion in an initial public offering in 2008, people familiar with the situation said. Aug 22, 2006
Eager buyers snapped up about 150 flats Friday night as Hong Kong's two largest developers - Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Sun Hung Kai Properties - slugged it out in a flat-selling battle royal. CSMC Technologies, a semiconductor manufacturer, announced Friday it made a stunning recovery in the first half of the year by posting a net profit of US$523,000 (HK$4.08 million), compared to a net loss of US$6.04 million in the same period the previous year.
In his first comment on the controversial goods and services tax, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen called on the chairmen and vice chairmen of 18 district councils to keep their minds open and listen to the views of the people before arriving at a conclusion. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen told lawmakers yesterday that the public consultation on introducing a goods and services tax (GST) was necessary even though it was controversial and was harming his administration's popularity.
Everybody in Hong Kong should be entitled to one full medical check-up at the government's expense during their lifetime, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was told yesterday.
Experts dismissed a rumor spreading on the Internet that the drought in Chongqing was related to the Three Gorges Project as a "story without any scientific basis." Sichuan's Bureau of Meteorology and Geophysics (BMG) reported on Thursday that the high temperatures and drought in Sichuan Province are the most severe since the BMG began keeping meteorological records in 1951. The Sichuan BMG believes the high temperatures and drought partially reflect global climate change, which is leading to more frequent and extreme weather, a trend exemplified by the series of coastal typhoons that have hit China. These recent coastal typhoons are a major cause of the region's heat wave. Kept down by the typhoon, the subtropical high cannot move forward. As a result, it has been controlling most parts of Sichuan for some time. The incidence rate of erectile dysfunction (ED) among Chinese men is high but only 10 percent of sufferers are willing to seek treatment, according to a survey.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce ruled that potato starch producers from the EU are guilty of dumping on the Chinese market, damaging China's own industry. With a better-than-expected earnings report from Chinese wireless value- added services provider Kongzhong this week, Chinese tech investors appear to believe the impact of new regulations from dominant mobile operator China Mobile will not be as bleak as first feared. China's aviation regulator and air force are in talks with the International Air Transport Association to open three air corridors through the country to reduce flying time from Europe, the airline industry group said. Guangzhou will soon end a two-year moratorium on licensing new internet cafes, a move that is expected to double the number of legal internet bars in the city by next year, according to a news report. Aug 21, 2006
Prosperity REIT, the real estate investment trust set up by leading developer Cheung Kong (Holdings), generated about 7 percent more distributable income to shareholders in its first half-year results, thanks to higher rents and ongoing cost controls.
The driver of a minibus who veered into the wrong lane of a road in Sai Kung and killed a racing cyclist was yesterday jailed for five months, a sentence condemned as too lenient by a teammate of the dead man.
The Lands Department faces another investigation over the way it handled Daniel Heung Cheuk-kei's alleged misuse of government land, after a political group filed a complaint to the Ombudsman yesterday.
China's currency, the yuan, is likely to stay on the slow-appreciating track despite its recent sharp fall, a well-known Chinese economist said Wednesday. US PC giant Dell Inc is facing an exodus of top executives from its China operations that could affect its business in one of the world's most dynamic PC markets. Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer and a bellwether for the industry, has reported its first decline in quarterly income in 10 years, blaming trouble in foreign markets for the financial slip, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
China has closed 3,014 shops around the country selling pirated audio-video products and computer software in one month, at the beginning of a 100-day intensive crackdown on piracy.
Sulfur dioxide emissions in Shanghai will be reduced by 26 per cent within four years, city officials said yesterday after the mainland announced earlier this month that it was the world's largest producer of SO2 in 2005. Shares of Air China, the mainland's largest international airline, will begin trading today in Shanghai amid expectations that they will drop below their initial public offering price because of concern over the carrier's earnings prospects in the face of record oil costs. Aug 18 - 20, 2006
People suffering from degenerative diseases can give written instructions on their future medical treatment should they reach a stage where they are no longer mentally competent to make such decisions. While the concept is new in Hong Kong, "living wills," as they are called in the United States, have been a fact of life - and death - there for many years.
Asia's richest woman, Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum, has won a limited victory in court, forcing her father-in-law to provide details about his funding of a marathon court battle with her over the will of her deceased husband. The government plans to allocate HK$2.3 billion for five new research and development centres in Hong Kong, Technology Secretary Joseph Wong Wing-ping said on Wednesday. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Wednesday total card receivables increased by 2.5 per cent (or HK$1.6 billion) in the second quarter of the year. Credit card receivables are amounts owed by the holders of credit cards - to the banks who issued the cards - arising from transactions made with these credit cards. The share price of electricity supplier CLP Holdings hit a 52-week high Tuesday after the company reported an interim net profit of HK$4.97 billion for the first half - up 9 percent from HK$4.61 billion the previous year, thanks to soaring overseas earnings.
The Securities and Futures Commission said it may require independent auditors to conduct compulsory checks on assets held by individual investors against the account records provided by their brokerage firms to make it more difficult for securities brokers to steal client assets. A Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress has appealed to the central government to give a lenient sentence to - or release - SAR-based journalist Ching Cheong, who was tried on espionage charges behind closed doors in Beijing Tuesday.
Shun Tak Holdings, Macau gaming magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun's property-to-shipping group, unveiled plans yesterday to build a HK$1 billion Marriott hotel at Hong Kong's airport, the group's first foray into the city's bustling hospitality sector.
Comerica Bank has become the latest U.S. financial institute to open an office in Shanghai, China, to take advantage of the booming Chinese economy. China's growing role in Africa offers encouraging opportunities for the region's economic and social development, a senior United Nations official said Tuesday in Beijing. China’s urban fixed asset investments rose 30.5 per cent in the first seven months of this year from a year earlier, official data showed on Wednesday, indicating a marginal slowdown. German automaker BMW AG and Shanghai’s SAIC Motor are discussing the possible sale of the Rover brand name to the Chinese car maker but have yet to strike a deal, spokesmen from both companies said on Wednesday. Huaneng Power International, China's largest independent power producer, posted a better than expected 29 per cent rise in interim profit as it benefited from a higher tariff and as more efficient plants came on stream. China, the world's largest wheat producer, may export as much as two million tons of the grain as livestock feed in the year ending next June as warehouse managers struggle to store the country's biggest harvest in seven years. NetEase.com, China's biggest online gaming company, said profit grew 29 per cent for the second quarter, boosted by better than expected performance of its stable of established online games such as Fantasy Westward Journey and by World Cup-related advertising. Chinese electronics companies are responding to increased demand by mainland manufacturers and financial services firms for advanced, internet-based video-conferencing systems to cut travel and boost productivity amid increasingly stringent air transport restrictions and growing foreign competition. Aug 17, 2006
Hong Kong’s International Airport (HKIA), Asia’s third-busiest by passenger traffic, handled 4.1 million passengers in July — a rise of 8.6 per cent compared with the same month last year. Software developer HKC International has built a telephone switchboard system that can transfer a fixed-line call into a Wi-fi internet call, making possible free local and overseas connections that could threaten mobile operators' roaming revenue worth as much as HK$2.5 billion a year.
The World Bank said Tuesday China's economy is expected to grow 10.4 percent this year and 9.3 percent in 2007.
Doll Capital Management (DCM), a leading US-based venture capital firm, is trying to expand its footprint to traditional industries with its new US$500 million DCM V fund. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank's first-half net profit rose by 30.83% to 1.60 billion yuan on the strength of a widening profit margin between loan and deposit rates.
China Mobility Solutions, a Vancouver-based software company, has entered the short messaging service (SMS) banking market in the mainland, after buying control last week of Beijing Topbiz Technology Development. Aug 16, 2006
Troubled mainland refrigerator maker Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings turned into the largest loss-maker listed on the mainland market in 2005 after former chairman Gu Chujun was accused of embezzling and misappropriating substantial amounts of company assets. Shares of China Construction Bank, the first H share to be included in the benchmark Hang Seng Index, fell on profit- taking Monday, while the other two new members of the index, Foxconn International and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, gained on active buying. In a move heralding an expected management reshuffle, an executive from Swire Pacific's Taiwan automotive subsidiary will take over from Stanley Hui Hon-chung as chief executive officer of Dragon Airlines, according to a source. Hong Kong-listed NewOcean Energy Holdings, which wholesales and retails liquefied petroleum gas in southern China, plans to invest US$17 million (HK$132.6 million) to boost its gas storage capacity to 15,600 tonnes and increase business. Hong Kong's largest pay-TV operator, i-Cable Communications, said Monday it will attempt to maintain this year's dividend payments at last year's level despite reporting a 59 percent fall in interim net profit due to higher programming costs and increased tax liabilities.
Hong Kong airlines will receive a modicum of relief from air traffic delays over mainland skies next year when Chinese authorities unveil another route to China as they look to ease congestion before the Olympics, according to one the aviation industry’s top executives.
Another senior executive of the China's largest manufacturer of coal-fired power generation equipment, Shanghai Electric Group, has been detained and is under investigation. China's third-largest home appliances and consumer electronics chain China Paradise Electronics Retail, which will be acquired by Gome Electrical Appliances, said its first half net profit slumped 89 percent, with earnings coming in far below analyst estimates. Beijing Capital Land, the property development arm of the Beijing municipal government, said operations in the past two months have not been adversely affected following the arrest of its chairman. China retail sales, the main indicator of consumer spending levels, rose 13.7 per cent in July from a year earlier to 601.2 billion yuan (HK$586.9 billion), official data showed on Monday. Aug 15, 2006
David Li Kwok-po, chairman and chief executive of Bank of East Asia, expects BEA's market share in Hong Kong to shrink significantly in 10 years as competition intensifies and the market matures. Some fear the golden credit-card- swiping days will soon end if the government pushes through a proposed 5 percent goods and services tax. The government will try to rally public support for a broadened tax base following a rethink of its strategy for the consultation on a goods and services tax (GST), which has so far met overwhelming opposition. Opposition among political and social groups to the introduction of a goods and services tax (GST) is gaining community backing, with the second public protest in a month being organized. Hong Kong now stands on the brink of a monumental tipping point. For the past 150 years, the government has had free rein to reclaim, sell and plan every inch of land in the territory. But decades of disputable planning, coupled with the public's increasing attention to quality of life, are propelling the territory into a new era. "Within the next 10 years there will be a dramatic change. People are going to say: `No! This isn't what we want,"' predicted Christine Loh Kung-wai, head of think-tank Civic Exchange. "We'll be tearing down roads and reshaping Hong Kong." At the center of this approaching backlash is the territory's most prized asset: Victoria Harbour. Currently, the public stands to lose three of the last remaining prime pieces of waterfront land to traditional planning methods: Central reclamation, Kai Tak and West Kowloon. The plans for these sites, drawn up in the late 1980s, have in recent months sparked heated debate over the government's "outdated" urban planning in the light of Hong Kong's shifting identity. "We've gone too far, and people are starting to wonder: `Can we continue like this?"' Institute of Architects vice president Vincent Ng Wing-shun said. In the past decade, a chasm has steadily grown between the attitudes of the government and the people towards urban planning. Since the handover in 1997, the public has experienced a "paradigm shift," Ng said. The people have departed from the "city in the sky" vision - once a symbol of a prosperous metropolis - and are now questioning whether all those skyscrapers, highways and flyovers circling the harbor are conducive to their vision of a "home." Moreover, the public is finally shedding its "die-hard mentality" of feeling helpless over the whims of the government, said Albert Lai Kwong-tak, chairman of the Council for Sustainable Development.
In a small sliver of space where performance art and sustainable development intersect, a group of artists is launching a campaign to save Central's venerable Star Ferry clock tower - and maintain what they call an historic piece of Hong Kong's bustling downtown core. Following the desecration of 29 tombstones at the weekend, families of civil servants buried at Gallant Garden appeal for stricter security at the cemetery honouring those who die in the line of duty.
After eight years of often bitter wrangling, the Zhuhai government is on the verge of a final settlement that will see foreign creditors of its bankrupt overseas investment arm, Zhu Kuan Group, accept about one-third of the US$1.3 billion they are owed.
The towering trade balance tipped the scales for the third straight month, topping US$14.6 billion in July. At the current pace, the bilateral deficit with the US will be 50% higher than last year’s record US$102 billion. Just before the new numbers were made public, the PBoC issued a report that suggested it would be open to a further revaluation of the RMB as a means of controlling the trade imbalance. The central bank’s statement, while by no means definitive, was certainly welcomed by American manufacturers as well as many congressmen, who have been lobbying China to effect such a change for years. Meanwhile, a new report from UBS cast doubt on how effectively revaluation could reduce the deficit. Long a magnet for foreign investment, China is now developing a fear of foreign takeovers that has prompted calls for a new body to look more closely into certain business deals. Recently there was an unprecedented closed-door meeting of top officials to discuss US private equity firm Carlyle's bid to takeover Xugong, a Chinese construction equipment manufacturer. The government has also been targeting foreign buyers of real estate for special restrictions. And this week a Goldman Sachs bid for a Chinese meat processor has run into a wall at the Ministry of Commerce, while Germany-based Schaeffler’s attempted takeover of a Chinese state-owned firm is under investigation. National security is the premise of most of the recent suspicion, as certain factions of the government have questioned the waves of foreign money pouring into the country as a possible threat to domestic firms, especially in “strategic sectors”. Meanwhile, FDI looked to be leveling off after years of growth. The total value of Chinese imports and exports from January to July 2006 was US$ 941.85 billion, increasing by 24.8% against the same period of last year. Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday met with Ted Stevens, acting president of the United States Senate in Beijing and pledged to further Sino-U.S. ties. |
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Hong Kong:
Li Ka-shing, Asia's wealthiest man,
is donating HK$2.4 billion worth of his shares in Cheung Kong Life Sciences
International (8222) to the Li Ka Shing Foundation, which the 78-year- old
philanthropist established purely for charitable purposes. CK Life Sciences
closed Wednesday at 85 HK cents per share - up 5 HK cents, or 6.25 percent. In
May last year, Li transferred the entire C$1.2 billion (HK$8.42 billion)
proceeds from selling his 17,008,928 common shares in Canadian bank CIBC. The
foundation previously made a HK$1 billion donation to Hong Kong University,
which then named its medicine school after Li. Li, who is on a trip to Rome, met
Italy's prime minister Romano Prodi and communications minister Paolo Gentiloni
Wednesday to discuss his investment in 3 Italia, the telecommunications arm of
Hutchison Whampoa (0013) in the country. Li said last week in a press conference
to announce the interim results of Cheung Kong (Holdings) (0001) and Hutchison
Whampoa - both of which he chairs - that he would not follow in the footsteps of
Warren Buffett, the world's second- richest man, who has pledged to donate the
bulk of his assets to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Instead, Li has
pledged to donate at least one third of his assets to his foundation. A
spokesperson said Li's move to donate his shares was not inspired by either
Gates or Buffett. Li established his foundation in 1980, long before Gates had
even amassed enough assets to set up a foundation that could be widely
recognized. Li's spokesperson ruled out the possibility that the tycoon would
donate his stakes in Cheung Kong, Hutchison Whampoa or Canada's Husky Energy as
these were, respectively, the ultimate holding company, a multinational
conglomerate and a core business. The spokesperson declined to disclose the
total asset value of Li's foundation.
China:
U.S. Trade Representative Susan
Schwab said Tuesday in Beijing that the US benefited greatly from China's rapid
economic progress. The United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab wrapped
up her first visit to Beijing on Tuesday with China emerging as the best
possible mediator the U.S. could find to help resume the stalled Doha Round of
trade talks.
An elderly woman sits close to her destroyed home in the flood stricken town of
Guangyuan on Wednesday in China's Sichuan province. Communities in southern
China are straining to resettle more than 15 million people left homeless by a
devastating flood season in the past few months, the official Xinhua News Agency
reported.
Nissan forecasts mainland sales of
its locally built and imported cars will surge 50 per cent to more than 300,000
units next year.
Hong Kong's world-famous landmark,
the 49-year-old Star Ferry pier in Central, moved one step closer to demolition
Tuesday when the government announced completion of external works on the
replacement terminal. Unveiling the new terminal, chief engineer of the Civil
Engineering and Development Department Fung Kit- wing said the Star Ferry
Company would start fitting out the terminal immediately, with work taking about
two months. The terminal will open in November, and the old landmark will be
demolished three months later.
But while the exterior of the
terminal - modeled on the 1912 version of the terminal - might fool a local or
two, old-timers will be able to tell the difference upon hearing the sound of
the imitation bells ringing from the electronically operated clock tower. The
bells, which sound every quarter of an hour, lack the rich and resonant quality
of the their authentic counterparts. "The bells may sound slightly different
but, overall, they're quite similar," Fung said.
Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen (left) chats with film director Johnnie
To Kei-fung at a reception at the Cultural centre yesterday to celebrate the
nomination and world premiere of his film Fangzhu (Exiled) at the 63rd
Venice Film Festival.
Twins singer Gillian Chung (centre)
shows the strain as she leaves TVB City in Tseung Kwan O, last night with fellow
Twin Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin (right) after her first high-profile Hong Kong
appearance since Easy Finder magazine ran photos secretly taken of her changing
costume in Malaysia. The singer appeared on television after returning to the
city and making a report to the police, who are liaising through Interpol with
counterparts in Malaysia. Canto-pop idol Gillian Chung Yan-tung filed a police
complaint yesterday, seeking an investigation into Easy Finder magazine for
publishing pictures of her changing backstage during a concert in Malaysia.
With few resources to call on, dog-lover Nikki Green has managed to find homes
for about 400 strays and puppies in three years. But she feels her crusade to
save unwanted and unloved animals will be futile unless the government takes
concrete steps to stop Hong Kong's growing dog problem.
Young Tibetan Buddhist monks debate
scriptures at Songzanlin Temple in Shangri La county, Yunnan province, near the
border with Tibet. The county is a popular tourist destination with visitors
wishing to see first hand the mythical land of Shangri-La, made famous by James
Hilton in his 1933 book Lost Horizon.
Hundreds of viewers were attracted by a special exhibition of Barbie dolls at
Langham Place in Mongkok yesterday. A total of 107 special-issue Barbies, valued
at more than HK$1 million, are on display until September 5. Barbie, who
celebrated her 47th birthday this year, is the world's best-selling doll.
Dick Lee (centre), with his deputy Tang King-shing (left) and director of
operations Peter Yam Tat-wing, speaks after meeting lawmakers in an hour-long
meeting yesterday. Police chief Dick Lee Ming-kwai pledged yesterday to look
personally at all cases of intimidation and vandalism directed at public figures
in the wake of the brutal attack on Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan.
Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun, asked to comment last night on the
attack on Albert Ho Chun-yan, said he did not want to see such violent acts
taking place.
Scaffolding is wheeled past the
famed giant portrait of Mao Zedong as construction workers prepare to spruce up
the 600-year-old Tiananmen Gate in Beijing for National Day on October 1.
About 200 people marched from Wan Chai to Central to protest against the
proposed goods and services tax yesterday. The protest was organised by the
Democratic Party. Party legislator Sin Chung-kai, who joined the march, said
Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen should shorten the nine-month public
consultation period.
Two
men walk past the headquarter of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) in Beijing,
Aug. 18, 2006. The People's Bank of China (PBOC)announced on Friday that it will
raise the one-year benchmark interest rates by 27 basis points from August 19.
The composite index of Shanghai Stock Exchange slumped 26.9 points, or 1.68
percent, to open at 1,565.457 points on Monday morning.
Indonesian dancers perform at a welcoming
party for the "Celebrating the Joy of Nature" festival yesterday at a Causeway
Bay hotel. They are one of 16 groups of dancers from 12 countries in the
festival, held at the Asia World Expo tonight and tomorrow. The event was
organised by the International Nature Loving Association, a charity formed to
change "youthful coldness and pessimistic behaviour through exposure of original
charm and virtues of youthful dancers".
The People's Bank of
China (PBOC) announced on Friday that it will raise the one-year benchmark
interest rate by 0.27 percent from August 19. Analysts welcomed the rise in
interest rates announced by the People's Bank of China yesterday, but they said
the rise was too small to discourage the runaway pace of investment in the
country and predicted further tightening measures to come.
Briton John Evans, who claims to have the world's strongest neck, balances two
girls on bicycles on his head - weighing a total of 144kg - at the APM mall in
Kwun Tong. The holder of 30 Guinness world records, who has balanced a car on
his head and performed throughout the world, Evans will be performing similar
stunts at shopping malls throughout the city until tomorrow.
Faced with a growing public outcry over
claims of illegally converting a leased government warehouse into a private
residence, Daniel Heung Cheuk-kei, cousin of Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen,
announced his resignation from two official posts with immediate effect. "As
chairman of the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education, I feel the way I
have been portrayed may have confused and disappointed the public," Heung said
in a press release Tuesday.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
attends a symposium yesterday on his celebrated ancestor Zeng Zi, a philosopher
and disciple of Confucius. National People's Congress Standing Committee member
Tsang Hin-chi, another member of the philosopher's clan, also attended the third
International Symposium on the Zengzi School of Thought at the Island
Shangri-La.
Gracie Foo, the new deputy broadcasting
director of RTHK, addresses the media on her first day in office. She would not
be drawn on speculation that her posting was part of a government attempt to
rein in the public broadcaster's editorial autonomy.
Chinese electronics companies are
responding to increased demand by mainland manufacturers and financial services
firms for advanced, internet-based video-conferencing systems to cut travel and
boost productivity amid increasingly stringent air transport restrictions and
growing foreign competition.
The hotly contested `groundscraper'
proposal in the government's blueprint for the Central waterfront was submitted
by Hongkong Land, Central's largest landlord, in a move that effectively
safeguarded harborviews for its adjacent developments, The Standard has learned.
The building - nicknamed "IFC2 lying on its side" by environmentalists - was
proposed by Hongkong Land in 1998 as an "objection" to government plans which
envisioned a 40-story block-shaped skyscraper at the site, according to a
source. 
