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Oct 31, 2006
Outgoing Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun has dismissed rumors that her imminent departure from her post is because of her unpopularity, but because "today" is the most suitable time given the progress of education reforms. Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, who is expected to be named the new ICAC commissioner, yesterday said it was an appropriate time for her to change jobs.
Hong Kong is
likely to get a giant panda next year to mark the 10th anniversary of the
handover.
Hong Kong-listed Cofco International has hired Goldman Sachs and Bank of China International to arrange the US$200 million spin-off of an agri-business subsidiary next year, market sources said.
China's Ministry of Commerce defended its duties on imported auto parts on Friday and expressed "regret" over the World Trade Organization's decision to launch a panel to oversee the issue. China and Iraq are reviving a 1997 deal worth US$1.2 billion (HK$9.36 billion) signed by Beijing and Saddam Hussein's government to develop an Iraqi oil field, Baghdad's oil minister said Saturday.
Oct 30, 2006
The Hang Seng Index scaled to a new record in the morning session Friday, on a day when dealing in shares of market debutant Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1398) made trading volumes swell to levels not seen since 1998. But the blue-chip measure lost steam and ended the day in negative territory.
A mainland contract killer who shot dead Hong Kong millionaire Harry Lam Hon-lit with a bullet to the head in Central four years ago apologised to the victim's family yesterday and asked a Shenzhen court to sentence him to death. by primary schools in a key assessment test, but they have called on the government to do more to help weaker schools and to prevent a clear downward trend in performance as students progress through school.
Meeting with the 14th Japanese "Great Wall" Program Delegation to China on Friday afternoon in Beijing, Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo called for lifting Sino-Japanese ties "to a higher level". Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has hailed the upcoming Africa-China summit in Beijing as being a crucial one for building closer bilateral relations between the two nations.
China inked on Friday the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP), which was concluded in Tokyo in November 2004 and came into force on Sept. 4, 2006. The China National BlueStar (Group) Corporation became the largest Chinese investor in Europe after an acquisition deal announced Friday with the France-based specialty chemicals producer Rhodia Group. China has announced the minimum hourly-wage standard in its 29 provinces and autonomous regions excluding Guangdong and Xinjiang. The 638 mainland-listed companies who have released their quarterly reports for the third quarter reported total net profit of 45 billion yuan (5.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months. The daily 0.3 percent floating band between the RMB and the U.S. dollar is wide enough, even if the RMB is under heavy pressure to appreciate, said a senior official with the People's Bank of China (PBOC) recently.
China is expected to recentralise the power to approve death sentences as soon as next year, with the issue up for discussion at a new round of National People's Congress Standing Committee meetings convened in Beijing yesterday. Oct 27 - 29, 2006
Shares of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China changed hands at HK$3.50 apiece Thursday, 14.66 percent above the initial public offering price of HK$3.07, in gray market trading before the formal start of dealing in its shares today. Taking advantage of strong market sentiment, three mainland property developers - Beijing Capital Land (2868), Shenzhen Investment (0604) and Greentown China Holdings (3900) - were seeking Thursday to raise at least a combined HK$4 billion for land acquisition through share placement and bond offer. Oasis Hong Kong Airlines - the territory's first long-haul budget airline - finally got off the ground Thursday after an overnight delay caused by Russia's refusal to allow the carrier's maiden flight over its airspace.
With just two days to go, promoters said on Thursday that they have cancelled Mariah Carey’s concert in Hong Kong due to a poor response and what they characterized as “unreasonable demands” from the US pop singer. The value of Hong Kong’s goods exports grew 4.7 per cent year on year last month to HK$220.1 billion, figures released on Thursday showed.
China and European Aircraft giant Airbus Thursday signed a framework agreement and a letter of intent for 150 Airbus A320 aircrafts and 20 Airbus A350 airplanes. China will built a new nuclear power plant in Hunan Province with an investment of 60 billion yuan (7.5 billion U.S. dollars), a local government source said Wednesday. A branch manager at the Bank of Shanghai, part- owned by HSBC Holdings (0005), was sentenced to nine years in prison after he embezzled 110 million yuan (HK$108.4 million) of the bank's capital, state media reported.
Oct 26, 2006
British mobile telecoms operator 3 UK, a unit of tycoon Li Ka-shing's flagship Hutchison Whampoa (0013), said it will acquire 95 stores from a rival operator and open another 30 outlets by the end of this year, nearly doubling its sales outlets in the UK. Hong Kong's press freedom ranking slipped to its lowest point in the past five years after a year that saw vandalism committed against a local newspaper office and a parcel bomb sent to two reporters, according to an annual report by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. The Independent Commission Against Corruption has arrested a prominent disc jockey at Radio Television Hong Kong in connection with an illicit money scheme, in the latest setback for the public broadcaster. The confrontation between disgruntled tour guides and the tourism watchdog, the Travel Industry Council, has worsened after the council called for the scrapping of shopping trips - the main source of income for guides - from the itinerary of inbound tour groups.
The MTR Corporation and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation declined to guarantee yesterday that their staff will not be worse off after the impending merger of their railway operations.
A city-wide review of road safety to
be conducted over the next three months could result in new restrictions on the
use of some roads - particularly narrow cul-de-sacs - and additional safety
equipment being required for goods vehicles. Macau's gaming revenue leapt 37 per cent in September to HK$4.5 billion, boosted by the September 6 opening of the US$1.2 billion Wynn Macau casino resort, according to official statistics released yesterday.
Ling Baoheng, director of Shanghai's Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, was detained at the weekend. Also held was his deputy, Wu Hongmei. Chinese newspapers and magazines will be prohibited from accepting misleading advertising effective November 1, says the State Press and Publication Administration and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC).
French President Jacques Chirac begins a four-day visit to China today, aiming to strengthen economic and business co-operation, against a backdrop of the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis.
Profits at China's industrial firms
rose 29.6 per cent year on year in the first three quarters of 2006 to 1.302
trillion yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. Huaneng Power International, China's largest publicly traded power producer, said third-quarter net profit growth slowed to 2.65 per cent year on year amid falling plant utilization. Oct 25, 2006
The Housing Authority's (HA) Commercial Properties Committee (CPC) on Tuesday approved new arrangements for tenants affected by the clearance of Kwun Tong Factory Estate. Secretary for Economic Development and Labor Stephen Ip Shu-kwan on Tuesday said more talks were planned with travel industry members and tour guides to resolve the controversy of "zero charge tours". China and Hong Kong face a shortage of skilled professional information technology workers that along with similar shortfalls across Asia could derail economic development across the region, according to a study.
Two senior managers at China Eastern Airlines, one of the country's three leading carriers, had been detained by authorities in Shanghai for unspecified wrongdoing, an official said on Tuesday.
China has punished 17,505 officials this year on corruption charges, and its top prosecutor has warned that the rule of law could be in danger if graft isn’t stamped out, a government news agency said on Tuesday. Chinese shares closed sharply higher on Tuesday, adding 2.61 per cent in a technical rebound from losses sustained on Monday as fresh funds came into the market for heavyweight blue chips and banks, dealers said. Wal-Mart Stores and General Electric's finance arm were joining the race for a share of China's growing consumer credit market by launching their own credit card this week, a Wal-Mart spokesman said on Tuesday. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China's biggest microchip maker, is considering whether to sell shares in its profitable Shanghai business for a listing in the city's A-share market next year or wait until the end of 2008 to list the entire group in the mainland, president and chief executive Richard Chang Ru-gin said. Oct 24, 2006
Discontented tour guides who complain about being made scapegoats as confidence in the tourism industry plummets have been told to "take a good look at themselves" before trying to "shift responsibility." Hundreds of thousands of smokers are now more willing to quit the habit following last week's passage of the anti- smoking bill into law, according to a Hong Kong University survey. Hong Kong residents assigned to mainland posts have seen their salaries increase by 20 to 30 percent this year, while their counterparts in Hong Kong received only a modest 3 percent rise, according to a human resources study. The government was set to commission an independent software asset management (SAM) contractor to provide free consultancy services to firms, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Joseph Wong Wing-ping said.
China BlueChemical (3983) said it will consider merging with China National Chemical Construction Corporation after its parent China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC Group) confirmed it will acquire the state-owned company at no cost to strengthen its fertilizer and petrochemical businesses. Beijing-based Dazhong Electronics - the mainland's fifth-largest electrical appliances retailer - said Monday it is seeking arbitration from a Chinese trade panel to terminate a cooperation agreement with China Paradise Electronics (0503) since the latter has been taken over by industry leader Gome (0493).
China's rulers are now beginning to embrace religion in efforts to build a fairer society but the persecution of religious groups remains a worry, the head of the world's Anglican Church said. Wrapping up a rare two-week visit, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said Monday that China is in the middle of a "watershed moment" with many people looking to religion amid huge economic and social changes. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is set to reap a record US$22 billion (HK$172 billion) bonanza after pricing its much-anticipated initial public offering at the top end of expectations on Monday. The European Union warned China on Monday that it must redouble market reform efforts and its commitment to economic openness or face a protectionist backlash. This year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus yesterday called for the mainland to allow micro-credit institutions to take deposits and described a recent experiment to develop China's version of Grameen Bank as "cutting one leg off before it starts to run". Oct 23, 2006
The government will spend HK$12.6 million to buy 36 fuel-inefficient luxury saloons, even as environment chiefs said yesterday that most of the official fleet of 1,071 cars will be replaced by environmentally friendly vehicles by 2014. K Wah International, a developer run by Galaxy Entertainment Group chairman Lui Che-woo, has triggered the auction of a Kowloon Tong luxury residential site with a HK$1.1 billion bid. A bill outlawing idling engines could be presented to the Legislative Council as early as March if there is a favourable response in a public consultation, the transport minister said yesterday. A day after heated debates on two controversial motions, lawmakers and government officials put aside their differences yesterday to wish Donald Tsang Yam-kuen happy birthday. And as they tucked into the traditional dessert chu bao - a symbol of long life - the chief executive said his birthday wish was not to make legislators angry.
Hong Kong-listed TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings and TCL Communication Technology Holdings have returned to profit in the third quarter, while their parent company TCL Corp predicted a full-year loss. The popular United States-based video-sharing website YouTube has deleted nearly 30,000 files over copyright concerns after being asked by a group representing Japan's entertainment industry.
IOC President Jacques Rogge arrived in Beijing Saturday afternoon, beginning a five-day inspection tour of the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games.
China's first airport-based bonded logistics center will begin operation in the first quarter of next year and is expected to make Beijing an important Northeast Asian air cargo transportation hub.
Economists have warned of the danger of a rebound in capital investment and predict the central government will continue to steer the same macroeconomic course despite data suggesting a moderation of economic growth in the past quarter. With less than two years to go before the Beijing Olympics, China is still vulnerable to security challenges with widespread discontent, environmental disasters and disease outbreaks posing threats to the country's showcase events and projects such as the Three Gorges Dam, according to mainland scholars and officials. The estuaries of two of China's major waterways, the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers, have been declared marine "dead zones" as the United Nations warns that the number of such sites around the world is on the rise. China Mobile (Hong Kong), the world's largest wireless carrier in subscriber terms, said nine-month profit rose 25 per cent, driven by better average spending by users and higher data contribution amid a less competitive operating environment. China Telecom Corp, the larger of the country's two fixed-line operators, posted an 8 per cent drop in third-quarter profit from the previous quarter due to tough competition from mobile phone operators and higher operating expenses. China Cinda Asset Management and China Orient Asset Management, two of the five firms set up by Beijing to clear state-owned banks' bad debt, will for the first time be able to securitise their non-performing loans for sale to mainland investors, according to a senior banking government official. Oct 20 - 22, 2006
Thirty people, including 19 employees of Centaline Property Agency, have been arrested in the past three days for allegedly violating the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance in connection with property transactions, the Independent Commission Against Corruption confirmed Wednesday. Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp will become the first bank in Hong Kong to launch online money transfer services to India, acting as one of the agents to channel some of the US$23 billion (HK$179.4 billion) worth of funds flowing into India annually. Legislators have overwhelmingly passed the controversial anti-smoking bill banning smoking in all indoor workplaces and restaurants and selected outdoor areas such as parks and beaches after a marathon nine-hour debate. A Hong Kong man and his Japanese wife, who punished their 10-year-old boy by locking him in a hard-shell suitcase for two hours, have been sentenced to 18 months and two years jail, respectively, for manslaughter. Six environmental concern groups in Hong Kong on Thursday signed a joint statement opposing plans to build a liquified natural gas processing plant on the Soko Islands. Competition in Macau's burgeoning gaming sector is expected to heat up on Thursday as new casino StarWorld Hotel opens in the city that could soon overtake Las Vegas as the world's gaming capital. The HK$3 billion StarWorld, owned by Hong Kong's Galaxy Entertainment Group, features a 34-story hotel offering 500 rooms. It also boasts an outdoor pool, a modern exterior with a huge LED wall that lights up the whole building's exterior at night, and a casino with 300 gaming tables and 371 slot machines. StarWorld's opening follows hot on the heels of two casino openings in Macau last month. The HK$3.2 billion Grand Waldo Casino and Hotel - also owned by Galaxy - debuted on September 29, weeks after Las Vegas gambling tycoon Stephen Wynn threw open the doors to his Wynn Macau, a lavish US$1.2 billion (HK$9.4 billion) resort. StarWorld is Galaxy's fifth casino in Macau, marking the group's increasing presence in the territory's crowded gaming sector. The current gaming market is dominated by tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun's gambling flagship, followed by Las Vegas magnate Sheldon Adelson's Sands Macau casino.
The country's first experimental fast nuclear reactor will begin trials in 2010, said Kang Rixin, general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation. The argument by American scholar Lester Brown that China would become a hungry dinosaur, triggering a global food crisis in 2030, appears weak on Monday - the 26th World Food Day - given China has emerged as the world's third largest food donor. China's fixed asset investment rose to 7.19 trillion yuan (899.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months of this year, up by 27.3 percent from the same period last year. Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd said Wednesday its 5.27 billion-HK-dolar (675 million U.S. dollars) takeover offer was accepted by China Paradise Electronics Retail Ltd.
Chinese financial regulators might lift a moratorium on new foreign investment in securities brokerages in the second half of next year, an official newspaper said on Thursday. Oct 19, 2006
The Planning Department has rolled out a major reworking of its plans for the old Kai Tak airport site, consolidating a block of luxury hotels near the runway's two planned cruise terminals and drawing up plans for an eight-station monorail linking the tourist hub with neighboring Kwun Tong. Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying- yen, whose goods and services tax proposal faces almost certain defeat in the Legislative Council today, has made a last-ditch effort to save his proposal, asking legislators not to terminate consultations on the controversial levy six months ahead of schedule. The wage protection movement to help cleaners and security guards, proposed by the chief executive in his policy address last week, got off to a flying start Tuesday with four major business groups and an employers' association pledging support for the voluntary campaign. Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan Tuesday called on the Travel Industry Council to be tough and take swift action to discipline unscrupulous tour operators who jeopardize Hong Kong's reputation as a tourist destination.
Taiwan is investigating the trading of shares in one of the island's banks just before Standard Chartered announced it was planning to buy the financial institution, a senior prosecutor said on Wednesday.
The China joint ventures of Hyundai Motor and Ford Motor have recalled 151,397 locally made cars due to mechanical faults. US retail giant Wal-Mart appears to be rethinking its "pile it high, sell it cheap" philosophy in China at least with the billion-dollar purchase of a community supermarket chain. The central banks of China and Indonesia have signed a third currency swap arrangement under the Chiang Mai Initiative, according to a joint statement issued on Tuesday. China will blacklist the producers and distributors of spy software, or spyware, in a bid to safeguard Internet safety, Wednesday People's Daily reported. Shares of Guangzhou Shipyard (0317) soared to a record high after the company said it expects third-quarter net profit to increase sixfold year on year, thanks to higher gross margin and sales volume. A range of mainland banks have suspended or restricted transactions with North Korea following United Nations sanctions imposed against Pyongyang for its nuclear test. MTV and search engine Baidu.com Tuesday unveiled a venture to distribute music videos by Internet in China, boosting the music video channel's exposure in a market where regulation has limited its presence. Three former top executives of China Southern Airlines, one of the nation's leading carriers, have gone on trial in a massive graft case involving up to 1.25 billion yuan (HK$1.2 billion), press reports said on Wednesday.
China is expected to sign a multinational treaty next month on developing what is hoped will be a highly efficient form of nuclear energy, accelerating its search for alternative sources to meet its voracious demand for energy. Shanghai Electric Group, one of the city's biggest industrial groups, on Wednesday said several executives are under investigation for allegedly violating Communist Party rules, the latest reported suspects in a widening corruption scandal. Oct 18, 2006
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (0388) said Monday it granted a waiver to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China allowing warrants on the stock to be traded on the day ICBC shares begin trading on the main board, the first such arrangement aimed at increasing transparency in over-the-counter trading.
Total land income has reached HK$27 billion in the current fiscal year, not far short of the government's full-year target of HK$30.5 billion, as higher revenues from private treaty grants and lease modifications helped offset lower proceeds from land auctions. New government proposals to promote development of the local insurance industry, contained in Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's policy address last week, have been criticized by legislator Bernard Chan Chi-sze as a reiteration of earlier policies. A local tourist guide has been given a two-week ban, and a travel agency issued with a warning letter after a group of mainland tourists complained they were left unattended for not making sufficient purchases at a shop. Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying- yen has introduced three sweeteners to the proposed goods and services tax ahead of what is expected to be a hot debate on the issue at the Legislative Council tomorrow. He told a media briefing Monday the government is prepared to consider exemptions on public transport and medical services, and subsidies on primary and secondary school fees, which would reduce projected revenue by up to HK$1.4 billion a year. Tang also suggested the government might consider a progressive tax on luxury goods. He also said political parties were keen to make suggestions that would increase the expenditure of different sectors but seldom raised proposals to boost income. "One should not turn a blind eye to the narrow tax base problem and keep opposing the tax reform without making constructive suggestions," Tang said. His sweeteners came just one day after Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang accused lawmakers of being "short- sighted" and irresponsible in blocking the proposed levy. "As mature political parties, they should offer some counterproposals when opposing the government's initiatives," Tang said. He also rolled out the income and expenditure checklist, seen as a further attempt to get support: A HK$5.2 billion revenue cut if the salary tax is returned to the 2003/2003 level. HK$2.4 billion in annual expenditure if the government is to implement small class teaching, reducing class sizes from the current 30 plus to 25. HK$8 billion annual expenditure to increase the tertiary education admission rate from the current 18 percent to more than 30 percent. A total cost of HK$50 billion on medical bills in 2023. Tang said he would also consider the non-GST options such as increases in salary tax and profit tax and the introduction of a green tax. The GST proposal suggests a 5 percent levy on goods and services. The government originally estimated it could earn HK$20 billion from the tax. Tang said that over the past 13 weeks of consultation, the government had received 1,300 submissions with more than 50 percent agreeing the current tax base is narrow though they did not necessarily accept the new levy. Tang said the public does not oppose discussion on the levy. However, representatives from the Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong said Monday they are not convinced and will not change their opposition to the GST. The Liberal Party's Vincent Fang Kang argued the exemption is "a piecemeal sweetener" and he insisted the GST would ruin the business environment and increase the burden on the general public. Liberal Party leader James Tien Pei- chun said this is not the time to ask the question: "Where does the money come from?" Tien said: "This question comes when the government is suffering financial hardship. We have a lot of money [with HK$1.15 trillion in the reserve fund] and we should not have to worry about this question." Tien urged the government to return some of the surplus money to the public before asking them for more. DAB's Chan Kam-lam said he fears the proposed exemptions would increase the GST administration fee and that the government would not gain much eventually. The Democratic Party's Yeung Sum, who is tabling a motion on the tax, said the opposition is against the GST as it would widen the wealth gap. Democratic Party lawmaker Sin Chung-kai said: "After the exemptions and the concessions, there will not be much left, so why bother with the levy?" The Independent Commission Against Corruption was investigating a number of Centaline staff members over alleged corruption, the property agency's chairman Shih Wing-ching confirmed on Tuesday afternoon.
China Southern Airlines (1055), the mainland's largest carrier in terms of fleet size, plans to purchase 12 new passenger and freight aircraft in a deal worth nearly US$1 billion (HK$7.8 billion), according to a market source. A prominent Shanghai businessman implicated in a corruption scandal that toppled the city's top leader has been removed from a government advisory post, the China News Service said Monday. Zhang Rongkun, chairman of privately held Fuxi Investment Holding and former director of state-run Shanghai Electric Group, is under investigation for fraud and thus is no longer qualified to be a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. It said the CPPCC, an advisory group that works in parallel with the national legislature, formally removed Zhang as a member during a meeting earlier Monday. Zhang was reported by Forbes financial magazine to be China's 16th- wealthiest businessman in 2005. Shanghai courts froze the assets of Fuxi Investment Holding, a company controlled by Zhang that holds shares in Shanghai Electric, amid allegations Fuxi used funds illicitly loaned by a city pension fund to buy toll roads and other assets. Last month, Shanghai's Communist Party secretary and top leader Chen Liangyu was ousted in connection with the scandal, which has widened to include several prominent businessmen and an unknown number of senior city officials. China's wealthiest lavished 500 million yuan (HK$493 million) on Hennessy XO spirits, Porsche sedans, South African diamonds and other luxury goods during a show in Shanghai, double the value of transactions a year ago.
Oct 17, 2006
The central government will give higher priority to helping yuan business develop further in Hong Kong. Premier Wen Jiabao made the promise at a closed-door meeting with Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen before the opening ceremony of the 100th Chinese Export Commodities Fair in Guangzhou, Tsang's spokesman, Andy Ho On-tat, said Sunday night. Vice Premier Wu Yi, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah, Guangdong party secretary Zhang Dejiang and provincial governor Huang Huahua were also at the meeting. Andy Ho said the premier was positive about Hong Kong's general situation. Tsang had used the opportunity to ask if yuan business could be further developed in Hong Kong - an issue the chief executive took up at length in his policy address last week. According to Ho, Wen replied that Beijing would speed up dealing with the matter. At the opening ceremony, Wen drew on the Guangzhou fair - the country's largest trade expo - to encourage more "two-way" investments between mainland and foreign companies while emphasizing the country's commitment to market reforms. In a speech launching what is also known as the Canton Fair, Wen said China will continue to abide by World Trade Organization rules to pursue a more open market and protect intellectual property. He also announced that next year, the fair will be renamed the Chinese Import and Export Commodities Fair in order to recharacterize the event and encourage more imports in a bid to balance its trade surplus, one of the issues that causes tensions with the US administration. Mainland businessmen, however, are raising export quotations and fearing loss of business because of the government's attempts to address the trade surplus, according to Beijing- based journal Economic Observer. More than 14,000 companies with a record 31,408 standard booths are participating in the Guangzhou fair, which takes place every spring and autumn. China's downward adjustment of export rebates, a move seen as an attempt to appease American critics of its trade surplus, has caused mainland businessmen to raise quotations on their products by 3 percent to 5 percent at the Canton Fair, according to the Economic Observer. Last month mainland exports exceeded imports with a record US$110.9 billion (HK$865.02 billion) for the first nine months, surpassing the US$102 billion surplus for the whole of last year. Private kindergartens have lashed out at Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok- cheung for saying that many of them are below par, and warned they could be driven out of business unless they are subsidized by the government. Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang has launched a scathing attack on political parties working against the proposed goods and services tax, accusing them of harboring political motives and being "short-sighted." The chief executive has outlined his strategy and specific measures to fight pollution in his policy address, promising carrots and sticks for everyone from the public to big industries, spurring them to put their acts together to clean up the environment on all fronts with special emphasis on air quality.
Asia had become the driving force behind demand for mobile music services which would make up for lost revenue by telecom firms in their voice-only services, United States recording label Warner Music said on Monday.
More foreign venture capital will pour into China's promising high and new technology industries in the coming five to ten years. China's State Council, or the cabinet, has decided to send six teams of officials to 12 provinces to assess their performance in halting illicit investment projects.
China's national drug watchdog hasrevoked Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co.'s production license for injections and dismissed the company's top management. China's richest rural areas are concentrated in the coastal Pearl River and Yangtze River deltas, according to the latest ranking of the nation's top 1,000 towns.
PetroChina, the country’s largest integrated oil firm by capacity, on Monday said output rose 5.8 per cent in the first nine months of the year as the country’s robust demand for natural gas cushioned the company’s slower crude oil output growth. Oct 16, 2006
Hong Kong's jobless rate for July to September is likely to have dropped to a five-year low of 4.7 percent as economic growth and strong domestic consumption continued to create employment, economists and analysts said. Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp will price its Hong Kong initial public offering in the middle of the indicative range even though retail investor demand for the issue has been high. Government contractors will from Saturday be required to purchase bonds or bank guarantees of up to 10 percent of the contract value to cover unpaid wages in the event of companies going into liquidation, it was announced Friday. The government is considering the use of medical vouchers for health care, but the scheme might not cover all services, the health minister said yesterday. Profit-making preschools yesterday formed an alliance to fight for the right to be included in a voucher scheme introduced by the chief executive in last week's policy address. Customs has developed state-of-the-art software to monitor and track down copyright pirates on the internet. Jointly developed with University of Hong Kong software engineers, the program automatically tracks suspicious activities that may involve uploading and downloading. The organisation that runs English Premier League football matches has invited bids for a three-year contract to carry live matches starting next year, triggering what could be a bidding war between rival pay-television operators PCCW Now TV and i-Cable Communications for one of the most valuable franchises in local television.
Russia could wrap up talks with the United States on its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in two weeks, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said on Friday.
Oct 13 - 15, 2006
Shoe manufacturer and retailer Le Saunda Group (0738) has put itself up for sale, and is negotiating with several potential bidders including Singapore- listed Hongguo International for the possible disposal of its retail stores, sources said.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (0388) will study market data next month before deciding whether to make permanent new mininum trading spreads for stocks, HKEx chairman Ronald Arculli said Thursday. With the rapid slowdown of the United States economy next year, US interest rates are expected to start falling from the end of this year, dropping as low as 3 percent by the end of the third quarter in 2007, the Asia-Pacific chief economist and head of credit research at investment bank BNP Paribas said Thursday. Offering birthday greetings to those born 23 years ago this month, Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong reminded the young celebrants how the linked exchange rate system, introduced October 17, 1983, has served Hong Kong well through various economic and financial shocks. Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, a unit of HSBC Holdings (0005), has appealed successfully against a Hong Kong court decision that ruled the bank had used unduly forceful methods to pressure a former client to sell a property to repay debt.
Hong Kong's strategic location offered international exhibition organizers easy access to Southeast Asian countries, Commerce Secretary Joseph Wong Wing-ping said at the opening ceremony of Hong Kong Electronics Fair 2006 (Autumn Edition) and Electronic Asia 2006.
Advance orders for the Industrial
and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) float have topped US$100 billion (HK$780
billion), five times the amount the deal is expected to net, a report said on
Friday. Chinese banks last month stepped up their lending compared with August, marking the second consecutive month-on-month increase as the economy continued to move ahead strongly, analysts said on Friday.
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that China is unlikely to overtake the United States as the world's largest economy, and faces important "downside" risks. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday that China's economic development is "very, very important" to China and the rest of the world. In a first for China, global information technology giant IBM yesterday announced it will move its global procurement headquarters from New York to Shenzhen in South China.
Shanghai's property market is expected to remain stable in the fourth quarter as home buyers and investors brush off concerns about ongoing government measures to cool the market and recent real estate scandals involving senior Communist Party officials in the city. China's audit authority - which has achieved popular acclaim for its exposure of corruption, malpractice and misspent public funds - is opening itself to scrutiny by other government departments to fight corruption in its own ranks. China has finished assembling a satellite for an unmanned moon mission next year and is planning to carry out its first space walk by 2008. Oct 12, 2006
Hong Kong’s success prospects lay in the convergence of talent, capital, logistical support and information, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said on Wednesday. Discussing the future of information technology, media and the internet in his second policy address, Mr Tsang said the government intended to continue promoting the application of information technology. “In terms of e-Government, we will provide more user-friendly integrated public services through a one-stop portal,” the chief executive pledged. He noted that Hong Kong was a forerunner in promoting media convergence with a single platform supporting telephony, broadcasting and internet access services (triple-play). “Media convergence technology and business models are rapidly developing,” he added. “To tie in with the transformation of traditional telecommunications services into integrated information services, we consulted the public early this year on the reform of the regulatory regime and proposed merging the functions of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority and the Broadcasting Authority to form a new Communications Authority,” Mr Tsang said. “We aim to adopt a regulatory framework to promote innovation and competition to a level on par with advanced international standards,” he added. In a gimmick to see off competition from other online recruitment firms, Hong Kong-headquartered company Recruit Holdings Ltd plans to offer free lunches to corporate recruiters for five years. Dragged down by a huge provision for a failed telecommunications investment in China and escalating financing costs, conglomerate New World Development (0017) posted a 61 percent drop in net profit to HK$1.06 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30. Within the first two days of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's H-share roadshow for its giant initial public offering, the institutional portion is already nine times oversubscribed, pulling in more than US$100 billion (HK$780 billion) worth of orders as of Tuesday evening, market sources said.
Hong Kong's telecommunications regulator said Tuesday, it could implement new rules to force the city's fixed-line operators to lease their networks to providers of voice over Internet protocol services, following complaints that fixed-line operators were blocking such sales to protect market share. Asia Netcom, a Hong Kong-based undersea cable operator, said it could invest up to US$1 billion (HK$7.8 billion) along with its partners, to build new trans-Pacific capacity to take advantage of increased demand, ahead of plans to sell shares in an initial public offering in 2008. Businesses including banks, utility companies and telecommunications providers could face criminal charges for sending customers e-mails or electronic invoices under the government's proposed anti-spam legislation. Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States are investigating a new way of controlling bleeding during surgery with high-tech liquids that could dramatically reduce time in the operating room, a study said Tuesday. Twenty-six of the world's top 40 horses on turf have been entered for what the Hong Kong Jockey Club calls the Turf World Championships to be run at Sha Tin racecourse on December 10.
SHANGHAI: The city is catching up with Tokyo to become the top station for Cargo Portal Services (CPS) bookings, a leading electronic booking and shipment management service for the air cargo industry.
Chinese President Hu Jintao may visit Japan in January, in the first trip by a Chinese head of state to Tokyo in nearly a decade, as the Asian powers repair ties, a newspaper said on Wednesday. China's wealthiest person prospered by turning recycled paper from the United States into Chinese packaging products - and like many fellow tycoons, by listing her company on an overseas stock market. Oct 11, 2006
Shares of COFCO International (0506) surged more than 13 percent Monday after it announced plans to acquire the food, beverage and agricultural businesses - including Coca-Cola bottling plants - from its parent company for HK$5.33 billion. Google Inc., the leading Web search engine, agreed to purchase top video-sharing website YouTube for 1.65 billion U.S. dollars in stock.
NWS Holdings (0659), the infrastructure and services unit of New World Development (0017), posted a HK$1.65 billion net profit for the fiscal year ended June 30, a decline of 43 percent from HK$2.89 billion the previous year. Hong Kong had about 77,200 US-dollar millionaires at the end of 2005, up 14.4 percent from 2004, according to the first Asia-Pacific Wealth Report published by investment bank Merrill Lynch and business consultancy firm Capgemini. Staff at Radio Television Hong Kong have challenged proposals that would open the territory's public broadcasting market to competitors, warning such measures could strain public resources and degrade the quality of public service broadcasting in Hong Kong. The long-awaited "green tax," charging shoppers 50 HK cents for each plastic bag from next year, is expected to be announced by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in his policy address tomorrow.
Bilateral trade between China and Japan is expected to experience renewed growth over the next few months. Aluminum Corp of China, the country's biggest aluminium producer, plans to invest six billion yuan (HK$5.91 billion) in Fushun Aluminum Co to expand and upgrade production, a Fushun official said Monday. Citigroup, the world's largest financial services company, and Northern Trust were picked as custodians for overseas investments of China's US$29 billion (HK$226.2 billion) national pension fund.
Oct 10, 2006
Conglomerate New World Development (0017) is expected to report little change in annual underlying profit of more than HK$3 billion despite improved property earnings and rental income, analysts said. Dubai has acquired a stake of around 2.7 percent in Standard Chartered for US$1 billion (HK$7.8 billion), saying it is attracted to the bank's strong focus on Asia and strategy of acquisition-led growth.
Despite his frequent insistence on the need for Hong Kong to respond to changes in the rapidly evolving mainland economy, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen is unlikely to spring many surprises in economic initiatives in his policy address, as experts believe his options are crimped by the impending elections next year. Savantas Policy Institute director and former Hong Kong security chief Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said the contest for the post of chief executive between Civic Party barrister Alan Leong Kah- kit and incumbent Donald Tsang Yam- kuen would be a good thing for the territory. A funding scheme established to help develop innovative technology in Hong Kong and Guangdong has attracted 338 applications this year, the government said on Monday.
China's average per capita GDP will reach US$2,400 in 2010, said a senior official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Monday. In the first eight months, China's auto sales reached 2.3688 million. Car sales of the top 10 auto manufacturers account for 70.14% of China's total car sales.
China's economy will maintain its momentum over the next five years, with GDP growing at around 9.5 percent annually, a leading economist was quoted as saying on Monday's Shanghai Securities News. Chinese shares surged to a five-year high on Monday in anticipation of a strong debut by China's biggest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, later this month. Oct 9, 2006
Three companies, including Cathay Pacific Airways (0293) and Cheung Kong (Holdings) (0001), are about to kick off or have finished fundraising activities for business expansion or to refinance previous debt. Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation has received 13 expressions of interest from major and mid-tier property developers for an estimated HK$6 billion housing project at West Rail's Tsuen Wan West station.
The surprise support of four pro- government legislators saw Frontier convenor Emily Lau Wai-hing re- elected to the chair of the Legislative Council Finance Committee for the next legislative year.
China's Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun says that in the five years from now to 2010, China will adopt an ambitious plan for the country's railway development.
China announced a list of 30 songs to be broadcast to Earth next year from its first lunar-probing satellite, the authorities said. China maintained a favorable balance of international payments under current and capital accounts in first half of 2006, official statistics show.
Chinese airlines are being forced to rearrange their seating as the burgeoning number of overweight Chinese complain about the discomfort of ill-fitting seats. Oct 6 - 8, 2006
Shares of Shui On Land (0272), a Shanghai-based property developer, climbed 10 percent on their Hong Kong trading debut Wednesday, surprising some brokers. Manulife Financial Corp (0945) said it expects profit to grow 15 percent a year, driven mainly by Asia, the fastest- growing region for Canada's biggest insurer. Shares in Sunday Communications (0866) gained 18.9 percent Wednesday amid expectations shareholders will approve a HK$1.94 billion plan to sell the company's main operating assets to parent PCCW (0008).
A territory-wide unofficial referendum on Hong Kong's leader, the goods and services tax and universal suffrage will be held on March 25 next year at the same time as 800 Election Committee members will be voting for the next chief executive, it was revealed Wednesday.
Hong Kong film industry officials on Thursday welcomed a reported government plan to appoint a film commissioner and fund local productions, but also urged authorities to combat film piracy outside the territory.
A blunt e-mail criticising Singapore and Indonesia was behind the resignation last week of one of Asia's leading economists, sources and media reports said on Wednesday. Andy Xie stepped down as Morgan Stanley's Hong Kong-based analyst on Friday with little explanation beyond a company spokeswoman saying he had left for "personal reasons". However, industry sources and the Asian edition of the Financial Times said that days before his departure, Mr Xie had sent an email to colleagues in which he expressed bold opinions about Southeast Asian countries. In the email, a copy of which has been obtained by AFP, Mr Xie questioned the sense of holding last month's International Monetary Fund and World Bank summit in the island state, before making unsubstantiated allegations about the city's economic development and its links to Indonesia. The email also attacks the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as a "failure" and recalled that during a dinner with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, "people fawned him like a prince". Mr Xie is well known for voicing often unorthodox opinions of Asian economic issues but a source in the company said he realised that with this email he had "crossed a line" and resigned. Morgan Stanley, which has large investments in Singapore, sought to distance itself from Mr Xie's comments.
The shoe making industry is a leading light industry in China, and a driving force in exports, said a senior official of the Ministry. However, while demand for Chinese shoes soars both at home and abroad, there is a dearth of design skills in the country. European business and consumer groups criticized the European Union (EU) for its decision to impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese and Vietnamese shoes.
The French group Peugeot Motorcycles announced on Wednesday that it would set up a JV with the Chinese company Qingqi Motorcycle to produce scooters in China.
The biggest annual event for China’s Communist Party begins on Sunday, with President Hu Jintao expected to use the meeting to cement political power and push his agenda of building a “harmonious society.” Oct 5, 2006
PCCW (0008) has offered to buy the telecom assets of its mobile telecoms unit Sunday Communication (0866) by paying independent Sunday shareholders HK$401.5 million, in an effective reprise of the privatization offer it tabled last year.
A lantern carnival would be held on Thursday night to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong, a spokesman for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department said on Wednesday
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Canada (HKETO) overnight (HK time) hosted a “Hong Kong film night” at the Vancouver International Film Centre. The United States, China and India are moving to assert control over the sea lanes through which they receive critical energy supplies amid fears in Beijing of a US blockade of the Malacca Strait in the event of a crisis over Taiwan, experts said here.
About 60 per cent of adults in China's west are confident they will have a promising future despite current heath and education woes, international researchers have revealed. China imported 95.80 million tons of crude oil in the first eight months, up 15.3 percent over the same period of last year, according to sources with the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC). Xi'an Aircraft Industry Company (XAC), a major Chinese aircraft producer, has taken export orders for 32 Xinzhou-60 (MA60) twin turbo-prop regional passenger planes.
President Roh Moo-hyun of the Republic of Korea (ROK) will pay a working visit to China on October 13 at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.
European Union states agreed on Wednesday to impose tariffs on Chinese and Vietnamese shoe imports for two years to prevent cheap imports from flooding local markets
Oct 4, 2006
The value of Hong Hong¡¦s retail sales was HK$17.9 billion in August, up by 8.3 per cent from a year earlier, latest statistics released on Tuesday showed.
China's electrified rail network reached 24,000 kilometers after the Zhejiang-Jiangxi electrified railway went into use this month, making it the second largest such network after Russia. China's airlines will carry an estimated carry 270 million passengers in 2010, with an average annual growth rate of 14.5 percent, said an official with the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).
The China Export Commodities Fair, once the only major window for Chinese products to the outside world, will hold its 100th session in mid-October in Guangzhou. China Eastern Airlines has agreed to pay 21.40 million yuan (US$2.68 million) to a park in northern China in compensation after a plane crash nearly two years ago spilled gallons of jet fuel into a lake. Two top leaders of an environmental protection bureau in central China have been sacked over a massive arsenic spill which poisoned a major river, state media said on Tuesday. Oct 3, 2006
Hong Kong could position itself as an international education hub, bridging the West with the mainland by utilizing its special historical background and extensive international network built up in the past, according to several academics from Britain and Hong Kong. Hong Kong could position itself as an international education hub, bridging the West with the mainland by utilizing its special historical background and extensive international network built up in the past, according to several academics from Britain and Hong Kong. The four major business chambers have decided it would be impossible to impose sanctions on members who do not comply with a charter on a minimum wage, a chamber leader said yesterday. More than 600 demonstrators from over 40 unions took to the streets yesterday in the latest of a month-long series of protests to demand a minimum wage. More than 168,000 people in the capital, including students from Hong Kong, have applied to become volunteers for the Beijing Olympics since the launch of the recruitment exercise in August.
Illegal migrants using fake travel
documents are steering clear of Hong Kong as a transit point because of
toughened surveillance, the Immigration Department says. Starlight International Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed consumer electronic products maker, plans to merge its retail subsidiaries Cosmo Communications Corp and recently bought Singing Machine Co (SMC) and sell shares in the combined company on the Nasdaq Stock Market at the end of next year.
Two thousand, five hundred and fifty-six years after his birth in China, Confucius is reliving his mission of "touring various kingdoms". This time, he has gone beyond China and settled in 36 countries.
China will launch a nationwide railway speed acceleration in 2007, the 6th in nine years, with train speed reaching 200 kilometers per hour for the first time, said sources with the Ministry of Railways. US investment bank Morgan Stanley said it has completed the acquisition of Nan Tung Bank, in a move that may allow the Wall Street firm to offer commercial banking services in addition to its existing securities business in China. Zhuhai-based Nan Tung Bank was owned by Bank of China Macau, a wholly owned Bank of China (3988) unit. Air China (0753), the mainland's largest international carrier, is set to post a profit of 2.9 billion yuan (HK$2.86 billion) in the third quarter, thanks to strong growth in passenger traffic and rising fuel surcharges on domestic and overseas routes, analysts said. Guangzhou will release enough land over the next five years to increase the city's new housing supply by almost 25 per cent in what an analyst says is an effective measure to reassure buyers of continued supply and to control prices. MBK Partners, a private equity group set up by former employees of the Carlyle Group of the United States, will spend about US$100 million for a 30 to 40 per cent stake in DHI-DCW, one of the largest heavy machinery makers in China, according to sources.
Oct 2 , 2006
One of Hong Kong's top hotels - the 43-year-old Mandarin Oriental - reopened its doors Thursday to an emotional reunion with its loyal fans after a nine-month renovation costing US$140 million (HK$1.09 billion). Two top Shanghai executives already under investigation over the city's widening pension graft scandal have been kicked out of the local parliament, a spokesman for the legislative body said on Friday. Wang Chengming, the sacked chairman of state-owned and Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Electric, was expelled from the Shanghai congress for "serious disciplinary problems", parliament spokesman Wei Bin said. Wu Minglie, chief of the Hong Kong-listed property firm New Huangpu, was removed from the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress for the same reasons, he said. "Both of them have been stripped of their membership [of the congress]." Their dismissals came after the central government announced this week that Shanghai Communist Party leader Chen Liangyu had been fired as city boss and suspended from the national politburo for his role in the pension fund scandal. The probe, which has already ensnared several other top city officials, centres on the alleged misuse of up to US$400 million (HK$3.1 billion) from Shanghai's US$1.2 billion retirement fund. The money was allegedly siphoned off into unauthorised investments, mainly property and toll road projects. Hong Kong expects about 5.67 million people - a number equal to Finland's population - to travel through its air, sea and land border points during the upcoming holiday week, the government said on Friday. Standard Chartered on Friday said it would buy a mid-sized Taiwanese lender Hsinchu International Bank for US$1.2 billion (HK$9.36 billion), the largest foreign acquisition of a financial institution in the island's history.
China is studying the possibility of transferring state-owned shares in listed firms to the national pension fund, the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission confirmed to Xinhua Friday.
The Chinese government will launch a new crackdown on local authority protection of illegal enterprises in its campaign of reducing environmental pollution.
Beijing has ordered eight teams from various ministries to a dozen cities and provinces to check whether measures to rein in the real-estate sector have achieved the desired effect, as the policies so far seem to be inadequate nationwide. Air China (0753), China Southern Airlines (1055) and other Chinese carriers will increase surcharges on international routes by as much as 60 percent from October 1 to cover higher fuel costs.
China National Offshore Oil Corp on Friday said it plans work to build a liquified natural gas terminal that will operate by 2010 in the southern city of Zhuhai. Sept 29 - Oct 1 , 2006
Defenders of press freedom have lashed out at a fresh set of governance and funding proposals for Hong Kong's sole public service broadcaster (RTHK), arguing the new powers granted to the chief executive to "appease" government could spell trouble for the station's editorial independence. Controversy and tensions regarding RTHK's structure and editorial freedom are not confined to the past few years. Debate dogged the 80-year-old station more than 10 years before the 1997 handover. Hong Kong saw its competitiveness ranking jump three places to 11th in the world, according to the latest edition of the World Economic Forum's annual index. But the SAR was kept out of the top 10 by a flagging performance in education.
The largest United States business group urged China on Wednesday to clamp down on rampant copyright abuses and reform its currency to avert protectionist retaliation by Congress. EBay China, the mainland operation of the world largest online auction platform, is in early talks with Hutchison Whampoa's media flagship Tom Group to sell or merge part of the company with internet portal business Tom Online, market sources said. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is ready for top-level talks with China, his spokesman said on the leader's first full day in office yesterday. Overseas media will be able to freely travel around China and enjoy uncensored access to the Internet during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, organizers promised yesterday. A senior official predicted China's economy would grow at around 10 percent this year and the consumer price index would stay at two percent. The central parity rate of the Renminbi (RMB) against the U.S. dollar hit a new high Thursday, breaking the 7.90 mark. China has slipped six places to 54th in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) global competitiveness rankings, said a report.
China's State Council has decided to send high-level officials to 11 provinces to check on how the central government's macro control policies aimed at cooling down red hot property markets are being enforced. Copper demand growth in China, the world's biggest consumer of the metal, may slow to 5.6 percent this year, as record prices prompt makers of cables, wires and air conditioners to switch to cheaper substitutes. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which started pre-marketing its giant initial public offering Monday, is in talks to buy a majority stake in Bank Halim Indonesia. China has widened its dragnet in a corruption scandal, questioning Shanghai's top policeman, who is a nephew of retired president Jiang Zemin, and detaining two relatives of the city's deposed Communist Party chief, sources said Wednesday. Sept 28, 2006
Former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang on Wednesday was not impressed with a government proposal to create a new layer of politically-appointed deputy ministers. A Chinese court has cut the prison term of a Hong Kong scholar who was jailed on spying charges by nine months, but he faces six more years behind bars, a US-based monitoring group said on Wednesday.
One of the world’s iconic hotels —
Hong Kong’s Mandarin Oriental — is ready to reopen this week after a nine-month
refit. But while the new-look property is designed to suit the new generation of
luxury traveller, many in Hong Kong are already missing the old-style “Grand
Dame”. Opened in 1963, the Mandarin Oriental quickly established itself at the
heart of the burgeoning city’s social scene, with top-flight parties in its
elegant bars and restaurants and visiting VIPS staying in its rooms. By the turn
of the century, however, it was facing stiff competition from a new generation
of super-luxury hotels housed in sleek skyscrapers that made the Mandarin look
dowdy by comparison. When its doors are flung open again on Thursday guests will
find a greatly changed hotel with hi-tech facilities and state-of-the-art
fittings replacing its sixties-era decor. But in the drive to modernise, many
locals who had come to view the Mandarin as a familiar old friend are concerned
it has lost some of the charm that made it the one time talk of the town. “It
looks quite bland — I hope they haven’t changed the insides the way they have
the outside,” said veteran photographer Bob Davis, who recalls many a happy
evening spent in its rooms or at its famous Captain’s Bar. “It used to be the
one of only about two places you could go for a drink in the 1960s and 1970s,”
Mr Davis added. “Everyone would go there.” Its well-heeled customers of the past
have included the British Royal Family, former US Presidents Richard Nixon,
Gerald Ford and George Bush and Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise and top models
such as Kate Moss. In the new Mandarin, gone are the balconies that made its 502
guestrooms unique in a city of air-conditioned claustrophobia and
mirror-windowed conformity. Also gone is the exterior stonework and tiling that
gave the building an almost organic feel, replaced by near-ubiquitous gleaming
prefabricated panels. Chinese regulators have approved the sale by News Corp of a 19.9 per cent stake in Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television to the mainland’s largest mobile phone operator, state media said on Tuesday.
Beijing may have already issued its first batch of measures to help cool down the city's real estate sector, but Shanghai is still awaiting the publication of a similar package intended to take the heat out of the city's property market.
The Chinese government is to scrap its decades-old policy of banning private cars from the roads after 15 years of use, an official with the Ministry of Commerce said
China is unlikely to tap the global bond market this year amid concerns that such borrowing could drive up foreign exchange reserves, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Wednesday. The biggest public pension fund in the United States is considering investing in Chinese firms for the first time in a move that could have a major flow-on effect, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The central government is considering a plan to restructure Guangdong Development Bank, including an offer by Citigroup and other investors to pay 24.1 billion yuan (HK$23.4 billion) for the troubled south China lender, a report said on Wednesday. Sept 27, 2006
Hong Kong stocks fell the most in more than a month as the market was hit by rumors that China Mobile (Hong Kong) (0941) and China Life (2628) are planning share placements to take advantage of the recent rise in their share prices.
PCCW (0008) chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai has offered to privatize his 75-percent-owned Pacific Century Regional Developments in Singapore, after US private equity group Newbridge Capital agreed to drop a HK$1.1 billion plan to buy out minority shareholders in the Singapore company. Hong Kong remains the preferred base for international companies to oversee their regional operations, with the number of regional headquarters and local offices run by overseas enterprises reaching its highest-ever level this year, topping 6,350. The government is expected to announce tomorrow a pilot scheme to give more power - and money - to the territory's 18 district councils, a source at the Home Affairs Bureau said. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam- kuen's popularity ratings plunged to a record low Tuesday following his proclamation last week that Hong Kong's laissez-faire economic policy is dead, according to a study by Hong Kong University. Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, who once lauded Hong Kong as the perfect model of a free-market economy, said he was disappointed - though not surprised - to see the city had moved away from a laissez-faire economic policy.
PCCW, which in December last year failed in an attempt to buy out minority shareholders in its listed subsidiary, Sunday Communications, plans to make an offer to buy all the firm's network assets and mobile-telephone operations, a source said yesterday.
A corruption probe that brought down Shanghai Communist Party secretary Chen Liangyu is progressing further and others might be implicated, a party anti-graft official said. Bank of Beijing, the second municipal lender allowed to operate outside its home city, plans to raise about US$500 million from an initial public share offering by the second quarter of next year at the earliest, market sources said. Sept 26, 2006
Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung- sun's flagship company is sailing ahead with plans to publicly list casino operator Sociedade de Jogos de Macau on the Hong Kong stock exchange by the end of the year, voting Monday to incorporate a new Hong Kong subsidiary to facilitate the planned HK$15 billion offering. Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) will raise office rents by as much as 20 percent on completion of HK$600 million worth of office upgrading work. Initial public offerings of two Shanghai-based developers - Shui On Land, and SPG Land - are unaffected by the city's social security fund scandal and will proceed with their listing plans on schedule, sources said Monday.
Not satisfied with Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's public editorial response last week to her open letter asking him to clarify his remarks that Hong Kong's laissez-faire - or "positive non-intervention" - policy is dead, Civic Party chairwoman Audrey Eu Yuet-mee is attempting to keep up the pressure on Tsang with another open letter.
The Correctional Services Department is concerned about illegal activities in penal institutions — following the recent discovery of soccer betting notes inside Stanley Prison, a department spokeswoman said on Monday.
China has offered a four-point proposal to boost Sino-US space cooperation, said Sun Laiyan, administrator of China National Space Administration. Nasa administrator Michael Griffin was in Beijing on Monday for talks with Chinese officials that China¡¦s government hopes will lead to cooperation in space exploration. China successfully built the core network of its next generation Internet, leading the world in developing a larger, faster and safer Internet that is to dominate the future.
China and seven Portuguese-speaking countries adopted a new "Action Plan for Economic and Trade Cooperation" in Macao Sunday afternoon, striving for increasing the bilateral trade volume to 45-50-billion U.S. dollars by 2009.
Sept 25, 2006
Shanghai ranked high for living conditions, as well as law and order for professionals living in the city, but lagged Hong Kong for shopping and entertainment, a survey by a developer in the mainland financial hub has found.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption has taken a new step to protect an economic sector that has been of increasing importance to the city's economy - tourism.
China's seed-breeding satellite, Shijian-8, successfully landed in Sichuan Province, SW China, at 10:43 a.m. Beijing time on Sunday after a 15-day flight in space.
Afghanistan's Ministry for Transport and Aviation is considering buying some passenger planes from China, a Kabul-based English newspaper reported Sunday. In talks with the daily Afghanistan Times, Minister for Transport and Aviation Nimatullah Ehsan Jawid said his ministry would buy five small planes from China to restore Afghanistan's former domestic airliner company the Bakhter. "With buying such planes from China the Bakhter's activities would be revived," Ehsan Jawid told Afghanistan Times. Bakhter, a small company providing domestic flight services in the past, stopped its services due to over two and a half decades of war. Currently Afghanistan's state-owned national carrier Ariana and a private airline company the KamAir are in operation. Ariana has only three Boeing 727 and two Air Bus 300 and KamAir has a few planes connecting post-Taliban Afghanistan with outside world. China is drafting an anti-monopoly law that might force companies such as Microsoft to give up leading market shares in the world's fastest-growing economy.
China's industrial firms scored 1.1327 trillion yuan (143 billion U.S.dollars) of profits in the first eight months, up 29.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). A State Council-level government economist predicts new measures to rein in rapid economic growth are unlikely because fresh signs are emerging that fixed-asset investment is slowing and the rise in property prices has moderated. China will reinforce auditing of banks and other financial firms over the next several years, the National Audit Office said, as the country opens its financial sector and allows major lenders to list on overseas markets. Sept 22 - 24, 2006
Hong Kong tourists were still flying to Thailand Wednesday. "There were more tourists going to Thailand than those canceling trips," said Joseph Tung Yiu-chung, executive director of the Travel Industry Council, without giving exact numbers. Dealmaker Francis Leung Pak-to secured a HK$500 million bridging loan in July from a fund he managed privately for tycoon Li Ka-shing to cover an initial deposit for Leung's purchase of a 22.66 percent stake in PCCW (0008) that was indirectly held by Li's son, Richard Li Tzar-kai.
Hong Kong shares rose to close at a six-year high on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady, boosting hopes that the global economy can stage a soft landing and allow Hong Kong corporate earnings to keep growing. The total number of drug abusers in Hong Kong fell in the first half of the year — although the number of psychotropic drug abusers is up, latest figures released on Thursday found. Hong Kong’s economy was now enjoying strong growth after dealing with some difficult problems, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Joseph Wong Wing-ping said on Thursday. The controversial sale of Hong Kong telecoms operator PCCW by businessman Richard Li Tzar-kai was initially financed by his father, Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing, the company confirmed in a statement on Thursday. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority early on Thursday said it was keeping its base rate unchanged at 6.75 per cent following the United States Federal Reserve's decision to leave its key interest rate unchanged.
China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) finalized a deal yesterday to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Indonesian Tangguh gas project for its LNG terminal in Fujian Province.
Banking regulators may further loosen rules on foreign lenders dealing with renminbi business in response to complaints by overseas players. The Asian Development Bank will lend China US$3 billion (HK$23.4 billion) over the next two years with the farm and energy sectors becoming the new focal points, the Philippines-based lender said Wednesday. China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) had finalized a deal worth US$8.5 billion (HK$66 billion) to supply the nation's southeast with 2.6 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually over 25 years, state press said on Thursday. Sept 21, 2006
Banks are unlikely to embark on a new round of interest rate cuts even if, as expected, the US Federal Reserve refrains from raising interest rates today. Sinotrans Air Transportation Development, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Sinotrans (0598), and Korean Air, the world's largest international commercial cargo carrier, will offer logistics and airfreight services in the mainland next year through a joint-venture cargo operation. Despite a projected annual loss of HK$1 million, Hong Kong Baptist Hospital has joined Shatin Baptist Church in setting up a community clinic in Sha Tin to provide inexpensive health care for low-income residents. New Hong Kong Jockey Club chairman John Chan Cho-chak said Tuesday should the government decide to impose a goods and services tax on horse racing, it would constitute a double-tax and cut deeply into the club's legal betting operations. Professor Larry Diamond - former security chief Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee's academic mentor at Stanford University - has proposed a parliamentary system for Hong Kong to revamp its "presidential-like system," and urged Beijing to amend the Basic Law to plug loopholes in the SAR's democratic setup. Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong on Wednesday warned Hong Kong people to be careful if they visited Thailand - after a bloodless military coup on Tuesday toppled the country's civilian government.
Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Joseph Wong Wing-ping said Hong Kong offered considerable opportunities for Australian companies intending to enter the mainland market. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen on Wednesday urged Hong Kong students to continue to improving themselves — in the face of growing competition from the mainland.
China's quota in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has increased from 2.98 per cent to 3.72 per cent, a release by the People's Bank of China said yesterday. US-based Ford Motor announced yesterday that it would acquire the Rover brand from German premium carmaker BMW AG. The United States and China said on Wednesday that they would hold regular high-level talks about their long-term economic relationship.
The authorities do not have a concrete plan or timetable for reforming the system of foreign-currency B shares earmarked for foreign investors, domestic media reported yesterday, denying a rumor that swept the market Monday. China will soon release a rule on the management of State-owned capital, requiring State-owned enterprises to submit their dividends to the government. News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch said his Chinese-born wife Wendi Deng was in China with the company's executives to help launch a Chinese version of its popular MySpace social networking website, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. Sept 20, 2006
A government-advisory council Monday relegated the burden of Hong Kong's worsening air pollution onto US and European consumers, in response to calls for a certification program that would discourage business with the region's polluting factories. Businessmen Ngan In Leng and Ngan Iek are suing Golden Resorts Group managing director and chief executive Pollyana Chu for almost HK$500 million. The Ngans and three relatives sold the Casa Real casino hotel to Hong Kong-listed Golden Resorts for HK$750 million in cash and 110 million shares last year.
Hong Kong's unemployment rate fell to a five-year low last month as an expanding economy created more jobs for school leavers, government figures released on Tuesday showed. Some 40 per cent of the Hong Kong’s exports to China in the second quarter were for outward processing, latest statistics of the Census and Statistics Department released on Tuesday showed.
China will host a meeting of top US and Asian energy officials next month, as Beijing steps up efforts to co-ordinate consumer nation policy and rein in oil prices.
COSCO International (0517), the ship trading and property arm of state-owned COSCO (HK) Group, said it will sell at least 300,000 square meters of residential property in China in the second half. Over 330 Shanghai residents have been poisoned by pork tainted with a weight-loss steroid popular among bodybuilders, state media said on Tuesday. China wants more foreign investors in its shipbuilding industry but will restrict their ownership to a maximum 49 per cent, the government says. United States Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says he will be patient in dealings with China during a visit this week that is expected to include talks on Washington’s appeals for a stronger yuan. Sept 19, 2006
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which is preparing for what is expected to be the world's largest initial public offering, will also break new ground in Hong Kong when it posts the preliminary offer document on the Web sites of the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. Shares of Cathay Pacific Airways (293) jumped to their highest level in more than two years Monday after the price of jet fuel dropped Friday to US$78.75 (HK$614.25) a barrel in Singapore, its lowest level in more than five months. The Lands Department has promised to inspect all of Hong Kong's 4,500 short- term tenancies after a land abuse scandal involving a cousin of the chief executive last month triggered an avalanche of public criticism.
Hong's Kong's hospitality industry is mounting a concerted effort to block the government's latest proposal that may require hotel bars to obtain separate licenses in order to be exempt from the anti-smoking law until 2009. Hong Kong's position as the world's third biggest jewelry exporter will be in jeopardy should the government introduce a goods and services tax, the Coalition Against Sales Tax has warned. The government admitted yesterday its supervision of short-term land tenancies was lax, as it revealed that prominent rural leader Daniel Heung Cheuk-kei had received eight warnings in 23 years over his use of a site in Sha Tin. Sino Land, the fifth-largest property developer in Hong Kong by market value, said underlying profits jumped 91 per cent to HK$4.73 billion in the year ended June on the back of strong home sales. Major stakeholders in listing candidate Shui On Land have increased the allotment of shares they hope to sell in its revived, lower-priced initial public offering, as the developer slashes its earnings forecast and reports a loss-making first quarter.
The Board of governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Monday overwhelmingly approved a resolution to give more voting power to China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey. Jin Renqing, Minister of Finance of China, outlined six principles yesterday to ensure the effectiveness of the World Bank's governance and anti-corruption campaign.
A 1.5 billion yuan (HK$1.47 billion) methanol plant jointly owned by Kingboard Chemical Holdings (0148) and China BlueChemical (3983) is gearing up in Hainan Island, capable of producing 600,000 tonnes of methanol per year. Niche apparel supplier and retailer Hembly International (3989) said it plans to form two retail joint ventures with an international luxury apparel company during the remaining months of the year, in an effort to raise the contribution from its retail and distribution business to one-third of overall revenue from the current 10 percent. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi yesterday said his country was leaning towards supporting the end of a 17-year-old European Union ban on arms sales to China, as he signed trade agreements and pledged stronger ties with Beijing. China's foreign-currency B-share indices had their biggest gains in almost three years yesterday on speculation the almost moribund market would soon be merged with its far larger and more active yuan-denominated A-share sibling. Grand China Airline Holdings, the parent firm of Hainan Airlines, may scrap plans to seek "red chip" status for its planned US$1 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong next year, given new mainland regulations that make it difficult to transfer assets out of China, market sources said. Sept 18, 2006
Central government leaders trod cautiously this week to ensure that the visits of two major government-friendly political parties came off without a fuss at what is a sensitive time, given the ongoing debates about politics and tax in Hong Kong. The Law Reform Commission will consider whether Hong Kong should set up a register of sex offenders - a change of tack that follows recent comments by judges in support of such a register. Both Hang Seng Bank and its parent company, HSBC Holdings, hope to gain a mainland share listing, Hang Seng chairman Michael Smith said yesterday, although they will have to clear a host of regulatory hurdles first. LK Machinery, the mainland's largest die-casting machine manufacturer, plans to raise up to HK$300 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering this month to expand its production capacity, market sources said.
Geely Automobile Holdings, China's biggest private carmaker, yesterday said profit jumped 196 per cent in the first half of the year as sales were fuelled by strong demand for its compact cars and the launch of more expensive models. Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco), the world's second-largest alumina producer, has won final approval from the Queensland state government in Australia to develop a A$3 billion (HK$17.54 billion) bauxite mine and refinery project. Sept 15 - 17, 2006
Li & Fung (0494), an exporter and trader of consumer products, plans to raise HK$2.45 billion by selling 140 million shares in a top-up placement, according to a deal term sheet.
The Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of a former company director who had argued that evidence gathered by the Independent Commission Against Corruption before the passing of the Interception of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance should not have been used against him.
Macro-economic controls imposed to cool down the housing market, especially high-end properties, are beginning to bite, according to a survey released yesterday. First-half profits at Beijing Enterprises Holdings (0392) plunged 95.72 percent after a brewery unit turned in a net loss of HK$233 million and the gain from the sale of its 50.13 percent stake in the Shanghai-listed Wangfujing Department Store could not be booked within the period. Sept 14, 2006
Shares of Melco International Development (0200), controlled by tycoon Stanley Ho's son Lawrence Ho, slumped 5 percent Tuesday after its plan to spin off its Macau gaming business on the Nasdaq encountered regulatory hurdles in Hong Kong. Jardine Matheson Holdings, which runs drugstores and supermarkets across Asia and owns the Mandarin Oriental hotel chain, said first-half profit fell 18 percent on lower earnings from its Indonesian car unit and smaller gains from the revaluation of property.
Leaders of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong earned high praise from state leaders for the rapid growth in the party's membership, which has swollen to almost 7,400 from just 2,000 following its merger with the now-defunct Hong Kong Progressive Alliance in May last year.
Hong Kong had made significant progress in the past eight years in its management of information and communications technology (ICT), Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Joseph Wong Wing-ping said on Wednesday.
Most Chinese manufacturers plan to increase their export prices in the next 12 months, under pressure from growing raw material prices. Following Zhongsou.com, Yahoo! China, one of the country's leading Internet search websites, has become the second defendant in a legal campaign launched by a grassroots netizen organization against 'hooligan' software applications.
Despite net profit surging 169 percent to HK$203 million in the first half, Tianjin Port Development Holdings (3382) declared no dividend, but announced plans to raise terminal charges in the second half of the year.
Japan and China will hold vice foreign ministerial talks in Tokyo on September 22 and 23, Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported on Wednesday. Rampant financial malpractices, ranging from budgetary abuses to spending state funds on staff housing, expensive villas and bankrupt, shut-down coal mines, have been revealed in the annual audit of 42 government institutions by China's National Audit Office. China's industrial output growth slowed for a second consecutive month last month, showing a year-on-year increase of 15.7 per cent after months of breakneck gains, official figures showed on Wednesday. The mainland’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) on Wednesday said it had filed a complaint against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) for alleged breach of contract in a rancorous dispute between the rival chip makers. Sept 13, 2006
The business community may resort to legal action should the government legislate to include commissions in the calculation of holiday pay, said convenors of the Hong Kong Business Community Joint Conference, which represents 34 business councils. Airport Authority Hong Kong is on target to finalize deals to manage the Zhuhai Airport and Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport before the end of this year, a senior executive said. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen on Tuesday launched a strong defence of the proposed goods and services tax - saying it could safeguard Hong Kong against future economic problems.
Melco International Development (0200) - controlled by Stanley Ho Hung-sun's son Lawrence Ho - said Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing had ruled against the listing plan of its Macau gaming joint venture on New York's Nasdaq exchange. In a rare move, the Independent Commission Against Corruption has rejected allegations it had used "improper tactics" to threaten a top anti-triad police officer who committed suicide last week. Hong Kong's lawmakers got their first chance Monday to weigh in on a potential new paparazzi law in the wake of last month's Easy Finder incident, calling it high time the government introduced legislation to strike back at intrusive media.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the nation’s top lender, would price its upcoming Initial Public Offering at HK$2.70-HK$2.80, state media said on Tuesday. The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that the risks of a global slowdown had increased due to higher interest rates, surging oil prices and an apparent cooling in the United States housing market that could slow the American economy.
The Asia-Europe Business Forum held on Monday in Helsinki urged the removal of trade barriers and saving the Doha round of World Trade Organization talks on liberalizing global trade. China's trade surplus hit a monthly record of US$18.8 billion (HK$146.6 billion) last month, just days before a key international meeting where the country's currency and trading practices could be a top agenda item. The senior managers of two factories in central China blamed for tainting a river with toxic arsenide have been detained and could face criminal charges, state media said.
Sept 12, 2006
The government has reached an agreement with the city's two electricity suppliers to keep the concession period of the revised Scheme of Control at 15 years, although negotiations are continuing on the new guaranteed rate of returns, a source familiar with the situation said.
South Sea Petroleum (0076), a Hong Kong-based oil and gas explorer, said it has agreed to sell a 48 percent stake in fully-owned subsidiary SSP Philippines to a United States-based financial firm for US$36 million (HK$280.8 million). China Motion Telecom International (0989), a loss-making Hong Kong telecom operator, said an independent investor has offered to buy 76.6 percent of the firm for HK$36 million, and has pledged to lend a further HK$30 million to ease the difficulties it is facing.
Hong Kong's increasingly infamous air pollution situation, which is damaging its reputation as a first-class city, could be significantly improved within two years if only there were enough political will and understanding of the crisis, according to environmental experts. The public furor over intrusive front- page photos of Twins star Gillian Chung Yan-tung, which touched on issues of media freedom and privacy rights, may leave a lasting mark on the territory's lawbooks, some academics predict.
Gushan Environmental Energy, a biodiesel fuel producer, will delay its Hong Kong initial public offering until at least the first half of next year to await clarification of new mainland rules that bring red-chip listings under much closer regulatory scrutiny.
Chinese Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan has called for innovations in science and technology as well as in social and economic systems to ensure a sustainable growth for the country. Chinese and foreign participants of the 2006 China Business Summit, opened in Beijing on Sunday, focused their topics on China's development pattern and the way to achieve sustainable economic and social growth. China is debating the establishment of a new "super regulator" for its finance and banking industries to improve co-ordination in a sector in which reform has been increasingly hamstrung by infighting and inertia.
Tsingtao Brewery (0168), the mainland's largest brewer, said holders of nontradable shares in the company have offered to pay A-share investors 1.5 free shares for every 10 they hold, as it becomes the latest company to overhaul its shareholding structure under China's stock market reforms. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (0386), Asia's biggest oil refiner that is also known as Sinopec, will sustain profit gains in the second half as state fuel price increases compensate for rising crude costs, chairman Chen Tonghai said.
Although China is committed under World Trade Organisation rules to opening its fertiliser market to foreign competition by December 11, full liberalisation will take three to five years to achieve, according to the chief executive of listing candidate China Blue Chemical. Alibaba, the largest business-to-business e-commerce site in China, plans to go global in the next few years. Sept 11, 2006
Hong Kong and mainland postal authorities will again team up for the Mid-Autumn Festival to allow local residents to send mooncake packages to friends or associates in more than 200 mainland cities. Hong Kong's Olympic organizers will hold an invitational event next August to test facilities for the 2008 Olympics. Hong Kong would hold a major economic summit next week to analyse ways to boost its international status, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced on Friday. Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen on Friday again defended the government’s public consultation on the goods and services tax (GST). Hong Kong’s port cargo throughput increased 2 per cent year on year in the second quarter to 59.6 million tonnes, figures released on Friday showed. Pacific Rim finance ministers vowed on Friday to work with their trade authorities to help restart global trade talks and to readjust trade and investment imbalances, while China insisted its currency policy was not to blame for such lopsided patterns.
Japan’s likely next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, wants to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao during a regional conference in Vietnam in November to improve the strained ties between the two Asian powers, a Japanese newspaper reported on Friday. China has appointed a new ambassador to North Korea, state media said, as concern remained high over whether the communist regime was preparing to conduct its first-ever nuclear test. Sept 8 - 10, 2006
Lai Sun Development (0488) has joined forces with AIG Global Real Estate Investment (Asia) to build a residential- commercial complex on a newly acquired site in Wan Chai at a cost of nearly HK$1 billion. Technology company SUNeVision's (8008) share price shot up by nearly 25 percent as investors piled in on the back of continuing profitability and expectations of a privatization by parent Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016). About 2,000 hectares of land bordering the mainland in what is now the Frontier Closed Area could be released for development as early as 2010, the government has revealed. The government's proposal to open up the border areas in the New Territories should be seen as just a beginning, the Heung Yee Kuk and the chairman of a chamber of commerce in the area said yesterday. Without sustainable planning and conservation measures, the border area when opened up will quickly come to resemble the northwestern New Territories - blighted by container storage sites and car dumps, environmentalists warn.
Hutchison Port Holdings, the world's biggest container terminal operator, yesterday agreed to spend up to HK$4 billion to develop and manage the port of Manta in Ecuador. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China plans to seek approval for a US$19 billion initial public offering from the Hong Kong stock exchange listing committee on September 21 in a first step towards what is likely to be the world's largest listing. Former Citigroup banker Margaret Ren was cleared by United States regulators of wrongdoing stemming from China Life Insurance's US$3.5 billion initial share sale, the world's biggest in 2003.
China has lifted the ban on residents and organizations investing their foreign exchange savings in overseas stock markets, in a latest move to ease the pressure produced by its swelling foreign exchange reserves. The number of China's phone subscribers has risen to 791 million by June this year from 746 million in 2005, said a source with the country's Ministry of Information.
Premier Wen Jiabao has reiterated the country's determination to improve the protection of intellectual property rights and urged for more time to deal with copyright piracy. Intel said yesterday that it would shed 10,500 jobs from its workforce of 100,250 at the end of last quarter, including 7,500 this year and another 3,000 next year. Top mainland internet portals sold display advertising worth 1.5 billion yuan in the three months ending in July, although their actual revenue was probably only about 600 million yuan due to widespread discounting, media research firm Nielsen/Net Ratings said yesterday. Sept 7, 2006
Li Ka-shing's flagship firms Hutchison Whampoa (0013) and Cheung Kong (Holdings) (0001) sold down their interests in US online travel agency Priceline.com for about US$304 million (HK$2.37 billion) to bolster their profits this year amid continuing market concerns about the health of Hutchison's third-generation mobile business. Hong Kong-listed Macau gaming stocks may lose their market share gradually in the medium-to-long-term in the face of new competition, including Wednesday's entry of Wynn Macau casino and hotel, analysts said. In a bid to prevent Hong Kong from being marginalized by massive transport developments in Guangdong as part of China's 11th Five-Year Plan, the Hong Kong government has proposed setting up a high-level cross-bureau committee to coordinate and oversee all cross- border transport infrastructure projects. Democratic Party legislators are joining the chorus of support for stricter limits on what the media can publish in the wake of last month's indecent magazine photo controversy.
Las Vegas casino magnate Stephen Wynn, whose US$1.2 billion Macau casino resort opened this week, has poached a VIP junket operator from one of his rivals and raised marketing agents' commissions as he moves to grab a share of the enclave's high-stakes gaming market, sources say. Sunevision Holdings, a unit of Sun Hung Kai Properties, said full-year profit at its core business rose 16 per cent on increased sales at its internet data centres and improved margins. The government's new one-stop portal - GovHK (www.gov.hk) - was launched on Wednesday to provide more online data.
The International Monetary Fund Chief Rodrigo Rato said Tuesday that the global growth will clock in at close to 5 percent this year and next. The Three Gorges Project is ready to store water to the 156 meter mark following this year's flood season. Premier Wen pledged progress on sustainable economic growth, currency reform and democracy but stressed change would be gradual rather than radical. Bank of China and China Construction Bank will initiate employee stock ownership plans in the near future as part of their employee incentive programs.
The State Postal Bureau (SPB), or China Post, yesterday launched five provincial post management bureaux in Shanghai, Hebei, Fujian, Ningxia and Chongqing. China has picked up the pace of its reforms and ranks the fourth reformer on the ease of doing business in 175 countries or regions, the World Bank said Wednesday. China is ready to work with other World Trade Organization (WTO) members to revive stalled global trade talks, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday.
Shanghai Industrial Holdings, the Hong Kong-listed arm of the Shanghai municipal government, plans to raise up to US$600 million by selling shares in a water services joint venture as early as next year, according to market sources. Red-chip conglomerate China Resources Enterprise (CRE) said first-half underlying profit rose 16 per cent as earnings from its retail, beverage and food businesses surged. Shares of Win Hanverky Holdings, a mainland sportswear maker and distributor, jumped 33.33 per cent on their trading debut yesterday despite a lacklustre market, as investors hungry for new issues after the summer break chased the stock. Sept 1 - 6, 2006
The central government had approved Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways' takeover of its rival Dragonair in a deal that would also see the carrier increase its stake in state-owned Air China, the mainland airline said on Thursday.
China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revised the preliminary statistics they released for last year, raising the GDP growth rate from 9.9 to 10.2 percent on August 30. U.S. proposals to expand licence requirements for its high technology companies to export to China will stifle business and increase uncertainty over the state of bilateral trade. Chinese scientists have completed the country’s largest gene bank of ethnic minorities with over 8,000 DNA samples from 54 recognised ethnic groups, state media said on Thursday. China's largest electricity provider Huaneng planned to invest more than US$31 billion (HK$242 billion) over the next four years in a bid to double its generation capacity, a state press report said on Thursday. Australian telecoms giant Telstra on Thursday said it had paid US$254 million (HK$1.98 billion) for a majority stake in Chinese real-estate and home furnishing website SouFun Holdings.
The Chinese Government finally released the nation's digital TV terrestrial transmission standard yesterday, but it will take some time before digital terrestrial broadcasting becomes a significant business in the world's largest TV market. Cutting the number of in-flight magazines from four to two may not matter much to the average passengers. However, such a move can save an airline millions of dollars a year.
*News information are obtained via various sources deemed reliable, but not guaranteed
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Hong Kong:
A who's who of Hong Kong's political
power players has stepped forward to pay tribute to Henry Fok Ying-tung, one of
the territory's most important ties to the mainland and a local symbol of
loyalty to China and rags-to-riches prosperity. Fok, who for more than a decade
served as one of Hong Kong's highest ranking representatives in Beijing, died
Saturday night at Peking Union Medical College, where he was being treated for
cancer. He was 83. His body is expected to be returned to Hong Kong as early as
tomorrow, and the stature of the committee overseeing Fok's funeral arrangements
- rumored to be headed by high-level state leader Wang Zhongyu - suggests Fok's
farewell will be on a par with that of Ann Tse-kai. Like Fok, Ann served as a
vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference. At his funeral in 2000, Ann's coffin was draped in the
national flag and was surrounded by wreaths from Beijing's top brass, including
then-leader Jiang Zemin. The mainland's state media organization Sunday called
Fok "a renowned patriot" and "a close friend of the Communist Party of China."
News of Fok's death sent ripples through the upper tiers of Hong Kong's
political class and left many observers with a sense that an important era in
Hong Kong's relations with Beijing had ended. One of Hong Kong's most powerful
men, Fok first made his name as a businessman in the 1950s and 1960s, staking
his claim in the local real-estate boom and in Macau's blossoming casino
industry before turning his gaze northward to the mainland. As he broke ground
in the 1970s with investments in the mainland, his political influence grew. He
was named a member of the CPPCC in 1980, and was elevated to vice chairman in
1993 - a position he held until his death. Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, Fok's eldest
son, appeared shaken during brief interviews with the press in Beijing Sunday.
"It all happened rather suddenly," said Fok, a legislator who, like his father,
is also a member of the CPPCC. He added that many friends and national leaders
had come to visit his father over the past month. "Those visits brought him
comfort," said Fok, wearing sunglasses and visibly restraining his emotions.
Family members, he added, were at his father's side during his last moments.
Both Timothy Fok and second son Ian Fok Chun-wan were in Beijing to be with
their father. Timothy Fok said the original intention had been to conduct a
simple ceremony in Beijing - where his father had built many friendships. But
plans for that memorial have since been scrapped to return the body to Hong Kong
as soon as possible. Ian Fok said a service would likely be held at the Hong
Kong Funeral Home in North Point.
Deputy Director of Health Leung
Ting-hung and windsurfing star Lee Lai-san, who has been appointed a smoke-free
ambassador by the Department of Health, distribute pamphlets about the coming
anti-smoking law at a Chinese restaurant in Mong Kok yesterday.
China:
China's foreign exchange reserves
look set to hit the US$1 trillion mark at the end of this month or beginning of
November. But as the figure rises, so does the debate over how to best manage
it.
Workers prepare the venue of a summit
in Nanning, Guangxi, where Premier Wen Jiabao and the 10 leaders of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to underline their
commitment to creating a huge free-trade zone by 2010. The two-day summit marks
the 15th anniversary of dialogue relations.
Soliders rehearse an honor guard for
today's China-Asean summit, at which Premier Wen Jiabao will meet leaders from
10 nations. Chinese and Southeast Asian leaders will underline at a two-day
summit starting today their commitment to creating a giant free-trade zone by
2010, according to a draft statement seen yesterday.
Shares in Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China (1398), which raised about US$22 billion (HK$171.6
billion) in the world's largest initial public offering, surged on their Hong
Kong trading debut Friday. Its H shares opened at HK$3.60 and hit an intraday
high of HK$3.63, before closing at HK$3.52, nearly 14.66 percent above the IPO
price of HK$3.07. Meanwhile on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the lender's A
shares closed at 3.28 yuan (HK$3.23), up 5 percent from the offering's 3.12
yuan. A shares opened at 3.4 yuan. Analysts said they remain bullish about the
stock's upside potential in the medium to long term. "A 15 percent rise for the
first trading day is already very impressive," said an equity broker at a US
securities house. "If you believe China's economy will be boosted, then you will
believe ICBC will have upside potential of 20 percent more than its listing
price." During ICBC's local listing ceremony, bank chairman Jiang Jianqing said
the company aims to deliver "rich dividends" to investors. In their Hong Kong
debut, ICBC shares were heavily traded, as 10.63 billion shares changed hands
with dollar volume totaling HK$37.45 billion, representing nearly half of
Friday's market turnover of HK$76.17 billion. On the flip side, ICBC's peers
experienced falls of 1.5 percent to 3 percent in their share prices. China
Construction Bank (0939) closed at HK$3.52, down 3.02 percent; China Merchants
Bank (3968) closed at HK$11.82, down 2.64 percent; while Bank of Communications
(3328), and Bank of China (3988) fell 2.02 percent and 1.47 percent, closing at
HK$5.82 and HK$3.34, respectively. Merrill Lynch, ICBC's global coordinator, and
other bookrunners dominated share transactions Friday. Brokers said Merrill
Lynch and Credit Suisse, one of five bookrunners, were the major buyers and
sellers, with Merrill Lynch accounting for nearly 35 percent of ICBC's turnover.
"This is the world's largest IPO with the biggest ever subscription rate," said
Damian Chunilal, president of Pacific Rim Global Markets & Investment Banking at
Merrill Lynch. A US fund manager said: "Many investors are holding the stock for
a longer term because they have confidence in the bank, as it is the largest
lender in the fastest- growing economy. "People are also buying the stock
because many of them are speculating on the prospects of the yuan and the future
of China's economy." An analyst from the investment arm of an European bank
said: "Investors would not be disappointed if they were expecting a rise as high
as that of China Merchants Bank." China Merchants leaped 24.91 percent on its
first trading day September 22 to HK$10.68, up from its IPO price of HK$8.55.
A lawmaker has called
on the government to either take over or replace the operator of the Ngong Ping
360 cable car system, saying its frequent interruptions of service are hurting
Hong Kong's tourism image. The call by the Democratic Party's Andrew Cheng
Kar-foo, chairman of the Legislative Council's transport panel, followed a
four-hour service suspension Friday that affected more than 200 passengers. It
was the longest of eight suspensions that have been recorded since the new
tourist attraction was opened on September 18. "Public confidence in the Ngong
Ping 360 cable car service is already at a red light," Cheng said. "The
government should seriously consider whether it needs to replace, or even take
over the management, as the service has reached a level that is unacceptable to
the public and to tourists." 
Award-winning chef Feng Yongbo shows
off his culinary skills with this fried Daliang milk dish yesterday at the
Chinese Cuisine Training Institute in Pok Fu Lam. The dish was among others he
showed to promote the cuisine of his home town Shunde, a city in Guangdong
province.
European plane maker Airbus and French
engineering and utility firms landed deals worth more than US$10 billion (HK$78
billion) in Beijing as China rolled out the red carpet for French President
Jacques Chirac.
French President Jacques Chirac,
leading a business contingent on a four-day visit, is accompanied on his arrival
at Beijing airport yesterday by Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing. Mr Chirac said the
2008 Olympics would put the spotlight on human rights in China. Airbus on
Thursday scored a Chinese order of 150 A320 aircraft and finalised an agreement
to set up a plant in China as part of a deal bonanza unleashed by French
President Jacques Chirac's visit to Beijing.
The successful
bidder for the two-berth cruise terminal at the old Kai Tak airport site will
have the right to operate the terminal and its supporting facilities for 50
years, at a total cost of HK$2.4 billion. The Economic Development and Labour
Bureau Tuesday announced its decision to surrender the 7.6-hectare site to the
private sector, saying it would be better suited to developing a competitive,
world-class terminal in a short period of time. If all goes well, the successful
bidder could be reaping between HK$1.2 billion and HK$2.4 billion a year by
2020, the bureau estimated. The new terminal could also help create up to 10,900
new jobs by the same year. Citing time pressure, bureau secretary Stephen Ip
Shu-kwan said the government will invite tenders for the site in the fourth
quarter of 2007, with the aim of awarding the tender in the first quarter of
2008. The successful bidder is then expected to complete construction on at
least one of the two 400-meter-long cruise berths by 2012. The berths must be
able to accommodate "mega" vessels weighing up to 100,000 tons - a limit that
will still rule out many of the industry's newer cruise ships. A third cruise
berth, while also in the government plans, will undergo a separate tender
exercise sometime "further down the road." "All along, the tourism sector has
expressed concern about the provision of cruise facilities in Hong Kong. We have
been approached by some of the largest cruise companies in the world," Ip said
during a press conference Tuesday. "The sooner the first berth is built, the
better. If it can be done before 2012, that is even better." The bidder will be
limited to 50,000 square meters of gross floor area for the development of the
terminal and any accompanying retail facilities, which can be built in phases.
The bidder must also build requisite ticketing, security, customs and baggage
facilities. The bureau estimates site formation will cost HK$1.3 billion and
berth construction about HK$300 million.
The financial secretary yesterday
held out the possibility of more relief for poor people if a goods and services
tax is introduced. Renewing his campaign to gain support for the tax - in the
face of a Legislative Council motion overwhelmingly rejecting it - Henry Tang
Ying-yen said subsidies set out in the original proposal for low-income people
could be increased. Speaking after a tax reform forum, the finance chief also
said the government was prepared to broaden the debate to cover alternatives
raised by opponents of a GST. These include discussing the feasibility of
widening the tax base by introducing progressive profits tax rates. Other
options included a capital gains tax and dividends tax. But Mr Tang insisted
that a GST remained the best way forward. The government, he said, was
considering a mid-term summary on the consultation before it closes in March.
The government estimates a 5 per cent GST will generate net additional revenue
of HK$20 billion a year. Low-income households may be compensated with annual
subsidies worth HK$5,500. Asked if the government would consider raising the
proposed subsidies to ease public opposition, Mr Tang said: "Certainly. We have
repeatedly stressed that what we have proposed is not cast in stone. "Our first
priority is to ensure the standard of living of low-income earners will be
protected." He also hit out at critics for making "biased and misleading"
remarks, after some claimed a GST would aggravate the problem of a widening
wealth gap. "Those who have higher purchasing power spend more and end up paying
more," he told the forum. 
The football World Cup this year
drove up illegal connections of pay TV. The Satellite and Cable Broadcasting
Association for Asia said piracy in Hong Kong will cost broadcasters US$32
million this year while in Asia, excluding Japan and mainland China, the cost
will be US$1.13 billion. 
Freshmen at the Special
Police College in Beijing are put through strenuous muscle-building exercises
during a week-long drill. The new recruits must complete 25 difficult tasks
during the week with less that 45 hours of rest, to ready them for their role in
combating terrorism.
A pregnant woman presses a Mark Six ticket she has just bought at a Wan Chai
Jockey Club outlet on her stomach, hoping her baby will bring her luck in
tonight's draw, with a first prize as high as HK$65 million. Tonight's
first-prize jackpot includes HK$50 million carried over from previous draws.
Members of a special forces squad
from the paramilitary police storm a China Eastern Airlines plane during a
simulation exercise to prepare for a terrorist hijacking at Lukou International
Airport in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.
New Securities and Futures Commission
non-executive chairman Eddy Fong Ching meets the press on his first day in the
post, when he agreed it was time to review the vetting system for new listings.
Li Zhaoxing greets Condoleezza Rice in Beijing yesterday. The US secretary of
state stood firm on financial sanctions against North Korea.
China's austerity measures have failed
to curtail the expansion plans of Shui On Land (0272) as the developer prepares
to put 86 homes with a cumulative price tag of 400 million yuan (HK$393 million)
on sale Sunday.
A massive investigation of
corruption in Shanghai has spread to the sporting world, implicating the host of
the city's Formula One Grand Prix. Yu Zhifei, general manager of Shanghai
International Circuit, was "assisting investigations" into a scandal involving
the city's social security system and breaches of rules in running his company,
the official Shanghai Securities News reported. The Chinese Grand Prix, last
held early this month, is staged with government support on a US$350 million
(HK$2.73 billion) track outside Shanghai that is operated by Shanghai
International Circuit. Senior officials of the company declined to comment on
the report. A team of more than 100 investigators is probing suspicions some of
Shanghai's social security funds, which total over 10 billion yuan (HK$9.84
billion), were siphoned off in illicit loans and investments. The scandal has
implicated at least 10 city officials and businessmen, including the head of
Shanghai's Communist Party Chen Liangyu, who was dismissed late last month. Yu,
54, is a flamboyant figure who moved from running a small manufacturing firm to
controlling a Shanghai soccer club before he took the racing job. He brought
Manchester United to Shanghai to play against his club in 1999. The newspaper
said Shanghai's holding of the Formula One race in future would not be
jeopardized by the scandal. Authorities postponed summoning Yu for questioning
until after this year's race to avoid affecting it.
A laborer works at a construction
site in Haikou, Hainan. China says it will continue to rein in the property
market despite a slowdown in the sector. 
A fence goes up around 15
seven-storey residential blocks at the city's oldest public housing estate
yesterday as it is closed off ahead of demolition. A dozen onlookers, mainly
elderly residents who have been given a two-week grace period before they must
leave, came to watch the barriers go up around the 53-year-old Shek Kip Mei
Estate.
Martial arts practitioners perform at
the second World Traditional Wushu Festival yesterday in Zhengzhou, Henan
province. More than 1,900 competitors from 66 countries and regions were to
compete in four martial arts events during the five-day festival, which started
on Saturday. Chen Guorong, of the Chinese Wushu Association, said the martial
art would probably appear during the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a demonstration
sport.
Percussionist Lung Heung-wing
demonstrates his drum kit - cobbled together from household items - before
performing at a concert at the University of Hong Kong yesterday as part of the
global Stand Up Against Poverty campaign. The campaign called on people around
the world to stand up for one minute to raise awareness of poverty.
Interpreters wait for business
outside the 100th Chinese Export Commodities Fair in Guangzhou. The fair will
add the word "import" to its name in the spring as a gesture of China's efforts
to attain balanced trade with partners, Premier Wen Jiabao said at the weekend.
Investors pick up ICBC initial public offering applications and prospectuses in
Kwun Tong as people across Hong Kong flock to try for a slice of the action in
what is likely to be the world's biggest IPO. Thousands of people across Hong
Kong flocked to banks on Monday in a rush to buy into what could be the world's
largest initial public offering from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
A heavy pollution haze hangs over the
Victoria Harbour skyline yesterday. Chief Executive Donald Tsang says the
reality is "that we will not see major improvements for a few more years yet".
Overseas buyers crowd into the
Bazhou exhibition hall in Guangzhou yesterday at the opening of the 15-day fair.
China will rename its oldest trade fair as a gesture to reflect its efforts to
attain balanced trade with its partners, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday as he
officiated at a ceremony marking the 100th consecutive session of the Chinese
Export Commodities Fair.
Laborers move sacks of grain at a food
processing factory on the outskirts of Wuhu, Anhui province. China's grain
output is expected to rise for the third consecutive year to more than 490
million tons, according to the State Grain and Oil Information Centre.
Oct 15, 2006
General Sir Richard Dannatt,
Britain's new army commander, said in an interview with a British newspaper that
British troops in Iraq are making the situation worse and must leave the country
soon. He also called Prime Minister Tony Blair's policies ''naive'' and said,
''Our presence exacerbates the security problems'' . Britain should aim for less
than a liberal, pro-West democracy in Iraq and withdraw its troops "sometime
soon" because their presence there "exacerbates" British security problems, the
head of the country's army said in an interview published on Friday.
The 13-storey South Court residential
building (above) in Happy Valley will be redeveloped together with the
neighbouring properties on Village Terrace into a HK$2 billion luxury housing
project with a total floor area of 260,000 square feet.
Sik Sik Yuen secretary Lee Yiu-fai (left)
and Social Welfare Department officer Lee Wing-wai deliver winter clothes to
83-year-old Wu Lai-pok in a drive to help the elderly weather the winter. The
Taoist group launched its winter programme to prevent the death of elderly
people at an event at the Lok Fu Centre, Wong Tai Sin. It will set up sites in
the area's elderly and family service centres to help distribute blankets and
clothing. The group donated HK$350,000 to the department to buy clothes and
other winter items.
Orient Overseas (International) Ltd (OOIL) may raise US$1.2 billion to US$1.5
billion from the sale of its North American port assets. 
A
laborer helps pile bags of wheat at a grain market in Xining, Qinghai province.
The China National Grain and Oils Information Centre yesterday forecast China's
grain output this year would exceed 490 million tonnes, marking the third
consecutive year of growth.
Members of the Hong Kong
Federation of Trade Unions rally in Chater Garden in Central yesterday to call
for the drafting of legislation that would pave the way for the introduction of
a minimum wage.
While it was a disaster for many,
the SARS crisis in 2003 was a stroke of luck for Australian investment banker
Simon Masnick, when he was considering relocating to Hong Kong with his family.
In addition to a professional boost, a quality education for his children was a
paramount concern and, thanks to the SARS scare, he had no problem finding room
for them at a private school. "At that time it wasn't too hard to get kids in,"
Masnick said. "And once you're in it makes it easy for the others because the
schools give siblings priority in private schools." Chief Executive Donald Tsang
Yam- kuen wants Hong Kong to become an international education hub, among other
aspirations for "Asia's World City" and seemingly the time is right. The economy
is booming and more talented foreigners, as well as mainlanders and overseas
Chinese - and their families - are knocking at Hong Kong's door.
USI
plans to develop its Central Park residential property in Beijing into a Lanson
Place serviced-apartment complex. 
With the Japanese flag flying
overhead, workers lay out the red carpet for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
at the Great hall of the People in Beijing. The ice may have broken but it has
still to melt. The next few months will prove crucial if Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe is to convert the honeymoon awarded him by the Chinese leadership
into a more substantial relationship.
A mother and daughter enjoy the
Mid-Autumn lantern carnival at Victoria Park, which drew about 130,000 visitors
before it closed at 11pm last night.
The good news is that Hong Kong is one of the safest cities in the world, graft
is rare and the police and courts are respected. The bad news is that consumer
fraud is high and some Hong Kong residents are "too busy" to report crimes
against them. Those were some of the findings of a survey of 2,283 men and women
aged 16 and above on crime victimization in Hong Kong. The survey was held from
February through June and conducted as part of the United Nations International
Crime Victim Survey in which 29 other countries participated. Hong Kong was the
only Chinese city surveyed. Professors Rod Broadhurst, an honorary sociology
professor at Hong Kong University, John Bacon-Shone, acting director of HKU's
criminology center, and Kent Lee King-wa, also of the criminology center,
presented the preliminary findings Friday. "It's the first time Hong Kong has
participated," said Broadhurst, who went on to add the global survey was
important because it was independent of any police force. The government has
been urged to beef up the Consumer Council to better protect shoppers after a UN
crime survey found Hong Kong second only to Cambodia for consumer fraud.
Debate over planning of the Central
waterfront area reignited Friday when legislators passed a motion calling on the
government to revise existing plans, reducing space allotted for commercial
development and increasing green, open areas for public use. It also urged the
government to explain details of the 6,000-page tender document for the Tamar
headquarters project and consult the community on what public facilities should
be included. The motion comes just before an eight-month urban-design study and
public consultation on the area, expected to be launched by the Planning
Department later this month. But while department officials said the study would
seek to incorporate changes suggested by the public, existing statutory zoning
plans restricted modifications to land use or gross floor areas and building
heights. So plans for structures such as the hotly contested "groundscraper" and
a crop of new high-rises near IFC2 will most likely remain unchanged.
Japan's PM Shinzo Abe endorsed a 1995
apology by former leader Tomiichi Murayama for Japan' aggression in Asia during
World War II, his spokesman said. 
The Hospital Authority has announced the
formation of a steering committee to prescribe remedies for a public hospital
system that has left doctors overworked and overstressed. The committee, which
will be headed by former authority chairman and executive councillor Leong Che-
hung, is part of a broader attempt to address the long-standing grievances over
working conditions that drove 165 public doctors to file a high-profile lawsuit
demanding overtime compensation. That four-year legal campaign, which began in
2002, came to a temporary halt in March when the High Court dismissed the
lawsuit. But the legal action unearthed a deep well of resentment among public
doctors who work longer hours for less money than their private counterparts. In
the wake of the lawsuit, authority chairman Anthony Wu Ting-yuk promised in
March to "work towards limiting working hours for most doctors to no more than
65 hours per week within three years."
A group of 27 doctors and lawyers
take part in a Sik Sik Yuen ceremony to become Taoists at Wong Tai Sin Temple
yesterday. The ancient Taoist ceremony, which was the first of its kind held in
the city, was part of 85th anniversary celebrations for Sik Sik Yuen, which is a
Taoist order based on a mixture of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. A 10-day
lantern light show depicting ancient folk tales will also be held.
Occupancy at Cyberport has reached 73 per
cent. Half of its tenants come from overseas, such as Microsoft and Sybase,
while the remainder are local companies.
A boy makes the most of the ongoing
week-long National Day holiday, cavorting inside a giant plastic balloon at a
park in Beijing yesterday. The mainland's economy continues to benefit from
upper- and middle-class spending during the holiday season, with tens of
millions of visitors packing popular spots in the capital.
Three-time world champion of blind
golfing David Morris (left) and International Blind Golf Association president
David Blyth practise at the Island Golf Club in Sai Wan Ho yesterday. The two
have been invited to tee off at the University of Hong Kong's Class of 1981
reunion and fund-raising project, Social Inclusion, which aims to promote
opportunity and inclusion for people with disabilities. The alumni body said the
theme was chosen because 1981 was also declared the International Year of
Disabled Persons by the UN.
The Dong people in Guangxi took time
out this week to stage a traditional buffalo fighting contest. The spectacle,
held during the Golden Week holidays, drew thousands of residents and tourists.
When Jenny Bowen, a scriptwriter and
mother of two adopted Chinese girls, began helping other mainland orphans eight
years ago, she had no idea her decision would turn into a lifetime commitment
and result in moving her family from California to Beijing.
EBay, led by president and chief
executive Meg Whitman, says it will not retreat from the mainland despite losing
money and market share. EBay, the world's largest online auction site, is ready
to pack up and leave China, if rumours on the internet are to be believed. Not
so, says eBay China's spokeswoman Lilian Liu, who insists the company has a
long-term commitment to the mainland. 
Hong Kong Dragon
Airlines, wholly owned by Cathay Pacific Airways (0293), will eliminate 191
jobs, or 5 percent of its Hong Kong and overseas workforce. The layoffs will
cost the carrier HK$30 million. Dragonair employs 3,847 people, with 3,097 based
in Hong Kong and 750 overseas. Chief executive Kenny Tang said the carrier has
no plans for further reductions in headcount. "It is both difficult and painful
to eliminate positions, but great care has been taken to minimize job losses,"
he said. Dragonair is now under Cathay management. The changes are part of the
integration following Cathay's takeover of Dragonair in June in a HK$8.2 billion
deal under which Air China will also acquire a strategic stake in Cathay. Cathay
took complete control of Dragonair Thursday. Most of those being laid off are
from information management and finance departments. They have an average six
years' experience. There will be no changes to Dragonair's crew or airport
staff. Thursday, Cathay offered 215 positions for Dragonair's office-based staff
to transfer, while 46 positions are available for application as a result of the
lifting of a recent recruitment freeze at Cathay. Meanwhile, 174 staff will
depart Dragonair in Hong Kong, while 17 staff in overseas offices will be
affected. Dragonair employees in Hong Kong, who are being laid off will be given
a package of two-thirds of their last monthly salary, multiplied by years of
service, with a minimum of not less than two months and no maximum ceiling.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club has chosen
as its next chief executive an inhouse racing expert who considers being
innovative the key to surviving competition in the region. The appointment
Thursday of Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, currently the club's executive
director for racing, ended seven months of searching for a replacement for
Lawrence Wong Chi- kong, who will retire from the top administrative post in
February. Engelbrecht-Bresges' promotion completes an ongoing reshuffle in the
club's top hierarchy that also saw former government official John Chan Cho-chak
succeed Executive Council member Ronald Arculli as the club's chairman at the
start of this month. Both have inherited from their predecessors a set of
betting tax reforms which the second-in-command-designate says will give the
club the flexibility it needs to upgrade and export the gaming product to
overseas markets.
Visitors walk along the "star road"
in front of giant musical lanterns that are part of the Mid-Autumn Lantern
Celebration in Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui, officially from tomorrow until
October 6. Victoria Park is being transformed into a lantern wonderland that
includes eight mechanical water installations with audio and visual effects.
Park Lane Shopper's Boulevard in Tsim Sha Tsui is set to host 18 giant lanterns.
The Shanghai corruption
scandal that triggered the fall of the financial hub's top politician widened
Thursday following confirmation that another senior government official has been
implicated. Sun Luyi, vice secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal
committee, had "seriously violated party discipline," and is assisting the
inquiry into the misuse of the city's pension funds, Agence France-Presse quoted
spokeswoman Jiao Yang as saying. Sun, 52, an engineer, was appointed to his
position in the municipal committee, which is the Communist Party's main
governing body for Shanghai, in 2004. A source in Shanghai told The Standard
more than 20 senior officials, including Sun, are under investigation. The
development comes after central government officials announced Monday that
Shanghai Communist Party leader Chen Liangyu had been sacked and suspended from
the national politburo for his role in the pension fund scandal. The probe
centers on the alleged misuse of up to US$400 million (HK$3.12 billion) from
Shanghai's US$1.2 billion pension fund.
A descendant of Confucius, Kong
Xiangkai, yesterday reads from The Analects during a ceremony marking the
2,557th anniversary of the philosopher's birth at the family's ancestral temple
in Quzhou, Zhejiang province.
Practising for a pandemic: Hong Kong
yesterday mounted its first large-scale flu preparedness drill, moving mock
patients, with officials reporting no disruption to emergency services at the
two participating hospitals. The eight-hour drill involved 500 personnel, with
80 tour group members attending Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth hospitals
after two "fell ill" with bird flu, causing a "serious" alert.
Asia Standard, which co-developed
Grosvenor Place in Repulse Bay, has joined the rush among property firms to
raise money.
Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen
(centre) shares a toast with Hong Kong Shipping Circles Association chairman Su
Xingang (right) at a shipping sector banquet last night to mark the coming
National Day. Mr Su said mainland support would boost Hong Kong's strength.
Shares of Hong Kong-listed Shanghai-
focused developers fell Monday after news emerged about the sacking of Chen
Liangyu.
Vice Premier Wu Yi has given her stamp of approval to Chief Executive Donald
Tsang Yam-kuen's administration, saying that in just two years it had
successfully lifted Hong Kong from an economic trough and put it on the road to
full recovery. Wu also appealed Monday to Hong Kong investors to jump aboard the
central China express and grab the economic opportunities that were becoming
available as part of China's 11th Five- Year Plan. The pat on the back for Hong
Kong's leader and its entrepreneurs came on the fringes of the Expo Central
China 2006 which Wu opened Monday night at the Jiusuo Convention Center in
Changsha. Tsang, who is leading a 90-member Hong Kong delegation to the expo,
met with Wu, Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai and the heads of six central China
provinces. Wu, after shaking hands with Tsang and a few delegation members
before the meeting, hailed the chief executive's success in reviving the
economy.
A
PLA soldier shows Tan Fang, a Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
student, an assault rifle during a fete at San Wai Barracks in Fanling
yesterday. More than 220 students and the heads from 10 tertiary institutions
joined the activities.
The 2.03 carat, a highlight from Rio Tinto Diamond's Pink Tender, demonstrates
the diamonds' rich colouring. The largest collection of the world's rarest and
most valuable diamonds were brought to Hong Kong for a closed auction. 
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
called on Hong Kong investors Sunday to grab the opportunity to foster closer
trade and commercial ties with fast-growing Hunan province. Leading a 90-strong
delegation from the business, retailing, logistics and professional sectors
participating in the first Central China Expo in Hunan, Tsang said on the first
day of a three-day visit that the province is strategically positioned and
possesses extensive road and rail networks. He believes the development of
Hunan, which lies adjacent to Guangdong, will take off in the next few years.
Strong winds forced Lantau's Skyrail
to suspend operations for half an hour and to reduce travel speeds by 20 percent
Sunday, the second such suspension in two days. The safety measure resulted in a
loss of about 1,500 passengers on what was the first Sunday since the troubled
cable car system began operating Monday. Skyrail-ITM, the operator, had earlier
said it expected the number of passengers to reach its full capacity of 7,500
return trips Sunday. However, the so-called "journey of enlightenment" was
halted for 32 minutes by high winds and, with the speed lowered for most of the
rest of the afternoon, the number of people traveling between Tung Chung and
Ngong Ping reached only 6,000. The wind gusts were not unexpected and, early
Sunday morning, the company had posted a sign outside the terminal telling
visitors "due to strong wind, there may be delay in boarding." The service was
suspended at 1.24pm when gusts of 90 kilometers per hour were recorded, winds
that one would associate with a No 8 typhoon signal. Skyrail managing director
Bill Calderwood said in addition to the suspension, the speed of the system was
reduced from five meters a second to four for added safety.
Anson Chan, with new core group member
Allen Lee at her side, announces her decision yesterday. She insisted she had
never intended to run for chief executive. Leaders of the political parties
preparing to challenge Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in next year's election struggled
to contain their disappointment yesterday at Anson Chan Fang On-sang's decision
not to run. The former chief secretary struggled to get businesspeople to join
her core group because they apparently feared upsetting the authorities. Beaming
with confidence and a sense of purpose, Anson Chan Fang On-sang sought to
impress on the public yesterday that she was not down or out after declaring she
would not run for chief executive.
Chinese Estates expects the Zenith residential project in Wan Chai may generate
more than HK$3 billion in sales. 
Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi (R) meets with
United States Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson at the Great Hall of the
People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 20, 2006. As special representatives
of Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President George W. Bush, Wu and Paulson
announced on Wednesday the establishment of the China-US economic strategic
dialog.
Toasting the People's
Republic: Front from left, lawmaker Lau Wong-fat, Chief Executive Donald Tsang
Yam-kuen, central government liaison office director Gao Siren and local deputy
to the National People's Congress Standing Committee Tsang Hin-chi join a toast
at a reception to celebrate the forthcoming 57th anniversary, on October 1, of
the founding of the People's Republic of China.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz
listens to a speech during the opening of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings
on Tuesday in Singapore. Wealthy nations must make Africa their top
poverty-fighting priority, Mr Wolfowitz said on Tuesday, urging wealthy
countries to follow through on promised aid.
Coal exporters will suffer the most pain
from Beijing's new tax policy as they will no longer receive any value-added tax
rebate.
PCCW chairman Richard Li speaks after a
meeting in Hong Kong in July. On Thursday PCCW reported a 17 per cent fall in
interim earnings to HK$796 million.
The goddess of the moon, with the
assistance of a group of eager young children decked out in traditional
clothing, hands out moon cakes and lanterns at the entrance to the World Trade
Centre in Causeway Bay. The Mid-Autumn Festival promotional event was organised
by Sun Hung Kai Properties' shopping malls.
Fans took photos, laid tributes and
bouquets of flowers beside the wax figure of the late Canto-pop star and film
icon Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing at Madame Tussauds yesterday to mark what would
have been his 50th birthday. The sculpture of the Hong Kong-born star,
affectionately known as Gor Gor (Big Brother), was unveiled at the museum on
April 1, 2004, the first anniversary of his death. Cheung, who died at age 46
and had battled depression, leapt to his death from the Mandarin Oriental hotel,
leaving a suicide note.
A Ningbo
Shuaikang Co Ltd employee shows the company's range hoods and cooktops to
foreign businessmen at an export commodities fair. Shuaikang is a leading
Chinese manufacturer and exporter of kitchen appliances. Most Chinese
manufacturers plan to increase their export prices in the next 12 months, under
pressure from growing raw material prices.
China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao gives a
speech during a dinner hosted by China-Britain Business Council in London on
Wednesday (HK time). He said the mainland would continue to open up to the rest
of the world. Mr Wen is on a two day visit to the UK.
An exhibition of traditional Thai dancing
at Tuen Mun Town Plaza yesterday opened a three-day Thai Longan Fest. More than
450kg of the fruit, known locally as "dragon eye", were given away to the first
1,000 shoppers spending more than HK$100. The organisers, Thailand's Ministry of
Agriculture, said August was the harvest period for longan and this year's
harvest was abundant.
Tu Guangshao, vice-chairman of the China
Securities Regulatory Commission, speaks at the World Economic Forum China
Business Summit in Beijing yesterday. China is committed to speeding up the
development and opening up of its capital markets, but the government prefers a
gradual approach to achieving the objective, a securities regulator said.
China National Coal produced a record 72
million tonnes of coal last year and plans to boost output to 150 million tonnes
by 2010. Ahead of its IPO this year in Hong Kong, the mainland's leading
exporter has turned away strategic foreign investors.
Chief Executive
Donald Tsang Yam- kuen Sunday struck the ceremonial gong at Sha Tin racecourse
to usher in a new era of horse racing as first-day betting turnover returned to
the level it was two years ago with close to 50,000 people at the track. For the
first time in the Jockey Club's 120-year history, there was no upfront tax on
various bets following the government's decision last July to tax gross profits
instead, with guaranteed minimum revenue of HK$8 billion annually for the first
three years. In return, the club has been given some flexibility in changing or
adapting bets to meet market demand and to give high rollers rebates of 10
percent on losing tickets with a face value of at least HK$10,000. Betting
director Henry Chan Shing- kai, while refusing to give specific details, said he
believed the new system would see total turnover rise from last season's HK$60
billion to at least HK$69 billion, although projections by former club chairman
Ronald Arculli suggested it could go
as high as HK$80 billion. The club's record turnover was HK$92.3 billion in the
1996/1997 racing season. Sunday's betting figures were satisfactory, according
to chief executive Lawrence Wong Chi-kong, reaching HK$733.7 million as against
HK$684.6 million on the first day of the past season. Wong said the figures were
even more satisfactory considering that last year's total was boosted by a HK$25
million triple trio jackpot. He said there were no hiccups with the new system
and that everything went as expected.
More than 200 people joined the
ninth annual swimming contest organised by the Hong Kong Life Saving Society
yesterday morning to swim the 1,600 metres from South Bay to Repulse Bay. The
youngest swimmer was a seven-year-old girl, while the oldest was a 62-year-old
man. Yuen Kai-lai won the lifeguard section of the competition.
SHKP
and Henderson Land are raising the size of their refinancing loan amid a liquid
market to refinance their HK$7 billion loan. Sun Hung Kai Properties and
Henderson Land Development have boosted the size of their refinancing
syndication loan for the International Finance Centre by almost 43 per cent,
taking advantage of a loan market awash in liquidity, banking sources said.
A mainland movie about the construction of
the Three Gorges Dam and its impact on villagers has stunned more-fancied rivals
by winning the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival. Still
Life, directed by Jia Zhangke , was a surprise last-minute entry. It tells the
story of people who return to a village during the social upheaval caused by the
project. Jia, 36, said: "We all know that China is undergoing enormous change
and daily life is experiencing change as a consequence, and I focused my film on
this." Jia earlier said he was keen to spotlight the problems associated with
the dam now that media attention had faded. "Many journalists, international and
national, wrote reports and questioned the Three Gorges project, but once it was
completed they stopped. I know the population is still suffering from it."
Fiona Tsang of Hongkong Post explains
the range of mooncake gift sets launched with China Post for the Mid-Autumn
Festival under the Hong Kong/Mainland Gift Fulfilment service yesterday. Via the
service, customers can send the gift sets to relatives in 2,000 cities across
the mainland. All orders will be delivered on or before October 6.
Steve Wynn says Sands offered to pay a commission increase to a VIP junket agent
if he did not go to work for Wynn's new Macau casino.
Dancing queen and
high-flying banker Mimi Monica Wong won a HK$62 million lawsuit Wednesday
against her Latin-American dance teachers after the High Court ruled she was
humiliated in front of her friends and business associates. The court heard that
Wong, 61, who once won the accolade of "Top Gold Lady" at a dancing competition,
had agreed to pay her teachers, Mirko Saccani, 31, and his wife, Gaynor
Fairweather, 49, HK$120 million for unlimited private lessons and priority
bookings for a period of 10 years, and had put down a deposit of HK$62 million.
But, in August 2004, after two "humiliating" public dance sessions at the Li Hua
Restaurant in Causeway Bay, in which Saccani, her dancing partner, reduced her
to tears with his verbal abuse, Wong felt she could no longer continue the
relationship. Deputy Judge Gerard Muttrie ordered that the plaintiff be repaid
damages equalling HK$62 million, plus interest. The judgment brought to an end a
story that had begun as a beautiful relationship between three dancing
enthusiasts that soured because of jealousy and self-doubt of one's own dancing
performance.
Police officers search the Aberdeen underpass where last night's shooting took
place. A police sergeant was shot in the thigh after a struggle with an off-duty
constable who police say was emotionally disturbed.
We're not for sale, says Shaw Brothers:
Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) chairman Sir Run Run Shaw had not put the company up
for sale and no agreement had been reached with other parties, company secretary
Jeremiah Rajajulendran said yesterday at the annual general meeting. The company
last month said several parties had made approaches on taking over the group.
Non-executive director and Chevalier chairman Chow Yei-ching yesterday also
denied an interest in the firm.
An image of former leader Mao Zedong undergoes cleaning at a factory in Haikou,
Hainan province. Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of Mao's death.
Ching Cheong, Chief China Correspondent
for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper. Ching Cheong was convicted of spying on
Thursday and sentenced to five years in prison in China, the state-run Xinhua
News Agency reported.
