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December 31 2007
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said on Thursday it had agreed to buy 1.92 billion HK dollars (246 million U.S. dollars) worth of shares and warrants of its Hong Kong unit -- ICBC (Asia) Limited -- from the Spanish Fortis Bank. The deal, if completed, would raise the stake of ICBC in its Hong Kong unit from the previous 62.98 percent to 71.21 percent, the country's largest commercial lender said in a statement released in Beijing. The purchase included an 8.23-percent stake in the common shares of ICBC (Asia) Limited held by Fortis Bank. ICBC (Asia) Limited was the flagship subsidiary in charge of ICBC's overseas business. It had become the sixth-largest bank, asset-wise, in Hong Kong by the end of June with assets totaling 224.8 billion HK dollars. "The purchase of the stake from Fortis demonstrated ICBC's confidence in the future prospects of its Hong Kong unit as well as the financial market in Hong Kong," said ICBC's President Jiang Jianqing. An air services consultation between Hong Kong and India had successfully concluded, with substantial liberalization of the bilateral air services arrangements, said the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Thursday. Under the new arrangements, the airlines of the two sides will be able to increase services to Delhi and Mumbai by more than double the existing level, which is at present about 20 frequencies per week. New services to Bangalore, the IT base in India, and Chennai will also be possible. The two sides have also exchanged new fifth freedom rights. For example, Indian airlines will be able to operate services to points in North America via Hong Kong under the new arrangements. Hong Kong airlines will be able to operate services to points in Europe beyond India. "The new arrangements between the two sides are a major step forward in the bilateral aviation relationship," said Eva Cheng, secretary for Transport and Housing of the HKSAR government. Hong Kong saw 2,448,135 visitor arrivals in November, up 17.6 percent over the same month last year, and the month's best on record, official figures released Thursday indicated. Hong Kong Tourism Board said total arrivals for the year so far are 25,379,939, up 11.1 percent and topping the 2006 full-year figure of 25.25 million. All long- and short-haul market regions achieved notable gains.Arrivals from the Chinese mainland reached 1,291,307, up 23.7 percent over the same month last year. Of the Chinese mainland arrivals, 51.9 percent traveled under the Individual Visit Scheme, a year-on-year rise of 38.8 percent. Double-digit growth was also registered in visitors from the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, and South and Southeast Asia. About 60.5 percent of all visitors to Hong Kong in the month stayed in the city for at least one night, with the remainder classified as same-day, in-town visitors. Average occupancy across all categories of hotels in November was 93 percent, and the average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories for the month was 1,383 HK dollars (177 U.S. dollars).
China's telecoms industry came a step closer to its long-awaited reorganization after the State Council backed a third- generation high-speed mobile phone network for the mainland. Shanghai surpassed Hong Kong as a market for initial stock offerings this year with companies going public raising 417.8 billion yuan (HK$444.1 billion) compared with HK$286.9 billion on local exchanges. December 27 - 30, 2007
Mortgage delinquency ratio in Hong Kong dropped to 0.11 percent and rescheduled loan ratio fell to 0.2 percent, both record lows, driving the combined ratio lower to 0.32 percent, according to a report released Monday. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which virtually serves as the central bank in the special administrative region in south China, also found in the monthly survey that new mortgage loans drawn down rose 17.5 percent to 18.7 billion HK dollars (2.4 billion U.S. dollars). New loans approved surged 20.5 percent to 27.7 billion HK dollars (3.55 billion U.S. dollars) in the city, which has seen its real properties industry rebounding since 2003, when the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, coupled with other elements, drove the economy and the properties industry to the bottom. The rise was attributed to more approvals for secondary market transactions, which more than offset the drop in approvals for primary market transactions and refinancing loans, the report said. Approvals for secondary-market transactions grew 39.4 percent to 21.9 billion HK dollars (2.81 billion U.S. dollars), primary- market transactions fell 33.4 percent to 2.7 billion HK dollars (0. 35 billion U.S. dollars), and refinancing loans dropped 3.3 percent to 3 billion HK dollars (0.38 billion U.S. dollars). The number of new applications rose 3.9 percent, the report said. The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5 percent below the best lending rate decreased to 90.9 percent from 94 percent in October. The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0. 9 percent to 554.6 billion HK dollars (71.1 billion U.S. dollars). Twenty-three authorized institutions participated in the monthly survey. Hong Kong recorded a 13.9 billion HK dollars (1.8 billion U.S. dollars) surplus in its balance-of-payments account in the third quarter of 2007, official figures released Friday indicated. The amount was 3.9 billion HK dollars higher than in the second quarter, representing 3.4 percent of Hong Kong's gross domestic product, the Census and Statistics Department said. Of the major balance-of-payment components, there was a current- account surplus of 65.2 billion HK dollars in the third quarter, larger than that of 26.5 billion HK dollars in the second. A net outflow of financial non-reserve assets amounting to 73.3billion HK dollars was recorded, larger than that of 34 billion HK dollars in the second, said the department. Compared with the 61.9 billion HK dollars surplus recorded in the third quarter of 2006, the current-account surplus in the third quarter of 2007 was characterized by rises in visible trade deficit and invisible trade surplus, a continued net inflow of external-factor income, and a continued net outflow of current transfers. In the third quarter, a net inflow of capital transfers was estimated at 7 billion HK dollars, as compared with a net inflow of 3.7 billion HK dollars in the second. (One U.S. dollar = 7.793 HK dollars)
Just over half, or 51.36 percent, of all stock investors showed no gains from China's bull market, while 48.6 percent gained more than 10 percent this year, according to a survey by the China Securities Journal.
He Ning, Secretary of the Department of American and Oceanian Affairs in the Ministry of Commerce, said in Beijing on the 23rd that China-US trade reached 270 billion US dollars in the first 11 months of this year. The annual China-US trade volume is expected to exceed 300 billion US dollars, making China the third largest export destination by the end of this year. He Ning confirmed this at the 2007 China Forum on Economic Diplomacy at the China Foreign Affairs University. According to him, in recent years China-US trade has become more interdependent; and the bilateral trade volume increased from 2.5 billion US dollars in 1979 to 262.7 billion US dollars in 2006. As of November 2007, China-US trade has reached an all-time record high, breaking 270 billion US dollars: an increase of 15% compared with the same period last year. By the end of this year, trade will exceed 300 billion US dollars, making China the third largest exporter to the US. American investment in China has also grown rapidly: by the end of November this year, the US set up more than 54,000 enterprises and made over 56 billion US dollars in investments.
China's Renminbi (RMB) climbed 54 basis points to break the 7.33 mark on Tuesday, with the central parity rate at 7.3261 yuan against one US dollar. The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said in Beijing on Tuesday that China has 548 incubators, the second most in the world next to the United States. They are considered powerful in breeding innovative start-ups. On its website, www.most.gov.cn, the ministry reported the incubators had helped to raise 19,896 high technology companies, with 569 having annual revenues of more than 100 million yuan (US$13.7 million). In addition, 53 were listed on either domestic or overseas stock exchanges. China originally borrowed the idea of incubators from the United States. They were expected to create convenient and efficient environments for start-up companies, as well as in providing financing, taxation and land-lease incentives. The country's first incubator started in 1987 in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province. Such intermediate agencies, mostly funded by the government, were now spreading throughout the country. They currently incubated 41,434 fledgling companies, providing 460,000 jobs in high technologies, such as sophisticated home electronic appliances or computer hardware and software. Companies selected into the incubators were usually asked to become more independent and competitive in three years. Unsuccessful companies in the risky hi-tech industry would be left bankrupt. However, the ministry didn't mention the percentage of business failures in those incubators. China has been trying to combine homegrown venture capital funds and hi-tech business incubators in a drive to forge a knowledge-driven and energy-efficient economy. The government and State-funded policy banks were now active in setting up funds that aimed at financing smaller venture capital funds. These were primarily for high-tech research and development and seed funds that were provided to help a business develop an idea, create the first product and market the product for the first time. In August, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation adopted more favorable financing and taxation terms for companies in incubators. The government promised that 150 percent of research and development expenditure could be deducted from the taxable income of companies in the following fiscal year. Liang Gui, a senior MOST official, said his ministry planned to have 1,000 incubators by 2010, harboring more than 50,000 companies and helping create over one million job opportunities. Small and medium enterprises in China are bracing for a tough new year as the government further tightens monetary policy to curb bank loans and implement new labor laws to improve social welfare. But SMEs claim both measures are pushing their businesses into severe hardship. December 23 - 26, 2007
Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) and New World Development (0017) yesterday fired back at critics who accused them of standing to reap at least HK$5 billion profit from selling units at their controversial joint-venture Harbour Place residential project they had purchased from the government at a bargain price. China COSCO (1919), soon to become the world's largest dry-bulk shipping carrier, revised its yearly profit forecast yesterday to beat market expectations, sending the share price even higher. A HK$300 million facelift aimed at revitalizing Wan Chai was unveiled yesterday, saving the 70-year-old Wan Chai market and redesigning the former Wedding Card Street into a "Wedding City."
A Confucius institute was inaugurated in the Italian port city of Naples Thursday, which is the second of its kind in the nation. At the inauguration ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Italy Dong Jinyi said the Confucius Institute serves as a bridge to enhance friendship and understanding between the Chinese people and peoples in other countries and is aimed at promoting Chinese language and culture. The founding of the Confucius Institute helps the world know more about China and makes China integrate deeper with the rest of the world, he added. The Chinese ambassador said that in the recent years, China and Italy have made fruitful achievements in the field of culture and education. The number of Chinese students studying in Italy has increased to more than 3,000 in two years, while the Italian people also enjoy surging enthusiasm for Chinese language. Italy's first Confucius institute was established at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" in September 2006. The Chinese government started to set up non-profit Confucius institutes overseas since 2004. So far, a total of 210 Confucius institutes have been established in 64 countries and regions.
December 22, 2007
The government has taken an unprecedented step in warning of turmoil in financial markets due to the US subprime mortgage meltdown. "The US credit market is in a very critical situation; liquidity of many corporations are under pressure. Some companies even have to face capital inadequacy," government economist Kwok Kwok-chuen warned yesterday. He said US and European authorities were greatly concerned about the situation, and were aware of the problems that could lie ahead. So far Asian and emerging market economies had not been severely affected. The government official's comments were echoed elsewhere in Hong Kong's finance sector. Bank of East Asia (0023) chief economist Paul Tang Sai-on said share prices in the US could plunge when the negative news of the subprime mortgage crisis was fully discounted. "The US market is too optimistic. US stock trading prices are still relatively high, leaving ample room for shares to fall," he said. Standard Chartered Bank economist Kelvin Lau Kin-heng warned the subprime problem could spark a recession. "Although the subprime crisis was not initiated in Asia, Hong Kong will still be affected as it cannot decouple from the US and global economy," he said. Last Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percent to 4.25 percent. A day later the Fed, along with central banks in Europe, including Britain and Switzerland, and Canada injected US$80 billion (HK$623.7 billion) into the market to ease the global credit crunch. Hong Kong Baptist University finance professor Billy Mak Sui-choi said the true picture will emerge in January. "When [Hong Kong-listed] companies announce their year-end results it might be the worst time for the subprime problem as the issue will become more transparent," he said.
Cathay Pacific Airways has backed down on its decision requiring staff to pay for doctor visits under a new medical plan, saying each employee can make 10 free visits in the first year.
Hong Kong’s unemployment rate was at 3.6 per cent in the September to November period – the lowest level in almost 10 years.
China announced on Tuesday the setting up of a national oil reserve center, the top economic planning agency confirmed. China said on Monday it will scrap export rebates for 84 agricultural products as of Thursday in effort to discourage exports of farm produce in a nation where food prices drove inflation to an 11-year high in November.
China's newly-founded National Bureau of Corruption Prevention (NBCP) launched its official website on Tuesday. The public can now post notes at the website (yfj.mos.gov.cn) or write e-mails (yfjzhc@mos.gov.cn) and leave information and opinions on the body's work. The website also publicizes the NBCP policies, events and lists anti-corruption news from both home and abroad. The NBCP was officially established on September 13 with Ma Wen, the Minister of Supervision, as its head. The bureau was founded at a time when the country has seen many corruption scandals that have brought down a number of high-level officials, most notably former food and drug administration head Zhen Xiaoyu and former Shanghai Party head Chen Liangyu. The NBCP planned to study methods to constantly improve corruption prevention systems, push for the sound operation of these systems and to coordinate the corruption prevention efforts of various departments, Ma said on September 13 when the NBCP was launched. The bureau has been entrusted to collect and analyze information from such sectors as banking, land use, medicine and telecom, among others, and to share it with relevant departments. These included prosecuting organs, courts and police authorities, among others. It would not, however, be involved in the investigation of individual cases.
December 21, 2007
An Asian Development Bank (ADB) survey says Macao ranks third in per capita real GDP among 23 "developing economies" in Asia and the Pacific, only after Brunei and Singapore, the Macao Daily News reported on Wednesday. ADB's 2005 International Comparison Program (ICP), released on Monday, showed that Macao's per capita real GDP in that year stood at 211,907 HK dollars (27,175 U.S. dollars), as against 202,941 HK dollars (26,025 U.S. dollars) in Hong Kong. But the ICP survey also tags Macao as the third costliest place to live, only after Fiji and Hong Kong in the region. In terms of per capita actual final consumption expenditure (AFCE), Hong Kong still appears as the biggest spender with its AFCE of 125,303 HK dollars (16,069 U.S. dollars) as against Macao's 67,160 HK dollars (8,612 U.S. dollars), ranking fifth in the survey. Although Macao's booming gaming industry has contributed to the spike of its per capita GDP, most civilians still saw their salaries stay in low level, which resulted in its low AFCE, the newspaper quoted Dominic Sio, board chairman of Center of Strategic Research for Development of Macao, as saying. Sio also pointed out that the government should make effort to turn Macao into a knowledge-orientated society like Hong Kong, the population of which comprises a large number of well-educated and affluent middle classes. The survey is part of a global initiative spearheaded by the World Bank that allows cross-country comparisons of purchasing powers of currencies and living standards.
Shares in Uni-President China Holdings, the mainland arm of Taiwan’s largest food and beverage conglomerate, ended higher in their trading debut after the firm’s initial public offering raised US$477 million. The mainland arm of Taiwan’s largest food and beverage conglomerate, outperformed as investors sought exposure to the mainland’s consumption story. Shares gained momentum through the session, ending at HK$4.75, up 12.6 per cent from their initial public offering price of HK$4.22. The rise followed a flat performance in the morning and far outpaced the broad market, which suffered heavy losses with the benchmark Hang Seng Index closing 3.5 per cent lower. The performance followed a recent spate of lacklustre first-day showings in an IPO market that had been hot for much of the year, adding to pressure on upcoming listing hopefuls to price their issues more attractively. “Investors try to avoid buying IPOs due to the weak market sentiment, but as Uni-President China is a Chinese consumption play, its shares will stabilise during a market rebound,” said Steven Leung, director of institutional sales at UOB-Kay Hian. Shares in Uni-President China, which is a spin-off from Taiwan’s Uni-President Enterprises, fell as low as HK$3.97 in the morning session before rising to HK$4.26 at the midday close. The company priced its IPO at HK$4.22 per share, which was in the middle of its indicated range. Its midday price valued the company at about 22.5 times the next year’s earnings forecast of its underwriters. By comparison, rival Tingyi (SEHK: 0322) trades at 37 times forecast next year profit and Huiyuan Juice trades at 26 times. The deal attracted orders for 4.56 times the shares offered to retail investors. The company, which makes and distributes instant noodles and beverages in China, sold 881.72 million shares, or 25 per cent of its enlarged share capital, in a deal sponsored by UBS and Morgan Stanley. Uni-President China joins several Taiwan companies that have chosen to list their mainland subsidiaries in Hong Kong to get around Taiwan’s ban on companies putting more than 40 per cent of their capital into the mainland. Recent Hong Kong listings by Taiwan companies have not been star performers in the secondary market. Shares in meat processor DaChan Food (SEHK: 3999) Asia, a unit of Great Wall Enterprise (Taiwan), have fallen 14.8 per cent since their October listing. Shoe maker Stella International (SEHK: 1836, announcements, news) ’s stock has risen 7.2 per cent since its July float, compared with a 21 per cent rise in the Hang Seng index over the same period.
China's legislature is to conduct the first reading of three draft laws on food safety, state assets and social insurance later this month. The 31st session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) was expected to convene from Dec. 23 to Dec. 29, according to a statement issued after a meeting of the chairman and vice-chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee on Monday. The draft law on food safety has been a hot topic in China since 2005 due to increasing incidence of food scandal. China's 1st JV investment bank obtains QDII quota - China International Capital Corp. (CICC) acquired a qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) investment quota of 5 billion U.S. dollars.
December 20, 2007
Asian food will make up about one-third of the menu at the Olympic Village next summer, with a final menu to be approved on January 1, officials from the Beijing Olympic organizing committee said Tuesday. "The Olympic menu has passed the first round of examination and culinary experts have given it a positive evaluation," said Xiang Ping, deputy director of BOCOG's Games Services Department. "The menu will be sent for final approval next January before further steps are taken," she added. As required by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Olympic menu will reflect international tastes based on the concept of sharing and mutual respect. "The IOC suggested we avoid highlighting religious food in the menu, so we won't set up special areas for people with certain religious requirements, but only designate special foods stands. Everyone will be free to choose their favorite food," Xiang said. As for food hygiene, a strict tracking system will secure the safety of all the ingredients during the production process. Officials will keep samples of all the food for further testing if necessary. "All 350 ingredients that fall under the 10 basic food categories for the Beijing Games are under close supervision and inspection by the Beijing Food Security Office, and suppliers are also selected using the strictest standards," she said. "Only those who pass all examinations before the Games will be qualified to serve at the Olympics."
December 19, 2007
Hong Kong out to lead the wireless revolution - City to get internet in the park, on the bus, and even on a hike - Hong Kong could become one giant internet cafe as new wireless internet and mobile phone services are rolled out over the next three years. The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta) is making available two additional portions of radio spectrum for provision of broadband wireless access via WiMax and, for mobile phone users, 3.5G in a bid to make Hong Kong an "advanced wireless city". WiMax is a more powerful version of Wi-fi. A single WiMax tower can provide wireless internet up to 48km away. The move was announced at a meeting of the Legislative Council's information technology and broadcasting panel last week. It will give Hong Kong one of the world's first WiMax networks, along with cities such as Moscow, Chicago, Baltimore and Washington. Ofta will auction at least six licences to run the services next autumn. Companies are expected to bid tens of millions of dollars. They will have two years to roll out the services. Analysts say the move will trigger a massive shake-up in phone and internet markets that is expected to bring greater competition and reduce prices for consumers. Ofta chief telecoms engineer Cheng Chi-keung said: "This new technology will enable people to use their laptop computers to connect to the internet in many more areas of the city, such as parks, public squares and the harbourfront. "You will also be able to pick up your laptop and connect to the internet on a bus. "We are encouraging the operators to roll out the service into rural areas and, in time, we expect high-speed internet access to be available in country parks, on outlying islands and in other remote areas." Enhanced broadband wireless access will also enable consumers to use the same phone number for their fixed-line and mobile phones, to access their computer via their mobile phone and to receive one bill for all telecoms services. An Ofta spokeswoman said it had received four expressions of interest for broadband wireless services in a consultation during the summer. Many of the eight licensed phone carriers that took part indicated they were interested in bidding. Such services would help Hong Kong maintain its competitive edge, she said. Communications expert Francis Lau Chung-ming, of Polytechnic University, said: "This new technology will mean that computer and phone users will have greater choice between service providers, wherever they are in Hong Kong. It will further open up the broadband communications service market and it will almost certainly drive down monthly rental fees for mobile phones. "It means that in future mobile phone users may be able to download videos or music, watch TV, or call anywhere in the world for a very low price, whether with simple audio phone or video phone." York Mok Sui-wah, chairman of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, said ISPs would face very stiff competition from the big phone companies for the new licences and some could be driven out of business. "I think the government should allocate two or three of the licences for providers that are offering special services such as free wireless broadband services for people on low incomes so as to narrow the digital divide," he said.
The government will seek Legco approval for a HK$21.6 billion one-off grant to finance the initial stage of the West Kowloon cultural development. The request is HK$2.6 billion higher than that previously sought, because of inflation.
The Chinese government on Sunday officially announced the scrapping of one of the country's three "golden week" holidays and introduced three new one-day public holidays. The new national public holiday plan adds three traditional festivals -- Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon-boat Festival and Mid Autumn Festival -- to the list of public holidays. The plan, which comes into effect on Jan. 1, also increases the total number of national holidays from 10 to 11 days. Each of the three traditional festivals will be a one-day holiday, according to the plan unveiled by the State Council, or China's cabinet. The Spring Festival remains a three-day public holiday, but it will start one day earlier from the eve of the Lunar New Year, China's most important traditional festival. The May Day holiday is shortened from three days to one day, while the three-day National Day holiday and one-day New Year holiday remain unchanged. The government will continue to move the weekend days adjacent to a national holiday to form a longer holiday period so that people will have three days or seven days off in a row. The New Year Day, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon-Boat Festival, May Day, and Mid-Autumn Day then become holidays of three days each. The Spring Festival holiday and National Day holiday remain seven-day holidays. An unnamed spokesman with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the new plan would uphold Chinese traditions, make public holidays better distributed and, with more people traveling on new public and paid holidays, ease overcrowding on the golden weeks. The three week-long holidays -- Spring Festival, May Day holiday and National Day holiday -- were introduced in 1999 to boost domestic demand amid efforts to promote China's economic growth. But hundreds of millions of Chinese traveling at the same time made transport and tourist destinations very crowded, making these holidays far from an enjoyable experience. Many netizens have complained that the revised May Day holiday will make the remaining two golden weeks even more crowded and that deprives people working far from their hometowns of the chance to go back home for family gatherings. They have even voiced their worry that a lot of company employees will not be off on the newly-added traditional festival holidays. The spokesman said the revision could not satisfy all the people, whose interests might vary, but did respect the opinion of a majority. Citing government figures, he said that 75 percent of the people were in favor of the whole plan and that 60 percent of the netizens agreed to the way the May Day holiday was revised. Also on Sunday, the State Council announced regulations on paid holidays, saying all employees of government agencies, enterprises and public-service institutions were entitled to take paid holidays after serving the same employer for one year. Employees who have worked less than ten years will have five paid days off a year, those who have worked for ten to 19 years will have ten days and those who have worked for 20 years and above would have 15 days. National holidays and weekends will not be includes as paid holidays. The regulations also stipulate that employees should have their full daily salary guaranteed during paid holidays and that those who keep working should be paid three times as much.
Baosteel Group, China's largest steel maker, has launched a 19.4-billion-yuan (2.6 billion U.S. dollars) joint venture with Hansteel Group. USA 'exaggerating ship-building concerns' - Concerns expressed by a senior US Navy officer and a US lawmaker that China's warship-building capabilities could soon surpass those of the United States showed that Washington was unduly wary of competition, military experts said yesterday. Admiral Gary Roughead, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, expressed concern on Thursday about competition from China's flourishing ship-building sector. "[China's ship-builders] are very competitive on the world market. There is no question that their ship-building capability is increasing rapidly," Admiral Roughead told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. His concern was supported by Republican congressman Duncan Hunter. The lawmaker told the hearing that China was turning out 5,000 commercial ships a year, against 300 by the US, and an average of three submarines a year, to America's one. He said China was also producing nearly 480 million tonnes of steel a year, five times as much as the US. "All that is giving them the industrial base that could allow the Chinese naval capability to outstrip the United States if they turn that commercial ship-building capability into warship-building capability," Mr Hunter said. A Shanghai-based military expert said the US admiral had exaggerated China's capability. "It's a fact that China is now the second most prominent ship builder after the Koreans, but it's just because of low costs due to China's cheap labour," said the expert, a former People's Liberation Army officer. "But the technology involved in building commercial ships and warships is vastly different." He said the quality of mainland-made electronics equipment, fire control and missile systems could not compete with the US. "Even Chinese-made steel is still not qualified to be used in warship building because of poor quality," he said. Andrei Chang, a Hong Kong-based military expert, said China had a good foundation in making hulls for commercial ships, but its skills in integrating components still lagged behind the US. "It's possible for China to surpass Korea as the biggest ship builder in the world some day," Mr Chang said. "But in the warship-building sector, it's impossible for it to catch up to the US." He said that Admiral Roughead's singling out of China's ship-building capability was aimed at demanding more funding for the US Navy next year. On Monday, the US Navy said that it needed an extra US$18 billion to US$20 billion for the next six years, largely to fund building of new warships. December 18, 2007
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen will get 24 new aides as soon as early next year to assist his ministers in policymaking and conducting political work, after the Legislative Council passed a HK$65 million package yesterday to create a new layer of political appointees. Despite opposition by the pan-democrats, who said expanding the ministerial system in the absence of universal suffrage would only create more officials who have no mandate, pro-government parties backed the plan, which they said would help cultivate political talent. The funding request - which will create 11 undersecretaries, each earning HK$193,773 to HK$223,586 a month, and 13 political assistants, earning HK$104,340 to HK$163,963 - was passed 29 to 16. Speaking in a Legco finance committee meeting, legislator Anson Chan Fang On-sang said pushing ahead with expansion without improving the present system would only deepen public concerns on government favouritism towards its political allies. "It would deepen the contradiction between civil servants and political appointees, increase the workload of civil servants - especially those in the administrative officer grades - and seriously affect the neutrality of the civil service," she said. Emily Lau Wai-hing, of The Frontier, said it was outrageous for the government to claim the new system was similar to western-style democracy. "Of course it is OK for the US president to have layers of political appointees - because he is elected through universal suffrage. Our chief executive has no mandate because he is elected by a small circle of 800 people," Ms Lau said. But both the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and the Liberal Party supported the plan, saying it would help cultivate political talent. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung denied the system was designed to return favors to government allies.
December 17, 2007
Hong Kong’s total volume of exports increased by 8.5 per cent in October as compared to the same period last year, latest statistics released by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) on Friday showed. Hong Kong's long-haul budget airline has been named the world's leading new airline at the World Travel Awards, the travel industry's equivalent of the Oscars. The prize was presented to Oasis Hong Kong Airlines at a gala event at the Turks and Caicos resort islands in the Caribbean. The award was the result of a vote involving 167,000 travel professionals worldwide, including more than 110,000 travel agents. Oasis beat AirAsia X, Silverjet, Virgin America, VivaAerobus and other new airlines. Oasis senior vice-president Fritz Blayney, on receiving the award, said it was an understatement to say it was an honor. "We are surrounded by the world's tourism heavyweights here tonight, and Oasis has been voted by industry professionals as no less than the best of the best," he said. The budget airline has come a long way since its first flight last year. It got off to a bad start when its debut flight, from Hong Kong to London on October 25 last year, was cancelled at the last minute because it lacked permission to fly over Russia. Nearly 280 passengers onboard the jumbo jet were sent home or to hotels after being stranded on the tarmac at Chek Lap Kok airport for more than five hours. The company explained then that the Russian authorities had suddenly revoked its permission to fly over the country. By yesterday, the airline had sold more than 360,000 tickets. It has more than 600 employees.
December 14 - 16, 2007
Global consumer confidence has dropped but Hong Kong consumers remain highly optimistic about their job prospects, personal finance and consumption. The latest Nielsen global consumer confidence report shows the city's consumer confidence was 5th among 48 world markets. Nielsen interviewed more than 26,000 global consumers online and found more than a quarter expected a global recession next year. But more than half of the 500 Hongkongers polled said they did not believe one would occur. Nielsen executive director of client solutions Angle Young Wai-suen said the US-based sub-prime credit issue might be worrying international investors but figures show the local market is very upbeat. The consumer confidence index is calculated on interviewees' perceptions of their job prospects, personal finances and willingness to consume. About 61 per cent of local interviewees said they considered now to be a good time to buy things they wanted or needed in the next year, a sentiment ranking third worldwide. When asked what they did with disposable income, 58 per cent said they invested in shares or mutual funds, the highest such percentage in Asia-Pacific markets. As far as saving, the survey marks the first time since it began in 2005 that Hongkongers have dropped out of the top 10. Only 57 per cent of local consumers said they were going to save. Meanwhile, a world leader in the employment services industry has found employers here remain optimistic about hiring. Manpower Inc interviewed 811 local employers and nearly 52,000 worldwide in a bid to forecast global hiring intentions for the first quarter. Figures showed that 27 per cent of local employers expect to increase staffing over the next three months, and only 2 per cent expect to reduce their workforce. Most Hong Kong employers (67 per cent) expect no change. "The results reflect Hong Kong's strong labour market, and the lowest unemployment rate in nine years - 3.9 per cent," said Lancy Chui, the firm's general manager of Hong Kong operations. "With the government's promised 10 new infrastructure improvement projects over the coming five years, sectors such as construction and real estate should continue to report strong job prospects."
Midnight revelers will have a wider choice of public transport during the 2008 Olympic Games as Beijing is to launch special bus routes and add seven routes to the 24-hour bus network.
Mobile phone users in China sent 429 billion text messages last year, while India added more mobile subscribers in the year than Britain had in total, as the two countries joined Brazil and Russia in driving growth in the sector.
December 13, 2007
Hong Kong people are more than willing to spend their spare money on investing in the stock market and mutual funds, while the territory's consumer confidence is still at historical highs, a global online survey has found.
China's central bank governor, Zhou
Xiaochuan, said on Wednesday that surging domestic consumer prices and recent
U.S. interest rate cuts would have "considerable influence" over Chinese
monetary policy. Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Chen Deming said here Wednesday
that if the Renminbi, China's currency, appreciated too rapidly, it would cause
fluctuations in the Chinese economy that would not be positive for the world.
Air China and Shanghai Airlines joined the Star Alliance, the oldest and largest
airline alliance in the world, on Wednesday. The China Film Group Corporation (CFGC) Wednesday denied a New York Times report that alleged China had stopped granting permission to US films to be screened in cinemas on the mainland.
December 10 - 12, 2007
Mainland fund companies with qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) qualification may be the first to get regulatory permission to set up branches in Hong Kong.
Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group (0027) reported unaudited earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the nine months ended September 30 increased to HK$1.109 billion - exceeding the whole of 2006 by a whopping 150 percent.
The wave of Hong Kong migrants who literally changed the face of Vancouver and Toronto in the run-up to the handover is officially over, according to the newly released Canadian census. Tens of thousands of Hongkongers settled in Canada ahead of 1997 amid fears of big changes under Chinese rule, with the vast majority moving to the two big cities on either side of the country. From 1991 to 2000, 100,075 people born in Hong Kong moved to Canada. But the new data shows that from 2001 to last year, a mere 7,430 relocated to the North American nation. And the number of Hong Kong migrants living in British Columbia fell by 12 per cent to 78,060, with thousands of Hongkongers thought to have moved back. There are now about 220,000 Canadians living in Hong Kong, according to the Canadian consulate, with the vast majority believed to be either returnees or part of the floating population that moves back and forward between the two. The big fall in Hong Kong migrants to Canada has been more than matched by a surge in the number of mainlanders, who are on the verge of overtaking British-born Canadians as the biggest foreign-born contingent. From 2001 to last year, there were 155,105 new arrivals in Canada from the mainland, compared with 108,285 in the previous five years. Mary Chan Siu-yee, manager of immigration consultancy Rothe International Canada, said less demand and tougher requirements imposed by Canadian authorities had led to the drop in Hongkongers relocating to Canada. "There have been ups at times of political uncertainty, and after the Sars outbreak, but downs when the local property and the stock market performed well." Ms Chan said the reasons behind a decision to emigrate varied, with some multimillionaires seeking a higher quality of life and better education for their children, and teachers finding themselves fed up with local education reforms. While the strong Canadian dollar might have deterred some locals from relocating to Canada temporarily, Ms Chan said the booming stock and property markets could offset some of these disincentives. Immigration consultant Eddie Kwan King-hung said most of those who wanted to go had left already, and he expected the number of migrants from Hong Kong would fall further in coming years. He said only 5 per cent of his firm's business was from Hong Kong, while about 40 per cent involved Chinese Canadians from the mainland resettling in Hong Kong through the investment migrant scheme. A spokesman for the Canadian consulate said Canada remained an attractive immigration option given its strong economic growth, safe neighbourhoods, pristine environment, falling taxes and the lowest unemployment rate in 33 years. Hong Kong Security Bureau figures show that 10,300 people migrated overseas last year, compared with 30,900 in 1997. Ten years ago, 15,000 people left for Canada, but only 1,600 went last year. Shanghai Disneyland could 'help' HK park - Mainlanders may not know much about Disneyland, and a park in Shanghai might boost attendances at the Hong Kong theme park, the commerce and economic development minister told lawmakers yesterday. Following a recent report that Shanghai's Chongming Island might be the site of a Disneyland after 2010, and in the light of poor attendance figures at Hong Kong Disneyland, legislators had questioned the theme park's economic benefits. But Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Frederick Ma Si-hang insisted that the economic viability of the project should be assessed in the long term. "Since the park has only been open for two years, the government has not conducted another assessment of the quantifiable economic benefits that Hong Kong Disneyland has brought to the local economy since its opening," he said. The Hong Kong government estimated in 1999 that the net economic benefit over 40 years would range from HK$80 billion to HK$148 billion. Democratic Party legislator Fred Li Wah-ming asked the government's view on the prospect of a Shanghai Disneyland being built. "So far, the question is still a hypothetical one," Mr Ma said. "But China is big enough to have more than one international theme park. If there is one Disneyland in the north and another in southern China, it might be even better." The Hong Kong government will auction as many as six new licenses for wireless broadband service next year which may boost competition in the already congested local telecommunications market. Market watchers said existing fixed-line operators lacking that last-mile access network connecting them to end-users were likely to have a keen interest in bidding for a licence. The Office of the Telecommunications Authority yesterday said that it would assign new licenses on the 2.3 gigahertz and 2.5 GHz wavelengths for the broadband wireless access (BWA) service which allows operators to provide fixed wireless or full mobile service. Marion Lai Chan Chi-kuen, the director-general of Ofta, yesterday said the auction would be held in the fourth quarter next year and services would be available in 2009. "The issuing of BWA licenses will help Hong Kong to maintain its leading position as a telecommunications hub in the region," Mrs Lai said at the Mobility World Congress yesterday. She said the licensing framework would be technology neutral and market oriented. The government will put no limitation on what technology the licensees can use and the number of licenses that can be issued. "Details of the pre-qualification requirements, the auction rules and the reserve price will be released nearer the time of the auction," Ms Lai said. "Any interested party including incumbent fixed and mobile carriers will be welcome to bid for the spectrum." Wharf (SEHK: 0004) T&T, the fixed-line telecommunication arm of Wharf Holdings, expressed interest in bidding for the new licenses. "The new licenses can enable us to provide fixed broadband service initially and we can offer a mobile service once the technology is ready," said Raymond Mok Wai-man, a vice-president of Wharf T&T, a fixed-line operator owned by Wharf Holdings. "The key issue is whether there are enough new applications to attract investment on a new network," said Wong Chi-man, a telecommunications analyst at China Everbright (SEHK: 0165) Securities. Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a wireless technology that can be used on the new spectrum. It can support fixed wireless and full mobile service with a download speed of 40 megabits per second. In October, WiMAX was adopted as a global 3G mobile standard by the International Telecommunications Union, a UN organization handling global telecommunications issues.
A leading engineer for China's indigenous satellite navigation system said the new system would be used in guiding traffic and monitoring sports venues during the Beijing Olympics in summer 2008. Ran Chengqi, deputy director of China Satellite Navigation Engineering Center, said the Compass Navigation Satellite System, which consists of five positioning satellites orbiting the Earth, will help alleviate traffic problems during the Olympics by providing detailed positioning information to individual drivers. The home-grown navigation system, coded as Beidou in the Chinese pronunciation for the compass, can not only pinpoint precise locations of moving vehicles, but also tell drivers real-time traffic on routes to their destinations, Ran said at an international navigation industry forum in Shanghai. In working for the Olympics, Ran said, the Beidou system would be compatible to the prevailing global positioning system (GPS), which was developed by the U.S. military and is now in pervasive civilian use worldwide. China had primarily constructed the experimental satellite navigation web by May 2003, via launching three Beidou satellites into space. In February and April 2007, another two satellites were separately sent into orbit. The cluster of five Beidou satellites are comprised of the main infrastructure of the Chinese satellite navigation network. China is going to launch more navigation satellites in 2008, the Shanghai-based Wenhui Daily quoted Ran as saying. Besides the specific employment for the Beijing Olympics, Ran said, the Beidou system would also benefit wider applications from transportation, fishery, mining, to wildfire surveillance, Ran said. In addition to the GPS and GLONASS, which was funded and constructed by the Russian military, the European Union invested in 2003 roughly 3.6 billion euros in developing an ambitious project, Galileo, which is planned to group 30 navigation satellites. The Galileo project does not run smoothly because of fund shortage. Britain opposes Taiwan’s plan for a referendum on pushing for UN membership, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday, adding that any “reckless manoeuvres” were to be “deplored”. Britain’s policy towards Taiwan had not changed in the past 35 years, Mr Miliband said after talks in London with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. “I’m happy to repeat for this audience what I said to the foreign minister about this issue,” Mr Miliband told reporters. “British policy in respect of Taiwan was set in 1972 when we first exchanged ambassadors between out two countries. Our One China policy has not changed. “We do not support the proposed referendum in Taiwan for it to gain membership of the United Nations under the name of Taiwan.” He added: “We think it is very important that all sides act with real restraint given the need for stability across the Taiwan Straits and any reckless manoeuvres are to be deplored.” Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian intends to hold a referendum next year. France and the United States have already expressed their opposition to the plan. Along with Britain, China and Russia, they make up the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, who all have veto-wielding powers on resolutions. Taiwan, under its official name the Republic of China, lost its UN seat to China in 1971. Efforts in the past 14 years to rejoin the world body, using the name Republic of China, have been repeatedly blocked by Beijing, which regards the island as part of its own territory awaiting reunification. The two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949. December 7 - 9, 2007
HSBC executive Margaret Leung Ko May-yee predicted yesterday that Hong Kong banks will follow the lead of the US Federal Reserve after the Fed does the expected and cuts its benchmark interest rate by 25 to 50 basis points next Tuesday.
Nearly one out of three people in Beijing belongs to the mobile population, according to the capital's population and family planning commission. The municipality's mobile population reached 5.4 million in October, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the total, the commission's deputy director Li Yunli said. More than 80 percent of the capital's mobile population belongs to the China-unique category of rural migrant workers, Li told a conference on population in Beijing on Monday. The remainder is mostly made up of people visiting for less than a month. She added that migrant workers would comprise the vast majority of both the capital's and the nation's mobile population for a long time to come. Currently, the national mobile population stands at 150 million. The most recent influx of migrant workers boosted the capital's population to about 17.4 million by October, signaling Beijing's population would likely exceed its threshold of 18 million earlier than previous forecasts, Li said. The total population would continue to grow in Beijing over the next five or 10 years, Li said, and "that would further strain scarce resources, including land, water and energy".
China has opened eight biomass plants in five leading grain-producing provinces to cut carbon dioxide emissions and generate electricity, amid growing concerns over greenhouse gas and climate change. The plants, with a total capacity of 200,000 kilowatts, are expected to burn 1.6 million tons of grain stalks a year. They will generate 1.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, said Cui Mengshan, a planning and business development manager with the National Bio Energy Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the State Grid Corporation. "Compared with coal-fired power plants, these biomass projects are expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 800,000 tons a year," he said. China has been turning grain stalks into clean energy since last December when the State Grid Corporation launched the first biomass plant in the eastern Shandong Province. The project, which burns 200,000 tons of stalks annually, has enabled local farmers to profit from what was traditionally waste. Similar projects have been launched over the past year in four other grain-producing provinces of Hebei, Jiangsu, Henan and Heilongjiang. China's capacity for bio-energy electricity is forecast to reach 5.5 million kilowatts by 2010, according to the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10). "This means China's carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 2,200 tons by then," Cui said. December 6, 2007
One indication that the initial public offering frenzy has subsided is the growing list of companies delaying listing due to the aggressive pricing of companies lined up in the trading block, "Asia's Warren Buffett" and Henderson Land Development (0012) founder Lee Shau-kee said yesterday.
To help local investors make prompt investment decisions, the Hong Kong stock exchange has decided to allow HSBC Holdings (0005) to publish price-sensitive information during trading hours without suspending the shares.
China's economy will grow by 11.6% this year, the fifth consecutive year for the country to achieve double-digit GDP growth since 2003, according to the economic forecasts of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
December 5, 2007
Beijing is considering plans to let foreign governments issue yuan- denominated bonds in the mainland and hopes Hong Kong and overseas companies will list on its stock markets, Xinhua News Agency cited senior officials as saying. Hong Kong’s retail sales volume continued to display a strong performance witnessing a 9.3 per cent increase in volume over the first ten months of this year as compared to the same period a year earlier, latest figures released by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) on Monday showed. A government spokesman said, “[These figures] reflect the upbeat consumer sentiment on the back of the robust economic fundamentals and improving labour market.” The value of total retail sales in October this year was provisionally estimated at HK$20.7 billion, increasing by 16.6 per cent over a year earlier. After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales also increased by 12.8 per cent in October this year over a year earlier. “This marks the fifth consecutive month of double-digit year-on-year growth in volume terms. The booming stock market during the month, together with the continued surge in the number of incoming visitors, also helped,” the spokesman added. Comparing October this year with October last year, the volume of sales of electrical goods and photographic equipment increased the most, by 32.5 per cent. This was followed by sales of motor vehicles and parts (up 29.0 per cent in volume); jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts (up 27.4 per cent); footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (up19.3 per cent); wearing apparel (up 14.0 per cent); commodities in department stores (up14.0 per cent); furniture and fixtures (up 6.5 per cent); commodities in supermarkets (up2.4 per cent); and fuels (up 0.4 per cent). On the other hand, the volume of sales of food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco in October this year decreased by 9.1 per cent as compared with a year earlier. The spokesman expressed optimism that sales would continue to increase in the coming months. “Rising labor incomes and a better job market, together with the expansion of inbound tourism, should provide firm support to retail business in the period ahead,” he explained.
Chinese crude steel output is estimated to hit 490 million tons this year, 16 percent higher than the figure last year, said Luo Bingsheng, deputy head of China Iron and Steel Association on Saturday.
December 4, 2007
Night workers beware - the "graveyard shift" could be killing you. Hong Kong doctors and unionists are scrambling for more information after the World Health Organization announced on Friday that, starting next month, it will classify overnight shift work as a "probable" carcinogen. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, WHO's cancer arm, will put shift duty in the same category as cancer-causing agents such as anabolic steroids, ultraviolet radiation and diesel-engine exhaust. It is based on research that finds higher rates of breast and prostate cancer among women and men whose work day starts after dark. The news has raised concern among unions since many people in Hong Kong work at night. The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions have called for guidelines and legislation to ensure those working night shifts have sufficient time off to maintain good health. Confederation spokesman Cheng Ching-fat estimates about 25 percent of the working population, or about half a million people, work night shifts. They are mostly in the traditional service industries such as hotels, hospitals and logistics as well as in the disciplinary services such as the police and fire services. Recently, more people have been put on night duties, with restaurants and clinics turning to 24-hour services. "Night shifts are also common in the financial sector, with some people overseeing overseas stock exchanges," he said. Cheng suggested those on night shift should have two days off after working for four days. He plans to raise the issue for discussion within the union. Local doctors are anxiously awaiting more details to be released by the WHO. But they point out the link between cancer and working at night remains in dispute as there is no established research to confirm the risk. Scientists suspect the graveyard shift disrupts the circadian rhythm - the body's biological clock. The hormone melatonin, which can suppress tumor development, is normally produced at night. Light shuts down melatonin production, so people working in artificial light may have lower melatonin levels, which scientists think can raise their chances of developing cancer. Oncologist Jonathan Sham Shun- tong suggested people should sleep in complete darkness, which would help their bodies produce melatonin. Other doctors suggest night workers should focus on their diet and lifestyle to ensure they had sufficient nutrition and rest. Taxi-driver Lai Kin-man, in his fotties, has been working night shifts for nearly 20 years and says he does not have any health problems. "The WHO warning doesn't really bother me." The Centre for Food Safety was Friday night scrambling to ferret out the canned pork of two popular mainland brands after Singapore banned the products, alleging they carry a cancer-causing antibiotic. But the health authority said there is no plan for a product recall until tests had been carried out. The center said it had collected samples of Maling and Gulong canned meat for testing. It was also in contact with mainland authorities for more information on the incident. According to Singapore's The Straits Times, the city state's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority had destroyed a consignment of canned pork products from the two food-processing plants after finding traces of nitrofurans, an antibiotic used for killing bacteria and which can cause cancer. Maling insisted its consignments to Hong Kong are different from those sent to Singapore. "There is absolutely no need to worry," Maling quality control spokeswoman Shi Min said. Shi also denied using any poisonous additives during manufacturing, saying: "Nitrofurans are poisonous, we will definitely not put that into our cans. No factory will be so stupid to use it in the production process." Shi did not rule out the possibility the chemical may have been fed to the pigs. Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said there would be no recall before it was determined if Singapore and Hong Kong received the same consignment of products. Hong Kong Food Trades Association vice president Lee Kwong-lam said the government should check if the products being sold in Hong Kong are from the same batch as those shipped to Singapore. Supermarket chain ParknShop said it was in contact with the suppliers and believed the products sold in its outlets were from different consignments, so it had no plan to remove them from the shelves. Wellcome said it was still seeking confirmation with the wholesalers. Consumer Council chief executive Connie Lau Yin-hing said consumers should not worry. "Hong Kong has adequate legislation to ban the use of poisonous chemicals in canned meat products," she said. "There is no need to put a ban on the sale before the release of food-test results in Hong Kong."
China Railway bags HK$19.2b IPO proceeds - China Railway Group easily raised the maximum HK$19.2 billion target for its initial public offering after a flood of orders from global investors, a sign it will not join the growing list of recent first-day trading failures. China Railway, the world's third-biggest construction contractor, fixed its H-share offering at the high end of expected prices, according to a source close to the deal. The company's shares will make their trading debut in Hong Kong next Friday and in Shanghai on Monday. China Railway sold 3.326 billion H shares at HK$5.78 each amid strong bidding from institutional and retail investors, the source said. It marketed the shares at between HK$5.03 and HK$5.78. The offering to retail investors was more than 208 times covered, leading to the retail tranche being increased to 25 per cent from 10 per cent. The company also drew strong demand from institutions which submitted more than US$60 billion worth of orders. "The recent market weakness has not had a negative impact on China Railway, as people are still rushing to find good investments," said another source, adding that demand from the oil-rich Middle East was strong. At the same time, China Railway raised 23.6 billion yuan selling A shares on the mainland market, fixing the price at 4.80 yuan each. The combined offering in Hong Kong and the mainland amounts to US$5.5 billion, making it the fifth-biggest initial public offering on the mainland this year, according to Thomson Financial. China Railway is expected to gain from the country's accelerating infrastructure investment from highways to airports. Beijing plans to spend 3.8 trillion yuan on transport and infrastructure construction until 2010. The company's earnings potential means it is likely to shrug off the negative impact of other recent market debuts. Sinotruk (Hong Kong) dived 15.68 per cent on its trading debut this week while Sinotrans Shipping (SEHK: 0368) sank 12.96 per cent. As of yesterday, Sinotruk and Sinotrans (SEHK: 0598) were still 5.1 per cent and 16.1 per cent respectively below their offer prices. Analysts say high market volatility and uncertainties over the health of the global financial market have dampened investor demand for some smaller offerings. Dongyue Group, the mainland's largest fluorochemical firm, priced its shares at the low end of its expected range yesterday, sources said. "The greater volatility in the global market recently has reduced hedge fund appetite for participating in initial public offerings," said one banker working on a Hong Kong share sale. "To be honest, they have been the biggest buyers in the [initial public offering] market." BYD Electric, spun off from BYD, also got a lower valuation than planned for its HK$7.7 billion offering, one source said. It was selling 550 million shares at HK$10.74 to HK$14 each, or 13.6 to 17.7 times the firm's earnings next year, the source said.
More Chinese tourists expected to visit U.S. - More Chinese tourists are expected to visit the United States as new travel rules between the two nations are pending, a report said on Sunday. Southern California is a likely destination for middle- and upper-class visitors with money to spend, said the Los Angeles Times. Travels agencies are preparing for what they hope could be a boom in new Chinese tourism to the United States that is expected to occur next year. Both nations are finalizing a deal to ease entry restrictions and lift a ban in China on promoting travel to the United States, according to the paper. The negotiations have been going on for several years, but China's government news agencies and sources at the U.S. Commerce Department said a deal should be completed within the next few weeks, said the paper. The new travel rules are expected to be a particular boom to Southern California, which already sees more Chinese tourists -- 110,000 in Los Angeles County last year -- than anywhere else in the United States. But travel officials expect that number to grow significantly if more members of China's emerging middle and upper classes are able to travel to the region for vacations. China's travel industry is currently prohibited from marketing the United States as a travel destination because of disputes over the strict entry process initiated after 9/11 -- a reality that U.S. officials blame on the need for national security and concerns about visitors overstaying their visas, said the paper. China's Hainan Airlines has become Hungary's chartered carrier for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in a deal signed Friday with the Hungarian Olympic Committee. Investors' concerns over a growth "hangover" from domestic over-investment are unwarranted, said a UBS report released earlier this week about China's macroeconomic trends in 2008. Jonathan Anderson, UBS' senior analyst on global emerging markets, made this comment in "The 2008 China Macro Almanac" amid worries that the country's economy is set to overheat, with its double-digit gross domestic product (GDP) and a monthly consumer price index (CPI) of more than six percent. "The current high headline CPI inflation rate is mostly due to temporary supply-related spikes in a few goods categories," said the report, adding that the CPI would fall throughout the first half of 2008. The optimism of the report comes from the buoyant margins in most industrial and service sectors. While profits dropped sharply in heavy industrial firms between 2004 and 2006, they have already recovered visibly over the past 12 months, the report said. The report anticipated the country would continue its double-digit growth despite a tiny slowdown of 0.6 percent in 2008 from more than 11 percent this year, which mainly came from falling net exports. A potential recession in the United States could be a major external risk for Chinese economy, but past experience has shown that domestic growth is "insulated from even the most aggressive export shocks", said the report.
December 3, 2007
Hong Kong's total assets of the Exchange Fund amounted to 1.386 trillion Hong Kong dollars (178.10 billion U.S. dollars) on Oct. 31, up 67.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (8.64 billion U.S. dollars) over September's figure, Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on Friday. Foreign currency assets rose by 29.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (3.75 billion U.S. dollars) and Hong Kong dollar assets grew by 38 billion Hong Kong dollars (4.88 billion U.S. dollars), the authority said. According to a press release from the authority, the rise in foreign currency assets was mainly due to foreign currency investments, interest and dividend income from foreign currency assets, purchases of foreign currencies and rise in unsettled securities, but partly offset by redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness. The rise in Hong Kong dollar assets was mainly due to valuation gains in Hong Kong equities, placements received from fiscal reserves and a rise in the balance of the banking system, but partly offset by the sale of Hong Kong dollars for foreign currencies. Hong Kong's total deposits with authorized institutions rose 8.2 percent in October, Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on Friday. Hong Kong dollar deposits grew 9.5 percent, while foreign- currency deposits rose 6.7 percent, the authority said. Hong Kong dollar demand deposits rose 11.9 percent, reflecting vibrant initial public offering activities. Renminbi deposits grew 2.7 percent to 28.3 billion yuan. According to the figure released by the authority, total loans and advances rose 4.8 percent as both Hong Kong dollar and foreign- currency loans increased. Loans for use in Hong Kong rose 5.3 percent, while those for outside Hong Kong rose 2 percent. The Hong Kong dollar loan-to-deposit ratio edged down to 70.2 percent at the end of October. On a seasonally adjusted basis, Hong Kong dollar M1 grew 8.2 percent in October and 20.2 percent from a year earlier, the authority said.
Wang Qishan will no longer serve as Beijing mayor and deputy secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to a CPC Central Committee decision. Guo Jinlong, former party chief of Anhui Province, will fill the position of Wang in the municipal's Party committee and has been nominated as candidate for acting mayor. Wang was elected member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in October. A Chinese court sentenced Shanghai property tycoon Zhou Zhengyi to 16 years in prison on Friday after he was found guilty on five charges that included misappropriation of funds, bribery and forging value-added tax (VAT) receipts. Zhou's company, the Shanghai-based property firm Nongkai Development Group, was fined 3.35 million yuan (452,700 U.S. dollars), under a ruling by the Shanghai Municipal No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. Zhou and his company were accused of bribing officials from the Shanghai Futures Exchange and banks, for a total of 1.67 million yuan, the court heard. He and his company were also accused of forging 8,435 VAT receipts, involving 1.2 billion yuan in taxes, it heard. Zhou was also charged with bribing a prison official with 200,000 yuan for special treatment during his first jail term. Altogether, four prison officials were involved in the case and they were jailed in August for taking bribes and providing preferential treatment to Zhou. In addition, Zhou was found guilty of embezzling 200 million yuan from another company, the court heard. There was no word on whether Zhou would lodge an appeal.
China wants an extra 150,000 foreign professionals in areas ranging from energy to agriculture by 2010 to further develop the economy, a state newspaper said on Friday. The world’s most populous country is “in dire need of talented people from abroad to help with development and innovation”, the official China Daily said. “We will announce more laws and regulations as well as preferential policies to better protect foreign experts’ rights and interests by working together with government departments,” it quoted Ji Yunshi, head of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, as saying. New rules would help foreigners deal with problems such as medical insurance and education for their children, Mr Ji said. The government has long had a “foreign experts” programme, which has brought in thousands of foreigners to work as teachers and editors in state-run media publishing or broadcasting in languages other than Chinese, among other jobs. But the country has had problems attracting many high-flying executives to live long-term in China because of pollution, language difficulties and other issues. Large Chinese cities regularly fail to perform that well in global standard-of-living surveys.
December 1 - 2, 2007
The annual container throughput on the Chinese mainland is set to exceed 100 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) as of 2007, following the loading of 9,500containers in north china's Tianjin port on Wednesday.
Mainland insurer Ping An (2318) stepped into the big league of global financial services yesterday, securing a 4.18 percent stake in Fortis, a leading banking and insurance company in Europe. The deal, in which Ping An became the single largest shareholder of Fortis, is being heralded as the biggest international acquisition by a mainland insurer. Ping An chairman and chief executive Peter Ma Mingzhe yesterday described the transaction carried out in the secondary market as "a major milestone for China's insurance industry." The insurer's executive director and group president Louis Cheung Chi-yan will sit on the board of Fortis. Ping An acquired 95.01 million shares in Fortis for US$2.69 billion (HK$20.98 billion). Nan Sheng, research analyst at UOB-KayHian, said the the price paid for the stake "is very attractive," noting that this was a signal for Ping An to buy. Shares in the Belgian-Dutch insurer have plunged 32 percent year-to-date.
*News information are obtained via various sources deemed reliable, but not guaranteed
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Hong Kong:
An extension of the Sha Tin-Central Rail Link connecting Yau Ma Tei and Whampoa
can be constructed separately from the project, a top MTR official said
yesterday. In the final draft submitted to the government earlier this year, the
MTR and the then Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation agreed to build a station in
Whampoa through an east-west extension from the Yau Ma Tei station on the Kwun
Tong Line through Ho Man Tin - an interchange station to the Sha Tin-Central
Rail Link. The official, who declined to be identified, said it was possible the
extension - which consists of only three stations - would be built first. "It is
all subject to the government's decision, and it should be announced in one to
two months," he said. He said he hoped the extension, along with other routes
including the South Island Line and the West Island Line - for which the
consultation period ended yesterday - would be finished in five to six years. In
a Legislative Council document released in July, the government proposed that
the link include 10 stations - Tai Wai, Diamond Hill, Kai Tak, To Kwa Wan, Ma
Tau Wai, Ho Man Tin, Hung Hom, Exhibition, Admiralty and Central West. The new
link is supposed to converge with East Rail at Hung Hom station before crossing
the harbour, but it has not been decided if the fourth harbour crossing would
extend from East Rail or the Sha Tin-Central Line, which will determine which
passengers get direct cross-harbour access. Meanwhile, the MTR has seen a surge
in passenger trips on West Rail and East Rail lines since the railway merger on
December 2. Exact figures will not be available until the end of this month, but
the official said he believed more passengers were taking the MTR given the
savings on offer.
The anti-graft watchdog
is launching a corruption awareness drive among supermarket operators after
receiving more than 10 malpractice reports in the first 11 months of the year.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is urging the supermarket chains
to give clear instructions to staff that forbid them to accept advantages from
suppliers. It also calls for a policy for handling short deliveries or
poor-quality goods and security measures to protect customers' credit-card
information from improper use. A "best practice module" listing the
recommendations was issued to major supermarket chains this month. ICAC figures
show there are about 20 graft complaints related to supermarkets and chain
stores each year. Last year five people were convicted and received sentences of
between five and 39 months. The agency's acting assistant director of corruption
prevention, Mok Wah-hoi, said the malpractices were most likely to occur during
the procurement of goods by middle-ranking staff. "In some cases, the
supermarket staff were given a certain proportion of sales volume as commission
in return for providing preferential treatment to the suppliers," the official
said. 
China:
Exporters of food products that fail to meet safety standards of destination
countries face a fine of up to 20 times the value of the consignment and can
even be charged for committing a crime if the top legislature approves a draft
law. Food product exporters who fail to go through entry-exit quarantine
inspections face similar punishments, according to the draft law under the first
review at the ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing
Committee. If approved, the draft law will spell out clear penalties for illegal
food exporters for the first time. The two existing laws on food safety, the
Food Hygiene Law and the Law on Agricultural Product Quality and Safety, say
nothing about penalties. They only authorize the State Council to issue relevant
regulations. The draft food safety law seeks to impose tighter checks on food
exports, too, and makes it mandatory for food exporters and supply farms to
register with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine (AQSIQ).
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda (C)
is welcomed by Chinese officials at an airport in Beijing, capital of China,
Dec. 27, 2007. Yasuo Fukuda arrived here on Thursday for a four-day official
visit to China.
The partnership between China Eastern
Airlines and Singapore Airlines will provide necessary financial resources and
management expertise to help the Chinese firm achieve the goal of becoming a hub
airline company based in Shanghai, Li Fenghua said Thursday.
A
female trainee pilot of the China Air Force undergoes training in this undated
photo. Twenty-nine female trainee pilots gained their qualifications to attend
higher level flying training on Thursday.
Xinhua
selects Chinese athletes of the Year 2007. They are Liu Xiang, Yang Wei, Shen
Xue/Zhao Hongbo, Zhu Qinan, Guo Jingjing, Zhang Guozheng, Zhu Lin, Zou Shiming,
Wu Peng and Guo Yue.
The relaunch of the Ngong Ping 360 cable car system on Lantau Island was met
with two minor halts lasting several minutes in the first two days of trials
since an empty cabin plunged more than 50 meters to the ground six months ago.
The company offered 8,000 to 10,000 free tickets to MTR staff and their family
members as well as to local engineers yesterday, ending up with more than 5,800
people enjoying a fog- shrouded ride from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping plateau. A
full relaunch of the line will be made on New Year's Eve after nearly six months
of enforced closure. The two breaks, lasting eight minutes yesterday and five
minutes on Saturday, were described as "normal situations" by Ngong Ping 360
managing director Morris Cheung Siu-wah. "Those were because the sensors of the
cable car had deviations. The operators of the car made announcements
immediately through the public address system while the cabins were moved
backwards for checkups," he said. Cheung added such incidents were a matter of
probability and normally took place once or twice a week.
The main tower of the Linjiang Bridge
over the Qingyi River is finished in Wuhu, East China’s Anhui Province, December
23, 2007. The tower, with a distinct fish-like design, will be a new landmark
after the bridge opens to traffic and also provide an ideal overlook to the
city.
A staff member onboard China’s expedition ship Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, takes
pictures as the icebreaker makes its way through ice floe from Zhongshan Station
to the Great Wall Station for the country’s 24th scientific expedition to
Antarctica, Dec. 23, 2007.
A Chinese farmer is
selling apples at the nation's largest fruits trading market in East China's
Shangong Province. China is now the world's top apple grower, accounting for
nearly half of the entire global harvest.
Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah (1st L)
proposes a toast with all the guests presented in Macao, China, Dec. 20, 2007.
Macao celebrated on Thursday the eighth anniversary of the region’s return to
the Chinese motherland.
This photo published on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 shows Joey Yung in a newly
shot TV commercial for the fast food restaurant chain McDonalds. She was invited
to shoot a new TV commercial for the venerable institution, reported the Hong
Kong-based publication Tungstar on Wednesday. 
Tang Wei and Tony Leung Chiu Wai
in the film Lust, Caution (Se, jie). Tang Wei didn't know what it was that she
was auditioning for, or who was involved with the production. She had no idea
that 10,000 actresses, including many A-listers, were competing for the role. In
the little-known actress' first audition for the project, she read lines from a
fake script. For the second audition, the director showed up. It was Ang Lee.
Surprisingly, Lee poured a cup of tea for her, as if he had noticed her tension.
They then talked about Tang's family, her school and her stage experience. After
graduating from the Central Academy of Drama, China's best institute for theater
arts, Tang has spent most of her time on stage. She told Lee her favorite
director was Ingmar Bergman, but she had no idea he was also one of Lee's
favorites. When she mentioned that her mother was a Yueju opera singer, Lee
asked her to sing. As Lee later described it, that day they found something in
common - a love for theater and southern China. "Lee was like a senior family
member," Tang said in a phone interview. "He was a modest, good listener. I felt
very happy when I found the communication was so smooth, no obstacle at all."
When the call for the third audition came, Tang was told to wear a cheongsam. "I
had no cheongsam at all, actually I seldom wore dresses then," she said. After
hanging up the phone, she rushed to a tailor's shop. No one gave her any
feedback at the third audition. She had the fourth and fifth soon after with
makeup and full costume, which helped her get into the character, a
student-turned spy in the chaos of 1930s' Shanghai. After five auditions, Tang
was getting nervous. "I said to myself, 'you have tried your best, now it's time
to relax'." Another call led her to Hong Kong last summer. There, she found that
the crew had begun preparations for Lee's new project - the espionage thriller
Lust, Caution. "Everyone was busy," she recalled, "Material was piled
everywhere, but no one came up and told me that I was the leading actress." But
she suspected that was the case, as Lee had told her they were planning a
celebration. "Celebrating what? I asked myself, but I felt that something was
happening," she said. Even so, to stop the news from leaking to the press, the
crew had a simple dinner. "It was like, everyone has been busy preparing for the
film. I knew work had begun." To prepare for her role, Lee gave her a pile of
historic records and books to read, and she had to watch plenty of films about
1930s and '40s Shanghai. She threw herself into Greta Garbo's films and the
poems of Xu Zhimuo, one of the most famous Chinese poets of the 1920s.
Rehearsals included walking with a book on the head and tying her knees together
with a ribbon to emulate the elegant pose of Shanghai ladies. She also learned
southern opera, Cantonese, Shanghai dialect and English. The biggest torture for
the 28-year-old, however, was trying on different clothes. "I seldom shop. I
think shopping is exhausting. When I had to change clothes, they jokingly asked
me if I needed headache pills." Tang said that Lee once told her: "What you will
learn is more than 60 years of courses at the film academy." The newcomer had to
act alongside Asian superstars Tony Leung and Joan Chen and yet, of the 118 days
of shooting, 114 were focused on her. She slept three hours a day, sometimes
five to six. But despite these hardships, she said: "Even if it is the only role
I have in my life, I feel content."
More than 50 varieties of new
Olympic licensed products are to go on sale, with half of them priced at around
100 yuan each, according a New Year promotional activity by the Beijing
Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) in Beijing on
Wednesday. Most of the products are affordable Olympic badges. Among the
higher-end articles, gold badges and "Yubi" jade products will attract buyers
because of their combination of Olympic elements with gold and Hetian jade to
highlight Chinese traditional characteristics.
A girl from the Netherlands poses for
photos with two big Mickey Mice made in China, at the World of Disney in New
York, the United States, Dec. 18, 2007. China-made products are seen everywhere
in the brand stores like Macy's and the World of Disney in New York. Chinese
toys still well received by U.S. customers. The day after Thanksgiving, dubbed
Black Friday because it traditionally marks the day when retailers finally move
out of the red and into the black, shoppers rushed in their hordes into stores
such as Toys "R" Us to grab gifts for their children this Christmas. 
This undated file photo shows an artist's
impression of the glasshouse on the beach of Yangjiang, South China's Guangdong
Province, where a sunken ship will be displayed. The largest Chinese wreck, from
the Song Dynasty will be hauled from its watery grave on Saturday.
A general view
of the Tianwan nuclear power station in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province. China
plans to build eight nuclear reactors with a combined capacity of 8,000
megawatts at the station.
The
traditional Chinese festival Dongzhi, or midwinter in English, falls on this
Saturday. Chinese people normally eat dumplings to mark this occasion. The
reason why they eat dumplings is to protect their ears from getting frostbitten.
In ancient China dumplings once contained medicine countering frostbites. The
tradition is carried down until today. So let's go and eat dumplings on Dongzhi
in China. 
Lounge 18 is an
open yet oddly disjointed upscale lounge in the only place for an upscale
lounge–the Bund. A whimsical mix of furniture styles from comfortable lounge
chairs and caged candles to a digitized reproduction of Vermeer's "Girl with a
Pearl Earring" leads you to wonder if the venue was decorated by committee.
Although most of the basic drinks are covered, there are some holes in the drink
menu (like having only one single malt scotch). If you want wine, you can either
drink a first growth Bordeaux for thousands of renminbi or Jacob's Creek for a
few hundred. In all fairness though, they're still building up their inventory.
The specialty cocktail list offered one intriguing selection: the Ylang-Ylang(¥68),
a mix of gin, fresh mint, vanilla and fruit juices. Quite tasty, but why garnish
the rim of the glass with black pepper? Black pepper aside, the wait staff were
attentive and all smiles which was a welcome change from the pretension that so
abounds in bars on the Bund.
Hong Kong singer
Eason Chan was the biggest winner on Sunday night at the Mandarin
Music-On-Demand (MOD) Best 10 Awards ceremony held by Hong Kong's TVB station.
Chan's song "Tao Tai" (Elimination) won Best Producing, Best Songwriting and was
one of the Best 10 Golden Melodies. Another of his hits, "Under Mount Fuji," was
named the Globally-Loved Cantonese Song. Chan himself was also voted as the Most
Popular Male Singer. Taiwan singer Angela Zhang was the Most Popular Female
Singer. As one of Hong Kong's most important occasions music-wise, the awards
also honored new artistes from the mainland, including Zhang Liangying and Shang
Wenjie, both of who rose to fame from the Super Girl singing competition. Zhang
Liangying's "Damned Love" was among the Golden Melodies, while Shang Wenjie was
named Best Newcomer. There to share the 32 awards were also Wilber Pan, Twins,
Joey Yung and Gary Cao.
Mickey Mouse and his
friends appear to have lost their charm as the number of visitors to the Hong
Kong Disneyland theme park dropped 23 percent in its second year of operation.
According to a paper to be discussed by the Legislative Council's economic
development panel on Friday, the park recorded just over four million visitors
from October 2006 to September 2007, compared to 5.2 million in the first year
after its launch on September 12, 2005. Hong Kong Disneyland is one of Hong
Kong's key attractions and was designed to revive the tourist industry which
went into a slump following the 2003 SARS outbreak. On a brighter note, while
overall attendance was down, the paper said the number of overnight family
visitors was up 15.8 percent from 2005 and the number of visitors under the age
of 16 had increased by 23.5 percent. According to the paper, issued by the
Tourism Commission and the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, the drop in
attendance was mainly due to a lack of interest by Hongkongers. Locals accounted
for just 31 percent of the total number of visitors in 2006/07, compared with 42
percent in 2005/06. Conversely the percentage of mainland visitors rose from 34
percent in 2005/06 to 39 percent in 2006/07. Overall, the paper said that up to
December this year the park had received more than 10 million visitors since
opening in 2005, placing it among the top 20 theme parks in the world. A survey
carried out by theme park operator Hong Kong International Theme Parks Limited,
of which the government and the Walt Disney Company are joint shareholders,
showed 90 percent of visitors rated their experience at Hong Kong Disneyland as
positive and 92 percent said they would like to revisit the park again, compared
with an 85 percent rating in the opening year. On November 10, the Walt Disney
Company admitted for the first time that the poor performance of Hong Kong
Disneyland was dragging down its results, prompting calls from the SAR
government for the park's management to improve its operations. Hong Kong
Disneyland's worsening performance has left the park unable to meet performance
promises to its lenders and the American entertainment giant has asked creditors
to temporarily remove the covenants on its US$294 million (HK$2.29 billion)
revolving- credit facility. Following conversations with the government, Disney
has also agreed to give up its royalties for "a couple of years," according to
reports.
The MGM Grand Macau opens its
doors on Tuesday, Dec 18th, becoming the latest Las Vegas-backed casino to crowd
into the tiny Chinese gambling enclave hoping to lure China’s growing middle
class. The US$1.25 billion (HK$9.75 billion) MGM Grand is a joint venture
between Las Vegas casino operator MGM Mirage and Pansy Ho Chiu-king, the
daughter of Macau’s former casino kingpin, Stanley Ho Hung-sun. It will vie for
high rollers with dozens of casinos already stationed in Macau, the only place
in China were gambling is legal and which last year raked in more gaming revenue
than the Las Vegas Strip. Mr Ho ran the casino business in Macau for 40 years
until 2001 — two years after the then-Portuguese colony returned to Chinese rule
— when the government broke up his monopoly and handed out gaming concessions to
foreign interests. American Sheldon Adelson was the first to enter the
territory, opening the Sands Macau in 2004, and then this August the US$2.4
billion (HK$18.7 billion) Venetian, a Las Vegas style mega casino-resort
complete with Italian gondolas punting down indoor canals. Ms Ho said the
600-room MGM Grand will target the wealthiest gamblers, called “VIP customers”
in the business, who are interested in top-end shopping and entertainment as
well as gambling. She dismissed concerns that the casino was squeezing into a
corner of Macau’s main island that was already packed with luxury gambling
resorts, including some run by her family. “These few casinos will actually work
in conjunction to present a really formidable proposition to all VIP customers
that this should be the centre of the high-rolling gaming experience,” she said
in Macau last week during a preview tour of the hotel. The 35-storey MGM Grand
boasts a huge atrium with a glass ceiling that’s 6.5 meters high and is modelled
on the central train station in Lisbon, a nod to the territory’s Portuguese
heritage. Abstract hand-blown glass sculptures by US artist Dale Chihuly are
scattered around the plush lobby. The hotel offers 400 gambling tables, 800 slot
machines and 16 private gaming rooms, comparable to its closest rivals, US
tycoon Steve Wynn’s casino and the Crown Macau. Both the US$1.1 billion (HK$8.78
million) Wynn and the Crown Macau, a joint venture between Australia’s
Publishing & Broadcasting and Hong Kong-based Melco International Development (SEHK:
0200, announcements, news), run by Pansy’s brother, Lawrence Ho Yau-lung, have
positioned themselves as high-end casinos. The Grand is MGM’s first entry into
Asia. While the jury is still out on whether Asian gamblers respond to the same
type of non-casino entertainment as those in Las Vegas, it was expected to be a
successful launch, said Jonathan Galaviz, a partner at Globalysis, a Las
Vegas-based consultancy. “MGM Mirage has an excellent Asian consumer base that
patronizes their integrated resorts in Las Vegas, their new Macau property
should benefit from these pre-existing customer relationships,” he said.
However, analysts warned that Macau was reaching “opening fatigue.” “We’re not
seeing the big jump in gaming revenues with every new opening that we saw with
the early casinos,” Rob Hart, an analyst with Hong Kong-based Morgan Stanley
said. However, with 100 million people just next door in China’s wealthiest
region of Guangdong, and with average salaries of one billion people in the land
on the increase, Mr Hart said there was still huge growth potential for Macau’s
gaming industry.
Hong Kong scientists have for the
first time identified cancer stem cells responsible for spreading colorectal
cancer, a discovery that could bring better-targeted treatment of the city's
second deadliest malignancy. The University of Hong Kong team of molecular
biologists was able to show that if the two stem cells were injected into
specially bred mice, the colorectal cancer spread to the liver. The team is also
the second in the world to show evidence that specific stem cells trigger the
growth of colorectal cancer. Stem cells can grow into any organ but some
researchers believe that rogue stem cells could be seeding some, if not all,
cancers. These cancer stem cells are now the focus of intense global research as
some patients do not respond well to chemotherapy or if the cancer returns in a
more aggressive form. "[Colorectal cancer] is one of those cancers with a
well-established treatment regimen but it remains the second cause of cancer
death in Hong Kong, suggesting that the current therapies are not adequate to
cure the disease," said Roberta Pang Wen-chi, research assistant professor at
the university's department of medicine, who is lead investigator. Dr Pang said
her team and scientists at the Ontario Cancer Institute at Princess Margaret
Hospital in Toronto might have been studying the same stem cell protein - CD133
- at the same time last year, but it was the Canadian team that published the
breakthrough first in the journal Nature. The Hong Kong study would be submitted
to an international journal by the end of the month. "We started to look for
other markers or proteins on the surface of stem cells," she said. "The novelty
of our research is the metastatic part." Metastasis is the process by which
cancer spreads from where it first arose to other locations in the body. The
Hong Kong team extracted cancer tissues from 30 patients and isolated the cancer
stem cells, which were implanted into the colons of about 120 immune-deficient
mice. For the growth of primary colorectal cancer, the team identified two
proteins, CD133 and CD44. The team also found CD133 and CD26 initiated the
spread of colorectal cancer to the liver. CD133 has also been implicated in the
growth of cancers of the brain and breast. "We showed that they not only grow
but they can actually metastasise to the liver. This is the first time it has
been shown in animal models. Usually in animal models it is not easy to show
metastasis with these stem cells," Dr Pang said. "We believe these stem cells
have the ability to self-renew, so we believe these cells are responsible for
tumour maintenance and metastasising. They are more resistant to chemotherapy,"
she said. The next step would be to look for colorectal patients who were
resistant to chemotherapy and see whether "they have high expressions of these
cancer stem cells".
Malaysia's low-cost airlines AirAsia said here on Tuesday that it would offer
daily direct flights to Guangzhou, China, beginning Jan. 16 next year. The
budget airlines hoped that it could attract young people from China's Pearl
River Delta region to visit Malaysia with its amazing low fares, according to
the airlines. This would be the fourth destination opened by AirAsia to China
after Shenzhen Xiamen and Macao, it said. AirAsia is offering promotional fares
on its website on Dec. 19-26 for travels from Jan. 16 to Oct. 25 next year.
China
unveiled Tuesday the design for its national pavilion for the 2010 Shanghai
Expo. With an estimated cost of 1.5 billion yuan, its design features a
traditional style red architecture called "oriental crown". Organizers said the
project is a significant milestone in the countdown to the 2010 event, signaling
the beginning of full-scale construction of the Expo's core projects. A
computer-generated image shows the design for the China pavilion for the 2010
Shanghai Expo. "Countries and international organizations have shown tremendous
enthusiasm to the Shanghai Expo, with many having come up with characteristic
and wonderful schemes for their national pavilions. That means there is a
greater expectation for the China Pavilion," said Wan Jifei, Chairman of the
China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Since a global search
for designs was launched in April, organizers collected 344 submissions in a few
months, which were later short-listed to three winning entries. The oriental
crown scheme was approved in September. "The construction scheme for the China
Pavilion contains rich elements of Chinese culture and could well display
Chinese wisdom," vice-mayor Yang Xiong said during the ceremony. "It also has
international features, modernity and could serve as a symbol. It helps develop
the theme of the 2010 Expo." Located at the crossing of two horizontal and
vertical axes in the Pudong part of Expo garden, the China Pavilion comprises of
three parts. The first is the national hall, which is 20,000-sq-m, 30,000-sq-m
for provinces and regions, and 3,000-sq-m shared between Hong Kong, Macao and
Taiwan. The oriental crown, standing 63 meters in height, uses traditional
dougong brackets and features wooden brackets fixed layer upon layer between the
top of a column and a crossbeam. As a permanent landmark in the inner part of
Pudong New Area, the structure will adopt ecological sound technologies and
energy-saving measures. These include the sun-shading design, exterior of the
domestic pavilion is a buffer zone for heat or cold, as well as ecological
landscaping on the roof could lower energy demands effectively. During the Expo,
the main structure will be used for an exhibition based on the theme of "Chinese
wisdom in urban development" by explaining the values of harmony, nature and
spirit. The domestic hall will provide provinces, municipalities, autonomous
regions and other areas a platform to display their urban achievements,
designers said. But officials suggested that there might be some complexities of
having Taiwan participate in the event. "Negotiations with the Taiwan side has
lagged behind our talks with other provinces or regions, including Hong Kong and
Macao," said Dai Liu, China World Expo (Group) Co Ltd Managing Director. China
will have a back-up plan if they fail to persuade the island, he added. "If we
can include Taiwan in the Shanghai Expo, the world will see the status of
Chinese people is escalating in the global arena," he said. Organizers are still
searching for exhibition ideas for the pavilion, whose construction will be
completed in two years.
Supermodel Jessica White has joined Zhang Ziyi as the latest Maybelline New
York's spokesperson.
People love
watching movies. They like the beautiful actresses, handsome actors, touching
dialogues, stylish fashions and the witty lines in the movies. Yet there is one
more thing about movies that makes them worth our special attention-the
delicious food. When the the characters on the screen eat in a scene, we as the
audience can do a lot more than sit quietly watching them. Many of these
delicious foods can be found in Beijing.
Hong Kong parents
are eager to send their children to education institutes overseas despite the
stronger euro and the pound, according to a placement agency. The credentials
evaluation director of a private company promoting overseas studies said there
was a 15 percent increase in inquiries this year, compared with the same period
last year. Ken Ng Chung-lai of the International Student Services Center
Corporation also said that more parents now seem to prefer Britain or Canada to
the United States. "Probably, Hong Kongers are wealthier ... perhaps it is
related to the better economy," Ng said. He said it appears the US may not be
the top choice in the wake of several school shootings. Ng said 40 percent of
students sent overseas by his company went to Canada, 30 percent to Britain and
30 percent to other countries including the US and Australia. But in the past 30
percent went to Canada and the US, 20 percent to Britain and 20 percent to other
countries. Ng said one of the surprising facts was that families earning only
about HK$20,000 a month were also keen to send their children to Canada for
study. He said one possible reason is that many Hong Kongers have relatives in
Canada. "Boarding is expensive, and in many cases it can cost as much as the
school fees, so parents with moderate means are advised to send their children
to schools in countries where they have relatives," Ng said. It was a different
story with the Hong Kong Overseas Studies Centre whose administrator, Michelle
Leung Pui-ling, said more parents sought information about studying in the US.
"This is because the Hong Kong dollar is fixed to the US dollar and parents have
a better idea of the costs involved," Leung said. She advised parents sending
their children elsewhere to budget for extra expenses as the pound as well as
the Australian and New Zealand dollars have been appreciating. A US report said
that - fueled by Asia - foreign student enrollment in US higher education
institutions has increased significantly for the first time since the September
11, 2001 attacks, which led to tighter visa controls. According to the report by
the Institute of International Education, enrollments from East Asia increased 3
percent, with strong increases from China, South Korea and Taiwan. This, though,
was partially offset by declines from Japan and Hong Kong. The report said
582,984 international students enrolled in colleges and universities in the US
in the 2006/07 academic year. "This is the first significant increase in total
international student enrollments since 2001/02," the institute said in its
annual " Open Doors" report. In the previous academic year, the increase was
just within a fraction of a percent. Asia accounts for 59 percent of total US
international enrollments, up 5 percent this year. Strong increases were seen
from the top three sending countries - India up 10 percent, China up 8percent
and South Korea 6 percent. 
A veterinarian
feeds an injured wild giant panda after operation at the Shaanxi Province Rare
Wildlife Rescue & Breeding Research Center in Xi'an, capital of northwest
China's Shaanxi Province, Dec. 16, 2007.
Workers lay the last
rail of the Beijing-Tianjin high speed railway in Tianjin on Sunday, December
16, 2007. The railway will be put into use before the Olympic Games in August
2008.
China's
fast-expanding oil tanker fleet is expected to shoulder half of the
transportation of imported oil by 2010, experts have said. Luo Ping, a
researcher with the Institute of Comprehensive Transportation (ICT) affiliated
to the National Development and Reform Commission, said domestic shipping
companies have been encouraged to expand the oil transportation market in the
past years to help guarantee economic security. Recent studies by the ICT showed
that Chinese-operated tankers should transport at least 60 percent of imported
oil to ensure supplies. But domestic tankers last year shipped only 16 percent
of oil imported by China, ICT figures showed. "Based on our studies, we
recommended in 2000 that it should be a long-term goal to have 60 percent of
China's imported oil shipped by domestic companies by 2015," Luo told China
Daily. The country imports more than 130 million tons of oil each year, about 90
percent of which is transported by ship. It has made China, the world's second
largest importer after the United States, vulnerable to transportation costs and
other uncertainties such as war. Given the huge potential of the market, almost
all major domestic shipping companies have rolled out ambitious plans to expand
their fleet. "Major shipping companies have all carried out plans to increase
oil transportation capacities," Luo said. Almost all of China's major shipping
companies have set a target of at least doubling their current imported oil
transportation capacity by the year 2010. The China Ocean Shipping (Group)
Company (COSCO), for example, said it planned to have an oil transportation
fleet totaling 10 million deadweight (dwt) tons by the year 2010, up from the
current 5.07 million dwt tons. The expanded fleet will be able to transport 35
million tons a year, accounting for more than 15 percent of China's imported oil
transport in 2010 and up from the current 8 percent, said COSCO vice-president
Zhang Liang. "We have already placed orders to build new tankers totaling 2.4
million dwt tons. The rest will be achieved through rents and more purchases,"
Zhang told China Daily. Another major player, China Shipping Development Co
Ltd's Tanker Company, said it planned to expand its oil transportation fleet to
a scale of 8.5 million dwt tons in 2010 through buying and renting, up from the
current 3.9 million dwt tons. The general manager of the tanker company, Mao
Shijia, said the firm has orders for new tankers of 3.5 million dwt tons. The
expanded fleet, including at least 12 to 14 very large crude carriers, will help
the company take up around 15 per cent of China's imported oil transportation
market, up from the current 5 percent, Mao said. Both companies forecast that
domestic shipping companies will be able to transport 50 percent of China's
imported oil in 2010. At the same time, the authorities have expressed some
concern that their new oil tankers are not flying Chinese flags. The deputy
director of the Water Transport Department of the Ministry of Communications,
Zhang Shouguo, said the ministry would prefer more Chinese ocean-going ships to
fly Chinese flags instead of flags of convenience. Zhang said the country needs
to have better command over shipping to safeguard economic interests. To that
end, the ministry has introduced a two-year policy granting tax exemption for
ships of certain types - including oil tankers between four and 12 years old in
July this year - if they come back and register at home.
State-owned
Chang'an Automobile Group has started making its own hybrid cars, the first such
move by a mainland automaker. Mass production of the mainland- designed car,
which consumes 20 percent less fuel than ordinary cars of the same size, was
launched after six years of research and development. "This shows Chinese
automakers have grasped the core technology of making hybrid cars," Xinhua News
Agency said, adding that Chang'an will donate 10 such vehicles for the 2008
Olympics. The Chang'an Group controls listed Changan Automobile, a partner of
Ford and Mazda. The listed arm, based in the southwestern city of Chongqing, is
also China's largest minivan maker. Demand for hybrid cars is negligible in
China, where fuel economy figures little in consumers' purchasing decisions.
Hybrid cars are also expensive since the government offers buyers no incentives
to purchase them. Toyota was the first carmaker to build hybrid cars in China.
General Motors said last month it would begin producing a hybrid car in China
from next year, in time for the Olympics. Japan's Nikkei said the hybrid vehicle
made by Chang'an is based on a two-liter compact wagon that will be able to
travel 100 kilometers on 6.8 liters of gasoline, and it will be officially
released next year. The new hybrid is close in size to Toyota's Prius hybrid,
sold in China since late 2005. Mainland sales of the Toyota hybrid were down 86
percent in the first 10 months this year from the same period a year earlier to
299 units, as its 300,000 yuan (HK$317,390) price tag hurt its popularity.
Changan's new offering will cost around 150,000 yuan, roughly 20,000 yuan more
than the base vehicle but just half as much as the Prius. 
Revised labeling scheme
more balanced - Centre for Food Safety, The revised nutrition labeling scheme
for pre-packaged food has taken into account principles adopted by the Codex
Alimentarius Commission, local health and disease patterns as well as overseas
regimes, striking a balance among different stakeholders, Centre for Food Safety
Controller Dr Constance Chan says. Speaking on a radio show today, Dr Chan said
the revised scheme will cover energy, trans-fat, protein, carbohydrates, fat,
saturated fat, sodium and sugars. Compared with the original proposal tabled in
2005, the revised scheme will include saturated fat, sodium, sugars and
trans-fat, but cholesterol, calcium and dietary fibre will be taken off the
list. However, when a claim is made on the amount of cholesterol or the amount
and type of fat, then the amount of cholesterol, mono-unsaturated fat and
polyunsaturated fat should also be declared. Local situation - Dr Chan said
saturated fat, sodium, sugars and trans-fat are closely associated with
cardiovascular diseases and strokes, the second and third major causes of death
in Hong Kong. Limited intake of energy-dense foods and salt, and avoidance of
sugary drinks will cut the risk of cancer, the major cause of deaths in the
city. She said cholesterol is taken out as saturated fat and trans-fats are
considered more important risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Dr Chan said
apart from the principles adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, local
health and disease patterns as well as overseas regimes, the revised proposal
has also taken into account compliance costs for the food trade, implication on
food choice, views collected during the consultation exercise and the results of
the regulatory impact assessment, so as to come up with a scheme appropriate for
the local situation. More flexibility - Principal Assistant Secretary for Food &
Health Angelina Cheung said under the original proposal 5% to 10% of food
available in Hong Kong would be withdrawn from the market. The impact on food
choice, however, will be reduced with the flexibility allowed in the revised
scheme. On the proposed small volume exemption scheme for food products with
annual sales volume of 30,000 units or below Mrs. Cheung said the move will
exempt many ethnic food, organic food, or niche food products mostly imported or
manufactured in small volume. This will also cater for the staging of food fairs
and trade promotion events held usually for market testing purposes. She said
small volume exemption will be subject to Food & Environmental Hygiene
Department approval under a pre-registration system. Food traders will have to
report to the department the monthly sales volume of the food items while
department staff will conduct enforcement checks.
Airport passenger traffic up
10% - airport authority, Hong Kong International Airport's passenger throughput
exceeded four million in November, up 10% on the same month last year, the
Airport Authority says. Airport Authority Chief Executive Officer Stanley Hui
said today November saw robust visitor traffic, particularly from the Mainland,
North America and Europe. "At our current growth rate annual passenger volume
will soon reach 50 million. Hong Kong International Airport is ready to meet
this demand and committed to delivering top-quality services and facilities."
Cargo throughput grew 6.2% to 364,000 tonnes, driven by strong exports to
Southeast Asia and Europe, and transhipments to and from Southeast Asia and the
Mainland. Air traffic movements rose 6.1% to 25,210. For the 12 months ending
November 30 passenger throughput was 47.4 million, cargo volume 3.72 million
tons with 294,180 air traffic movements, representing year-on-year growth of
7.5%, 4.3% and 5.2%. 
Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang
has told Indian business people Hong Kong is a good platform for them to do
business on the Mainland. Speaking in Mumbai, he urged Indian entrepreneurs to
take advantage of Hong Kong's position as both an international business center
in Asia and China's global financial center. Tsang said 10 years after
reunification Hong Kong enjoys a much deeper relationship with the Mainland. The
city is working to enhance its unrivalled status as China's global financial
center by facilitating the flow of investment in and out of the Mainland. Tsang
said Hong Kong and India have built a strong friendship over many years, adding
the 30,000-strong Indian community in Hong Kong has an important part to play in
the city's future development. He added the One Country, Two Systems formula for
reunification with the Mainland is working well and Hong Kong people are running
the city with a high degree of autonomy.
A Japanese skims over the "Iris
Chang: The Rape of Nanking" Japanese edition in a bookshop in Tokyo Dec 15,
2007. The book explored one of the darkest episodes of history in 1937 when
Japanese troops occupied Nanjing.
Tasked with safeguarding the Mandatory Provident Fund accounts of more than
460,000 people in Hong Kong, Bank Consortium Trust managing director Lau Ka-shi
says she is cautious. BCT offers an array of MPF and retirement products as well
as third-party scheme and fund administration services. Lau puts the single
largest chunk of her investment portfolio - about 30 percent - in equities.
"Equities in the long run will always outperform other investment vehicles,"
says Lau, and blue-chip China Life Insurance (2628) is one of her favorites. "I
have been holding my stocks for more than 10 years. I seldom sell them, except
shares in initial public offerings. "I may sell IPOs [initial public offerings]
within a month or even several days. Yet, these only account for less than 5
percent of my investment portfolio. It will not feel painful if I lose money."
Unlike many local investors, Lau does not use margin financing to fund her
purchases of IPO stocks. "One should not lose sleep over investments," she
stresses. Lau says she does not believe in borrowing money for investments, and
does not even use a credit card for personal purchases. Mortgages for her
apartments are the exception. Lau's first apartment in New York was her first
investment, and saving the money for the downpayment was important. To Lau,
saving is key to accumulating adequate liquidity enabling her to take advantage
of the most opportune time to invest. Lau offloaded stocks in August and
September before the Hang Seng Index ended at record high of 31,638.22 on
October 30.
Hong Kong's first equity fund
that complies with Islamic investment principles has gotten off to a good start.
The Islamic China Index Fund from Hang Seng Investment is an index tracker fund
based on the Dow Jones Islamic Market China/Hong Kong Titans Index. 
Bo Xilai(R), secretary of the
Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), meets with
World Bank president Robert Zoellick in Chongqing on Saturday.
Snow sculptors work on the world's
tallest snow sculpture on Dec. 13 for the 20th Int'l Snow Sculpture Art Expo to
in Harbin in northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province.
Students’ chorus perform in front
of the 55-feet-high lighting Christmas tree in Hong Kong of south China, Dec.
14, 2007 as the city is decorated to greet the Christmas.
Mainland customs believe they have smashed a multimillion-dollar Hong Kong-based
luxury watch syndicate following the arrest of 15 people, including two from the
city. Officials say 10 Hong Kong watch shops and traders evaded 43 million yuan
(HK$45.5 million) in tax by smuggling more than 35,000 brandname watches worth
more than 200 million yuan into the mainland over the past two years. The brands
include Rolex, Vacheron Constantin and Longines, made by Swiss watchmakers, and
French brand Cartier. Customs attributed the increase in smuggling to the high
import tax in the mainland - which is 57 percent for every watch costing more
than HK$10,000. For a HK$26,000 Omega watch, 60 percent - or HK$16,000 - in tax
must be paid. Two of the 15 people arrested in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces
were from Hong Kong. Mainland security officers uncovered the syndicate on
Thursday following raids on four "reputable" watch shops in Yiwu city and
Taizhou city in Zhejiang province. They were found to be selling watches for
prices ranging from 30 to 40 percent below the normal sale tags. An
investigation by customs officials in Zhejiang province showed the watches came
from about 10 companies in Hong Kong and were shipped in every few days. The
investigation also revealed two smuggling routes. In one of these, a man in
Dongguan smuggled watches to Dongguan city in Guangdong province by hiding them
in a space above the driver's seat of his brother's cross- border truck, and
then mailed the watches in batches to companies in Zhejiang. The alternative
arrangement was for Hong Kong companies to ask people to hand carry the watches
in their luggage when crossing the border to Shenzhen and then mail them to
Zhejiang. Officials in Hangzhou said the smuggling activities were becoming more
organized and networked and were being used to smuggle other luxury goods as
well.
Macau and Hong Kong, although both
former colonies, have very different attitudes toward cultural preservation. It
appears that the Hong Kong government, regardless of the dedicated voice of
"collective memories," prefers for the city to be an ultra-modern metropolis,
with almost all traits of colonial influence being allowed to fade. Quite the
reverse, Macau understands and treasures its position as crossroads for
different cultures, cuisines and commerce, a delicious mixture of Portuguese and
Chinese civilization. You might call it hybrid, but for the Macanese, it is
their very own, genuine culture. Regardless of the increasing attention it gets
as a gaming and business tourism venue, Macau also proudly preserves its own
historical heritage and customs, while adding some new elements now and then.
Following the successful inscription of "The Historic Centre of Macau" on the
Unesco World Heritage List in July 2005, Macau received the Grand Award for
Heritage from Pacific Asia Travel Association in September. This award was given
to the Macau Government Tourist Office for its "2006 Macau World Heritage Year"
campaign that positioned the former Portugese enclave as a destination offering
travelers much more than entertainment and gaming - a historic center with rich
heritage. "Macau's living culture and heritage will always remain as our core
tourism assets, alongside other modern entertainment, leisure and business
ingredients, and we look forward to sharing this with all our visitors," said
Joao Manuel Costa Antunes, MGTO's director. For those wanting to know more about
the past history of Macau along with the existing architecture and customs, the
permanent exhibition "A Glimpse of the Past: A Collection of Old Macau Photos
from MAM" at the Macau Museum of Art ( Museu de Arte de Macau) will be an
invaluable opportunity for a more profound exploration. Through the display of
130 photographs, the exhibition showcases scenic spots, daily life, cultural
events, buildings, street views and vehicles of the old Macau across the last
century. Apart from nostalgic cultural preservation, Macau also enthusiastically
brings creative and artistic elements into its vivid life. The Macau Fringe is
an annual arts festival organized by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau.
Every October or November, minds of creativeness, openness and inspiration bring
inventive, interesting, invigorating and passionate sentiments onto stage. An
inspirational platform for juvenile and experienced artists, international and
local, to interact and exchange ideas, Macau Fringe is a recognized channel for
the betterment of a more artistic Macau. 
The popularity of
the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon was proven once again after organisers
closed entries at noon yesterday - a full two weeks before the original deadline
- having estimated that the quota of 50,000 runners had been reached. "I believe
we will have more than 50,000 entries in all three categories including the
marathon," said Vivian So Wing-yee, executive director of the Hong Kong Amateur
Athletic Association. "We had to bring the deadline forward as we have already
reached the quota set for next year. "This is a great response. The numbers
taking part continue to grow and we are very happy. Last year we had around
44,000 entries." A new route and new finish line have apparently given the
February 17 race a fresh lease on life. Supported by Standard Chartered for the
12th year, the marathon will end at Victoria Park with the 10km race run
entirely on Hong Kong Island. Organisers set quotas for the three events: 30,000
runners for the 10km race, 12,000 for the half-marathon and 8,000 for the
marathon. The 10km race will start at North Point and be run on the Island East
Corridor, take a U-turn at Shau Kei Wan and return to Victoria Park. The other
two categories will have their usual start on Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, but
instead of finishing at the Grand Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai, continue on to
Victoria Park. The extra 1.5km will be compensated by shortening the loop on the
Tsing Ma Bridge. "The new 10km route will allow more runners to take part as
there won't be any more bottlenecks created by the presence of 10km runners,"
said organising committee chairman William Ko Wai-lam.
Air New Zealand, tapping the burgeoning
Chinese tourist market, and strong interest by New Zealanders in the Olympic
Games in Beijing next year, will start flying to Beijing from July 18 next year,
ahead of the Olympic Games. Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe announced
the new service on Thursday, the Dominion Post daily reported. The service,
subject to all necessary Chinese regulatory and operating approvals, would
operate out of New Zealand's largest city of Auckland on Wednesday and Friday
and out of Beijing on Thursday and Saturday using the airline's new Boeing
777-200ER aircraft. Fyfe said the new service would build on the success of the
airline's Auckland-Shanghai service, launched in November 2006. He added that
Chinese visitor numbers to New Zealand were booming, with growth of about 14
percent a year. The new service was part of the airline's push to expand its
presence in China, and was expected to generate a high level of interest, he
said. To provide sufficient capacity for the Beijing flights, the airline will
cut its Auckland Shanghai service to three times a week until November 2008.
Fyfe said from November next year the airline planned to operate five services a
week to Shanghai, plus the two Beijing flights. Fyfe expected strong demand from
New Zealanders as it coincided with the Beijing Olympics which run from Aug.
8-24. 
Chinese Director Zhang Yimou was among
nine winners of the "Green Chinese" awards, a government environmental prize, on
Friday for his engagement in environmental protection. 
Chang'e-I mission may not end with a bang - An official said on Friday that
scientists had come up with several proposals on how to dispose of the lunar
satellite at the end of its mission, and two of them are under consideration.
The Chinese-language "Lust, Caution" was nominated for
Best Foreign Language movie Friday by the 65th Golden Globes in Los Angeles. The
award ceremony is slated for Jan. 13, 2008. Along with "Lust, Caution," four
others were also nominated as Best Foreign Language movies. They are "4 Months,
3 Weeks and 2 Days" (Romania), "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (France),
"The Kite Runner" (U.S.), and "Persepolis" (France). Directed by Ang Lee, "Lust,
Caution" was shot outside U.S. and partly produced by foreign entities, but was
financed and distributed by U.S. companies. World War II film saga "Atonement"
earned seven Golden Globe nominations, including one for best drama, to lead the
pack of movies vying for a key Hollywood honor in the widely watched awards
season. 
Hong Kong
director Peter Chan's "The Warlords" took in more than 10 million yuan, or 1.3
million U.S. dollars, at the box office in the first few hours following its
release. The war epic premiered in several Chinese cities at 6 p.m. on
Wednesday. Yu Dong, president of Poly-Bona, one of the movie's producers, told a
reporter with Chinese Web portal sina.com that he believed box office income
could double on Thursday, when the movie opens nationwide. "The Warlords" could
potentially break the box office records set by Zhang Yimou's "Curse of Golden
Flower," Yu Dong said. The movie, starring Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro
and Xu Jinglei, tells the tale of three blood brothers and their struggles
against a backdrop of war and political upheaval. It is scheduled for North
American release next March. 
Whacked by the
subprime mortgage debacle in the United States, financial results of several
Hong Kong banks may be in the red, Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive
Joseph Yam Chi-kwong warned yesterday. "Up till now, we still haven't seen any
big impact [from subprime] on our economy," Yam said. "Yet, individual banks
that have involvement in subprime business might have problems. "We cannot rule
out the possibility that year-end results of these banks may report less profit
or even go into the red." On November 21, Moody's cut the rating of CITIC Ka Wah
Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of CITIC International Financial Holdings
(0183), as the bank was found to have US$340 million (HK$2.65 billion) invested
in structured investment vehicles, accounting for 16.8 percent of the bank's
total investment portfolio and 34.4 percent of the bank's share capital. The
financial strength rating of CITIC Ka Wah was lowered to D+ from C- and its
subordinated debt was cut to Baa3 from Baa2. On November 26, CIFH injected
HK$2.5 billion into CITIC Ka Wah to strengthen its capital ratios. "The cash is
not big enough for us to change the rating," May Yan Meizhi, Moody's leading
analyst for CITIC Ka Wah told The Standard yesterday. "Furthermore, we need to
consider other factors. "CITIC Ka Wah could have to absorb impairment charges
related to its SIVs possibly equivalent to a full year's earnings. Without the
SIV impairment, full year earnings would be approximately double in the first
half of 2007." Kim Eng Securities analyst Ivan Li Sing-yeung said: "Profits of
CITIC Ka Wah will be less this year. The decrease depends on the amount of SIV-related
write-offs recorded this year." Adding to CITIC Ka Wah, Fubon Bank (Hong Kong)
(0636), HSBC Holdings (0005), BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) (2388), Bank of China
(3988), Standard Chartered (2888) and DBS Group were also found to have
exposures to subprime loans. Before the end of August, the city's de facto
central bank already collected data from local banks concerning their
involvement in the subprime mortgage. "Major banks are unlikely to report less
profits as the banking industry will benefit from this year's robust equity
market and improved loan growth. They will report increased profits instead," an
analyst at an Asian-based securities said. Fubon chief executive Lee Jin-yi
yesterday said the bank's investment in subprime-related assets is only slightly
larger than 1 percent of the bank's total assets. The most recent banks in the
city with red ink were Union Bank in 1998 fiscal year and Hong Kong Chinese Bank
in 1999. Meanwhile, Yam said the money injection by the US Federal Reserve and
four central banks yesterday showed that the worst of the subprime problem is
not yet over. "All central banks want to solve the issue quickly," said Yam.
Hong Kong's leading
medical training academy and public hospitals are cooperating to open the door
for mainland doctors to work in Hong Kong through a new training exchange
program. The first batch of about 10 mainland specialist doctors will receive
temporary work placements in public hospitals for one to six months to
familiarize themselves with the local specialist training system. The program
has been jointly set up by the Hospital Authority, which will provide training,
insurance coverage and accommodation, and the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine,
which will provide a monthly scholarship of HK$15,000 to each eligible
candidate. The academy's foundation fund has set aside HK$500,000 a year for
eligible candidates. Others who are recommended by the mainland's Ministry of
Health can also train locally without a scholarship. The mainland doctors will
be provided with a temporary license to work in Hong Kong. The training program
aims to give doctors on both sides of the border a wider exposure to medical
practice in the hope that it will improve standards. "The purpose is not for the
mainland doctors to work in Hong Kong but to contribute to the medical
profession at home. To this end the mainland has asked us to help train their
doctors," Hospital Authority chief executive Shane Solomon said yesterday. Grace
Tang Wai-king, president of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, said mainland
doctors with experience in opthalmology, orthopaedics, dental surgery and
pediatrics will be eligible to apply to the Ministry of Health to work in Hong
Kong. A panel consisting of representatives from the Hospital Authority, the
academy and its 15 colleges will vet the applications. The program will be
provided by departments which have adequate training capacity to ensure local
trainees are not affected. Local trainees, who are one or two years from getting
their specialist qualifications, can also join the exchange program being
offered by mainland hospitals. At present, doctors who graduate from accredited
mainland universities must pass a licensing examination offered by the Hong Kong
Medical Council, complete a 12-month-long internship at a public hospital and
register at the council before they can practice in Hong Kong. Local
practitioner Lo Wing-lok, who has previously practiced in the mainland, welcomed
the program, saying it would attract talented mainland doctors. He dismissed
concerns that they would compete with Hong Kong doctors saying the city had a
shortage of local medics. 
Saved market to
get a facelift - Stallholders at Tai Yuen Street bazaar will give the biggest
outdoor market in Wan Chai a facelift after the Lunar New Year in a bid to turn
it into a popular tourist spot.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) meets with
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in Beijing Dec. 13, 2007. Hu Jintao called
for further cooperation between China and the U.S. as the two countries wound up
two days of economic talks with a slew of agreements in Beijing.
Wang Wei (C), the millionth Chinese to visit South Korea in 2007, poses with two
other Chinese travelers during a ceremony by South Korea to mark the historical
number at the airport of Daegu, December 13, 2007.
WTO judge vows to fulfill promise of job
- Zhang Yuejiao (center) displays a work of calligraphy - a goodwill scroll -
presented to her by the Western Returned Scholars Association at a press
conference in Beijing yesterday. Zhang has been appointed to the WTO's
seven-member Appellate Body that issues final rulings in trade disputes. The
first Chinese judge in WTO's highest court has vowed to serve the world trade
body impartially and faithfully. Zhang Yuejiao was appointed by the WTO Dispute
Settlement Body (DSB) as a member of Appellate Body last month, and termed her
new posting as a major turning point in her legal career. "I will do my best
with unwavering impartiality," Zhang said yesterday. She will take her seat in
June in the seven-member Appellate Body, which issues final rulings in trade
disputes. "You can rest assured that I will do justice to the post," she said.
The 63-year-old lawyer is at present senior counsel for Jun He Law Offices, one
of China's top law firms, and teaches at Shantou University in Guangdong
Province. Zhang once served as director of the treaty and law department of the
erstwhile Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (now the Ministry
of Commerce) and in different capacities in the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank. Her present colleagues describe her as "easy-going but
hard-working". "She looks petite, soft and easy-going, but she has a very
determined will. Once she sets a goal, she will go after it with full force,"
said Zheng Shujun, Partner and Lawyer with Jun He Law Offices. "She gets up as
early as 5 am and works late into night almost everyday, and has been doing that
for the past 19 months to prepare for the post (in the WTO Appellate Body),"
said Zheng, who has known Zhang for more than 10 years. Zhang was "assiduously
studying everything needed for the post (in WTO). She was like a fresh student,
though she was already an authority on the subject", Zheng said. Zhang is a
veteran negotiator and has taken part in China's talks with its trade partners
to settle disputes and for accession into the WTO. Zhang, who pursued law
studies in France and the US, is fluent in English and French. "I was moved and
encouraged by the overwhelming support of the Chinese people both at home and
abroad during my application for the post," she said. "Hence, I cannot afford
not to do a good job. I will strive to bring cheers to Chinese lawyers and
Chinese people."
Bank of China (3988), the mainland's largest foreign exchange lender, said it is
steadily cutting down its subprime holdings, although it is only minimally
affected by the global mortgage-related problem. "Our subprime holdings will
definitely be less than its September level by the end of the fourth quarter,"
BOC chairman Xiao Gang told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday. "Our subprime
holdings are decreasing, for few of those investments have matured. The bank is
also selling part of the portfolio during daily trades. "We have only 2.8
percent of our securities investment in collateral debt obligations and subprime
investments as at the end of September. And we do not have any investment in
SIVs [structured investment vehicles] that recently caused another slump among
global big banks." Beijing-based BOC said at its third quarter results
announcement that it has put aside US$470 million (HK$3.67 billion) to cover
potential losses. 
The central government announced plans to further open its financial markets on
Thursday, saying it would let foreign firms invest again in domestic securities
joint ventures but did not go as far as United States officials wanted. 
Chinese martial art movie star Jet Li (L) talks to CNN anchor Anjali Rao before
the talk show is recorded in Hong Kong, south China, Dec. 12, 2007. Li, starring
in his latest movie Warlords, was interviewed in CNN’s talk show TalkAsia on
Wednesday in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung on
Thursday defended Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen’s 2017 proposal for
universal suffrage, saying there was still room under the Basic Law for more
democracy. This came a day after Mr Tsang had submitted a summarised report to
the central government on the outcome of the green paper public consultation on
constitutional reform earlier this year. Mr Tsang had suggested that a 2017
implementation for universal suffrage would have as good a chance of being
accepted by the majority – even though the general consensus of the public was
for a 2012 deadline. Mr Lam told state media public opinion was not the only
factor at play when Mr Tsang had drafted the report. He said: “In presenting our
report and in taking forward our plans in universal suffrage, we have to take an
overview and that incorporates positions taken by different political parties in
the legislature and district councils and in the different societal sectors.”
However, political analyst Stanley Ho did not agree with Mr Tsang’s stance on
Wednesday. Instead, he said a 2017 implementation was too early, RTHK radio
reported. He rationalised that Hong Kong did not need full democracy as it
already had a “stable society”.
Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi (R Back) and United States Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson (L Back) hold a joint news conference after the Third China-U.S.
Strategic Economic Dialogue in Beijing, Dec. 13, 2007. The two-day meeting was
concluded on Thursday. Vice-premier Wu Yi and US Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson opened the Third China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue in Beijing
yesterday amid rising concerns over food and product safety and protectionist
sentiments.
Foreign investors keen to win a slice of prime property in Shanghai have been
locked out of the bidding for two sites enjoying panoramic views of the Huangpu
River, according to market sources. The two pieces of land have a total area of
6.9 hectares and are zoned for mixed development. They are in Shanghai's Luwan
district, a key area for commercial and residential developments. Foreign funds
had expressed interest in the sites to the district government but were told
last week that they would not be allowed to join the bidding. The Luwan district
government could not be reached for comment. The setback for the funds followed
a People's Bank of China (SEHK: 3988) statement last Thursday, pledging to
strengthen liquidity management and improve the yuan exchange rate mechanism.
The pledge was interpreted by economists as a signal for stricter control on
liquidity and loan growth. The decision to bar foreign bidders also came a month
after the central government revised its guidelines on foreign investment in the
property market. Property experts were uncertain whether the specific case in
Luwan district would become a general rule. But they said the restriction was
not unexpected in view of Beijing's determination to contain rising prices in
the property market. Tang Zedong, deputy general manager of Centaline Property
Agency, said he was unaware that foreign investors had been banned from the
bidding for the Luwan sites but the news was not a shock. "I'm not surprised.
The government has been setting up barriers and making it increasingly difficult
for foreign investors to set foot in the property market. "There is a lot of hot
money coming in, betting on the yuan's appreciation and of course the mainland
authorities do not want to see more foreign investments that make excessive
liquidity even more serious." The sites will be the first new releases of
residential land in Shanghai since 2004. David Chen Weir, a senior director at
CB Richard Ellis in Shanghai, described the two pieces of land as "rare" and
said competition would be intense. The sites are among 32 pieces of land
totalling about 178 hectares to be sold between December 21 and 31. It is
understood the other 30 sites have no restrictions on foreign investment. In a
bid to curb the red hot property market, the Shanghai city government announced
in September that it would increase land supply by adding about 450 hectares to
the market by the end of the year, including 50 hectares in the city centre.
Foreign investors have long been under fire from critics on the mainland for
allegedly driving property prices out of the reach of local home-seekers. The
National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce
announced last month a revised Catalogue of Guidelines on Foreign Investment
that took effect this month. The guidelines, first issued by the NDRC in 2004,
classify investment in the country into three categories: "encouraged" or
preferential investments that qualify for incentives; "restricted" or those that
are subject to increased regulation; and "prohibited" or those that are
outlawed. The principal purpose of the new rules was said to be aimed at helping
put foreign direct investment to better use to spur innovation, promote
industrial restructuring and ease regional imbalances. The government said the
rule was intended to encourage investment that would help the mainland protect
its environment, cut pollution and develop renewable energy, as well as in the
technology sector. However, included in the catalogue were changes to
classification of foreign-invested property projects. Missing from the
"encouraged" list in the previous guidelines is foreign investment in new
ordinary residential developments on the mainland, which means these projects
will no longer qualify for incentives.
Universal suffrage in 2017 is the
expected timetable Beijing will have to decide on following Chief Executive
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's submission of a long-awaited report on democratic
reform. In concluding his report - described as "utterly disappointing" by pan-
democrats - Tsang said setting the timetable for implementing universal suffrage
for chief executive and the Legislative Council "can help promote the ultimate
resolution of the issues involved." To this end, the 176-strong Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress will discuss at its bi-monthly
meeting Tsang's 18-paragraph report and recommendations from December 17-29. In
an official report to top legislator Wu Bangguo, Tsang stated that Hong Kong
people are getting more pragmatic and rational, as they eagerly await a
timetable for universal suffrage, which would help set the course for the city's
constitutional development and end political squabbling. "Implementing universal
suffrage for CE first in 2012 is the expectation of more than half of the
public, as reflected in the opinion polls," Tsang said. "This expectation should
be taken seriously and given consideration."
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
shakes hands with Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi (L) during the opening of The Third
Strategic Economic Dialogue in Xianghe, near Beijing, December 12, 2007.
Vice Premier Wu Yi and US Treasury
Secretary Paulson cut ribbons for the launch of the New York Stock Exchange's
Beijing office yesterday.
The Wujiang Mega Bridge is seen
under construction over the Wujiang River near Guiyang, Southwest China’s
Guizhou Province, Dec. 11, 2007. The tallest pier of the 1,452-meter-long bridge
stands 173.5 meters high, and the bridge will open to traffic before the new
year.
Crying out for nurses - Public and private hospitals are raising their stakes to
attract senior nurses in the face of a worsening shortage of frontline medical
staff in Hong Kong. At the launch of its mass recruitment exercise today, the
Hospital Authority will offer better salaries to experienced nurses. The
authority will replace its old pay scale that was based on a system of so-called
entry points and flat rates for both full- and part-time nursing posts with a
more flexible scale based on experience. Under the new arrangements, part- time
nurses will be paid between HK$99 and HK$215 an hour, depending on the work
shifts and their clinical experience. This compares with the old flat rates for
normal, non- standard and night shifts of HK$114, HK$134 and HK$154 an hour,
respectively. Salaries for full-time posts will be determined by clinical
experience instead of seniority within the authority, Housing Authority chief
manager (nursing) Susie Lum Shun-sui said. Private nurses are paid at least 10
percent more than their peers in the public sector. To bring remuneration in
line, starting salaries for senior matrons and nursing managers at public
hospitals have been raised to almost HK$60,000, up from nearly HK$48,000, and to
more than HK$87,000 for a hospital cluster chief manager, up from HK$62,000. Lum
told The Standard the authority was alarmed by the higher-than- expected
turnover rate, which rose to about 4 percent this year compared with the usual
rate of 3 percent. Some public nurses have joined the private sector, while
others have been recruited overseas or have left the profession altogether. The
Hospital Authority, Hong Kong's biggest employer of medical workers, has 19,000
nurses. Lum said the authority does not have a quota for new recruits, but hoped
it could attract at least 300 full- and part- time nurses at its first
recruitment fair. The authority also could not say how much more would be spent
on salaries after the adjustment. It normally advertises jobs in newspapers or
internally, but Lum believes the high-profile jobs fair will reach out to more
career seekers. "We will take as many recruits as possible," she said. "The more
the better." But the recruitment exercise has raised concern among private
hospitals that some senior nurses will be siphoned off by their public rivals.
Hong Kong Private Hospitals Association chairman Alan Lau Kwok- lam said the
shortage of nurses is acute across the whole medical sector as some had been
hired by private elderly homes and elderly centers run by agencies. Lau said
private hospitals have been offering attractive packages to appeal to both new
graduates and senior nurses. Kwong Kwok-hay, deputy medical superintendent of
Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, does not rule out the authority's recruitment
putting pressure on private hospitals to improve pay and conditions for their
staff. "We will monitor the situation very carefully," Kwong said. The deputy
medical superintendent said the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital had offered
both bonus and double pay for nurses since last year amid the fierce manpower
shortage. However, a spokeswoman for the Association of Hong Kong Nursing Staff
said some former Hospital Authority staff had become so fed up with the large
workload and poor working conditions in public hospitals that they were unlikely
to return. One former public nurse, who did not wish to be named, moved to a
private hospital a year ago after working a decade in public hospitals. She said
she would not be lured back by the authority's new package as it would not be
able to compensate for the heavy workload and stress from working in public
hospitals. 
Tung wins his freedom of speech - Former
chief executive Tung Chee-hwa yesterday faced down a group of protesting Chinese
University students - and won his right to freedom of speech. He was conferred
with an honorary doctorate degree by the university - an award disputed by the
students, who described it as an act of "fawning on Tung" by vice chancellor
Lawrence Lau Chun- yee. The students also want Lau to step down. The protesters
shouted, whistled and chanted slogans during the ceremony. Some tried to enter
the congregation venue but were stopped by security guards. Just as Tung began
to deliver his acceptance speech in Putonghua, he had to switch to Cantonese to
ask the students to respect the big day of graduates and their parents. He also
told them that he would meet them afterwards. "Today is the happiest day for
parents but now, can you give me a chance and freedom to finish my speech?" Tung
said. The audience of parents and students clapped when they heard these words.
Among the protesters was lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, of the League of
Social Democrats, who sat on the floor as a protest against Tung's policy over
parents seeking right of abode for their mainland-born children when he was a
chief executive. Leung was barred from going up to the stage and was asked to
leave. Students' Union chairman Napoleon Wong Weng-chi said the protest was
meant to demonstrate against university head Lau, rather than Tung. Lau said the
decision on Tung's doctorate degree was not made by one person, but by the board
of the university.
Hong Kong's economic growth will moderate
next year, dampened by the US subprime mess and a moderate slowdown in the
mainland, according to Secretary of Financial Services and the Treasury Ceajer
Chan Ka-keung. However, the economy will maintain its momentum, he said. Chan
expects the economy this year will have expanded by 6 percent. The economy grew
6.2 percent in the third quarter, moderating from the 6.6 percent growth in the
second quarter, as exports dropped amid slowing demand in the United States.
Speaking at an economic summit yesterday, Chan said that China's pledge to
tighten its monetary policy in 2008 was aimed at avoiding economic overheating.
He said the move will be beneficial to both Hong Kong and China. Beijing
announced on Wednesday that it will shift to "tight" monetary policy next year,
which some analysts said could have a major significance to the mainland
economy. George Leung Siu-kay, Asia-Pacific adviser on strategy and economics at
HSBC, said the policy shift can help avoid an asset bubble and pave the way for
balanced economic development in China. Leung said the Hong Kong economy will
grow by more than 5 percent next year, while inflation will rise to 4 percent.
He added that the Hong Kong asset market will benefit from a negative real
interest rate next year, with rising inflation and falling interest rates. But
the city will not experience an asset price bubble similar to the one seen in
1997, as next year's negative real interest rate will be less than 1 percent,
compared to the 2 to 3 percent seen in 1997, he said. Interest rates are falling
as local banks follow US interest rate movements, due to the city's currency
link to the US dollar. Leung expects Hong Kong to record a HK$80 billion surplus
this year, exceeding the financial secretary's October projection of HK$50
billion. 
The government will push ahead with a
new law giving the health chief draconian powers during outbreaks of disease or
other health emergencies. Under the proposed Prevention and Control of Disease
Bill, to be gazetted tomorrow, the director of health will be empowered to seize
any object believed to be an infectious agent and also to detain suspected
disease carriers for isolation, quarantine or medical surveillance. Officials
can also arrest people who escape from medical detention. The announcement comes
after a 24-year-old man died in the mainland from avian flu on Sunday with no
known contact with infected or dead poultry. Under the new law, the government
can also demand access to information about the diseases, even patients' details
from doctors. It also has the power to requisition private property with
compensation in the case of a public health emergency. It means that the
government can requisition any private assets from properties, transport, basic
necessities, vaccines, protective gear and drugs. Research laboratories will
also have to surrender their specimens on government orders. These powers will
also be extended to the airport and all border checkpoints. Travelers may be
required to make health declarations, show proof of vaccination or even be
subject to medical examination. Deputy Secretary for Food and Health Patrick Nip
Tak-kuen said any such powers would be exercised only in a full public health
emergency. Officials would also have to apply for court orders to exercise any
of these powers if the measures infringe on human rights and freedom. "Such
powers would be exercised only in the most extreme situation and would not
affect daily life [outside of emergencies]," Nip said. Thomas Tsang Ho-fai,
controller of the Centre for Health Protection, said similar contingency
measures had already been enacted through administrative rules during the SARS
outbreak four years ago. Putting them into a legal framework would help the
government cope with any new emergency and disease outbreak more efficiently and
speedily, Tsang explained. The number of notifiable diseases will also increase
from 31 to 45. However, the bill is set to face challenges from lawmakers when
it is submitted to Legislative council for first and second readings on December
19. Some legislators expressed concern over the scope and severity of the
powers. Independent legislator Albert Chan Wai-yip said that he did not see the
justification for the government to put such powers into law while they could be
done by means of administrative measures. "It would be dangerous if the
government is given absolute legal power, especially over detention of people
and seizure of private property, Chan said. Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong, member of
Hong Kong Human Rights Commission, raised serious concern over possible
infringement of basic human rights.
Another investment bank has been drawn away from Central
to International Commerce Centre in West Kowloon - a move analysts believe will
trigger even more financial houses to go across the harbor because of more
attractive rents there. ICC's developer Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) and
Credit Suisse said the bank will take up the top 10 floors of the office tower
atop MTR Kowloon station. Credit Suisse will take up some 300,000 square feet,
an expansion of the bank's Hong Kong office by 40 percent to house a
2,000-strong staff. Support departments will move from Exchange Square to the
ICC in the second half of next year. The relocation will be completed by 2011.
ICC has signed leases for 60 percent of the building's 2.5 million sq ft total
floor area, said Victor Lui Ting, Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency managing
director. Credit Suisse followed Morgan Stanley, who signed a lease for 350,000
sq ft in the lower floors of what would be Hong Kong's tallest building.
"Because of successful leasing results, we will raise rents in phase 2 by 10
percent from the current HK$42 psf," Lui said. DTZ Debenham Tie Leung business
space director Alan Yuen Chun-yin expects more companies to relocate to ICC. The
firm is currently talking to a few major financial institutions. Despite the
rent hike, Yuen said it is still attractive compared to Central. ICC and
International Finance Centre in Central have been built according to the same
specifications. Both have been co-developed by SHKP. According to Jones Lang
LaSalle, prime offices rentals in Central rose 6.7 percent last quarter,
chalking up a 21 percent surge so far this year. Spot rents in IFC and Exchange
Square hit HK$176 per sq ft, and HK$120 psf respectively. Financial firms like
Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse have offices scattered around Central. It is
impossible to get all their staff under one roof in the core business area due
to a lack of space. "As vacancy rates in Central dive below 2 percent, ICC
represents a very good alternative for major tenants keen to expand and
consolidate," said Chris Marriott, deputy managing director and head of leasing
at Savills Hong Kong. But analysts had mixed reactions as to whether ICC will
make an impact on rents in Central. Lehman brothers said ICC and One Island East
in Quarry Bay coming on stream will create a cap for Central rents, while Yuen
and Marriott said the effect would be small and gradual. Lui expects the pace of
rent hikes in Central to ease by about 10 percent next year.
Cairo-based Orascom
Telecom Holding is selling off its entire 14.22 percent stake in Hutchison
Telecommunications International Ltd (2332), ending the two-year relationship
between the two emerging-markets telecom firms. The move comes less than a month
after Orascom Telecom said it would not reduce its holding further. HTIL's
parent Hutchison Whampoa (0013) announced late yesterday it was reacquiring a
9.22 stake, or 441.026 million shares, from Orascom for HK$4.851 billion, or
HK$11 per share. The buyer for the Egyptian firm's remaining 5 percent interest
is Hutchison Whampoa chairman Li Ka-shing, a person familiar with the situation
told The Standard. The price Hutchison is paying represents a 2.65 percent
discount to HTIL's closing price yesterday of HK$11.30. Orascom - the largest
mobile operator in the Middle East by subscribers - will not make any profit on
its investment, as it originally acquired the HTIL shares from Hutchison for the
same HK$11 apiece. After completion of the latest deal, Hutchison Whampoa's
stake in its subsidiary will be increased to 59.33 percent from 50.11 percent.
HTIL "is one of the best capitalized telecom companies in the region, and is
strategically and financially well positioned to take up new opportunities and
to capture growth opportunity in certain of their existing markets," the parent
said in the statement. Shareholder approval for the transaction is not required.
Chinese sharpshooter Du Li, who held the world record of women's 10-meter air
rifle, mounted the champion platform of the event again at the 11th Asian
Shooting Championships here on Thursday, with an easy win of 503.7 points.
Hong
Kong school kids outclass most of the world in maths, reading and science,
according to an eagerly awaited global score card of scholastic performance
released yesterday. Hong Kong pupils aged 15 scored an average of 547 in maths,
along with South Korea - one point below Finland and two points below Taiwan.
"In mathematics, Chinese Taipei, Finland, Hong Kong and Korea together rank the
top, with no statistically significant difference between their scores," said
the report by the Programme for International Student Assessment rankings, which
are coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In
the last two PISA surveys, conducted in 2000 and 2003, Hong Kong led the top
group in maths. "We are always in the top four. This does not differ from the
previous cycles," said Dr Esther Ho Sui-chu of the Chinese University of Hong
Kong. "To the layman, this might look as though we are third, but there is no
statistical difference." Hong Kong pupils made huge strides in reading, climbing
to third place from 10th position in 2003 - the last time the study was
conducted - and moving up one place to second in science. About 400,000 students
in 57 countries were assessed as part of the poll - including 4,645 randomly
selected students from 146 Hong Kong secondary schools. "Hong Kong's
15-year-olds performed well. Socioeconomic status had a modest impact on
performance," the report said. The three-yearly survey compares education
systems by assessing how 15-year-olds have developed the skills necessary to
deal with daily life. An Education Bureau spokesman said of Hong Kong's results:
"The flying colors were the result of concerted efforts of schools and teachers.
It is a great encouragement to stakeholders in the education sector who have
been making tireless efforts in carrying through education reform." He
attributed the improved ranking in reading to school-based programs, the
strategic approach of emphasising learning to read among younger students and
gradually moving towards reading to learn among older students in the curriculum
reform, and implementation of the new Chinese language curriculum in 2002.
Airport staff wait
beside a car of an express train, which is known as the Automated People Mover
system at the new Terminal 3, or T3, in the Beijing Capital International
Airport, November 4, 2007. The express train service system was completed
Tuesday at the T3 that will serve Olympic and Paralympic chartered flights
during the Games.
Xinhua News Agency Vice President Lu Wei meets with former British Prime
Minister John Major in Beijing, Dec. 5, 2007. John Major was born on March 29,
1943, London. He was prime minister from 1990 to 1997.
Sony Ericsson mobile phones are
exhibited at a high-tech expo held in Beijing in May this year. China is likely
to produce nearly 500 million mobile phones in 2007, or more than 40 percent of
the world's total.
Hong Kong's Tony Leung and mainland
actress Tang Wei 'flirt' in Ang Lee's film "Lust, Caution". The Venice Film
Festival's Golden Lion winner has become a popular hit on the Chinese mainland
for its explicit sex scenes. A month after its release in the Chinese mainland,
Ang Lee's award-winning film "Lust, Caution" has been a permanent subject of
debate for its explicit sexual content - or lack of it - and for its political
undertones. Containing bold sex scenes, the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion
winner for Best Picture had to be cut by seven sexually explicit minutes.
Unfazed, Chinese filmgoers have ensured the film has been a big hit on the
mainland, with box office sales surpassing more than 100 million yuan (US$13.3
million) in just over two weeks. Some were left unsatisfied by the deleted sex
scenes, choosing to download the film from the Internet and, in some cases,
traveling from southern Guangdong province to Hong Kong specifically to watch
the steamy sections. In online forums, the movie ignited a new round of debate
about the adoption of a film rating system in China. One critic said, "The true
meaning of the film's screening in the Chinese mainland lies in renewing the
debate of the rating system." In 2001, Wang Xingdong, movie director, and a
member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was one of the
first to call for a film rating system, but over the subsequent six years, the
idea has only remained on the lips of some senior officials of the State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). After watching the
censored version of "Lust, Caution", Dong Yanbin, a doctoral student in Beijing,
filed a lawsuit against SARFT as well as UME, the cinema showing the film, for
infringing upon his "consumer rights", according to local media reports.
Hopes of stability as China Railway
A shares perform - Hong Kong-listing candidate China Railway Group's
yuan-denominated shares saw a 69 percent rise on its Shanghai debut yesterday.
This was in line with market expectations and shows that the enthusiasm of
mainland investors is still intact. Buoyed by its near monopoly of China's
fast-growing railway construction sector, China Rail's A shares closed yesterday
at 8.09 yuan (HK$8.51), compared with its IPO price of 4.8 yuan, easing from an
intraday high of 8.1 yuan in the morning. About 1.86 billion shares changed
hands, with a total value of 8.59 billion yuan. "Despite the fact that China
Rail's performance is not as good as some of its predecessors such as PetroChina
(0857) and China Shenhua Energy Company (1088), the almost 70 percent rise in
the first day amid the recent fragile domestic market was reasonably good," said
a Hong Kong-based fund manager who also manages QFII (qualified foreign
institutional investor) funds for investment in domestic markets. The company's
closing price was slightly inclined to the high end but was more reasonable than
many previous debutants, Huaxia Securities analyst Zhou Lin said. The world's
largest construction contractor will commence H-share trading on Friday with an
offer price of HK$5.80 per share. Market watchers have said the H shares will
not gain a spillover effect from its A-share counterpart. "There was an asking
bid at above HK$6 yesterday but there have not been any transactions yet," a
fund manager said, adding the H-share performance will depend on the market
performance over the coming days. China Railway raised US$3 billion (HK$23.4
billion) in its Shanghai initial public offering, and another US$2.5 billion
from an IPO in Hong Kong while attracting US$457 billion in subscriptions.
Analysts had previously warned a lackluster debut may dent confidence in
Shanghai and Hong Kong, but now they believe the first day performance could
help towards stabilizing a future slump.
Cathay Pacific Airways appears headed for turbulence ahead
of the busy Christmas period with the Flight Attendants Union threatening
industrial action unless the airline withdraws a new medical policy set to go
into effect January 1.
China Railway Chairman Shi Dahua paints the eyes of a dancing lion at a ceremony
to mark the company's trading debut in Shanghai yesterday. China Railway Group
Ltd, the world's third-biggest construction company, surged 69 percent on its
Shanghai trading debut Monday on optimism the nation's growing transport demand
will spur earnings. The stock climbed to 8.09 yuan at the close of trading,
compared with an initial public offer price of 4.80 yuan, valuing the company at
141 billion yuan. China Railway sold shares on the mainland and in Hong Kong to
raise funds for equipment, capacity expansion and technology upgrades as China
spends 5.05 trillion yuan on transportation through 2010. The country will
lengthen its rail network by almost a third through 2020 to move more people and
goods. "The current share price reflects the potential of the company," Tony
Zheng, who manages the equivalent of $790 million at Bank of Communications
Schroeders Fund Management Co in Shanghai, said by phone yesterday. "Railway
investment will be huge in the next few years in China, and this will give the
company huge opportunities to expand its market share." China Railway, Asia's
biggest construction company, raised 22.4 billion yuan in the Shanghai offering
and another HK$19.2 billion in a Hong Kong IPO, people with direct knowledge of
the sales said on November 22 and November 30. The company, established in
September, is the publicly traded unit of China Railway Engineering Corp, the
world's third-largest construction company by contract value last year,
according to a draft of the company's share-sale documents. China, with 78,000
km of rail, has the world's third-longest railway after the US and Russia. Its
projected spending on railways in the five years to 2010 is more than triple
that of the previous five years, according to the share- sale documents. Railway
builders and operators will need to raise as much as 1 trillion yuan from
capital markets through the sale of stock or debt to fund the expansion, Cao
Yuanzheng, chief economist at share-sale arranger BOCI International Holdings
Ltd, said on April 18.
Fiat
announced yesterday it will invest $32.2 mln to build its first Chinese R&D
center in Shanghai, which will will focus on development of engines and
transmissions for commercial vehicles.
Shanghai took a huge step toward
its target of becoming the most promising international air cargo center in the
Asia-Pacific region last week after DHL announced decisions to build its North
Asia express delivery hub in Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The
announcement means the airport will be the first in the world with two
international express delivery hubs. United Parcel Service Inc (UPS) is also
building a facility at Pudong. The General Administration of Civil Aviation of
China and the Shanghai Municipality launched a strategy in 2004 to build
Shanghai into a leading international air cargo transportation hub, which is
also part of China's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10). Attracting world-leading
express and logistics giants to establish their operations in the city plays a
crucial role in realizing this ambition. The airport, which currently handles 63
percent of China's international cargo, has been busy expanding its capacity and
is the world's fastest-growing international airport for handling cargo. It was
only ranked the 26th largest cargo airport in the world in 2002 with cargo
throughput of 635,000 tons, according to Airports Council International (ACI).
But by 2006, it raced up the rankings to become the sixth-largest in the world
with cargo throughput of 2.17 million tons. ACI is a non-profit association with
573 members operating over 1,640 airports in 178 countries and territories. "Our
target is to handle six million tons of cargo a year by 2015," says Wu Nianzu,
the Shanghai Airport Authority's chairman and president.
Shanghai determined to build own Disney -
A competitor to the already troubled Hong Kong Disneyland may emerge sooner than
expected because Shanghai has expressed determination to build its own
Disneyland theme park starting 2010, when it hosts the World Expo, according to
mainland media reports. The proposed location for the attraction has switched
from suburban Chuansha town in Shanghai's Pudong district to Chongming Island,
the China Business Journal reported, quoting an unidentified source. Project
investment has also increased to 40 billion yuan (HK$42.12 billion), from the
previous plan of 30 billion yuan. Negotiations for a Shanghai Chuansha
Disneyland was stopped last year when the probe into the city's pension fund
began, the China Business Journal said. Walt Disney Corporation has resumed
talks with the Shanghai government recently for a possible shift in location,
according to the newspaper report. Chuansha's main advantage is its location.
Only 10 minutes away from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the easy access
would allow airport transit passengers to visit the park for up to 48 hours
without needing a visa. But as it is also within the Shanghai Pudong area, any
future land expansion would be very difficult. Chongming Island, situated at the
mouth of Yangtze River, has a population of 650,000 and an area of nearly 1,200
square kilometers. Its main advantage over Chuansha is that it is "virgin
territory," according to the report. The undeveloped island is said to be more
suitable for a theme park, allowing it to adopt the same model as Disney World
Orlando in Florida and be a "back to nature" park. The Chongming county
government has had plans to develop the island since 2004 and already set aside
land for a theme park as part of its plans to develop the economy in an
environmentally friendly way. 
Health authorities of the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao held a joint
communication exercise Monday shortly after a man in east China's Jiangsu
Province died of avian flu on Sunday. The exercise was to test their cooperation
and coordination in mounting an emergency response in the event of a
cross-border incident of avian flu involving human cases. The Secretary for Food
and Health Dr. York Chow, who led Hong Kong's team in the exercise, said the
joint exercise was a valuable opportunity for the three places to review their
response actions via video-conference in respective command and control centers.
"The exercise has further bolstered collaboration and communication among the
three places in emergency preparedness and response for public health crisis,"
Chow said, adding "the importance of timely notification and collaboration for
the prevention of avian influenza and pandemic influenza was highlighted." The
Director of Health, Dr. P Y Lam, said that the Department of Health would
strengthen its work with health authorities on the Chinese mainland and in Macao
in the prevention of infectious diseases. It was the second joint exercise
organized under the Cooperation Agreement on Response Mechanism for Public
Health Emergencies signed by the three places in 2005. Code-named "Great Wall
2007", the exercise was based on a scenario in which several members of a family
on the Chinese mainland had been infected with avian flu during a visit to a
poultry market and one of them had traveled by public transport to Hong Kong via
Macao before symptoms emerged. During the exercise, emergency responses set out
in preparedness plans were tested, including the notification of counterparts in
the three places, epidemiological investigation of the affected patients,
contact tracing and medical surveillance for probable cases. More than 60 public
health officials and medical personnel took part in the exercise. Participating
organizations included the Food and Health Bureau, the Department of Health and
the Hospital Authority in Hong Kong, the Ministry of Health in Beijing, the
Jiangsu province Health Department and the Health Bureau of Macao. The scenario
of Monday's exercise unfolded when a 17-year-old girl living in east China's
Jiangsu province was confirmed to have been infected with avian influenza virus
after visiting a local poultry market with her mother, brother and uncle. Her
mother and brother also developed influenza symptoms while her uncle had arrived
in Hong Kong via Macao. The Ministry of Health promptly notified the Center for
Health Protection in Hong Kong and the Health Bureau of Macao of the case. In
order to control and prevent the spread of the disease, the health authorities
of the three places immediately swung into action. In Hong Kong, the Department
of Health promptly located the girl's uncle who had developed symptoms of
influenza upon arrival in Hong Kong. The man was taken to an isolation ward of
the Health Authority's Infectious Disease Center for treatment. A nasal swab
taken from him subsequently tested positive for the deadly H5N1 influenza virus
strain. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government activated the
"Serious Response Level" and the Health Authority activated the corresponding
contingency measures. After epidemiological investigation and contact tracing,
the Department of Health in Hong Kong found 22 people who had had contact with
the man while he traveled and stayed in Hong Kong. All of them were taken to a
holiday village for quarantine and were put under medical surveillance.
The woman once called the "conscience of Hong Kong," Anson Chan Fang On-sang has
won the most closely contested election since the handover in 1997. Chan
defeated her archrival Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee by 38,324 votes when final results
were released at 3.30am. Chan had 175,874 votes against Ip's 137,550 in the
Legislative Council by-election. I'm feeling great. Chan said with her
trade-mark smile. More than 320,000 people, or 52 percent of the electorate,
cast their votes. Polling stations closed at 10.30pm. Chan campaigned on a
platform of democracy and universal suffrage. Flanked by cheering supporters and
core backers, including pan-democratic lawmakers, Chan thanked Hong Kong people
for their support and blessings.
China vies for a piece of Alaskan gas project - Five companies applied to build
the pipeline, including Sinopec, TransCanada Corp, ConocoPhillips.
The
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) will officially inaugurate its Beijing office
next week, the exchange said on Monday. NYSE Euronext (NYX) Chief Executive
Officer Duncan L. Niederauer will travel to the Chinese capital to host the
grand opening on Dec. 11 in his first overseas trip since becoming exchange boss
earlier this year. NYSE Euronext is a holding company that was created by the
merger of the NYSE Group, Inc. and Euronext N.V. in April. NYSE Euronext started
trading on April 4 and now operates the world's largest and most liquid exchange
group. On Sept. 4, it was announced the NYSE had received approval from the
China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to open a representative office in
Beijing. It was the first foreign exchange to receive such approval. Since July
1, representative offices of foreign exchanges have been allowed to set up in
the country if approved. The new office will become the NYSE's center of
operations for China in advancing its brand and services to its listed companies
operating in the country. Catherine R. Kinney, president and co-chief operating
officer of NYSE Euronext, said during her recent trip to China in September that
the opening was a historical event for both the New York-based stock exchange
and global capital markets. It would help the NYSE to woo more initial public
offerings in the fast-growing Chinese economy. The NYSE currently lists a total
of 49 Chinese companies, including 38 from China's mainland. Others listed
include six Hong Kong companies and five from Taiwan. This year, 14 Chinese
mainland companies have launched initial public offerings on the famed exchange.
As of Nov. 30, the total market capitalization of Chinese mainland companies on
the NYSE was 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars. At the same time, Hong Kong and Macao
authorities received notification from the Chinese mainland that the index
patient's mother was confirmed to have been infected with avian influenza virus.
The exercise ended when the participants exchanged information on their
respective actions and the latest situation in the three places and the
situation was subsequently brought under control. 
Goubuli's
store in Beijing's Wangfujing snack street. As a 150-year-old brand, Goubuli is
famous across China and even known to many foreigners.
Leon Lai plays Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang in Chen Kaige's new film. Scenes
from Hong Kong pop star Leon Lai's upcoming portrayal of late Peking Opera
virtuoso Mei Lanfang debuted when a film magazine revealed stills from the
biography directed by Chen Kaige. In one of the photos, Leon Lai is dressed in
opera costumes from a Dan role, since Mei Lanfang was the most famous
cross-gender Dan (which refers to female roles in Peking Opera) performer of all
time. Chen Kaige's film, "Mei Lanfang," chronicles the legend's career from
childhood. Ever since Leon Lai was selected to play the adult Mei Lanfang,
skeptics have debated whether the young star can manage the mature role. Lai,
who was born in Beijing, has been polishing his Peking Opera skills heavily,
following professionals including Mei Baojiu, Mei Lanfang's youngest son.
However, criticism has continued after the stills revealed that Lai's appearance
may not be good enough. Meanwhile, a report says Zhang Ziyi, who plays a fellow
singer of Mei Lanfang in the film, has left the entourage after completing her
parts. The film is slated to premiere next year. 
Sunday's 5.28am departure of the Mass Transit Railway train from East Tsim Sha
Tsui station opened a new chapter in Hong Kong's railway history. The MTR and
Kowloon-Canton Railway corporations officially merged yesterday to become the
city's only railway service provider under the name of MTR Corp. The company's
nine heavy rail lines, the Airport Express and the Light Rail will make up a
comprehensive transport network. By 9pm, 2.8 million passengers had ridden on
the two rails, compared with 2.9 million for the whole of last Sunday. Speaking
at a ceremony at Nam Cheong Station yesterday to mark the change, MTRC chairman
Raymond Ch'ien Kuo-fung said he had waited three years for the plan to come
true. Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang Ying-yen said the MTR and
the KCR were both renowned for their excellent railway services. The first job
of the post-merger MTRC was to reduce fares. 
After fierce bidding, Swire
Pacific (0019) bought an office tower on Hong Kong Island for HK$1.36 billion,
an amount above expectations, reflecting developers' optimism on the commercial
market. The sale of Tai Sang Commercial Building, situated on a 9,600 square
foot site near Swire's Three Pacific Place, where Wan Chai meets Admiralty,
attracted 26 bids from seven paddles. "It is a fair price, and it indicates a
solid office market," said Swire Properties chief operating officer Gordon
Ongley. The building, originally belonging to the family of Ma Kam-chan, founder
of the bank-to-property conglomerate Tai Sang group, has a total floor area of
185,447 sq ft. The transaction price, 60 percent higher than the HK$850 million
opening bid, translates to HK$7,334 per sq ft. Surveyors have estimated the
28-story tower to be worth between HK$900 million and HK$1 billion. Swire will
keep the 30-year-old office building and spend HK$150 million to renovate it,
Ongley said. With Three Pacific Place fully let, the company will have to expand
its portfolio to provide enough space for the expansion of clients.
Chief
Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang and Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung yesterday
called on the rising number of mediation service providers to make a concerted
effort to develop a common accreditation benchmark. Mr Justice Li also said
mediation should be made a compulsory part of the professional qualification
course for lawyers, whose current understanding of the mediation process was
"very far from satisfactory". He added that students should also be educated
about mediation at school. "Time has moved on," Mr Justice Li said. "We are
coming to a stage where we need to have a common benchmark ... all mediation
bodies should co-operate to develop this benchmark as soon as practicable," he
said at a conference on mediation in Hong Kong yesterday.
High prices, state policy fears keep
mainland buyers away - Property buyers in big mainland cities have apparently
hit their affordability limits and are staying away from the market in protest
against high prices.
Crowned Miss China Zhang Zilin(C), first runner-up Miss Angola Micaela REIS (2nd
L rear) and second runner-up Miss Mexico Carolina MORAN GORDILLO (2nd R rear )
pose during the 2007 Miss World Competition Final at the Beauty Crown theater in
Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Dec. 1, 2007. Contestants from 106
countries and regions competed at the final of the 57th Miss World Competition
in Sanya on Saturday. 
Volunteers fly kites carrying red ribbon
at the Renmin Square in Weihai, a coastal city in east China's Shandong
Province, Dec. 1, 2007. A group of volunteers from local medical institutions
and Shandong University Weihai Branch gathered on the World AIDS Day to
popularize knowledge about AIDS and promote the awareness of preventing the
epidemic.
China's diving prince, 2000 and
2004 Olympic champion Tian Liang (R) and 2005 Super Girl contestant Ye Yiqian
(L) exchange rings at their wedding ceremony in Shangri-La Hotel, Xi'an of
Northwest China November 29, 2007. The pair's love story has been in spotlight
in China since 2006.
China is willing to create sound
conditions for Japanese firms to invest in China, Chinese Vice Premier Zeng
Peiyan said at the on-going first China-Japan high-level economic dialogue.
The world's second-largest PC maker
Dell Inc plans to boost its presence in China's smaller cities to take on rivals
Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Acer. The company will expand to 1,000 Chinese
cities from the current 45, Steve Felice, president of Dell, Asia-Pacific and
Japan, said on Friday. "Most recently, we've seen a propensity to move up
dramatically in the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-tier cities (in China)," he said.
"Some of that will be done through continued expansion of our direct sales model
and some of that will be done through increased partnerships," he said, without
giving a specific timeframe for the expansion. He also said Dell is considering
turning its existing customer experience centers into retail outlets. Dell has
partnered with Gome Electrical Appliances to sell PCs in the retailer's 170
outlets in China. 
Chau Ching-ngai, the Shanghai property
tycoon once ranked China's 11th- richest man, was jailed for 16 years after
being convicted of bribery and forgery. Shanghai's Number Two Intermediate
People's Court convicted 46-year- old Chau, who was also fined 3.35 million yuan
(HK$3.53 million), Caijing magazine reported. He was sentenced to 10 years for
forging tax invoices, six years for embezzlement, and three years for bribery.
His imprisonment was capped at 16 years because he had repaid the amount
embezzled as well as confessed to acts of bribery. He was also accused of
offering bribes to corporate executives. Chau's lawyer said he might appeal
because the 10-year sentence for forging tax invoices was unfair. 
Hong Kong singer and actress Gigi Leung
attended a Christmas lighting ceremony at Pacific Place in Hong Kong Wednesday
night, clad in a luxury dress and diamonds. Web site sina.com reported that Gigi
sang Christmas songs and played piano at the ceremony, which she had prepared in
anticipation for expressing her best Christmas wishes. Gigi said her Christmas
plans include spending time with friends and exchanging presents. 
Guo Jinlong was appointed vice and acting
mayor of Beijing by the standing committee of the municipal people’s congress on
Friday. Wang Qishan will no longer serve as Beijing mayor and deputy secretary
of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC),
according to a CPC Central Committee decision. Guo Jinlong, former Party chief
of Anhui Province, will assume Wang's position on the municipal Party committee.
He was also nominated as a candidate for mayor on Thursday. Guo will serve as
vice mayor and acting mayor before the full mayoralty is decided by voting at
the municipal people's congress meeting, to be held early next year. 
The Meilanfang Grand Theater, which will
stage its inaugural performances from Nov. 29 to Dec. 22, bears Chinese artists'
hope for boosting Peking Opera in an era with abundant forms of entertainment.
Jade ornaments
featuring a pair of rats trumping are on display in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu
Province Nov 30, 2007.
Chen Wenli, executive
chairman of Grand China Air, talks to journalists at the launching ceremony of
Grand China Air on Nov 29 in Beijing. Hainan Airlines Group launched a new
carrier to consolidate its businesses yesterday.
China's Jiang
Yuyuan puts on her coat after winning the women's all-around gymnastics at the
"Good Luck Beijing" Olympic gymnastics test event in the National Indoor
Stadium, in Beijing on Thursday. The 15-year-old Jiang was the only gymnast to
surpass 60 points in the women's all-around finals.
Hong Kong SAR children are tops at their
ABCs - The reading ability of Hong Kong children is the second highest in the
world, according to results of a global study released yesterday. International
Education Achievement, which studied 215,000 students in 44 countries, said Hong
Kong ranked second in reading comprehension - just behind Russia and ahead of
such developed countries as England, the United States and Canada. Hong Kong was
in 14th place five years ago. More than 4,700 Primary 4 pupils and their parents
and 144 primary school principals and Chinese teachers from Hong Kong were
interviewed from April to June for the study. Hong Kong students achieved a
reading achievement of 564 points, just one point behind Russia and four points
more than Alberta, Canada, which was third. Singapore was fourth on 558 points.
However, when it came to interpreting information from newspapers and
instructional booklets, Hong Kong came out on top with 568 points. Russia was
second (564) and Singapore third (563). The study revealed that, while there was
a general improvement in the reading attitudes and habits of students, there was
no significant improvement in the attitude of parents, with 15 percent saying
they hardly read at all. Hong Kong University education faculty associate dean
Tse Shek-kam, who helped with the study, said the government's educational
reforms had contributed to the improvement as schools were able to conduct more
reading programs. Tse urged parents to act as role models for their children by
reading during their spare time.He also said the reading habit is not related to
a person's socio-economic status. "The time parents devote to reading with their
children is the key to improvement. Parents should read more at home along with
their children, or take them to a library to borrow and read books," Tse said.
He added that the critical period to get children geared to the reading habit is
from a few months old to nine. "If they have not acquired the reading habit by
age 10, it will be very difficult to get them to pick it up." Tse advised
students to spend some time every day to watch news programs on television and
to read newspapers. Joseph Lam Wai-ip, teaching consultant of the university's
education faculty, said parents should play an active role in encouraging their
children to read. They should also indulge in pre- school reading activities,
like reading to their children, telling them stories and playing games in which
words or labels are used. The Education Bureau said it welcomed the news of Hong
Kong's students' accomplishments. A spokesman stressed the bureau will continue
to work closely with schools, parents, tertiary institutions and the community
to sustain the good performance of the students, and will consider ways to
further promote and support reading.
Tony Leung
(R) and Tang Wei are seen in this post of "Lust, Caution". They have been
nominated for best leading actor and actress in the 2008 Film Independent's
Spirit Awards.
Photo taken on Nov. 28,
2007 shows the inside view of China’s National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China.
The National Indoor Stadium started operation Wednesday to hold the "Good Luck
Beijing" 2007 International Gymnastics Tournament.
A woman visits the Chinese
culture relic exposition in Manila, capital of the Philippines, Nov. 28, 2007.
Around 80 precious culture relics from China were on display here. The
exposition will last to next February.
Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao(C), Prime Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal(L), which
currently holds rotating presidency of the European Union, and European
Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso(R) hold the 10th China-EU
Leaders' Meeting Wednesday in Beijing. The 10th China-EU Leaders' Meeting was
held here Wednesday, and leaders from both China and the European Union (EU)
outlined their future strategic partnership while discussing pragmatic issues.
The yearly summit was attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Prime Minister
Jose Socrates of Portugal, which currently holds rotating presidency of the
European Union, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso. The
meeting came as the 10th anniversary of the regular meeting mechanism of Chinese
and EU leaders. Over the past decade the China-EU ties have witnessed the
fastest development in history and mutually beneficial cooperation has produced
rich results and the ties now have reached an unprecedented level in width and
depth, Wen said during the meeting. From the Renminbi exchange rate issue, trade
imbalance to climate change and energy cooperation, both sides touched upon all
the core issues in the China-EU relations in a pragmatic and open attitude.
During the two-hour summit meeting, both sides agreed to properly handle the
disputes through dialogue and negotiation so as to seek balance of trade and
push forward the China-EU relations to a new height. 
Wu Bangguo (C Front), chairman of
the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, the country's top
legislature, meets with a delegation from the Committee of 100 of the United
States in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 28, 2007. Chinese top legislator Wu
Bangguo said here Wednesday that current Sino-U.S. relations have make
remarkable progress and their cooperation has been fruitful, and the two
countries have strengthened consultation in international and regional issues.
Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC),
made the remarks while meeting with a delegation from the Committee of 100 of
the United States. Wu expressed gratitude for the work the committee has done to
improve the understanding and friendship between China and the United States.
China would like to make joint efforts with the U.S. side to grasp their common
interests and take into consideration the concern of both sides, promote
dialogue, trust and cooperation so as to push forward their constructive and
cooperative relations, Wu said. This year marks the 35th anniversary of Shanghai
Communique, Wu said, adding history has demonstrated that the long-term, stable
and healthy Sino-U.S. relations conforms to the fundamental interests of the two
countries and peoples. He hoped the Committee of 100 would continue to promote
mutual understanding and cooperation between China and the United States. John
Fugh, chairman of the Committee of 100, vowed to enhance Sino-U.S. friendship.
Liu Yandong, vice chairwoman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and Sheng Huaren, vice chairman of
the NPC Standing Committee, also met with the U.S. guests on Wednesday. The
Committee of 100 was founded in 1990 by a group of well-known Chinese Americans.
It has been engaged in promoting China-U.S. relations and cooperation.
Booming Guangdong is facing a huge
urban land shortage due to years of unlimited factory expansion. Guangdong is
home to tens of thousands of Hong Kong- and Taiwan-invested factories due to
years of attracting investors with low-cost and even free land. "Just 6 percent
of the urban land reserves remain undeveloped," said Wen Chunyang, an official
from the Guangdong Urban and Rural Planning and Design Institute. "[It] is
insufficient to sustain healthy and consistent economic growth." The province,
with nearly 100 million people, has been a dynamo of China's economic growth
since reforms started nearly 30 years ago. Last year, the province accounted for
an eighth of the country's overall economic growth. "With supply lagging far
behind demand, some local governments have started exploiting farmland for urban
construction projects," Wen said. "In the long run, this will have a detrimental
impact on the province." Cities have been the focus of official efforts to clean
factory smoke and car exhaust from often smoggy skies. But as richer areas have
set stricter controls, polluting factories have sprung up in the poorer
countryside. 
