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May 31, 2010
A month after university graduates were told to expect up to HK$2,000 less on joining the civil service from October, civil servants are being told they can expect pay hikes of up to 1.6 percent.
SKH St. Simon’s Leung King Nursery School in Tun Mun on Friday was advised to suspend classes for two weeks starting from Saturday after a hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) outbreak there. Centre for Health Protection director Thomas Tsang Ho-fai said six pupils at the school had symptoms of HFMD. But he said their symptoms were relatively mild. Tsang said a 34-year-old woman, whose three-year-old son was studying at SKH St. Simon’s Leung King Nursery School, had also showed symptoms of the disease. “She was now in a stable condition,”Tsang said. Another 43-year-old man also showed symptoms of HFMD. He too was in a stable condition. The man’s seven-year-old son also showed symptoms of HFMD. The boy was studying in the St Francis of Assisi’s English Primary School in Sham Shui Po. The school was also advised to suspend classes for two weeks from Friday. Tsang said it was now the peak season for HFMD and that he expected more children would be infected with the disease. “Children are particularly vulnerable to the disease. We will continue to closely monitor the situation.... I want to stress that there has been no mutation of the virus so far,” he said. The CHP has recorded over 200 HFMD cases since January.
The Taiwanese electronics company buffeted by a spate of suicides at its mainland factories said on Friday it will raise workers' salaries by an average of 20 per cent. Lending by Chinese banks may drop to 600 billion yuan (88 billion U.S. dollars) in May as the central government winds down its stimulus program and cools the property market to prevent the economy from overheating.
A landmark China-Taiwan trade deal scheduled to be signed in June could be pushed back as the two sides wrangle over import tariffs, the government and analysts said on Friday. China's one-time richest man and the founder of a major retail chain has appealed his 14-year jail sentence for bribery and insider trading, the Legal Daily reported on Friday.
Mission Hills Group, owner of the world's largest golf club in Shenzhen, will boost investment sixfold in a golfing complex on Hainan island which is undergoing a tourism and property boom. Mission Hills will spend a further 25 billion yuan (HK$28.5 billion) by adding more golfing, retail and community facilities at its five billion yuan club in Haikou, the island's capital, vice- chairman Ken Chu said. "We have confidence in the rise in Chinese consumption and them having a holiday mentality," Chu said. Mission Hills is switching its focus from foreigners to Chinese golfers as the nation's newly wealthy seek aspirational leisure pursuits, he added. Mission Hills opened a 12-course club, the world's largest, in 1992 in Shenzhen. May 29 - 30, 2010
Billionaire and Cheung Kong (Holdings) (SEHK: 0001) chairman Li Ka-shing said on Thursday his company and foundation might underwrite a total of US$200 million (HK$1.5 billion) of Prudential’s rights issue. “My foundation and the company (Cheung Kong) may set aside US$100 million each for the [Prudential] deal,” Li said . “It was a deal proposed by our finance manager and would be very small in dollar value,” he said, referring to the potential investment in Prudential’s US$21 billion rights issue.
One-third of Chinese billionaires have businesses in real estate and the companies are mainly located in big cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, a latest research report has found.
Mainland developer Longfor Properties has seen its contract sales drop by 40 per cent to 1.5 billion yuan (HK$1.7 billion) so far this month from April as buying interest is dampened by central government efforts to cool the market. The firm has sold 2.5 billion worth of properties in April. "With the market clouded by the uncertainties, property sales for the next two to three months will remain unchanged," chairwoman and chief executive Wu Yajun said. However, Wu said the developer had no immediate plans to offer discounts to perk up buying interest. Some developers have offered discounts in response to a sharp fall in sales since the April 16 crackdown on credit to the housing market, with measures that included higher initial down payments and tighter loan conditions for buyers of second homes. Guangzhou-based Evergrande Real Estate Group (SEHK: 3333) fired the first salvo in the latest discount war on May 5 when it said it was slashing prices in 40 projects in 20 cities by 15 per cent. Other developers followed suit and prices of units in projects being launched in Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing have been cut by as much as 19 per cent. Wu said the firm would release more projects in cities less affected by the austerity measures. She said property prices in the western region remained stable with sales mainly driven by end-users. Wu declined to comment if she thought Beijing would impose tougher measures in coming months, although she believes measures to contain spiralling home prices have started to take effect. She is confident Longfor will achieve its 24.8 billion yuan sales target this year. On land acquisitions, Wu said the firm was actively looking for opportunities but its land bank was sufficient to cover the next five to seven years. Shares of Longfor increased 3.48 per cent to close at HK$7.72.
May 28, 2010
The Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council is inaugurated in Taipei today and will kick off with talks with its Hong Kong counterpart on aviation rights and tariff exemptions. The planned talks, unprecedented on such an official basis between Taiwan and Hong Kong, would begin soon after the inauguration, its secretary general James Chu Shi said. "There are many topics, such as aviation rights, which require an official channel for talks, and also the tariff issue that the Hong Kong government has raised," Chu said. Talks on the current aviation pact, which will expire next month, have been done by Cathay Pacific Airways (SEHK: 0293) and the Taipei Airlines Association, because Hong Kong has avoided official contacts with Taiwan. That has changed thanks to warming cross-strait relations that resulted in Beijing largely lifting its hands off the Hong Kong government's dealings with Taipei. Official contacts between Taipei and Beijing have become more frequent since the mainland-friendly Ma Ying-jeou took office as president in May 2008. Last year Hong Kong and Taipei started discussing forming semi-official bodies that could represent them in mutual talks. Hong Kong set up the Hong Kong-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Co-operation and Promotion Council on April 1, reciprocated by the island officially opening its counterpart today. Both councils consist of senior government officials. Taiwan's council, Chu said, was set up within the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's top mainland-policy-planning body, under which he doubles as the director of Hong Kong and Macau affairs. He said the Taiwanese side would propose to discuss health and food safety issues, given that there were 2.86 million travellers between Taiwan and Hong Kong last year. "With such an intensive exchange of visits, there is a big concern about health." He said it was unlikely the two sides would cut flights, despite direct air links between Taiwan and the mainland. Hong Kong used to be a median port between Taiwan and the mainland before Taiwan forged direct links in late 2008. Chu also expressed welcome for any visit by Hong Kong's financial secretary, John Tsang Chun-wah, the honorary chairman of Hong Kong's body, who says he hopes to lead a delegation for economic talks. Chu said this could help increase official visits between the two sides.
China and the United States have launched an initiative aimed at allowing 100,000 Americans to study in China over the next four years and boosting other "people-to-people" exchanges. State Councillor Liu Yandong and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the agreement yesterday on the sidelines of the strategic and economic dialogue meeting in Beijing. "The relationship between our two countries will shape the 21st century. We want it to be positive, co-operative and comprehensive," Clinton said. Under the programme, which will see a 25 per cent increase in the number of Americans studying in China, Beijing will offer 10,000 scholarships for US nationals wanting to pursue their studies in Putonghua. Washington will offer the same number of scholarships for Chinese students wishing to study in the US. Liu said there were currently more than 300 million Chinese learning English, and about 100,000 Chinese students studying in the US, while about 20,000 US students were studying in China. Clinton and Liu also launched a series of consultations, expected to become annual, on "people-to-people" exchanges in the areas of education, culture, science, technology and sports.
China will levy a 5 per cent resource tax on crude oil and natural gas sales and a 2-5 per cent tax on coal in the Xinjiang region, raising over 2 billion yuan for the region. Datang International Power said on Wednesday it planned to raise up to 8 billion yuan (HK$9.12 billion) via a share placement to help fund several natural gas and power projects. Reports that mainland will cut export tax rebates on flat steel products is “rubbish”, a senior official at the China Iron and Steel Association said on Wednesday. Mainland’s Yingli Green Energy Holding Co has delayed a decision to open its first US plant because of market uncertainty, a potential snag in the company’s growth plans.
May 27, 2010
Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan said on Tuesday he was confident the central government would hear the pan-democrats’ views on political reform. Swire Pacific (SEHK: 0019), Citic Pacific (SEHK: 0267) and Cathay Pacific Airways (SEHK: 0293) said they have agreed to sell their combined 40 per cent stakes in Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (HACTL) and HACTL Investment Holdings (HIHL) for a total HK$2.56 billion. The stakes would be sold to existing shareholders of HACTL and HIHL, including Jardine, Matheson & Co, Wharf (Holdings) (SEHK: 0004), Hutchison Whampoa (SEHK: 0013)’s Mosgen, Hutchison Port Holdings and China National Aviation Corporation (Group), the statement said. Citic Pacific would sell its entire 10.002 per cent holding for HK$640 million. Swire would sell its 19.998 per cent interests for HK$1.28 billion, and aviation associate Cathay would sell its entire 10 per cent interest for HK$640 million, it said. It added that each company would use the proceeds for general working capital. The sale of interests in HACTL by Cathay fulfils an undertaking made to the Airport Authority Hong Kong in March 2008, when the company was awarded a franchise to invest, construct and operate a new air cargo terminal at Hong Kong International Airport, Swire and Cathay said in a separate statement. Cathay, a unit of Swire Pacific and 29.9 per cent held by Air China (SEHK: 0753), said it had resumed development of a HK$5.5 billion air cargo terminal in Hong Kong, suspended in January last year because of the economic downturn. “The new cargo terminal is an important investment not just for Cathay Pacific, but also for Hong Kong,” Swire and Cathay chairman Christopher Pratt said in the statement. “We are continuing to look at ways to develop our network and freighter frequencies out of Hong Kong.” China is pushing the country’s three major airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines (SEHK: 0670) and China Southern Airlines, to merge their cargo operations in a bid to claw back business in a market dominated by foreign carriers, the South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583) had reported earlier on Tuesday. The plan may put a cargo venture by Cathay Pacific and Air China at risk, according to a source familiar with the cargo talks. A Cathay spokeswoman said a preparation team for the cargo venture had been set up since March and its target of having the joint venture carrier become operational this summer remained unchanged. In February, Cathay agreed to take a 49 per cent stake in Air China Cargo. The venture is still subject to final approval by the central government. Shares of Cathay Pacific had dropped 3.5 per cent by midday break, Citic Pacific lost 3.9 per cent, and Swire was down 2.3 per cent, compared with a 2.4 per cent fall in broader Hang Seng Index. Hong Kong-listed shares of other airlines were also under pressure. China Southern was down 3.9 per cent, Air China was off 3.3 per cent, and China Eastern had dropped 7.2 per cent.
China Telecom, the country’s largest fixed-line operator, said it expects this year’s fixed-line revenue to fall, as users continue to migrate to mobile services.
May 26, 2010
Urgent talks to contain a government debt crisis in Europe has forced the French finance minister to postpone the ratification of a bilateral tax treaty between France and Hong Kong.
HK's thirst for wine increases - Hongkongers drank 1.4 million more bottles of wine last year than in 2008, amid cheaper prices and the removal of the wine duty, an annual survey shows. The lure of more affordable alcohol, coupled with a booming fine wine auction business, was responsible for the increase in wine consumption. Last year, more than 10 million bottles of wine were sold in Hong Kong, up 16 per cent by volume and 11 per cent by value, according to the Nielsen Co survey. The government scrapped its 40 per cent duty on wine in 2008. "In 2009, we have seen an obvious price polarisation within the wine categories, with a stronger skew towards wines priced below HK$130 per bottle. This segment has outgrown premium wines in the past year with its volume increasing 21 per cent. This phenomenon echoes back to the sentiment of frugal consumers during the first half of 2009," Oliver Rust, managing director of the Nielsen Co Hong Kong, said. Price comparisons show the average price per bottle last year was 12.30 per cent cheaper than in 2007. Given continuing improvements in the local economy this year, the demand for wine was expected to remain robust, Rust said. The consumption of red wine by volume jumped 16 per cent last year, compared with the year before, with Australian and American vintages responsible for much of the growth. Sales of white wine, mostly from New Zealand and Chile, grew 12 per cent while sparkling wines rose 7 per cent. Rust also pointed to the strong emerging trend of wine being purchased as gifts for family and friends during festive seasons. Almost one-third of annual wine sales took place during over the Lunar New Year holiday and Christmas, the survey found. The findings are based on weekly data compiled by major supermarkets, drug stores and convenience stores.
Guangzhou Automobile Group's HK$25 billion privatization bid for Denway Motors received a crucial vote of support yesterday from the target company's largest minority shareholder. May 25, 2010
HSBC has no plan to change its China expansion plans due to Beijing’s efforts to cool the country’s economy, the chief executive Michael Geoghegan said in Hong Kong.
HSBC Holdings' (0005) Stephen Green will step down as chairman this year as part of the bank's most dramatic board overhaul in decades, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
Beijing struck a conciliatory note in talks with the United States on Monday by vowing to spur domestic demand and keeping a guarded opening to exchange rate reform.
General Motor’s and its mainland partners are expanding their mini-van and pick-up truck venture, a move which would boost capacity by nearly 50 per cent by the end of 2012, the venture said in a statement. SAIC-GM-Wuling, a three-way tie-up between GM, SAIC Motor Corp and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile, is adding capacity of 210,000 units to an existing facility in the southern city of Liuzhou, which has a designed capacity of 590,000 units annually, the statement said. Expansion of the venture’s facility in the eastern city of Qingdao, will also start soon, raising the designed capacity to 510,000 units by 2012 from 300,000 units now, it said.
Consumer sector-focused China Resources Enterprise on Monday posted a 794 per cent rise in first-quarter profit, boosted by growing sales in its supermarket and brewery operations. Marriott International aims to double the number of Marriott brand hotels in mainland within five years and intends to introduce a lower-priced hotel brand in the near future.
May 24, 2010
Asian and European markets tumbled on Friday, extending a wave of selling amid growing fears that Europe’s debt crisis could spread and undermine global economic growth.
Web search king Google on Thursday showed off a risky attempt to marry the Web to television, chasing a dream that has eluded even archrival Apple. Hong Kong tycoons have emerged as among the biggest supporters of a record US$21 billion rights issue by Britain’s Prudential, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said overnight on Thursday. Britain’s largest insurer, raising cash to fund the planned US$35.5 billion acquisition of US insurance giant AIG’s Asian life arm, has pulled in a long list of banks and institutions to underwrite the deal. But Prudential, its focus shifting eastwards under the deal to become the largest foreign-owned insurer in Asia, has also wooed Asian investors in the hope of diversifying a UK-centric shareholder register. Most institutions that agreed to sub-underwrite the deal were UK funds that already make up the bulk of Prudential’s shareholders, but Asian investors were the second-largest group, with Asia’s tycoons leading the charge, the sources said. Prudential would benefit from money already set aside when AIG was considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of its Asian unit, chief executive Tidjane Thiam said on Monday when the prospectus for the deal was released. The sources did not comment on local media reports that Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and property tycoon Cheng Yu-tung were among those on the list. Hong Kong’s richest, including Li and Cheng, stepped in to underwrite a large chunk of HSBC (SEHK: 0005, announcements, news) ’s cash call last year. The lead banks on the deal are Credit Suisse, JP Morgan Cazenove and HSBC. The sub-underwriting closed on Monday, hours after the Prudential released the delayed details of its rights issue and offer, and the sources said demand was considerably in excess of supply with “some scaling back”. Prudential’s bankers are hosting meetings for the sub-underwriters on Friday and Tuesday in London, with attendance from Thiam and other top executives, one of the people said. Asian institutions are also well represented among the sub-underwriters, the sources said. Qatar Holding, the prime vehicle for strategic and direct investments by the State of Qatar, and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, which owns a 0.5 per cent stake in Prudential according to Reuters data, are named in the prospectus as underwriters. One of the sources said GIC was expected to be looking to raise its stake. A separate source familiar with the matter said Singapore state investor Temasek has been in talks about taking a stake in the insurer, but has not made a final decision. Temasek declined to comment. Prudential, which is listing in Hong Kong and Singapore, said earlier this week it would raise the fee paid to institutions sub-underwriting the deal. “It’s a big transaction and people are scrutinising the prospectus,” one of the sources said. “Some investors still require more analysis for comfort.” The unexpected delay to Prudential’s offer, after Britain’s Financial Services Authority forced it to tweak its US$35.5 billion offer for AIA in an unprecedented last-minute delay, has irked many of its shareholders. Prudential’s management has since been on a roadshow to woo back investors to both the rights issue and the deal itself.
Beijing set out a plan yesterday to revive the far western region of Xinjiang in the hope that an economic boom will end incessant ethnic strife and begin a new round of development in the remote backwater. At a conference chaired by President Hu Jintao and attended by top Communist Party officials that ended on Wednesday, the central government pledged to raise the per capita gross domestic product in Xinjiang to the national average by 2015, and eliminate poverty throughout the region by 2020. Xinjiang's per capita GDP last year was US$2,898, compared with the national average of US$3,600, and ranked higher only than Inner Mongolia in China. A court in Chongqing upheld the death penalty on Friday of a former police chief convicted of taking bribes from local gang leaders.
The central government has disclosed widespread corruption linked to its 4 trillion yuan (HK$4.54 trillion) stimulus spending package, announcing that more than 3,000 officials have been punished for taking bribes, embezzlement and other abuses. Yesterday's announcement confirmed public fears that the flood of spending and a stimulus-linked easing of curbs on real estate development would fuel the chronic corruption that Communist Party leaders admit is the most serious threat to their power. Deputy Supervision Minister Hao Mingjin told a news conference that 3,058 officials, including several mayors, had received penalties ranging up to life in prison for offences related to the stimulus spending or to construction projects.
May 22 - 23, 2010
Hong Kong civil servants will likely get a get a pay rise this year after new statistics released on Thursday showed private sector wages were rising. The 2010 Pay Trend Survey (PTS) Report reported that wages in the private sector had increased by 0.9 to 2.2 per cent from April 2009 to April 2010. Annual pay adjustments for civil servants and government workers are usually based on movements in the PTS. PTS committee alternate chairman Barry Cheung Chun-yuen met civil service unions on Thursday afternoon to discuss the latest findings. “There was more transparency when we were conducting the survey this year,” Cheung said after the meeting. “We believe the result accurately reflected pay trends in the job market over the year,” he added. The survey was conducted by the PTS committee from April 2 2009 to April 1 2010. It covered 106 companies and more than 170,000 employees over the 12-month period. Among the companies, 81 employed over 100 staff. Over the year, the wages of the lower-paid staff increased by 0.9 per cent, 1.29 per cent in the mid-range and 2.2 per cent for high earners, the report showed. According to the findings, civil servants in lower, middle and upper bands could see pay rises of up to 0.16 per cent, 0.56 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. “Besides the results of the survey, the government would also take into account Hong Kong’s economic situation, the government’s fiscal position, the cost of living and civil service morale, before deciding the 2010-2011 civil service pay adjustment,” the report said. Hong Kong Senior Government Officers Association vice-chairman Philip Kwok Chi-tak said he was disappointed with the results. “Compared with the 5.38 per cent pay cuts we received last year, we expected a higher percentage of increases this year,” Kwok said. A spokesman for the Disciplined Services Consultative Council said “Our council will hold a meeting next week to study the validity of the report,” he added. The survey is subject to verification by the PTS committee on May 27. After that, the survey results will be submitted to the government.
HK signs two new tax treaties, aiming to boost trade and finance - Hong Kong will add France and Austria to the five countries it has full taxation agreements with, on Tuesday.
Beijing disclosed widespread corruption on Thursday linked to its 4 trillion yuan (US$586 billion) stimulus, announcing that thousands of officials have been punished for taking bribes. China Construction Bank said it may delay its planned US$11 billion capital-raising to early next year due to uncertain market conditions. Mainland’s No 3 game operator NetEase.com, which posted a softer-than-expected quarterly profit rise of 8.5 per cent, is looking at more weakness in the months ahead. China may need to raise interest rates if the country’s real estate market continues to show signs of overheating, the Asian Development Bank’s head said on Thursday. PetroChina has halted plans to buy half of its parent’s assets in an overseas exploration and development venture due to income tax and oil price concerns.
May 21, 2010
Five pan-democrat legislators re-elected in Sunday's by-elecions were sworn-in at the Legislative Council on Wednesday for another term.
A government economist has said Beijing should drive a "hard bargain" with the US on the yuan issue, ahead of key Sino-US talks next week likely to focus on economic concerns. A gas explosion has rocked a coal mine in northern China, killing 10 miners and leaving one missing, state media reported Wednesday, citing work safety officials.
May 20, 2010
Consumer goods exporter Li & Fung (SEHK: 0494) said on Tuesday revenues from its onshore businesses in the US and Europe were set to reach a total US$4 billion this year, meeting its three-year target. The consumer goods exporter, which supplies retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, expects revenue from its onshore US business to reach US$3 billion this year, triple 2007 levels, group managing director William Fung said on the sidelines of a shareholder meeting in Hong Kong. Fung also expects revenue from its European onshore business to reach US$1 billion this year. Li & Fung is targeting annual turnover of US$20 billion under its three-year plan for 2008-2010, of which US$16 billion will come from the core sourcing business and US$4 billion from onshore businesses in the US, Europe, and China, and a core operating profit of US$1 billion. “We haven’t changed our targets. They are difficult but we are working hard to achieve them,” Fung said. With an about US$1 billion war chest for merger and acquisitions after its recent US$400 million note issue, the company aims to grow its onshore businesses in the United States and Europe as well as its cosmetics, beauty and skincare businesses through acquisitions, Fung said. Last week, the company said it was seeking acquisitions in the footwear and cosmetics industries. The exporter had previously expressed confidence a strong M&A pipeline and a return of consumer demand would underpin its bullish outlook for this year, and it forecast a rise in future profitability as it moves to cut costs. Li & Fung saw little impact from the current weak euro as some 95 per cent of its deals are settled in US dollars, but said the debt crisis in Europe may affect its clients, with the impact not likely to be seen until the end of this year or next year. “Our direct impact [from the Europe debt crisis] will not be big. But as the situation continues, and as the euro and pound remain weak, it may have an impact on the purchasing power of our clients in Europe … we have to see how long the situation will last” Fung said. He also pointed out that a weak euro may support exports from Europe, aiding a recovery. “Since the overall atmosphere is on a recovery trend, we don’t worry much,” Fung added. The exporter holds a positive view of its growth this year helped by a strong recovery in United States, which accounts for more than 75 per cent of its business. “We will have strong growth this year,” said Bruce Rockowitz, president, adding the US market was “definitely driving our business in 2010”. The stock gained 1.59 per cent in afternoon trade on Tuesday, against a 1.09 per cent rise in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. Hong Kong's unemployment rate stood at 4.4 per cent in February-April – the same as in January-March, new figures released on Tuesday showed.
Australia’s Treasury secretary urged against changes to a planned 40 per cent tax on mining profits, as global ratings agency Moody’s warned it could drive major companies away.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will visit Japan for three days from May 30, the foreign ministry in Tokyo said on Tuesday. Wen will arrive the day after a summit with Japan, China and South Korea on the South Korean island of Jeju. He is to meet his Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama in Tokyo on May 31, and Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on June 1. It will be the highest-level Chinese visit to Japan since President Hu Jintao went there in May 2008 and Wen joined a summit in Fukuoka in December 2008. Former Japanese premier Taro Aso visited China in April last year, and Hatoyama, who visited Beijing in October, is also planning to attend Japan Day at the Shanghai World Expo in June. Thirty electrically powered taxis have entered service in Shenzhen, the first mainland city to have them. After the success of a pilot programme early this month, in which 10 E6 electric cars made by Shenzhen-based BYD were put into service in the city, a further 20 cabs were handed over to Pengcheng Taxi Co yesterday. BYD spokeswoman Xu Feng said customers and drivers had given positive feedback during the two-week pilot and the firm planned to put 70 more E6s into service by next month. BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu said in Hong Kong in March that the company planned to make 100 E6 taxis this year. He said it was a crucial step for BYD because the further development of electric cars would depend on how well the taxis worked. Xu said the cabs could go about 300 kilometres on a single four-hour charge, which would be convenient for taxi drivers in urban areas. "Their business will not be disturbed, because they can recharge the cars at night," she said. But Xu admitted that the lack of charging stations would restrict the demand for electric cars in Shenzhen and said BYD hoped the local government and power companies could work together to solve the problem for the firm and its customers. A staff member at Pengcheng, a subsidiary of Shenzhen Bus Group, said the 10 drivers who tested the cabs had found them very easy to operate, as they did not need to change gears.
ZhongHang Huiteng Windpower Equipment Co, mainland’s largest maker of wind turbine blades, has targeted growth abroad, primarily in the United States, as it eyes public listing. Top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp (SEHK: 0386) sees surging oil imports from Brazil as a 2009 deal kicks in involving a US$10 billion mainland loan in return for assured oil supplies for a decade from the South American nation. Sinopec executives said on Tuesday at a press conference that oil imports from Brazil should reach 200,000 barrels a day next year, a 43 per cent increase from this year as mainland’s overall crude imports reach new highs.
May 19, 2010
Despite the re-election of five pro-democrat lawmakers in Sunday's by-elections, a record low turnout has dealt a blow to a campaign touted as a referendum on universal suffrage.
A 45-year-old minibus passenger was killed and six people were injured after a minibus and a taxi crashed in Sha Tin on Monday morning. Cathay Pacific (SEHK: 0293) Airlines on Monday said three of its Europe-bound flights had to be diverted, and six flights between Hong Kong and London cancelled as volcanic ash from Iceland was once again disrupting airport traffic in Britain. Two Cathay Pacific flights, CX253 and CX257, scheduled to depart from Hong Kong to London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday were cancelled. Four flights scheduled to depart from London to Hong Kong on Monday - including CX252, CX 250, CX256 and CX254 - were also cancelled. “The two late night flights to London on Monday, CX251 and CX255 on Tuesday are also likely to be affected and updates will be available on Monday afternoon,” a spokesman for the airline said.
Britain’s Prudential launched its US$21 billion rights issue on Monday, finally allowing the insurer to push ahead with its acquisition of AIG’s Asian insurance business.
A Shanghai court on Monday rejected the appeals of three former Rio Tinto employees, convicted in March of receiving bribes and commercial espionage, Xinhua news agency said.
The yuan has risen strongly against
the euro and this appreciation will harm mainland exporters, a Commerce Ministry
official said on Monday.
May 18, 2010
Continuous rainstorms in southeastern China have washed away at least four bridges and a river levee in Hunan and thousands of buildings in Jiangxi , Fujian , Guangdong and Guangxi.
May 17, 2010
Three international enterprises - including one owned by Indonesian tycoon Sukanto Tanoto - are planning to list in Hong Kong, as the city's bourse continues to lure multinational firms. Hong Kong's economy has clawed its way back after being battered by the global downturn - with first-quarter GDP up 8.2 per cent to pre-crisis levels.
Medical equipment supplier China Renji Medical Group has sacked its chief executive, blaming him for an HK$81 million loss on a deal it struck two years ago.
May 16, 2010
State-owned conglomerate Sinochem Group is seeking a five-year syndicated loan of up to US$1 billion in Hong Kong, as tighter credit controls at home push mainland companies.
TV and media veteran Garmen Chan Ka-yiu will lead the marketing and publicity efforts of the West Kowloon arts hub. Chan, currently Cable TV's external affairs vice-president and a former journalist, will become executive director of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority's marketing, communications and programming department in August. Chan and authority board member Sin Chung-kai confirmed the appointment yesterday. The authority is understood to have approached a number of senior executives in the local film and television industries but they turned down the offer. It also approached a candidate now with a statutory body, who has experience with museum projects and city planning. But the candidate declined the offer after being introduced to the authority's chief executive, Graham Sheffield, last month. Art critic Oscar Ho Hing-kay said it was understandable that experienced executives from the film and television industries would be sought to head the arts hub's marketing as they had a network of contacts. But because of the artistic content involved, arts marketing was a complicated subject and would require a very good team effort to achieve the best exposure while getting the artistic meaning across. Veteran public relations consultant Andrew Fung Wai-kwong said the post required sensitivity in handling local politics because developers' interests were involved. "The person should not be just a messenger. His media background might not help when it comes to controversies involving public interest," he said. Meanwhile, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department will groom 10 young graduates during the first two years of its inaugural trainee programme due to start by the end of the year. Museum of Art chief curator Tang Hoi-chiu said that each candidate, who would receive a salary of HK$12,300 a month, would be rotating through various departments from curatorship to fund-raising and audience development. Ho said the move by the department, which runs most of Hong Kong's museums, should be appreciated as, despite the emergence of a new generation of curators in recent years, not many had experience.
Billionaire financier George Soros invested last year in Alibaba.com, becoming the third-largest shareholder in the operator of mainland’s largest e-commerce site.
Billionaire financier George Soros invested last year in Alibaba.com, becoming the third-largest shareholder in the operator of mainland’s largest e-commerce site.
May 15, 2010
The return of expatriate executives to Hong Kong has increased leasing demand for high-end residential units as well as serviced apartments, according to property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).
The Broadcasting Authority has given Asia Television two weeks to respond to inquiries over the company's shareholding structure, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan said yesterday. The average occupancy rate of Macao's hotel sector reached 78.2 percent in March 2010, with four-star hotels leading at 84.6 percent, according to the figures released Thursday by Macao's Statistics and Census Service ( DSEC). At the end of March 2010, the total number of available guest rooms in local hotel sector increased by 10.4 percent year-on-year to 19,408 rooms, the DSEC figures indicated. A total of 641,987 guests checked into hotels and guest-houses in March 2010, an increase of 7.6 percent over March 2009, with the majority coming from the Chinese mainland (52 percent) and Hong Kong (20.4 percent). The average length of stay of hotel guests increased by 0.1 night to 1.5 nights, the figure showed.
About 40 percent of new loans in the first quarter went to local government bodies, said an economist with the State Council's Development Research Center (DRC), with analysts warning that a potential crisis is looming. Most polled say local govts behind high realty prices May 14, 2010
Cathay Pacific Airways (SEHK: 0293) has resumed development of a HK$5.5 billion air cargo terminal in Hong Kong, the company’s chairman said on Wednesday. “The main contract for this development has been let and we are on schedule for opening in 2013,” chairman Christopher Pratt said in Hong Kong. He added that by that time the company’s cargo fleet would have added another 10 Boeing 747-8 aircraft.
Hong Kong has reported a decline in the number of stray cats and dogs being caught in recent years, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said on Wednesday. Some 11 per cent of 2,234 Standard Chartered Bank customers who bought Lehman Brothers equity-linked notes were considered unsuitable to invest in the structured products, lawmakers were told. That works out at about 245 customers who were classified as having different levels of risk tolerance from what was needed to invest in the equity-linked notes. "Procedurally, it could be possible that, when a client went to a branch or learned about ELN products from other sources, the client might still proceed to buy such products," said Benjamin Hung Pi-cheng, chief executive of Standard Chartered's Hong Kong operations. In such cases, the client would have to be told that the equity-linked note was not part of the list of suitable products and then declare that he was still going ahead with the purchase, Hung said. A list of suitable investment products is compiled based on the client's responses to nine questions asking about investment objectives, risk appetite and other details. Lawmakers are seeking further details of those clients who were deemed unsuitable to invest in the notes. Hung was testifying for the second time before the Legislative Council subcommittee investigating the Lehman Brothers minibond debacle. Hong Kong investors lost billions of dollars on minibonds guaranteed by Lehman when the Wall Street giant went bankrupt in September 2008. Minibonds are not corporate bonds but high-risk, credit-linked derivatives. They are marketed as proxy investments in well-known companies. Equity-linked notes are debt instruments, usually a bond, that base their performance on the return of the underlying equity. The subcommittee hopes to gather evidence from six banks involved in selling the minibonds by the end of the Legco year next month. A settlement offer by 16 banks to buy back soured minibonds from about 25,000 investors meant those who accepted the terms would recoup between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of their initial investments.
The United States is unlikely to accept China's market economy status (MES) before 2016 and both nations should act according to World Trade Organization (WTO) norms when launching trade remedy cases against each other, Susan G Esserman, a former deputy US trade representative, told China Daily.
The mainland's media watchdog announced yesterday that it would transfer a part of its film censorship power to provincial-level authorities from July 1, its website said. SMIC, mainland’s largest chipmaker, could climb out of the red by the end of the year on an operating basis, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
May 13, 2010
Hard-pressed parents will not have to fork out more cash for most textbooks in the new school year after two leading publishing associations said their members agreed to freeze prices. The two groups - the Anglo-Chinese Textbook Publishers Organization and Hong Kong Educational Publishers Association - said 57 textbook publishers will keep prices unchanged to alleviate the financial burden on parents. The Education Bureau, meanwhile, has decided to postpone for a year implementation of a separate pricing scheme for textbooks and learning/teaching resources, which are at present bundled. The bureau's move, however, frustrated parents who hoped costs would have been reduced with the planned "debundling" policy. The bureau yesterday issued the list of recommended textbooks for schools. The list revealed that the prices of about 3,000 textbooks and learning materials will be frozen. Prices of just six course books will rise. The two associations said falling student numbers, education reforms and inflation have led to an increase in the cost of textbooks. But, concerned about the burden on parents, they called on members to show social responsibility. A spokesman for the bureau said it "welcomed the exercise of restraint" by association members when setting textbook prices. On the debundling policy, the spokesman said textbook publishers may need time to resolve problems in its implementation. These include copyright issues and a lack of willingness by schools to buy teaching materials after certain publishers provide aids free to schools. "The bureau, after thorough consideration, has decided to postpone the implementation of the debundling policy for a year," he said. A circular was issued to schools advising them neither to solicit free teaching materials and floral baskets from textbook publishers nor ask them to donate equipment or place advertisements in school publications to help publishers reduce costs, which in turn may help reduce prices. The Consumer Council welcomed the price freeze, saying that it helps relieve the financial burden on parents. It hopes the bureau will implement the debundling policy as soon as possible. "Parents have shouldered the textbook price increments in previous years. We believe the debundling policy would help reduce prices," a spokesman said. Hong Kong Alliance of Parents' Associations chairwoman Chan Siu-chu acknowledged the price freeze but was disappointed with the delay in implementing the debundling policy. According to the Consumer Council, prices for secondary school textbooks rose to a 10-year high of 7.4 percent in 2008, while for primary school books they rose 6.6 percent. Prices fell 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, last year, it said.
Mainland’s coking coal logistics company Winsway, partly owned by Hopu Investments, has appointed two banks for its up to US$800 million initial public share offering in Hong Kong, sources close to the deal said on Tuesday. Winsway had hired Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank to finalise plans for its IPO in the fourth quarter, the sources said. Hopu, an influential China fund founded by dealmaker Fang Fenglei, who helped Goldman set up its China investment banking joint venture, had bought a US$110 million slice of Winsway, sources told Reuters in April. The banks, Hopu and Winsway all declined to comment.
China Mobile said on Tuesday it has set up a unit in Taiwan, paving the way for its long-stalled purchase of a 12 per cent stake of Taiwanese mobile carrier Far EasTone. Electronic components distributing giant Avnet said on Tuesday it would sell Huawei Technologies products, helping the mainland’s top telecoms equipment maker expand its reach. The Japanese government plans to relax the restrictions on income conditions for granting visas to individual Chinese tourists as of July 1 in a bid to attract more Chinese to Japan, Kyodo News reported Monday, citing government officials. Under the plan, Japan will lower the threshold of an annual income of 250,000 yuan for an individual Chinese tourist to 60,000 yuan, said the officials. And the government will make decisions to issue individual tourist visas by comprehensively judging applicants' income and employment status. According to statistics released by the Japan Tourism Agency, the number of Chinese tourist arrivals stood at 1.01 million in 2009, up by 0.6 percent year-on-year.
May 12, 2010
China CITIC Bank said it will sell
16.5 billion yuan (HK$18.79 billion) worth of subordinated bonds soon to meet
the regulator's requirement for a higher capital adequacy ratio.
The death toll from fierce storms and torrential rains battering southern China has risen to at least 70 people with tens of thousands homeless, state media reported on Sunday.
May 11, 2010
Legislative Council president Tsang Yok-sing said his remarks at a closed-door meeting with 10 pan-democrats had been "quoted out of context".
A tough examination that all overseas-trained nurses must pass in order to practise their profession in the city is behind the serious nurse shortage, a Filipino medical worker says.
Foreign expo pavilions face wrecker's ball - The bureau spokesman said it was customary to demolish all temporary pavilions and there had been no change of policy. All foreign pavilions were temporary, he said. Expo Bureau vice-director Zhu Yonglei said he had read the reports but that there would be no voting and the bureau had never thought of keeping any of the foreign pavilions, the Guangzhou Daily said. But mainland websites are inviting users to vote for their favourite pavilions. And an official at the Luxembourg pavilion said she and her colleagues were very surprised to see reports that the expo bureau had denied the possibility of foreign pavilions remaining long-term. "Two years ago when we submitted our pavilion design, they told us there was a kind of experts' committee to judge which foreign pavilions can stay forever. A year ago, the expo bureau sent us a note asking us whether we would like to join the competition to stay in China ... There was no other update from the bureau, so we thought this competition was in progress," said the official, who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "I don't think we're the only pavilion that was told of this competition. Over the past two years, I attended many expo meetings with staff from other countries' pavilions. The expo officials mentioned the competition several times," she said. The expert committee would judge mainly on architecture but would also consider cultural and other elements. The understanding that a competition does exist was echoed by the general commissioner of Spain's pavilion, who also said that no matter what the competition standard was, their pavilion was eligible to be selected to stay in China, the New Express reported. Sun Yuanxin , professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics' Institute for World Expo Economy, said foreign governments wanted their pavilions to stay to boost relations with China. Hong said a few foreign pavilions with outstanding design, environmental-protection or energy-saving features would remain but be moved outside Shanghai, according to a selection procedure, the Guangzhou Daily reported. Other countries are keen to see their pavilions stay, and some are already deciding where to move them to. Some cities had shown strong interest in having the French pavilion, said its director, Franck Serrano. "Our president, Nicolas Sarkozy, expressed the wish that the French pavilion be left in China forever when he met President Hu Jintao in 2007," Serrano said. "Mainland cities are fiercely competing to bring the best ones to their cities as a way to help them stand out." He said the French pavilion commission would determine to which city it would remove the pavilion based on what it would be used for. On the other hand, some foreignpavilions are not interested in permanent presence in China. The Japan pavilion will be pulled down and shipped back to Japan, the pavilion's spokeswoman said. Still, there may be nothing to worry about. Crystal Palace in London was supposed to be a temporary building for the 1851 Great Exhibition - the show that led to the World Expo movement - yet it survived until it burned down 1936. The Eiffel Tower, another supposedly temporary structure built for the World Expo in Paris in 1889 is still standing.
May 10, 2010
The government is proposing to expand the investigative power of the financial secretary's appointed inspectors and impose prison terms on people who refuse to co-operate with investigations.
Prepaid mobile-telephone connections in Hong Kong are poised to peak this year, driven by carriers' aggressive marketing to mainland visitors and foreign contract workers.
The Ministry of Commerce's attempts to encourage struggling exporters to seal supply deals with local retailers as a way of offsetting a slump in overseas shipments do not appear to be working. The difficulties of selling products to local stores, intellectual property theft, unattractive payments terms and the small orders involved make the domestic market unattractive even for companies still riding out the economic slump. Exporters signed deals worth US$34.4 billion with overseas buyers during the spring session of the Canton Fair, which closed on Wednesday, up 12.6 per cent from the trade fair's previous session six months ago. The volume of deals is 10.3 per cent behind the pre-financial crisis level in early 2008, the Ministry of Commerce said. But it did not disclose figures on how much business the manufacturers had secured from domestic buyers. That was despite an announcement that 8,000 large and medium-sized supermarket chains will be purchasing from manufacturers at the twice-a-year event. It had said 70 per cent of the exhibitors were interested in the trade-matching. Light shed on scaling the 'Great Firewall' - Eighty per cent of mainlanders scaling the "Great Firewall" there go past the government blocks on websites simply to get access to basic services such as Google.
May 9, 2010
Shares of skincare products retailer
L’Occitane International, the first French company listing in Hong Kong, fell
about 8 per cent on their US$708 million Hong Kong debut.
May 8, 2010
Florists get waft of sweet profits on Mother's Day - Florists are set to make a killing on Mother's Day because you will have to fork out HK$500 a bouquet to greet mom with carnations, roses or lilies on Sunday.
A former senior merchandiser working for a toy sourcing company in the United States was charged by the ICAC on Wednesday for accepting bribes of over HK$400,000 from two toy suppliers in Hong Kong, an ICAC spokesman said. Mak Chau-ping, 32, a former senior merchandiser of Dollar General Global Sourcing (DGGS) – a Hong Kong company that sources products for the US-based company DGGS, faces two counts of soliciting illegal advantages. One of the charges alleges that Mak had solicited bribes amounting to HK$415,284 from two toy suppliers in August 2008 as illegal rebates for him to make purchase orders with the two companies. Mak is also alleged to have solicited a payment of HK$19,349 from one of the two suppliers in December 2008 as a commission for him to place purchase orders with that supplier. Mak will appear at Kwun Tong Magistracy at 9.30am on Friday to make his plea. He has been released bail, pending his court appearance.
Every hour a baby is born in China with syphilis, as the world's fastest-growing epidemic of the disease is fuelled by the nation's booming economy, researchers n the US say. French carmaker PSA Peugeot has reached an initial agreement to set up a 50-50 vehicle manufacturing venture with China Changan Automotive Group.
China's biggest developers are borrowing record amounts in Hong Kong, taking advantage of lower interest rates to circumvent a lending crackdown at home. While banks in the mainland demand at least 5.2 percent in annual interest for three-to- five year money, the cost of credit in Hong Kong dollars has fallen to the lowest since November 2004. China Overseas Land & Investment (0688) agreed to an HK$8 billion loan in February that pays 1.45 percent at current market levels. "For property developers to keep growing in what is an extremely fragmented and competitive market they have to go offshore for funds," said Brayan Lai, a credit analyst at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. "It's one way to circumvent tight onshore credit." Syndicated borrowing by mainland developers in Hong Kong dollars jumped to HK$37.3 billion this year from HK$3 billion in the same period of 2009. Total lending in the city rose sixfold to HK$63 billion from HK$8.7 billion as mainland banks' share of the market fell to 21 percent from 29 percent, while yuan-denominated lending to mainland developers dropped by 25 percent. China Resources Land (1109) said late last month that it agreed to four loans with banks totaling HK$6.2 billion. Agile Property (3383), which has projects in 20 mainland cities and districts, borrowed US$125 million (HK$975 million) in January from a Bank of America Corp unit in Hong Kong. Shimao Property (0813) is seeking a US$400 million loan from Hong Kong units of banks including HSBC Holdings (0005) and Standard Chartered (2888). The loan may pay 3.1 percentage points more than LIBOR, said Nomura credit analyst Annisa Lee. "Companies are going to the syndicated loan market in Hong Kong because liquidity is strong and pricings competitive," Lee said. Shimao's US$350 million of 8 percent bonds due 2016 last traded at a yield of 6.58 percentage points more than Treasuries. Bond sales in Hong Kong may also pay dividends for companies betting on a revaluation of the yuan. May 7, 2010
The government was taking a tougher
stance against cases of cruelty to animals in Hong Kong, Health Secretary York
Chow Yat-ngok said on Wednesday.
Companies in Hong Kong saw a substantial increase in new business from the mainland in April, new data from the HSBC (SEHK: 0005) Hong Kong Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released on Wednesday showed. Forty-one per cent of respondents reported an increase in new work, crediting stronger economic conditions across the border in China. Private sector employment in the territory increased in April, marking the seventh month of increases. April’s rise in staffing levels was the highest since December 2007, the PMI data showed. Input costs also rose strongly, although at a slower pace than in March. April was the 10th consecutive month of purchase price increases. Prices charged by Hong Kong producers also increased last month, the strongest since July 2008. Respondents blamed rising input costs, according to the PMI figures. Overall, purchasing activity rose in April, reflecting the volume of new business for companies, and thus higher output requirements. This was the ninth increase in as many months. Commenting on the Hong Kong HSBC PMI system, Janus Chan, an economics analyst for HSBC said the latest data suggested increased business activity. “It is encouraging that Hong Kong’s PMI continued to strengthen in April,” Chan said in a statement. “China is still our major driver of new business, with the PMI sub-index rising to the series’ historical high. This will benefit employment and thus private consumption as well. “As demand increases, price pressure has also built. However, the modest underlying inflation in Hong Kong suggests this is still manageable,” Chan added. The PMI accurately indicated Hong Kong’s descent into recession in the third quarter of 2008. A PMI reading above 50 indicates growth in activity while below 50 signals contraction. The PMI survey compares business conditions with those a month earlier, based on data from 300 private Hong Kong companies in manufacturing, services, retail and construction. The data is collected by Britain-based Markit Group, and the report is sponsored by HSBC. Hong Kong's so-called "golden period" of trade fairs last month saw a 14.7 percent increase in buyers compared to last year, despite the air chaos caused by Iceland's volcanic ash cloud.
China supports international efforts to secure cyberspace but believes each nation's "Internet sovereignty" must be respected, a top Chinese official told a cyber security conference on Tuesday. “China, like many other countries, is very much concerned about cyber security,” said Liu Zhengrong, deputy director general of the Internet Affairs Bureau of China’s State Council Information Office. “China faces severe cyber security threats,” Liu told participants here in the Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit, a gathering of government and business leaders from some 40 countries hosted by the EastWest Institute think tank. “International co-operation is very much needed to safeguard international cyberspace,” Liu said. But, the Chinese official added, the “Internet sovereignty of each country needs to be respected” and “different national and cultural conditions” taken into account.
Mainland’s New Century Shipbuilding withdrew its US$560 million Singapore IPO after a complaint the firm left out critical information in its prospectus, sources said. Frustrated at being unable to get compensation in the mainland, four parents whose children were poisoned in the country's tainted milk scandal in 2008 are hoping to find justice in Hong Kong. Mainland restaurant chain operator Little Sheep Group said on Wednesday its directors and some shareholders are selling 4.34 per cent of the company’s shares for HK$187.8 million. The company said its shareholders, including four executive directors and 16 other individuals, are selling a total of 44.6 million shares at HK$4.21 each. Shares of Little Sheep fell 1.38 per cent to HK$4.28 in the afternoon trade. The shareholding of executive chairman Zhang Gang will be reduced to 2.42 per cent after the share sale from 3.06 per cent, while that of its controlling shareholder Possible Way will be unchanged at 29.97 per cent and Yum! Brand will also remain unchanged at 27.28 per cent, it said in the statement.
Property prices will rise less in
Taiwan than in Hong Kong and the mainland when the yuan is allowed to
appreciate, according to ING Financial Markets. Dutch real estate development and investment firm Redevco has its sights on property projects worth as much as two billion yuan (HK$2.27 billion) on the mainland as part of an aggressive expansion drive in Asia. "We are looking at several projects and hope to close a deal in the short term," Robert Lie, the managing director of Redevco Asia, said. He said Redevco had a €7.2 billion (HK$73.87 billion) portfolio across Europe, which it plans to increase to €10 billion in the next 12 months. "We have also set our sights on Asia as the second home market next to Europe. We will become very aggressive in the region and expand when the time is right," Lie said, adding that over the next five years he expected Asia would account for 20 to 25 per cent of the group's property portfolio, with more than half of the Asian investment on the mainland. "Currently, the percentage of Redevco's investment portfolio in Asia is below 5 per cent as we have only been active in the market for two years. However, we have laid the groundwork for further expansion and will escalate the speed of investing in the area accordingly," he said. Lie said Redevco was interested in acquiring shopping centres ranging from 50,000 to 120,000 square metres in size worth about one billion to two billion yuan each. The investment could be made either through partnership for new projects or acquiring existing ones in prime locations. Redevco was also interested in expanding in first- and second-tier cities such as Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Tianjin and Dalian. Although Beijing had imposed tough measures to cool the spiralling residential prices, valuations of quality retail properties remained strong, Lie said. "Robust retail spending has driven up the valuation of shopping malls," he said. Last year, the firm paid 750 million yuan to acquire a 50 per cent stake in a shopping centre in Wuhan to be built by Shui On Land (SEHK: 0272), marking its first investment on the mainland. Construction of the 109,000 sqmetre shopping centre will start in the fourth quarter.
May 6, 2010
Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Co has appointed Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan to finalise plans for its long-awaited initial public share offering in Hong Kong, aiming to raise up to US$1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, sources said on Tuesday.
Many of Hong Kong's oldest buses - the most visible source of the roadside pollution that still plagues the city even as regional air quality improves - will disappear from the roads this year. Kowloon Motor Bus, which runs the biggest fleet, will retire 288 buses introduced before Hong Kong adopted European emission standards for diesel buses in 1992 as part of a big upgrade. The Dental Council's move to set up an accreditation process for the University of Hong Kong dental school - the first official examination of standards since 1996 - was welcomed by the health minister yesterday. The accreditation, to be conducted in two years, would help improve standards, Secretary for Food and Health Dr York Chow Yat-ngok said. Beijing is considering setting out the path to universal suffrage, including reform for the 2016 Legco election - but only if the Hong Kong government's proposal for the 2012 election is passed first. Citic Securities, and France’s Credit Agricole have entered talks to create a broker and investment bank to chase growing opportunities in China and the Asia-Pacific region.
Despite huge queues causing backlogs of more than four hours at the most popular national pavilions, staff at the top attractions insist they are well prepared to handle the crowds. But some said they were negotiating with expo organisers on how to provide more protection against the elements. Franck Serrano, director of the France pavilion, said although they received an unexpected 100,000 visitors on Saturday, the expo's first day, the pavilion had "no problem" coping with the crush. "The queue keeps moving, so people actually spent less time waiting than they had expected." But he admitted that visitors had to wait two to three hours to get inside. "It is very routine that visitors at the expo have to queue for a long time for the popular pavilions," he said. "People are willing to queue." France is one of a clutch of striking pavilions - along with those of Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and the United States - that are the real honeypots for expo visitors, attracting swarms of people.
Huijin Investment, the state-owned
parent of mainland’s three biggest banks, said it would participate in their
fundraising plans in an apparent effort to ease market worries. Agricultural Bank of China plans to apply this week for what would be the world's largest IPO, with it looking to raise US$30 billion (HK$234 billion) in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
May 5, 2010
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung said on Monday the government did not have enough votes to pass its latest political reform package. A Hong Kong-registered cargo ship sank off China’s Shandong province on Sunday after colliding with an Indian-crewed freighter, but all crew members were rescued, Xinhua reported. The total value of Hong Kong retail sales in March 2010 increased by 19 per cent over March 2009 to HK$24.7 billion, provisional statistics released on Monday showed.
Russia’s Strikeforce Mining & Resources plans to raise between US$150 million and US$200 million from a Hong Kong initial public share offering, a source close to the deal said. Mainland lighting products supplier NVC Lighting plans to raise up to US$272 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering, a source close to the deal said on Monday. The company, which kicked off its marketing road show on Monday, was selling about 727 million shares, or 25 per cent of its enlarged share capital, at HK$2.03 to HK$2.90 each, the source said. The source, who has direct knowledge of the offering, was not authorized to speak on the record about the deal.
Hu Jintao will visit Moscow next weekend for ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
Building and engineering firm Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC) said that in three years it aims to double the proportion of income it earns from overseas markets.
May 4, 2010
The government underestimated its 2009-10 budget surplus by more than HK$12 billion, the most in at least a decade, official figures show. Almost HK$10 billion more in tax, land premium and stamp duty revenues and HK$2.2 billion in expenditure savings inflated the surplus from an estimated HK$13.83 billion to HK$25.9 billion. The government had initially projected a HK$39.9 billion deficit, with Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen insisting that the budget would be in the red. Over the past decade, the difference between the government's revised surplus estimate and the final result has ranged from about HK$3 billion to HK$11.6 billion. Conservative government forecasting means such differences are common, PricewaterhouseCoopers tax partner Marcellus Wong Yui-keung said. A year ago, government officials were worried about worsening budget deficits amid the global economic downturn. But stock and property market rallies helped boost stamp duties and land premiums. Salaries and profits tax levied on the healthy incomes earned in 2008 also contributed to the surplus. For the year to March 31, the government recorded HK$318.42 billion of revenue and spent HK$292.51 billion. In the month of March, expenditure exceeded revenue by HK$21.1 billion. The year's surplus increased the fiscal reserves to HK$520.27 billion, enough to cover 21 to 22 months of average government spending. Given the robust savings, Wong said there was an ongoing debate over what was considered a healthy level of reserves. For normal government expenditure, reserves equal to between six and 12 months of spending are usually sufficient.
May 3, 2010
Three Houston police officers have been suspended for entering the Chinese consulate in the city last week and arresting and beating up the deputy consul general, mainland media reported yesterday.
May 2, 2010
Skincare products retailer L’Occitane, the first French company to go public in Hong Kong, raised US$708 million after pricing its Hong Kong initial public share offering at top of the indicative range, a source said. L’Occitane International, with a market capitalisation of HK$22 billion, sold 364 million shares or 25 per cent of its enlarged share capital at HK$15.08 each compared with a range of HK$12.88 to HK$15.08, the source close to the deal said on Friday. Half of the offered shares are new and the remainder were sold by parent L’Occitane Groupe SA, which plans to use the proceeds to repay debt. The retail portion of the offering was about 160 times covered, the source said. The deal is being handled by CLSA, HSBC (SEHK: 0005) and UBS.
Mainland is expected to finish preparing rules this year allowing foreign companies to list in Shanghai and is considering letting offshore yuan be invested in the city’s capital markets, a senior Shanghai government official said on Friday. Shanghai, which aims to become a global financial hub within a decade, also plans to launch cross-border exchange-traded funds (ETF) this year and to allow foreign investment in local-currency private equity funds, said Fang Xinghai, director general of the Shanghai Financial Service Office. “We’re very confident that in terms of the size of the financial market, we can become one of the top three, perhaps, in the world this decade,” Fang said. “In terms of sophistication, the free flow of capital … we still have a lot of room to improve.” Shanghai is intensifying efforts to deregulate its capital markets to become an international financial centre by 2020 that can compete with New York and London. It took a landmark step this month with the launch of stock index futures, which offer limited participation initially but are set for steady expansion. Mainland’s securities regulator has prepared draft rules that will allow foreign investors to buy the futures under the country’s Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) scheme, sources familiar with the situation said on Friday.
China's biggest national news agency announced plans on Friday to launch its global, English-language television news network this week, part of efforts to expand the China government's media influence abroad. Starting on Saturday, China Xinhua News Network Corporation (CNC) will begin trial broadcasts of its English TV service around the clock, including news segments, feature stories, weather updates and special bulletins, Xinhua news agency said. The channel is officially set to launch on July 1. The agency did not immediately say what countries would receive the channel. “CNC will offer an alternative source of information for a global audience and aims to promote peace and development by interpreting the world in a global perspective,” Xinhua quoted its President Li Congjun as telling a launching ceremony in Beijing. In recent years, China has announced multibillion-dollar plans to raise the profile of state media abroad by expanding Xinhua, state broadcaster China Central Television and the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily. Chinese authorities have expressed disapproval of much of the international coverage of sensitive events in China such as human rights. They accuse international media organisations of being biased and focusing on negative news. In January, Xinhua began broadcasting TV programmes in Chinese in Asian and select European countries. Last year, CCTV began a 24-hour channel airing in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, reaching a total population of nearly 300 million people. Xinhua, a ministry-level body under the administration of the State Council, China’s cabinet, said it is transforming itself into a multimedia, worldwide news agency. All three state media outlets enjoy top-level party support and funding, along with virtual monopolies in certain sectors of their domestic markets. Despite China’s rapid economic growth and rising global influence, it has not experienced a freeing of the media. China has retained its authoritarian one-party political system with strict limits on freedom of speech and civil and political life. Australia’s foreign investment regulator has cleared Shell and PetroChina’s joint bid for Arrow Energy, the Queensland firm said on Friday.
May 1, 2010
HSBC and Hang Seng Bank have pledged to install keypad covers for all their ATMs by the end of next month after a dozen customers lost money in a scam. A Sheung Wan school that was barred from running a Primary One class has teamed up with a special needs charity in a HK$3.7 million fund-raising drive to run the class privately.
Leaders from 20 countries are due to gather in Shanghai today as the city prepares to raise the curtain on the biggest and most expensive World Expo in history. To outdo each other in impressing visitors to the World Expo in Shanghai, participating countries are putting on display their national treasures, many of which had never been taken abroad. The Little Mermaid statue from Denmark, Impressionist paintings and a Rodin sculpture from France, paintings by the Italian Renaissance master Caravaggio and other national treasures are part of the countries' bids to showcase their best. Entertainment will also be a major part of some pavilions' offerings. Among the 20,000-strong performances will be big names such as Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala from Italy, Russian singer Vitas and jazz pianist Herbie Hancock from the United States. Representatives of these pavilions see the higher profiles as a way to promote their countries' culture, as well as boost their tourism and economy. This is the first time, for example, The Little Mermaid has left Copenhagen since it was dedicated in 1913. Even during the six-day "soft opening" of the expo, thousands of visitors swarmed to the Denmark pavilion to view the lady from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, which is well known in China. Wang Jing , the pavilion's deputy director, said it was an honour to share the statue with tourists from all around the world. "Denmark has never valued an expo to such an extent. [Moving the statue] was meant as a cultural exchange, and in the meantime, it can be helpful to business and trade between [Denmark] and China," she said. The France pavilion will exhibit six paintings by Impressionist masters, such as Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh, and a sculpture by Pierre Auguste Rodin, all borrowed from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Italy is showing two paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Basket of Fruit and Boy With a Basket of Fruit. The Czech Republic removed two bronze Plaquettes of Good Fortune from Charles Bridge in Prague and installed them at the expo, and Nepal is displaying Buddhist relics. Luxembourg is also competing for Chinese people's attention by exhibiting the Gelle Fra (Golden Lady in English) statue, a national monument. Completed in 1923, the statue had never been out of the country. Professor Xu Mingqi , of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the expo was a good opportunity for mainland people to learn about other countries, since most of them have never gone abroad. While Google's mainland business has suffered from a quixotic stand against Beijing's internet censors, Baidu is reaping a mighty windfall from it. If Beijing does not speed up approvals for hydropower projects it may not meet its clean-energy goals for 2020, the China Electricity Council says.
April 30, 2010
Greece was pushed to the brink of a financial abyss and started dragging another eurozone country – Portugal – down with it, fuelling fears of a continent-wide debt meltdown. Anti-drug push `driving down narcotic crime' - Drug offences involving teenagers slid 40 percent in the first quarter of the year, amid a decline in overall crime, according to the security chief.
Unionists say they have the figures to back up their demand for minimum hourly pay of no less than HK$33, which they say is vital to halt a widening gap between rich and poor.
Swire Properties, which aims to raise up to US$2.7 billion from a Hong Kong IPO, has tapped Bank of China Group Investment for US$100 million worth of shares, sources said.
Mainland will place a moratorium on capital raising by real estate firms as part of a broader campaign to rein in property price rises, state media reported on Wednesday. The move could stand in the way of about 110 billion yuan (HK$125 billion) in share issues planned by 45 companies, unnamed sources close to the China Securities Regulatory Commission told the China Daily. The suspension will allow the Ministry of Land and Resources to examine whether companies have used illegal methods to manipulate market prices, the newspaper said. Forty-eight Chinese fishermen arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday, the first group to start work under a new agreement which shows rapidly improving ties between Beijing and Taipei. China's steel industry body will allow mills to sign individual supply deals with global miners, as it seemed to abandon efforts to preserve annual pricing. Sinopec (SEHK: 0386) plans to issue up to 20 billion yuan (HK$23 billion) worth of corporate bonds to repay bank loans and top up its war chest for overseas acquisitions, a report said on Wednesday. Asia’s largest oil refiner will issue the exchange-listed bonds on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in May, marking the country’s biggest issue of its kind. An official at Sinopec confirmed the fundraising plan but said the exact timing would depend on market conditions, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Sinopec officials were not immediately available to comment when contacted.
*News information are obtained via various sources deemed reliable, but not guaranteed
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Holidays Greeting from President Obama & Johnson Choi
An artist's impression of the
interior design of a suite in the TwoTwoSix project at Hollywood Road. A nearly
50-year-old tenement building on Hollywood Road in Sheung Wan is due to get a
new lease of life. Rather than knock down the vintage residential building or
tong lau and replace it with what he calls a "toothpick skyscraper", new owner
Alan Lo, a co-founder and executive director of developer Blake's, says he will
refurbish it into a "hip" development with just five large-sized apartments.
"One of the biggest draws of the area is its sense of community and village-like
quality. Walk the streets and you find a mix of neighbourhood restaurants,
cafes, antique shops, high-end stores and boutiques," Lo said. "I would like to
do something that will maintain that character rather than build a toothpick
skyscraper." Lo and his partner Darrin Woo acquired the old five-storey building
in 2008 for HK$50 million and their project, named TwoTwoSix after its street
address on Hollywood Road, will be their first development. Lo, 30, an architect
by training, and Woo, 33, a town planner, set up the firm in 2007 with a vision
of reviving local neighbourhoods by celebrating an area's history and character,
and incorporating this rich heritage into their properties. Their company's
name, Blake's, reflects this philosophy and is derived from Blake Garden, the
name of a Sheung Wan park. "It is an old building and we will need to make
extensive structural changes to ensure the safety, and add a lift, which is a
basic requirement for modern users. The refurbishing cost will be as much as
creating a new building," Lo said. Lo is also a co-founder of Press Room Group,
which opened the Pawn restaurant in Wan Chai. The restaurant was established in
a renovated pawnshop. Woo, executive director of the company, said the Hollywood
Road building was formerly owned by a single landlord, who leased out 15 units -
three on each floor. Given the demographics, the area was dominated by smaller
flats of about 500 sqft. "Our project will be in a good position, supplying
larger units." With only one residence per floor and only five in the building,
the partners believe the development will appeal to like-minded individuals who
share an appreciation for beauty and design integrity. They have teamed up with
Ilse Crawford - who heads Studioilse in London with clients such as Gucci Group,
Volvo and Marks & Spencer - to design TwoTwoSix. Woo said the units would have
an efficiency rate of 70 per cent, as the building only had five units and each
would have to share a higher proportion of common area. But with one unit per
floor and an area of 1,280 to 1,450 sqft each, the five apartments would be
spacious, he said, with enough room for a second bedroom. Given its proximity to
Central, the project will target young couples who work in the core business
district and couples from overseas looking for a second home in Hong Kong. Lo
said the units were expected to be available for sale in November and would be
priced in line with deals done at new projects in the surrounding area. In
March, units at nearby Island Crest sold for between HK$11,000 and HK$19,000 per
square foot, which would price the units at TwoTwoSix at about HK$14 million.
Li
Ka-shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa (SEHK: 0013), is confident the Hong
Kong-based conglomerate's business this year will be better than 2009 despite
the European debt crisis. "The world is getting smaller and any nation failing
will have an impact on the rest of the world," he said after the general
meetings of his two corporate flagships - Cheung Kong (Holdings) (SEHK: 0001)
and Hutchison. "But I am not overly pessimistic." He said the company's "retail
operations in Europe will see profit slightly affected by the weakening euro,
but the impact will not be significant as it is made up by the Asia operations".
"I remain confident that the businesses [of Hutchison] this year are highly
likely to be better than last year," he said. Hutchison Whampoa operates in 54
countries with investments in ports, telecommunications, retail and
infrastructure businesses. Li, Hong Kong's richest man, said he might buy shares
in Agricultural Bank of China's initial public offering and more land in the
city, betting China would withstand the impact of Europe's debt crisis. China's
economy is "looking good" and the Hong Kong property market is a safe long-term
bet for homebuyers, the 81-year-old billionaire said. Li, known as "Superman"
for his investment acumen, correctly forecast in 2007 that China's stock- market
bubble would burst and last year predicted the rally in Hong Kong home prices.
Li said Husky Energy, the Calgary oil producer of which he is a controlling
shareholder, planned to spin off its Asian operations for a separate listing in
Hong Kong. "The plan is not yet finalised but it would be a benefit on all
fronts if the Asian business is listed," he said. In March, Hutchison managing
director Canning Fok Kin-ning indicated Husky could complete the separate
listing of its Asian assets this year. Oil prices would pick up when the economy
stabilised, Li said, adding that Husky would continue to develop the oil sands
business. Commenting on the Hong Kong property market, Li said people who could
afford to buy, could consider buying. Inflation would follow after the European
debt crisis stabilised. Cheung Kong sold HK$12.5 billion worth of flats in the
city during the first four months of the year, Li said. Shares of Cheung Kong
rose 2.28 per cent to HK$87.5 yesterday while Hutchison climbed 3.11 per cent to
HK$48.1.
Elsie Leung warns of crisis over trade
seats - A former top government legal official has warned of a possible
constitutional crisis over moderate pan-democrats' proposals to reform the
functional constituencies as the proposals sparked intense debate in the
Beijing-friendly camp. Former justice minister Elsie Leung Oi-sie, now a
vice-chairwoman of the Basic Law Committee, said the proposal, for the public to
elect six seats designated for district councils, would "upset the 50-50
balance" between directly and indirectly elected seats. If the government bowed
to pressure from lawmakers threatening to veto its political reform package
unless the proposal was included, there was a real possibility the package could
be vetoed by the national legislature, which would "trigger a constitutional
crisis and undermine social stability", she said. Leung was speaking a day after
former committee member Ng Hon-mun said in a newspaper article that the proposal
would not contravene the National People's Congress Standing Committee's 2007
decision, which set a timetable for election of the chief executive and the
legislature by universal suffrage. In the Ming Pao Daily article, Ng said the
decision stipulated only that the 50:50 ratio of directly and indirectly elected
seats should remain in 2012 and did not lay down any rules for functional
constituencies. "Election of district council functional constituency seats by
'one man, one vote' does not contravene the NPC decision," Ng said. But Leung
said she agreed with the views of Li Gang, a deputy director of the central
government's liaison office in Hong Kong, that the proposal would trigger doubts
over whether it was in line with the NPC's decision. The Democratic Party, which
met Li on Monday, proposes increasing the number of Legco seats from the present
60 to 70 in 2012, with six seats for district councils that would be nominated
by district councillors and elected by all registered voters. The Alliance for
Universal Suffrage, a coalition formed by 13 moderate pan-democratic groups,
suggests increasing the number of seats from 60 to 80, with 11 seats for
district council functional constituencies. "The NPC's decision in 2007 stated
that functional constituencies and those elected by direct election should be
equal in number. By having six seats designated for district councils directly
elected, then you upset the 50:50 balance," Leung said. The Standing Committee
was empowered not to register legislative amendments to Basic Law Annex II,
which governs the Legco elections, if the changes deviated from the policies and
principles set out in the mini-constitution, she said. "If the electoral package
is vetoed by the Standing Committee, it would trigger a constitutional crisis
and undermine social stability," she said. Leung added that the pan-democrats'
demand for reassurances of "genuine" universal suffrage for election of the
chief executive and the legislature in 2017 and 2020 as a precondition for
supporting the Hong Kong government's proposal for 2012 was also unacceptable to
Beijing. Former Legco president Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, a member of the Standing
Committee, also said the proposal was not in line with the NPC's decision. "The
proposal cannot be implemented for the 2012 election but there is room for
further discussion after 2012," she said. Basic Law Committee member Albert Chan
Hung-yee said the proposal amounted to a de-facto direct election and was not in
line with the NPC's decision. "The NPC decision aims at maintaining the existing
methods for electing Legco in 2012 and does not authorise the invention of new
electoral methods," said Chan, a professor at the University of Hong Kong's
faculty of law. Functional constituencies - electorates based on trade and
professional sectors - were introduced by the colonial government in 1985. They
were at the centre of a massive row between the colonial administration and
Beijing after then- governor Chris Patten pushed through amendments for the
1994-95 elections - dismantled after the handover - that turned the trade-based
seats into de-facto directly elected seats by giving everyone in the sectors a
vote. In early 1994 - a few months after talks on the issue broke down - Beijing
declared that the Chinese and British sides had an understanding that the
functional constituencies were a form of indirect election and they must not be
turned into de-facto direct elections on an occupational basis.
Li Gang, the deputy director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong
Kong, attends a book launch at the Hong Kong Central Library in Causeway Bay on
Friday after meeting with members of the Association for Democracy and People’s
Livelihood.
Veteran politician Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai is not confident that the Legislative
Council will pass the 2012 political reform package. The National People's
Congress Standing Committee member and former Legco president hopes the rapport
between pan-democrats and the central government will continue, but doubts a
consensus can be reached within a month, with the scrapping of functional
constituencies the main sticking point. Fan also said it is hard for the central
government to accept the pan-democrat idea of allowing people to choose
lawmakers directly from district councils in 2012. "How can the central
government ask the National People's Congress to eat its words?" Fan said. She
said the proposal is not viable at this stage, but could be considered for
election methods beyond 2012. Fan noted the pan-democrats' views on the Legco
election methods are still very different from the government's though the
proposals regarding the election of the chief executive are less controversial.
Earlier this week central government liaison office deputy director Li Gang said
the pan- democrats' proposal to let people choose lawmakers directly from
district councils in 2012 was against the Basic Law and could raise doubts as to
whether it was in line with the decision of the National People's Congress.
Basic Law Committee vice chairwoman Elsie Leung Oi-sie said that allowing
certain electors to choose some functional constituency lawmakers directly from
the district councils is against the 2007 National People's Congress Standing
Committee decision. Meanwhile, property tycoon Li Ka-shing, the chairman of
Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Hutchison Whampoa, weighed into the debate, saying
the functional constituencies should not be done away with without a lot of
thought.
Public support for all major
political groups in the city has declined significantly amid the debate on
constitutional reforms, a university poll has found. In the latest random
telephone survey of 1,015 people by the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion
Programme between Tuesday and Thursday last week, popularity ratings for all 10
of the most widely known political groups dropped compared with the previous
poll in February. The Beijing-friendly Democratic Alliance for the Betterment
and Progress of Hong Kong saw the largest slip in ratings by 5.1 points, from
48.1 to 43 on a zero-to-100 scale. The smallest drop was for the Hong Kong
Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, going down by
2.4 points to 47.6 from 50. The ratings for three organisations, the Civic Party
and the League of Social Democrats - both pan-democratic groups that launched
the "de facto referendum" movement - and the pro-business Liberal Party, dropped
to historic lows since they were formed. Their latest ratings were 44.5, 36.6
and 40.8, respectively. The pan-democrat Confederation of Trade Unions continued
to top the list as the most popular political group, with a rating of 49.9,
compared with 52.8 in February. Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu, director of the
programme, said: "The ratings of all groups have dropped significantly. Many of
them are either at a new or record low. The row over political reform and
full-fledged by-elections has apparently taken its toll on all political
parties." The sampling error for the ratings was below plus or minus 1.9 points.
China*:
Beijing will have more than 1,000 km of rail transit lines in operation by 2020
according to a new construction plan, Beijing vice mayor Huang Wei said
Thursday. The Chinese capital plans to have 15 rail transit lines in operation
with a total length of more than 561 km by 2015, Huang told a forum on urban
rail transit in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province. Beijing
had 228 km of subway and light rail transit lines in operation by 2009, and
total rail length will exceed 330 km by the end of 2010 with five new lines
being put into operation this year, Huang said. China is witnessing a boom in
urban rail transit construction as many cities struggle to tackle traffic
congestion in wake of fast growth in private car ownership. Shanghai, the
nation's business and financial center, plans to have 970 km of rail transit
lines by 2020. Li Bingren, chief economist with the Ministry of Housing and
Urban-Rural Development, said: "The most effective way to ease traffic
congestion is by investing more in public transport, especially urban rail
transit lines, and by reducing the number of vehicles on the road." China had
962 km of rail transit lines in operation by 2009 and the total length will
exceed 2,500 km by around 2015, said Tan Qinglian, president of China Civil
Engineering Society.
China's fastest high speed train "380A" welcomes its first batch of visitors
when it comes off the production line in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin
province, May 27, 2010. China's fastest high speed train rolled off the
production line Thursday in Changchun, capital of the northeast China's Jilin
province, a company executive said. Dong Xiaofeng, chairman of Changchun Railway
Vehicles Co., Ltd., said the new generation train "380A" has the maximum
operating speed of 380 km per hour. Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd. is a
subsidiary of China CNR Corp, one of the country's two big train makers. The
trains, which China has the independent intellectual property rights of, will
run for the first time on the Beijing-Shanghai high speed railway that is to be
completed and opened in 2011. On March 16, China's Ministry of Railways signed a
contract to buy 100 new generation trains from China CNR Corp. High speed trains
with the maximum operating speed of 350 km have been running on three lines that
link Beijing and Tianjin, Wuhan and Guangzhou, Zhengzhou and Xi'an.
A car gets through the six-lane
traffic tunnel under the Yangtze River in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu
Province, May 28, 2010. The tunnel, connecting the city of Nanjing on both sides
of the river, is the third traffic tunnel built under the Yangtze River, China's
longest river. The tunnel opened to traffic on Friday. 
A variety of brews are on display at a
supermarket in Chengdu, Sichuan province. The average beer consumption per
person in southwestern China is 29 kilograms annually. The nights are certainly
getting longer and louder in Jinli. No, it is not any geographical phenomenon,
but the hustle and bustle of a typical summer night as more and more revelers
head to the streets to chill out. Loud banter, music and sounds of "ganbei" ring
the air in Jinli in Chengdu, one of the largest cities in southwestern China.
With the mercury sizzling, it is the chilled beverages that are selling like hot
cakes. And for several years now beer has been the most popular beverage in
Sichuan province. The taste for beer also has its roots in the relaxed and easy
life style of the region. So much so, that there is tremendous competition among
the beer majors to boost investments and corner bigger market shares in the
premium beer segment. The popularity of beer can also be seen in the clutter of
billboards displaying various brands dotting the streets. "Most of our clientele
come to have a drink after 7 pm, and we usually sell around 200 bottles of
premium beer, priced at 15 yuan each, every day, even though our main business
is food," said Xiao Li, a waiter at the Guan Jin bar in Jinli. Molson Coors, the
world's fifth-largest brewer is one of the biggest that have stepped up their
investment pace here. The company recently spent $40 million to buy a 51 percent
stake in a new joint venture with the Hebei Si'hai Beer Company. The joint
venture plans to launch premium beers with lower production cost in China. "Chengdu
and Chongqing are among the cities that had the best sales figures last year for
our premium brand Coors Light. We will consider making another new investment if
the market keeps on growing," said Peter H. Coors, chairman of Molson Coors.
Companies like Molson Coors are also encouraged to expand as premium beer sales
in southwestern China are five times larger than the Northern regions, said John
Zhang, general manager (operations), China of Molson Coors. The Guangzhou-based
Molson Coors has been selling its premium brand, Coors Light, mainly in bars and
night-clubs in southwestern China. The brand now accounts for 10 percent of
China's premium beer market. Molson Coors' competitor, Carlsberg, the world's
fourth-largest brewer, is also planning new investments in the southwest. The
brewer is currently waiting for the outcome of a bid to acquire 12.25 percent
stake in Chongqing Brewery Company. Carlsberg has also shown interest in the
nation's southwestern market. Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen, president of Carlsberg,
said he was planning to move the headquarters of Carlsberg China from Chengdu to
Chongqing. With competition heating up, there is also a price war. Both
Carlsberg and Coors Light are priced the same, and sell at around 180 yuan per
dozen in Guan Jin bar. "Carlsberg and Coors Light are the two best-selling
brands due to their reasonable price and good taste," said Li. The world's
largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev's China arm started work on a new brewery in
Ziyang, Sichuan province, this year. Fu Meikai, president of Anheuser-Busch
Asia-Pacific region, said: "Anheuser's production in southwestern China will
mainly focus on the premium restaurants and bars. Average beer consumption per
person in southwestern China is 29 kilograms annually, below that of northern
cities like Beijing, where beer consumption is 91 kilograms, according to China
Jianyin Investment Securities. "The beer industry in southwestern China is
focused on premium beer due to the more relaxed and easy lifestyle here. In
addition, the local economic growth and relatively low consumption base
signifies huge growth potential," Huang Wei, a food and beverage analyst with
China Jianyin Investment Securities, said. 
A 10-day-old strike at a key Honda
component factory outside Guangzhou has forced Japan's No 2 carmaker to suspend
production in China, the world's largest and fastest-growing car market.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao waves
upon his arrival at the Seoul Military Airport in Seongnam, South Korea on
Friday. Premier Wen Jiabao told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Friday
that he condemned all acts that threaten peace and stability on the Korean
peninsula and would not "harbour" anyone over the sinking of a South Korean
naval ship in March. “China objects to and condemns any act that destroys the
peace and stability of the Korean peninsula,” Wen said during a meeting with Lee
in Seoul, according to a South Korean official citing the Chinese leader’s
comments. Wen is on a three-day visit to South Korea.
Jinjiang residents can travel to
Xiamen in 30 minutes and Fuzhou in an hour on the 250km/h high-speed rail
service. Just 12 months ago, the railway station in Jinjiang, Fujian province,
part of the mainland's new high-speed rail network, was an untidy construction
site. On April 26, when the inaugural high-speed train from Xiamen in the south
to Fuzhou in the north passed through Jinjiang, the station was still far from
completed, with its unpaved entrance area, stationary escalators and blank
television information panels. But every day the train service runs, it is
weaving Jinjiang - the country's shoe capital - closer into the economic fabric
of the rest of the province. The city is the production base for 40 per cent of
the nation's sports shoes - or 20 per cent of the world's total. The 250 km/h
rail service has cut the journey time between Jinjiang and Xiamen to only 30
minutes whereas before it took one-and-a-half hours by road; and it is only an
hour to Fuzhou, previously a two-and-half-hour road trip away. Adding to the
Jinjiang's makeover was the opening of its first international hotel in March -
Hong Kong conglomerate Wharf Group's 296-room Marco Polo Hotel.
The Octopus company has set a December
launch for a new smart card for use in both Hong Kong and Shenzhen Tong
networks. The cutting-edge card integrates the functions of both smart cards but
works in separate accounts for Hong Kong dollar and yuan. The card will contain
no personal information like names of cardholders, said Octopus chief executive
director Prudence Chan Bik-wah. "Hong Kong transactions will only be settled in
Hong Kong and it is the same case for Shenzhen. The two systems are currently
disconnected," Chan said. "Therefore inter-transaction is not available.
Cardholders can only add value to the account with relevant currency." The
Octopus company said talks are still underway with Shenzhen Tong on card repairs
and deposit amounts. Octopus is widely used on public transport in Hong Kong, as
well as in convenience stores and restaurants. It is also accepted in over 10
outlets operated by Cafe de Coral and Fairwood in Shenzhen, as well as in
Shenzhen Dutyfree Group's outlets at Huanggang and Luohu ports. Shenzhen Tong
can be used on Metro lines and public buses in Shenzhen, as well as in 10
retailers including Jusco and Vanguard. So far, Octopus is available in three
major types: on-loan cards, sold cards and bank-issued cards. On-loan
cardholders have to pay a refundable deposit, while a sold card requires no
deposit. Chan expects the new card's selling price will not be higher than the
current cost of Octopus cards. However, one passenger expressed concern over
possible charging errors while another said he was worried about its security
features. The Octopus company issued over 20 million cards last year, a 10
percent increase compared with 2008. It handled 11 million daily transactions
worth HK$100 million a day, or around HK$36.5 billion a year, an 8 percent
increase from 2008. Meanwhile, the Octopus PC Reader service will be available
next month. Octopus cardholders can check their 10 latest transactions by
connecting the reader - worth HK$210 - to a personal computer. Visually impaired
users can also check their records with screen- reading software. 
A senior TVB (0511) official
yesterday sought to discourage more free-to-air stations, saying any new
operators are likely to face tough limitations. Cheong Shin-keong, broadcasting
general manager, said new FTA broadcasters will have to carve out niche markets
in order to secure advertisements. "If they can come up with targeted programs
or what the existing market lacks, and gain support from advertisers, then there
is probably boundless space," Cheong said. "But honestly, such [niche] space is
limited." Multiple broadcasters offering similar programs cannot co-exist
easily, he said. He said TVB's focus on local and drama productions faces no
direct competition but it will be ready to take on newcomers. City Telecom
(1137) chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay expects the government to issue FTA licenses
in the fourth quarter at the earliest and sees much room for cross-media
integration. TVB will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new studio
covering 140,000 square feet in Tseung Kwan O, said group general manager Mark
Lee Po-on. Cheong said there will be a mix of paid and free online services in
the market in time. He noted all media groups recorded high double-digit growth
in advertising income, adding TVB outperformed the market average as advertising
rates returned to the level before the global economic crisis. "Many clients
have been investing in their brand image, for which television has an edge,"
Cheong said. Lee said general manager Stephen Chan Chi-wan remains an
"executive" at the station but cannot carry out his duties, pending further
investigations into bribery allegations. TVB will review its internal system and
evaluate the results of the ICAC probe, he said. He added that the broadcaster
has always told its employees to abide by the law. 
Li Gang, a deputy director of the central government's liaison office in Hong
Kong, remains optimistic in his talks with pan-democrats on the city's
constitutional reform. A Beijing representative in Hong Kong held his latest
groundbreaking negotiations on constitutional reform yesterday - and rejected a
proposal by moderate pan-democrats to allow the public to elect district council
sector lawmakers in 2012. Li Gang, a deputy director of the central government's
liaison office in Hong Kong, told the Alliance for Universal Suffrage in their
first meeting that its suggestion was inconsistent with the legislative intent
of the Basic Law regarding functional constituencies. He also made it clear that
neither his office nor the Hong Kong government had the power to handle
electoral arrangements beyond 2012, unless there was another decision by the
central government. The alliance said the talks ended in stalemate because of
substantial differences between the two sides. Under two proposals earlier
released by the Democratic Party and the alliance, the number of seats in Legco
would be increased from the present 60 to 70 or 80, with six or 11 seats for the
district council sector respectively. Both groups suggested that candidates for
the sector should be nominated by district councillors and elected by all
registered voters in the city. 
Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai said on Thursday she did not think the government’s latest
political reforms would be passed by the Legislative Council this year. Fan was
speaking after Li Gang, a deputy director of the central government’s Liaison
Office in Hong Kong, met representatives of the Democratic Party and the
Alliance for Universal Suffrage on Monday and Wednesday. She said the meetings
between the pan-democrats and Li would help improve relations. “But I am not
optimistic the 2012 electoral reform package could be passed by a majority of
the members in the Legco,’’ said Fan, who is a member of the Standing Committee
of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China. “Based on
my own dialogue with the pan-democrats, they want the central government to
assure them that functional constituencies would be abolished. But this is not
something the central government can do,’’ she explained. “So under these
circumstances, it would be very difficult for the pan-democrats to support the
government’s reform package,” said Fan. Asked whether she believed the central
government was trying to divide the pan-democratic camp by only meeting some of
its representatives, Fan said she did not think this was the case. She said the
meetings ultimately showed the central government was willing to communicate
with political parties, who respected the Basic Law and constitutional
development in Hong Kong. On Friday, Li will continue with the consultation
process and meet with members of the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and
People’s Livelihood, including legislator Frederick Fung Kin Kee.
Hong Kong signs latest Cepa deals -
Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah (left) and the Vice-Minister of Commerce
Jiang Zengwei (right), exchange documents after signing the seventh supplement
to the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) on Thursday. The seventh
supplement to the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa) between Hong
Kong and the mainland, was signed at the Central Government Offices in Hong Kong
on Thursday. The supplement was signed by Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah
and China's Vice-Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei, with Chief Executive Donald
Tsang Yam-kuen and other guests as witnesses. Thirty five measures will come
into effect next year to improve cross-border trade. The new supplement also
relaxes market access conditions in 14 service sectors, such as medical
services, tourism, banking and air transportation. The supplement will enable
Hong Kong service industries to develop in the mainland market and allow
professional exchanges between the two sides. More information on Cepa is
available on the Trade and Industry Department’s CEPA website
The ICAC could soon have its first woman chief of operations. Prominent graft
investigator Rebecca Li Bo-lan, who has led several high-profile cases, is set
to be promoted next week as one of two directors in the department. This makes
her one of two deputies to current chief Daniel Li Ming-chak, who is expected to
retire at the end of next year. The other director, Ryan Wong Sai-chiu, who
oversees government services, is expected to retire in 2012, leaving Rebecca Li
a strong candidate for the top post. Li, who is in her mid-40s, is now the
acting director for private-sector corruption, and is due to formally succeed
Francis Lee Chun-sang on June 1, when Lee begins his retirement leave. Li is
regarded as a high-flyer. In 2000, she became the first officer from the
anti-graft watchdog to be sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for
training, alongside crime fighters from around the world. She made her name
after leading the investigation of several high-profile corruption cases over
the past decade, including the arrest of Mo Yuk-ping, the wife of the jailed
Shanghai tycoon Chau Ching-ngai, who was convicted of manipulating the shares of
her husband's former company. Li was also in charge of the probe of former
deputy inland revenue commissioner Agnes Sin Law Yuk-lin, who was convicted of
defrauding the government of HK$330,000 in rental allowances. She also earned
acclaim for cracking an international fake passport syndicate. Li was promoted
to her current position of assistant director of operations in 2002. The
800-strong operations department is the core unit of the anti-graft agency and
its largest. It is its investigative arm, responsible for looking into various
corruption offences. Before she became acting director, Li was the most senior
among the four assistant directors. A senior officer at the agency said that Li
had a "very high chance" of taking up the directorship next week, and she is on
the path to be "the first female head of operations in ICAC history". The
departure of Lee, the outgoing director, signals the start of a wave of
retirement involving the first generation of graft investigators. Many had been
with the agency since it was set up in 1974. Lee took part in the investigation
into the infamous "Four Great Sergeant" case in the 1970s that targeted the
"HK$500 million Sergeant" Lui Lok. Lee was also involved in the probe into
notorious drug lord "Limpy Ho" Ng Sik-ho. It is understood that Lee intends to
enjoy his retirement in leisure and will not work in the private sector. A
spokeswoman for the Independent Commission Against Corruption said yesterday
that the appointment of operations director would be announced at an appropriate
time. 
Swarms of people visit the 2010 World
Expo Park in Shanghai, east China, May 27, 2010. Some 367,400 people visited the
World Expo on Thursday , setting a new record of the daily number of visitors
since the Expo opened on May 1, according to official statistics.
Foxconn boss Terry Gou (center) is surrounded by journalists as he arrives at
the Shenzhen factory. He said the company could not interfere if workers had
personal problems. Xinhua quoted the Foxconn press office as confirming a worker
had jumped to his death. The news agency said it had received a call at 11.32pm
from a Foxconn worker saying a man had been found lying on the ground at the
Longhua plant. Gou, chairman of Foxconn's Taiwanese parent company Hon Hai
Precision, said earlier the 11 suicide attempts since January, nine of them
successful, were more of a social problem and Foxconn should not bear the blame.
He said the suicide rate was bound to rise as society became more affluent.
"Generally, the suicide rate in a society will increase when its GDP rises," Gou
told some 200 mainland and foreign reporters during a rare press tour of the
sprawling Longhua plant. "I've consulted psychologists and they told me the
suicide rate at Foxconn is much lower than the country's average." Gou, the
third-richest person in Taiwan with a fortune estimated at US$6 billion, said
affluent Japan also had a high youth suicide rate.
Indian President
Pratibha Patil arrives at Beijing airport for a rare state visit on Wednesday.
ndian President Pratibha Patil will seek to soothe trade disputes and recent
border tensions in meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing on Thursday. Patil
is the first Indian head of state in a decade to visit her country’s giant
neighbour, an illustration of how ties remain cool almost 50 years after the
countries fought a brief but bloody border war. Patil was scheduled on Thursday
to meet with Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao before attending a
signing ceremony for a number of bilateral agreements. Her six-day visit will
also take her to the India pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai and to the
central city of Luoyang, where she will attend a temple ceremony commemorating
the arrival of Buddhism from India 2,000 years ago. Such activities mark a push
to strengthen ties between the two beset by mutual suspicion and a sharpening
rivalry over resources and global markets to fuel their surging economies.
US climate change envoy Todd Stern said it is "hugely important" that all
countries accept outside review of their greenhouse gas emissions. His comments
came during a trip to Beijing, which has rejected such calls. "With respect to
the issue of transparency, I think it's hugely important and we do put a lot of
emphasis on it," said Stern, who also led US negotiators at December's
Copenhagen climate summit. "Countries need to be able to see what track the
world is on generally, where we are going." Stern was in Beijing as part of a
large US delegation for high-level strategic and economic talks. At a climate
change seminar at Tsinghua University yesterday, he said nations also need to be
able to have confidence that other countries are doing their best to meet
climate change goals. The mainland, the world's top source of gases blamed for
global warming, says it will not accept outside reviews of its efforts to slow
emissions. Beijing has pledged to reduce its carbon intensity - the measure of
emissions per unit of gross domestic product - by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 based
on 2005 levels. Under that plan, however, emissions would continue to climb for
many years. More than 190 nations are negotiating a successor treaty to the
Kyoto Protocol to fight climate change, which United Nations scientists warn
could bring growing disasters and threaten entire species if left unchecked.
Stern did not give details of the US team's three-day talks on climate change
with mainland officials.
Tang Wei will appear on the cover of next month's Chinese Vogue. "Girl next
door" Tang Wei is the new face of China after making her comeback in the film
Crossing Hennessy (2010). Following a two-year hiatus since appearing in the
controversial Ang Lee flick Lust, Caution, she has become the most sought-after
actress by a host of fashion brands. She appears to have replaced actress Zhang
Ziyi as the image ambassador for fashion magazines and product endorsements,
reckons Cosmopolitan China's fashion critic Wang Xiaoyuan. Tang's agency, EDKO
Films, said companies are lining up for Tang to be their brand ambassador, or
get involved in their advertising campaigns. She was invited to Christian Dior's
fashion show in Shanghai earlier this month and appeared in a simple black
evening dress, wavy hair, light cosmetics and without any accessories. She is
also the cover girl of fashion bible, Vogue (China version), next month. Tang
smiles sweetly in a Dior floral one-piece dress. Stylist Emmanuel Sammartino
says the look is endearingly natural. Tang is one of the few actresses to have
appeared more than once in Vogue, twice in the past two years, signaling what an
important fashion industry figure she is. "Tang is pretty. Compared with Western
actresses who always deliver sexy images, Chinese women still prefer a
traditional sweet face," Vogue's editor-in-chief Angelica Cheung explains.
Esquire feature editor Liang Dong says Tang has also done spreads for the
magazine. "She certainly is hot. She has her own style, sweet and soft, unlike
the other cold faces in fashion industry. It is the new trend," he says. Tang
has also built up a good relationship with fashion brands and the deals she's
making are worth millions. Tang's status as a fashion icon earned her a deal
with cosmetic brand Unilever in 2008, which was worth 6 million yuan ($880,000),
according to Xinhua Net. Her relationship with Dior started last year, when Tang
wore a black, silk, polka-dotted dress from the label's autumn/winter
collection, bringing a touch of glamour to the opening of the Dior store at ION
Orchard, Singapore. It seems Tang is winning the marketing battle with Zhang
Ziyi, possibly China's best recognized actress and one of Ang Lee's other
favorite film stars. The two are often linked by local media as "Ang's girls".
Salvatore Ferragamo introduced both of them onto the fashion stage. While Tang
took a break from filming from 2007 to 2009, Zhang was the country's favorite
actress and represented various international brands, including Emporio Armani
and Mercedes Benz. Now the situation is reversed, as Zhang has been troubled by
a charity donation scandal, while Tang is back bigger than ever. This year,
Zhang has only appeared in local magazine iLook. As for Vogue, though its China
version was launched in 2005, it took Zhang three years to become its cover girl
in the 2008 April issue. But according to an article in Southern Entertainment
Weekly, Tang still needs to work hard to beat Zhang. Her biggest problem is
Trends Media Group, the largest fashion media company in the mainland. Tang has
only appeared in Cosmopolitan among its stable of titles, while Zhang's face has
been on the cover of all its major fashion magazines, including Harper's Bazaar.
Even so, the trend is away from Zhang's cold and sexy look, to Tang's demure
image, Vogue's Cheung says. "Tang's sweet style is traditional, and it will
never be abandoned by the fashion industry," Cheung says. The fashion battle
reminds many onlookers of the former rivalry between Gong Li and Zhang, who were
known as "Mou's girls", in reference to director Zhang Yimou. Now its Ang's
girls and a face-off between Tang and Zhang.
Performers in traditional Korean
royal costume put on a culture show inside the Republic of Korea Pavilion at the
Shanghai World Expo site, on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, its National Pavilion Day.
Shares of Prudential (2378) plunged
4.19 percent on its Hong Kong trading debut, but the UK insurer says it is
optimistic of gaining shareholders' approval for the acquisition of American
International Assurance and its US$21 billion (HK$163.8 billion) rights issue.
"I am confident that the shareholders will see the value and we will get their
approval," chairman Harvey McGrath said in a teleconference in Hong Kong. He
said there was "substantial support" from investors since the prospectus was
released on Tuesday last week. Prudential needs the approval of 75 percent of
its shareholders to buy out AIA for US$35.5 billion. Shareholders will vote on
the issue on June 7. McGrath, who has 297,574 shares, or a 0.012 percent stake,
said most Prudential directors including himself will take up their rights.
Chief executive Tidjane Thiam, chief financial officer Nicolaos Nicandrou and
Robert Devey, chief executive of Prudential UK and Europe who was appointed to
lead the integration with AIA, will also take up their rights issue, he added.
McGrath declined to comment on a Financial Times report that AIA chief executive
Mark Wilson would resign if Prudential acquires AIA. Shares of Prudential
dropped 4.19 percent to close at HK$57.20 after opening at HK$59.70. The opening
price was set according to Monday's close in London at 5.30. Prudential started
trading in Hong Kong and Singapore yesterday by way of introduction to raise
funds for the acquisition. It closed in Singapore at US$7.41 after opening at
US$7.72. McGrath said low trading activity was expected for a company listing by
way of introduction, due to the limited pool of shares. Transaction value was
thin with 1.07 million shares changing hands for HK$62.3 million. "I won't be
surprised to see between 10 and 20 percent of shares being transferred to Asia,"
he said. A total of 50.97 million shares, or 2.01 percent of the issued share
capital, were registered in Hong Kong as of Monday, according to the company.
Cathay Pacific and Singapore
Airlines passengers flying to other countries will have to pay 20 percent more
in fuel surcharges. The Civil Aviation Department yesterday approved the
increase. Cathay Pacific will increase its short-haul fuel surcharge from HK$92
per journey in May to HK$110 in June, and for long-haul flights a 21 percent
rise from HK$434 to HK$524. The surcharges are the highest imposed in a year.
Last June the surcharges were HK$52 and HK$239, for short-haul and long-haul
flights respectively. Though global fuel prices are falling now, the increases
are based on a fare mechanism which Cathay Pacific argues has a cumulative
effect. "There is a time-lag element from the time we submit our application to
the time when the new fuel surcharges become effective," a Cathay Pacific
spokeswoman said. "In fact, our passenger fuel surcharges continue to be
significantly lower than those of other international airlines on comparable
routes outside Hong Kong." Fuel surcharges were first introduced in 2004 when
oil prices surged.
A visitor samples wine at an exhibitor's
booth at the Vinexpo Asia-Pacific at the Convention and Exhibition Centre. Some
840 exhibitors from 32 countries are attending. Wine dealers suspect Chateau
Lafite fraud - Suspicions are being raised that some customers on the mainland
have been duped into buying 2009 Chateau Lafite Rothschild wine before prices
and allocations have been determined. In what is being viewed as a direct
consequence of the seemingly unquenchable thirst for Chateau Lafite on the
mainland, some wine dealers have reported anecdotal evidence that unsuspecting
customers may be buying wine that might not be delivered as promised. As early
as the end of March, Michael Hundebol, purchasing and trading director of Veyret
Latour, a major Bordeaux fine wine merchant, heard from two clients on the
mainland that they had been offered 2009 Chateau Lafite for about €1,000
(HK$9,506) a bottle. Hundebol said he tried to explain that this was not
possible as the wine was not yet priced or even bottled. Another of Hundebol's
clients, in Hong Kong, wanted to pre-order the 2010 and 2011 vintages after
being unable to secure any of the 2009. "I told the client that I cannot do this
and that this is not how it works," he said. "I'm not sure if any money has
changed hands but I hope not." Hundebol said this was the first time he had come
across anything like this and that many Bordeaux wine producers scoffed at the
idea that the sale of wine en primeur was being exploited on the mainland. En
primeur, or wine futures, is an established way of offering substantial amounts
of Bordeaux wines for sale while the vintage is still in the barrel. This
effectively allows customers to invest in a particular wine early in its life.
This means the 2009 vintage, which was harvested around October last year, is
expected to be priced by late next month and bottled for delivery between late
next year and early 2012. As such, it won't be known whether the suspicious
trades on the mainland are actually fraudulent until the wine is delivered in
about 18 months' time. Prices are set by the chateaux while merchants and
wholesalers determine how the stocks of wines are allocated. Sam Gleave, sales
director of Bordeaux Index, the largest fine wine distributor in Britain, said
he had also heard about customers on the mainland being offered the 2009 Chateau
Lafite and worried that such developments would kill the market. On the
mainland, Chateau Lafite, of any vintage, is the preferred tipple, largely
because of the estate's renown, while a bottle or case of the wine is
customarily given when sealing a business deal. "I don't think there's really
much you can do about it," Hundebol said. "All I know is that the 2009 Chateau
Lafite will be expensive." Major producers from Bordeaux and merchants are in
Hong Kong this week for the Vinexpo wine and spirits exhibition and are waiting
until after it to set their prices. Although many said they were not aware
Chateau Lafite was already being offered for sale, the fact that it happened on
the mainland did not surprise them.
Li Gang, deputy director of the central government's liaison office in Hong
Kong, speaks to the media before his meeting with members of the Alliance for
Universal Suffrage on Wednesday. In that meeting, Li met with the Democratic
Party’s chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan, deputy chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing and
legislator Cheung Man-kwong to exchange views. Wednesday’s meeting with the
alliance, which comprises 13 moderate pan-democratic groups, lasted two and a
half hours. Those who met Li included convener of the Alliance for Universal
Suffrage Fung Wai-wah, alliance deputy convener Helena Wong Pik-wan, Civic Party
lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah, alliance vice-convenor Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong, and
alliance member, Chan Kin-man. Li and the alliance members said the meeting had
been conducted in a frank, open manner. Both parties made statements outlining
their views on political development in Hong Kong. But Li said the alliance’s
suggestion to allow all voters to elect six legislative members from the
district councils in 2012 did not conform with the Basic Law, or the decision
made by the central government’s Standing Committee of National People’s
Congress (NPCSC) 2007.
An ice-cream hawker left court yesterday
with a HK$100 fine and a pat on the back from the magistrate for providing an
invaluable service on a hot day, while the bureaucrats that sent him there got a
rap on the knuckles for overzealous policing of rules. "I hope I can be your
patron next time. I will be very happy to see you on a hot day," magistrate
Jason Wan Siu-ming told Chu Chung-wah in Kwun Tong Court. Chu, 53, was charged
with obstructing the pedestrian area at the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry pier on
December 19 and selling an item not allowed under his hawker licence. The
obstruction charge was dropped when the prosecution indicated it would offer no
evidence, but the prosecution proceeded with the charge that Chu had been
selling candy sticks, which his licence did not allow him to sell. Chu pleaded
guilty. In fining him HK$100, Wan questioned the need to prosecute him for such
a minor offence and suggested the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department be
considerate and flexible when determining whether to press such charges against
ice-cream hawkers. He described Chu as a hardworking hawker whose offence was
not serious. "The defendant has been working hard to make ends meet," he said.
"Don't be daunted and don't change your working attitude because of the
conviction." Wan said he admired Chu for selling cold drinks and ice cream on
hot days. Chu thanked the magistrate. Chu was one of the 61 successful
applicants out of about 3,700 for an ice-cream hawker licence when the
department started issuing them last year for the first time since 1993. Chu,
who earns about HK$6,000 a month selling ice cream and drinks, said he would
renew his licence when it expired in October. Dairy Products, Beverage and Food
Industries Employees' Union chairman Cheung Chee-hung said the union was glad
the obstruction charge was dropped and that he was happy with the judge's
comments. "Many of us sell lollipops, other candies, chewing gum and biscuits
along with ice cream and beverages," he said. "Business is tough and we hope the
government can also show some compassion." When Chu, the first of the new
hawkers to faces charges, first appeared in court in March, the union sought a
meeting with the department on issues raised by the case. Cheung said that after
two meetings, the department's attitude changed - "and we are so glad to say
that there is now less harassment from hygiene officers". "Before the meetings,
we were often accused by officers of blocking thoroughfares. Now there is more
mutual understanding between the officers and us," he said. "We have to do our
business in busy areas, but we will refrain from going into areas that are too
busy, like in peak hours or when there is a big demonstration." The Food and
Environmental Hygiene Department said Chu had been warned several times before
he was prosecuted. It had decided to drop the charge against him after taking
into consideration that he was a new hawker and not familiar with the law.
The stock market slump did not
discourage the city's three biggest property players from joining the bidding
for the MTR Corp's HK$33 billion Nam Cheong Station project in Sham Shui Po
yesterday. Cheung Kong (Holdings) (SEHK: 0001), Sun Hung Kai Property and
Henderson Land (SEHK: 0012) yesterday all submitted bids for the project despite
stock market jitters over the euro zone debt crisis and tensions on the Korean
peninsula. "The response was better than my expectations," Charles Chan Chiu-kwok,
managing director at Savills Valuation and Professional Services, said. "I was
originally worried none of the developers would submit bids as the land premium
was expensive and it is restricted to a mass residential development project."
The Lands Department imposed a land premium levy of HK$13 billion, or HK$6,582
per square foot, for the first phase of the project. That is close to the
property prices of nearby new housing estates. Prices at Park Avenue and One
Silver Sea range between HK$7,316 and HK$12,423 per sq ft, according to
Centaline Property's transaction data. The winning bidder of the project will
have to discuss the land premium amount of the second phase of the project with
the government. 
The State Council has approved a regional
development plan for the Yangtze River Delta, which aims to build the area into
a major international gateway in the Asia-Pacific region, and a center of modern
service and manufacturing industries around the globe.
President of
Foxconn Terry Gou (C) speaks to media at the company's plant in Shenzhen, a city
of south China's Guangdong Province, May 26, 2010. Terry Gou initiated a media
tour at the plant of Foxconn Technology Group in Shenzhen. In the past five
months, 11 employees of Foxconn's Shenzhen factory had jumped from high
buildings and nine died. 
Experts who taste wine from the Silver
Heights estate usually nod with approval, expressing surprise that a small
winery in Ningxia province can produce such a smooth drop. When they discover
who the winemaker is - a young Chinese woman little known in the industry - they
are amazed. Emma Gao Yuan, one of the few female winemakers on the mainland, is
creating French-style reds that are on the wine lists of five-star Aman resorts
in China, alongside grand crus such as the 1982 Chateau Lafite, priced at
HK$66,000. "I had heard of Emma Gao, so I ordered the wine to try and was very
impressed," says Crystal Edgar, cellar master for Aman resorts in Asia. "I think
it has incredible potential; the wines have depth and complexity, real
structure, balance and muscle." Making the Aman wine list is no small feat for a
fledgling producer. The only other Chinese wines offered at the group's luxury
retreats in Beijing and Hangzhou are from the Hong Kong-owned Grace Vineyard,
the long-established Changyu Castel and an ice wine from Golden Valley
Vineyards.
The global downturn has not dented
mainland’s thirst for luxury goods, according to a survey by global consultancy
KPMG that found the crisis had little impact on most respondents’ spending
habits. The survey, which interviewed more than 900 people in 15 cities, found
that 62 per cent maintained their spending on expensive goods last year and this
year, as the country emerged from the effects of the downturn. “Despite a
tougher economic climate, respondents demonstrated their brand loyalty, as they
chose to stick with existing brands rather than downgrading to less prestigious
options,” KPMG said. It also said more respondents cited self-reward and
pampering as strong factors for buying luxury items than in a similar 2008
survey. Buying luxury brands to be shown off at formal occasions also was cited
as a key factor. Mainland has the world’s second-highest number of dollar
billionaires after the United States, and a new class of wealthy mainlanders
created by the country’s three-decade boom has seized on foreign luxury brands
as status symbols. While the global economic downturn that began in late 2008
brought recession to the United States and Europe, mainland’s economy has slowed
but has continued to post some of the world’s fastest growth rates. According to
the report, 71 per cent of respondents were educated to university level or
above. Those polled were between 20 and 44 and earned at least 4,500 yuan
(HK$5,131) per month, with a minimum income of 6,500 yuan in the larger cities
of Beijing, Shanghai and the southern industrial hubs of Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Chinese Foreign Minister
Yang Jiechi held talks Wednesday here with Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs
Micheal Martin. Yang said China-Ireland relations had made headway thanks to
concerted effort by both sides. China appreciated Ireland's adherence to the
one-China policy and the support for China's core interests and major concerns.
"China hopes Ireland can play a bigger role in promoting China-Europe ties,"
said Yang. Martin said his country had treated China as an important partner in
Asia over the past decade. He hoped both sides could cooperate more in trade,
agriculture, education, culture and tourism to fight protectionism. Ireland
supported the EU in actively developing relations with China and would play a
constructive role in promoting the EU's recognition of the full market economy
status of China, Martin said. Martin is on an official visit to China from May
24 to 28 at the invitation of Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. They also exchanged
views on regional and international issues of common concern. 
China drives world wine market - The fourth Asian Vinexpo featuring 840
exhibitors from 32 countries opened on Tuesday in Hong Kong as the global
economic crisis pushed exporters to focus on the world’s most promising market:
China. “A little like last year vintage Bordeux, this Vinexpo is exceptional.
There are more exhibitors and we expect more than 10,000 professionals,
including a large number from China,” said chief executive Robert Beynat. The
annual wine and spirits fair is key to Hong Kong’s bid to turn itself into a
wine trading centre that sits on the doorstep of the vast Asian market with
Chinese consumers showing a growing demand for foreign products. French wines
occupy almost half the 8,500 square metre site, confirming their place as a
favourite among Chinese consumers. “China and Hong Kong are the most dynamic
Asian markets with per capita consumption rising and strong import growth [8.7
million cases in 2008],” Beynat said. “European and US producers are turning
towards these markets to recover from the [economic] crisis.” Italian, Spanish
and German wines round out Europe’s offering at the fair, with the US doubling
the number of its exhibitors and Australian and New Zealand vintners boosting
their presence by 30 per cent. Asia-Pacific accounts for 50.6 per cent of world
spirits consumption with an expected 4.7 per cent increase between last year and
2013. Although Japan remains the region’s biggest wine importer, China will have
nearly caught up in the next three years, according to Vinexpo. China is
expected to be the world’s seventh-largest wine consumer by 2013, it said.
“There are 100 to 150 million people in China who can afford to drink wine. It
is these people, and not only millionaires, that we must reach,” said Alain
Vironneau, president of the Bordeaux Wine Council. Added Beynat: “Our challenge
is to explain to Chinese consumers that there are good wines at all prices and
they’re not reserved just for the elite”.
A
senior Beijing official yesterday appealed directly to the Democratic Party to
vote responsibly on the government's 2012 political reform package. Speaking
about three hours after the ice-breaking formal talks, central government
liaison office deputy director Li Gang described his talks with party chairman
Albert Ho Chun-yan, vice chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing and lawmaker Cheung Man-kwong
as "frank." But Ho was forced to deny at a press briefing hours later that his
party's political principles have been compromised, saying the three legislators
repeatedly stated their opposition to plans for limited reforms for the 2012
election. The meeting with a Beijing representative was the first since the
party was set up in 1994 and the first formal talks between the democrats and
the central government since the June 4, 1989, crackdown. In his press
conference at the Four Seasons Hotel, Li called on the democrats to pluck up the
courage to vote responsibly to create favorable conditions for universal
suffrage. Li said the SAR government is not authorized to deal with electoral
methods beyond 2012 and the community is split over whether functional
constituencies should be scrapped. But he made it clear that public opinions
aired in the earlier consultation on the issue are all there in government
records for any future reference. He said it is important for all sides to put
Hong Kong interests first and to try to reach a consensus through rational
dialogue. Li said the revised political package set out by the government is the
one most likely to bring about a consensus. Li made it pointedly clear that one
of the key reasons why the party's request for a meeting was accepted was
because it did not take part in the so- called "de-facto referendum" on May 16
that was triggered by the resignations of five lawmakers. He said he is willing
to meet with any responsible, rational and sincere political group. Last month
in Beijing, National People's Congress Standing Committee deputy
secretary-general Qiao Xiaoyang called on Hongkongers to support the political
reform package. Asked if the party will be able to meet with higher-ranking
Beijing officials in the coming months, Li said he has neither received such a
request nor does he know if Qiao will visit Hong Kong. Li also brushed aside
suggestions the liaison office was acting as a second government in Hong Kong.
For his part, Ho said arrangements for yesterday's meeting had started from as
early as March. However, he said the party stood firm on its call for changes to
the government's reform package, failing which the party would vote against it.
"The party stands firm. If the central government cannot accept our humble
proposal, which is to clearly explain the definition of universal suffrage and
improvements to the 2012 proposal, we will vote down the package," he said.
"There will be no retreat. I don't think our proposals are hard to accept. If
the central government cannot agree, how can I persuade my party members to
support the constitutional reform package?" Asked if he would accept a partial
agreement, Ho said the party's proposals have to be viewed in their entirety.
Lau said the party will hold a meeting to discuss the vote two days before the
package is submitted to the Legislative Council. Party co-founder Szeto Wah said
the dialogue is not the end result and can only be regarded as successful if a
consensus is reached. Political commentator Lau Yui-siu said it was clear
Beijing wanted to take the initiative to show it is willing to communicate and
put the blame for any failure on the democrats. City University political
scientist James Sung Lap-kung said Beijing's move will garner more public
support for the reform package. A government spokesman said the administration
welcomed the meeting. Earlier in the day, six Alliance for Universal Suffrage
representatives met Feng Wei, the liaison office's legal affairs director, to
prepare for a meeting with Li - to be held probably later this week. Democrats'
demands - Amend the Basic Law and formulate the second '10-year universal
suffrage agenda and road map' If the central government cannot do this in half a
year, it has to set out: A clear definition for universal suffrage on the
principle of fairness and commonness; Set the threshold for nominating the chief
executive higher than that in 2007; Agree to increase the number of geographical
constituency seats only for the 2016 Legco election. Make improvements to the
2012 constitutional reform package by: Opening the five additional district
council functional constituency seats to direct election so that each eligible
voter can have two votes; Canceling all appointed seats in the district
councils. The Election Committee in 2012 should include the 400 elected district
councillors, and the number of nominations should not be more than 150. The
central government to continue to engage the party, as well as other pan-
democrats and all sectors, in dialogue in order to reach a consensus.
Watsons currently has more than 600 stores and more than 11,000 employees in the
mainland after entering the market in 1989. It plans to have a total of 1,000
outlets in 100 cities by the end of next year. A.S. Watsons & Co Ltd, owner of
the largest health and beauty retailer in Asia, said on Monday it will open four
stores in Shandong province, part of the company's plan to open 400 more stores
in China by the end of next year. The four new Watsons retail units will be in
Jusco outlets, a department store chain owned by Japan's Aeon Co. They will be
located in Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai and Zibo cities in Shandong province. Watsons
unveils big expansion strategy - The company also plans to expand to other
cities in Shandong, it said in a company statement. "We are really confident of
our future in Qingdao. This cooperation will not only push forward our expansion
plan in this region but also play an important role in our nationwide strategy
of '1,000 Stores in 100 Cities' by 2011," said David Inglis, general manager of
Watsons North China. Analysts said more cooperation between international
retailers and domestic companies is expected. International firms can reduce
costs through cooperation and the network of domestic retailers can offer a
growing customer base, said Gao Kun, a researcher with Dongxing Securities.
"They always sign a 15 to 20 year contract, which will reduce rental expenses,"
said Gao. After entering the Chinese market in 1989, Watsons currently has
600-plus stores and more than 11,000 employees on the Chinese mainland. The
company has 160 stores in Hong Kong, which has a total population of seven
million. Considering the population and consumption capacity of China, the
company has a lot of opportunities in the mainland market, according to Watsons.
The company is planning more than 1,000 stores in 100 large- and medium-size
cities in China by the end of 2011, including second-tier and third-tier cities,
it said. Under the "1,000 Stores in 100 Cities" plan, the company will open
about 400 stores within one year. Analysts said Watsons rush to expand will
require the company to focus more attention on human resources management,
information management and cash flow issues.
Japan’s Honda says it plans to expand
production at several factories in mainland to keep up with strong demand,
raising its total capacity by more than a quarter.
Senior US and Chinese military
commanders met in Beijing on Tuesday - their first high-level contact in months
- amid regional tensions over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship. The
meeting was the first high-ranking military talks between the two sides since
Beijing in January suspended all such exchanges in protest over US arms sales to
Taiwan. US Pacific Command chief Admiral Robert Willard met with General Ma
Xiaotian, the deputy head of the People’s Liberation Army general staff, on the
sidelines of key Sino-US political talks, a US embassy spokeswoman told
reporters. “Admiral Willard is in Beijing for the Strategic and Economic
Dialogue, but this meeting is not part of the dialogue,” said the spokeswoman,
Susan Stevenson. The two sides were likely to discuss mounting tensions on the
Korean peninsula, after a multinational panel of investigators said a North
Korean submarine torpedoed the South Korean warship in March, killing 46
sailors. Seoul has cut off trade with the North and pledged to take the matter
before the UN Security Council. Pyongyang has denied any involvement in the
sinking of the Cheonan and threatened “all-out war” if it is punished. US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in town for the strategic talks, said Monday
that Washington was “working hard” to contain inter-Korean tensions. Clinton was
expected to press China’s top leaders to back a UN move to slap further
sanctions on the North, on top of those already in place over its nuclear
program. Beijing is North Korea’s closest ally and its support as a
veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council is viewed as pivotal for any
tough response against Pyongyang. “We are working hard to avoid an escalation,”
Clinton told reporters. “This is a highly precarious situation that the North
Koreans have caused in the region, one that every country that neighbours or is
in proximity to North Korea understands must be contained,” she said. “I can say
the Chinese recognise the gravity of the situation we face,” Clinton said,
noting that Beijing officials also “understand the reaction by the South
Koreans”. 
China's third largest steelmaker Wuhan Iron and Steel Group on Monday received
approval from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) for two
overseas acquisition deals in Africa that are expected to contribute nearly 2
billion tons of iron ore deposits. The government cleared Wuhan Steel's plan to
acquire the Soalala iron ore deposit in Madagascar with two other companies and
the company's stake buy in a Liberian iron ore project. The exploration license
for the Soalala iron ore project was granted to Hong Kong-based Wisco Guangxin
on May 8, a joint venture company 42 percent owned by Wuhan Steel, 38 percent by
the Guangdong Foreign Trade Group Co and 20 percent by Kam Hing International
Holdings, according to a statement released by Hong Kong-based Kam Hing
International Holdings. The project involves an area of more than 430 square
kilometers and contains more than 800 million tons of reserves available for
exploitation. Wuhan Steel also signed an agreement on March 12 to pay
China-Africa Development Fund $68.46 million for a 60 percent stake in China
Union Investment Co, which owns an iron ore deposit located in central Liberia.
The project is the largest overseas investment in Liberia, with a deposit of
1.31 billion tons of iron ore reserves and is connected to ports via an
80-kilometer railway. Wuhan Steel has been seeking to invest in more overseas
iron ore assets to cut reliance on expensive imports. "We aim to be
self-sufficient in iron ore supplies in three to five years," Deng Qilin,
chairman of Wuhan Steel, said in March. Wuhan Steel acquired a 21.52 percent
stake in Brazilian iron ore miner MMX Mineracao e Metalicos SA for $400 million
last year. The company also received approval from the Australian government for
a A$271 million ($249 million) investment in Centrex Metals Ltd in November, and
also for a 60-percent stake in the iron ore rights of five Centrex projects in
South Australia that could contain up to 2 billion tons of resources. "Africa
has huge iron ore resources. But iron ore transportation requires advanced
infrastructure development due to the large quantities involved," said Yu
Liangui, a senior steel analyst with Mysteel.com. "It will require huge
investment to build railways and ports in Africa, which might be the reason why
Africa is not the first choice for Chinese enterprises." "However, with the ore
prices surging, China needs to diversify its iron ore supplies to break the
monopoly of the three global miners - Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Vale," he
said. Rio Tinto has increased ore prices by $10 per ton in the second quarter
compared with the first quarter. Accordingly its 63.5 percent grade iron ore
powder now costs $123 per ton (Free On Board), while iron ore lumps are at $138
per ton. The price increase in the second quarter is expected to push costs for
Chinese steelmakers by an additional 40 billion yuan based on the import volume
in April. 
With China's high-end, heavy-duty truck
market not expected to boom for at least 10 years, global truck makers are now
seeking opportunities in China's special-purpose vehicle segment in hopes of
grabbing a foothold in the world's fastest growing economy. "Although our major
business in China still targets imports of heavy-duty trucks for logistics, we
also have had breakthroughs in fire-fighting vehicles in the last two years,"
said Mats Harborn, managing director of Scannia China, the local branch of
Swedish commercial vehicle producer under Volkswagen AG. The company has also
began providing construction and engineering trucks to the local market this
year, said Harborn. The world's second-largest truck maker Volvo Group, which
exited a failed joint venture project with China National Heavy Duty Truck Group
Co last year, also said that they were now focusing on China's booming
construction machinery market through its acquired local company Shandong
Lin'gong Construction Machinery, and a manufacturing tie-up with China's
Dongfeng Motor Group which it took over from Nissan Motor. "The demand for
construction machinery is quite strong here in China as infrastructure
construction is big and has huge potential, thanks to China's booming economy,"
said Leif Johansson, chief executive officer of Volvo Group. China sold 630,000
heavy-duty trucks in 2009, up 17 percent over the previous year. And in the
first four months, sales grew 132 percent to 383,000 units over last year, which
made investment bank China International Capital Corp lift its full-year sales
growth prediction from 10 to 15 percent previously, to 31 percent, with 838,000
units to be sold. Johansson of Volvo also expects 25 to 30 percent market growth
in China's heavy-duty truck segment. That compared with 10 percent growth in
Europe and 15 percent recovery in the North America. However, foreign truck
makers still only control a small share of the world's biggest heavy-duty truck
market, with more than 98 percent of the segment dominated by domestic
manufacturers of medium- and low-end trucks, priced below 500,000 yuan
($73,210). "Scania is still far from forming a joint venture with a Chinese
partner to produce our trucks priced over 1 million yuan each," said Harborn.
"We will consider local production when we can reach 10,000 units sales
someday." He told China Daily that the company sold hundreds of trucks last
year, occupying nearly 20 percent of the premium truck market in China. "But we
have to develop here steadily now for long-term existence, before China's modern
logistics will, in the future, finally require the high-end heavy-duty trucks
for their high efficiency and safety appeal." The company launched its R-series
heavy-duty trucks, the International Truck of the Year 2010 in China last week,
with a price tag of 1.6 million yuan per unit. "Although China's market is still
small, we will always bring our latest and best products to maintain our
establishment here for long-term development," said Harborn. Johansson also sees
the Asian market, led by China and India, as his company's future growth engine,
while growth has begun to stagnate in mature markets in Europe and North
America. "We expect Asia to overtake Europe as our top market by 2015, with
China and India contributing 60 or 70 percent to total Asian sales," said
Johansson. As one of the top two high-end heavy-duty truck producers in China,
Volvo sold almost 1,000 trucks last year across the country. 
Lacklustre bidding
yesterday for a building site in Fanling confirmed that developers remain
pessimistic about the upside of mass residential projects. Hong Kong Ferry
(Holdings), a subsidiary of Henderson Land Development (SEHK: 0012), outbid
Cheung Kong (Holdings) (SEHK: 0001), Chinachem Group and an anonymous contender
to buy the site for HK$1.33 billion - HK$2,414 per square foot - which was at
the low end of the market's forecast of HK$1.32 billion to HK$1.6 billion. "It
showed that developers do not expect property prices in the area to have
substantial growth in the next few years," Knight Frank executive director
Alnwick Chan Chi-hing said. "The winning offer indicates the developer is
expecting to sell the project for HK$4,300 to HK$4,500 per square foot, which is
slightly higher than the current property price of 10-year-old housing estates
nearby," he said. It was the second land auction in two weeks that failed to
live up to surveyors' expectations. A site in Tung Chung was bought by Nan Fung
Development for HK$3.42 billion or HK$2,378 per square foot, far below market
forecasts. But there were twice as many bidders for the Fanling site. It was the
first time Hong Kong Ferry had taken part in a government land auction. When
Cheung Kong withdrew after the bidding reached HK$1.27 billion, the other
developers were reluctant to go much higher, and Hong Kong Ferry made its
winning bid. Nicholas Brooke, chairman of Professional Property Services, said
the price reflected weak sentiment in the economy and the market. "There are a
lot of problems in Europe. Developers are uncertain about the economic climate.
At the same time the Hong Kong government intervened in the market," he said.
"The price also indicated that developers are cautious about the mass
residential market, as [Home Ownership Scheme] flats may come back into the
market." However, Brooke expects bidding at the next two auctions, involving
luxury sites in Ho Man Tin and the Peak, to be a lot more aggressive. "Luxury
residential still has strong demand and upside potential," he said. His views
were echoed by Savills valuation and professional services managing director
Charles Chan Chiu-kwok, who believes developers have become more conservative
about future residential prices. "The [land] price is affected by the
developers' concerns about possible changes in government policy on land
supply," he said. Hong Kong Ferry general manager David Ho Chi-shing said his
firm was the sole party involved in the purchase and that it would pay cash. "It
is within our budget and reasonable. Property development is also one of our
main businesses," he said. Henderson Land will be involved in the planning of
the project only. Hong Kong Ferry plans to build three residential blocks on the
site, offering 700 units with an average size of 600 sq ft. Ho estimated the
total investment cost at about HK$2.3 billion. Shares in Hong Kong Ferry rose
2.47 per cent to close at HK$6.64 yesterday.
Li Gang holds a press briefing after the first meeting between the Democrats and
Beijing since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. He urged party leaders to
act responsibly on reform.
From left: Democratic Party
vice-chairwoman Emily Lau, chairman Albert Ho and legislator Cheung Man-kwong
with Legal Affairs Department vice-director Liu Chunhua, deputy director of the
central government liaison office Li Gang and legal affairs director Feng Wei at
the high-level talks in Hong Kong yesterday.
Stephen Shin (left) and
Michael Hui at a briefing yesterday on the film festival set for Guangzhou. The
city's film industry hopes a festival in Guangzhou will help cultivate a market
for local films in their original form, so filmmakers will not have to twist
their works to please a mainland audience. Twenty movies from the 1980s to
recent productions by a new generation of local directors will be screened uncut
on the mainland for the first time at the Hong Kong Films Retrospective 2010.
Organised by the Hong Kong Film Development Council, the festival runs for five
days from today. Classic films, including comedy The Private Eyes, action comedy
Aces Go Places, action dramas Prison on Fire and A Better Tomorrow, fantasy A
Chinese Ghost Story and Wong Kar-wai's star-studded Days of Being Wild, will be
screened with their original Cantonese soundtrack. Some of the violent scenes
and others related to supernatural subjects managed to pass the mainland
censors. Films by young directors, including Eye in the Sky by Yau Nai-hoi and
Magic Boy by Adam Wong Sau-ping will also be shown. Council member and veteran
filmmaker John Shum Kin-fun said the council had been working on finding a way
to tap the Guangdong market. He hoped that by showing these classics, the brand
of Hong Kong cinema could be re-established among audiences in the region. With
more than 100 million people in the Guangdong area, and more than 70 per cent of
them speaking Cantonese, Shum sees the potential market as equivalent to two
South Koreas and four Taiwans. Because of close cultural ties to Hong Kong, and
the fact more cinemas were being built, it would serve as a great market for
small to medium local productions, he said. Veteran filmmakers were finding it
difficult to persuade investors to fund films, as they were getting more
conservative and only wanted to make films for mainland audiences. But not all
of these films would please the mainland audience, and certainly local audiences
won't like treatments catering for mainlanders. "Investors don't believe in
[local] films. They want to target the whole of China," veteran filmmaker
Stephen Shin Gei-yin said. Directors hope censorship in filmmaking can be
stopped, allowing filmmakers to make films that they believe in. "It's just like
cooking a dish. If your family doesn't like it, how can you expect other people
to like it?" said Michael Hui Koon-man. 
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, which celebrated its 25th anniversary yesterday, will
add more flights to Wuhan and Kaohsiung in July as the recovery in air traffic
demand for regional destinations continues. Dragonair, 100 per cent owned by
Cathay Pacific Airways (SEHK: 0293), has come a long way since 1985, when it
operated with only one aircraft. Today it connects the city with 29 destinations
in the Asia-Pacific, including 17 on the mainland, with a fleet of 28 aircraft.
The carrier's passenger yield - an industry measure of sales per passenger per
mile - has returned to the level of 2008, chief executive James Tong said. "But
it is still a bit lower than the pre-crisis level," he said. Growth in the
leisure and business travel market has been in double digits in the first four
months, against the same period in 2009. "It has been boosted by the World Expo
in Shanghai, with advance bookings for Shanghai growing around 40 per cent for
the next two to three months," Tong said. Dragonair is awaiting the delivery of
two Airbus 320s by August to cater for the additional services. It is also
considering leasing more aircraft next year, depending on growth in the second
half, Tong said. The airline provides 400 weekly flights to and from the
mainland and will upgrade its service to Wuhan to daily flights in July from
four a week at present. Tong said some passengers from Wuhan would fly via Hong
Kong to long-haul destinations such as Australia, the route competing with the
three-hour high-speed train service which connects Wuhan to Guangzhou. Dragonair
will also increase flights to Kaohsiung to 32 per week, up from 28, even though
there has been a 37 per cent capacity increase for direct flights across the
Taiwan strait. "We were hit hard when the direct flights were first introduced
[two years ago] but the market has grown," Tong said. The carrier currently
operates four daily flights to both Taipei and Kaohsiung. Meanwhile, Dragonair
has been named the world's best regional carrier in a Skytrax survey which
polled 18 million passengers from over 100 countries from last June to April.
HSBC Holdings (0005) has a
succession plan for senior executives but has nothing to announce yet, said
group chief executive Michael Geoghegan. Geoghegan reassured shareholders
yesterday that executive chairman Stephen Green has no plan to step down,
refuting a Sunday Telegraph report that Green would leave the bank later this
year. But he noted that the lender had decided to gradually shift the
responsibility for strategy to the chief executive when Green became chairman in
2006. HSBC (China) chairman Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen also rejected a local report
that he is going on a two-month holiday or decided to retire in 2012. Geoghegan
said HSBC sees a Shanghai listing as a top priority but is still waiting for the
necessary regulations. He noted the lender will continue to add branches in the
mainland as fast as the regulators allow. Asia-Pacific chairman Peter Wong Tung-shun
said official measures to cool the mainland property market are the "right
measures." He expects them not to have any major impact on economic growth, or
its expansion plans. He said HSBC has already agreed to subscribe to the rights
issue at the Bank of Shanghai and is entitled to increase its stake when the
Shanghai bank goes public. Geoghegan said HSBC will use Hong Kong as a base to
develop its Greater China businesses and boost Asian investments. In particular,
it will strive to lead the market in yuan trade settlements and develop yuan
deposit insurance. Elsewhere, Geoghegan said the American card business showed
no sign of worsening in the first quarter, with dropping outstanding card
payments. The bank is working off US$20 billion worth of loans per year in the
US Household Finance Corp unit to gradually handle its US$70 billion worth of
liabilities, he said. Chief executive of global banking and markets division
Stuart Gulliver said apart from US$1.5 billion worth of Greek bonds, the rest of
the PIIGS countries have a limited effect on HSBC, which sees no increase in
impairments from the euro-zone debt crisis. "Our major business is in the UK,"
said Geoghegan. "And the UK economy is in better shape than the EU." He noted
Britain has an independent monetary policy and may even benefit from the crisis
in continental Europe. He believes the crisis will not bring about a global
double dip because emerging market economies are still strong. 
Zhu Yanlai, daughter of former premier Zhu Rongji, has been promoted to
assistant chief executive of BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) (SEHK: 2388). The
promotion was made on Thursday, the Hong Kong-listed bank announced yesterday.
In her new role, Zhu will report to the bank's chief executive He Guangbei.
BOCHK is majority-owned by Bank of China. "In her position, Ms Zhu will assist
the three deputy chief executives overseeing personal banking, corporate banking
and financial markets, to drive the execution of their business strategies," the
bank said. A banking analyst said: "My understanding from inside sources is she
is more interested in her banking career than politics. She has a good
reputation among insiders, as she's quite easygoing and easy to talk to. She has
quite a low profile." Her father has also kept a low profile since retiring in
2003 as premier, a post he held from 1998 to 2003. The fact that Zhu had worked
such a long time at BOCHK since her father retired suggested her promotion was
based on her ability rather than any connection to her father, said Bruce
Richardson, a China-based US financial consultant. Before her promotion, Zhu
Yanlai had been general manager of the economics and strategic planning
department of BOCHK since the bank was incorporated in 2001. She joined BOCHK's
parent BOC (SEHK: 3988) in 1997, where she was head of business development of
BOC (Canada), and assistant general manager of the Hong Kong and Macau regional
office of BOC. Before joining BOC, she worked for the Royal Bank of Canada and
Nesbitt Burns, Bank of Montreal Group. Zhu Yanlai's brother, Levin Zhu Yunlai,
has been chief executive of China International Capital Corporation since 2004.
CICC is China's first joint venture investment bank. The Chinese government is
the largest shareholder with 43.35 per cent, while Morgan Stanley holds a 34.3
per cent stake and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation owns 7.35
per cent. 
Japan's World Expo pavilion has become
known as the "purple silkworm island" because of the membrane covering it.
Visitors take the escalator in Japan's
World Expo pavilion. The designers of the Japan pavilion at the World Expo in
Shanghai, aware of lingering anti-Japanese sentiment stemming from the 1937-45
Sino-Japanese war, found inspiration in a co-operative tale about a bird.
Japan's Hinomaru national flag, often seen in China as a symbol of Japan's past
militarism, does not fly over the pavilion. Instead, visitors get to see two
performances based on a joint effort by Chinese and Japanese scientists to save
the crested ibis, Japan's national bird, from extinction.
Beijing is pushing
Air China (SEHK: 0753), China Eastern Airlines (SEHK: 0670) Corp and China
Southern Airlines to merge their cargo operations to claw back business in a
market that is dominated by foreign carriers. A source familiar with the
situation said some headway had been achieved in the move to a united cargo
airline. "A preparation team has been formed recently to work out the details of
the consolidation," a senior management official from China Southern told the
South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583). A task force formed by State-owned Assets
Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) officials and airline
executives was establishing the form and shareholding structure of the new cargo
airline, another source said. The proposed airline would be based in Shanghai,
the mainland's most lucrative air cargo market. Preliminary talks between the
chairmen of the Big Three airlines and Sasac, the carriers' ultimate owner,
started last year, but stalled due to another government-led initiative - the
merger between China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines last year. "Consolidating the
airlines' cargo operations would raise questions over the cargo joint venture
between Air China and Cathay Pacific Airways (SEHK: 0293)," said a source
familiar with the cargo talks. Cathay Pacific signed an agreement with Air China
in February to take a 49 per cent stake in Air China Cargo and is scheduled to
transfer two freighters to the Shanghai-based joint venture later this summer.
The industry source said it was uncertain whether Sasac would let a foreign
airline participate in the mega consolidation of the mainland's air cargo
business. "The [joint venture] between Cathay and Air China may be stalled if
Sasac wants to simplify the consolidation between the mainland carriers." A
Cathay spokesperson said a preparation team for the cargo project had been set
up since March and the target of having the joint venture carrier coming into
operation in late July or August remained unchanged. However, the joint venture
is still subject to final approval by the central government. Singapore Airlines
failed to get a 25 per cent stake in China Eastern in 2008 after running into
opposition from rival suitor Air China, which also wanted to buy into China
Eastern. The challenge by Air China was rumoured to have been supported by Sasac
which did not want a foreign carrier to acquire a stake in China Eastern at the
time. The mainland, which is a manufacturing base for hi-tech products such as
Apple's iPhone and iPad and Sony's Playstation, is one of the world's major air
cargo exporting regions. But about 70 per cent of the international air cargo is
carried by foreign carriers like Air France, Lufthansa and Cargolux, a
Luxembourg-based cargo carrier. The Big Three mainland carriers account for only
30 per cent of the market. Industry experts said mainland carriers had been
lagging their international rivals in the cargo sector because they had been
preoccupied with the passenger side of the business in recent years. They said
mainland carriers had invested billions of dollars in passenger aircraft to
cater for the fast-growing passenger sector, while investing only a fraction of
their capital in freighters. 
Secondary home sales in Fan Ling fell off
this month partly as buyers took a wait-and-see attitude ahead of today's
auction of a site in the area. Home transactions total 40 so far this month.
That is down 50 percent from the same period in April, said Midland assistant
district manager William Chiang. "Generally, [prices] have shrunk by 3-5
percent," Chiang said, noting the less-than-expected price at auction for a Tung
Chung site earlier this month and the recent poor performance of the stock
market. "Many worried homeowners are willing to talk with prospective buyers,"
he added, and some had not waited to see out how today's auction turned out. But
home viewing has remained constant, Chan added, though most buyers appeared to
be waiting to see what happened at the auction. The 95,800-square-foot site is
expected to boost the government's coffers by up to HK$1.45 billion. A
three-bedroom home measuring 878 square feet at Belair Monte - one of three
residences next to the site for sale - was sold at a 5 percent discount for
HK$2.38 million, said Centaline branch manager Ken Chan. Belair Monte recorded
only two deals this month, down from around 20 a month ago, Chan said. Chiang
noted that adjacent Grand Regentville and Regentville also saw a dramatic drop
in transactions, while Chan said a two-bedroom unit at nearby Royal Green was
recently sold for HK$1.76 million. This was after the asking price was cut by 2
percent. Although transactions in the New Territories were limited because of
price haggling, Midland said secondary transactions increased from 31 to 48 over
the weekend as sellers lowered prices and quality homes became available. On the
primary market front, Midland chief analyst Buggle Lau Ka-fai expects just three
high-end projects in Sheung Shui, Fan Ling and Tai Po to hit the market this
year. Since they will only provide 570 units, Lau said the Fan Ling auction will
not add to housing market pressure even if it proves disappointing. Primary
sales during the three-day holiday remained modest. Sun Hung Kai Properties'
(0016) Yoho Midtown in Yuen Long turned in over 40 deals, said Centaline's Eric
Chan. A mainland investor bought two Yoho Midtown homes of around 573 square
feet each for a total HK$5.93 million, or around HK$5,200 psf. Cheung Kong
Holdings (0001) sold two homes at Festival City in Tai Wai, said Ricacorp
Properties sales director Johnny Yeung Ho-yin. An apartment was sold for HK$6.6
million and another for around HK$10 million. Henderson Land (0012) sold a house
at The Beverly Hills in Tai Po for over HK$21 million, or HK$6,700 psf. 
The head of a think tank close to the
chief executive is slated to take over as chairman of the Hong Kong General
Chamber of Commerce, the city's most influential business association, but
insiders say any concerns about undue influence by the administration are
unfounded. Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, the chairman of the Bauhinia Foundation Research
Centre, is due to replace Andrew Brandler at the chamber when members vote for a
new head at their annual meeting next week. Wu is deputy to Brandler, who
departs after two one-year terms in the position. The Bauhinia Foundation was
established in December 2005, shortly after Donald Tsang Yam-kuen became chief
executive. The centre's main objective is to help the government find more
effective ways of administration and to promote the "one country, two systems"
policy. There is no indication Wu will leave the foundation, which he has headed
since July 2007, after he takes up the commerce chamber's top job. Wu is also
chairman of the Hospital Authority. Critics contend the centre's work is a tool
for government policy, pointing for example to reforms to develop and finance
Hong Kong's health-care regime. But some chamber insiders said they did not
believe Tsang would exert any undue influence over the chamber with Wu as
chairman since it is difficult for just one or two individuals to influence such
an established organisation. Although the role of the chamber's chairman is
traditionally less public, Wu takes over as the government pushes ahead with a
number of controversial pieces of legislation, including proposed laws on
competitive practices and a minimum wage. Brandler has previously said the
chamber agrees a competition law should focus on anti-competitive practices but
worried a vague law that did not spell out what constitutes such behaviour could
tie up businesses in litigation. On the minimum wage, the chamber said its
analysis points to an initial rate of between HK$23 and HK$26 versus the HK$33
that the labour unions want. The chamber's three vice-chairmen, including MTR
Corporation (SEHK: 0066) chief executive Chow Chung-kong, BOC Hong Kong
(Holdings) (SEHK: 2388) chief executive He Guangbei and Victor Li Tzar-kuoi,
tycoon Li Ka-shing's eldest son, will vie for the post vacated by Wu. Some
chamber insiders tip Chow to become the new deputy chairman, even though he is
only one year into winning the vice-chairman seat from incumbent Yeung Kwok-ki.
Wu is also one of six members of the chamber's general committee who are seeking
re-election after their terms end. They include former chamber chairman
Christopher Cheng Wai-chee, Airport Authority chief executive Stanley Hui Hon-chung,
Goldman Sachs (Asia) managing director Ronald Lee, businessman David Lie Tai-chong,
Wharf (Holdings) (SEHK: 0004) deputy chairman and managing director Stephen Ng
Tin-hoi.
Manager Harmander Brar (left) holds a
nutrition label the Brar Group had to create in-house and paste on a packaged
food product it sells in its supermarkets. Few ethnic groceries are ready for
the new nutrition labelling rules that will come into force in a matter of
weeks. Many operators of small provision shops specialising in Indian,
Indonesian or other ethnic foods say they know nothing about the regulation.
Those that are aware of them fear that at least 20 per cent of their products
will have to be taken off the shelves. Some importers are hiring teams to
translate and stick on new labels at the last minute. From July 1, all packaged
food sold by wholesalers and retailers must carry the "1+7" nutrition label,
which specifies the content of energy plus seven core nutrients in the package.
Food products will also need to fulfil certain requirements before nutritional
claims such as "low in sugar" or "no trans-fats" can be made. The South China
Morning Post (SEHK: 0583) found that more than 90 per cent of products sold by
ethnic food chains already complied with the new rules. However, the case was
very different with smaller groceries. A staff member at New Indonesian
Restaurant in Causeway Bay, which runs a small grocery, said she did not know
about the regulation. Less than 30 per cent of the products in the shop were
properly labelled. "I have totally no idea about this rule," she said. "Has the
government done any promotion?" She said the products were supplied by an import
agent, who had not informed the shop of the new rules. "Even if we wanted to
translate and stick labels on our own, we would not have the manpower to do it,"
she said. Other food importers are devoting extra resources to prepare for the
July 1 deadline. Brar Group, which imports Indian food and operates several
supermarkets, is spending at least HK$500,000 on a seven-member "label creation"
team that has been at work for the past six months. Group manager Harmander Brar
said very few Indian food products came with nutrition labels. The team has
asked manufacturers for relevant information and is translating it and creating
labels on its own. "We are importing 1,000 types of food products and need to
stick on the labels one by one," he said. "As most of our staff cannot write
Chinese, we need to hire extra manpower to make bilingual labels." As the team
might not be able to finish sticking on all the labels before July 1, Brar said
it would first label the more popular products. Some manufacturers were
unwilling to provide nutrition information, he said, as they were ready to give
up Hong Kong, a relatively small market. "When July 1 comes, we will take these
products off the shelf until they can be labelled," he said. Brar estimated that
would involve at least 20 per cent of his products, including herbs, noodles,
flour and snacks like rice chips and potato biscuits. The firm might need to pay
thousands of dollars for laboratory tests to find out a product's ingredients if
manufacturers decided not to provide any information, he said. Sellers of
products with an annual sales volume of less than 30,000 units may apply for
exemption from the new regulation. Brar said some of his products met this
requirement, but the application fee - HK$375 for each type of product - could
cost the firm even more than creating labels on its own. "This policy is
unreasonable and unfair to us. I bet less than 5 per cent of Hongkongers care to
read nutrition labels before buying," he said. About 22,400 applications for
exemption had been submitted, the latest statistics from the Food and
Environmental Hygiene Department show. About 19,000 types of food product had
been exempted, and the department was working on a further 1,600 applications.
The nutrition label - which must carry information on the energy, protein, total
fat, saturated fat, trans-fat, carbohydrates, sugars and sodium in the package -
may be in Chinese or English or both. The labelling law was passed in 2008, and
the grace period will expire on June 30.
Property
investors are turning their attention to Hong Kong's office market, which has
seen a surge in transactions in the past few weeks, according to brokers. Lippo
Centre in Admiralty, a popular target of investors, was back in demand, said
property agency Chartersince Surveyors, with seven deals concluded so far this
month, compared with only three in April. The average price at which the deals
were reached was up 7.7 per cent to HK$14,000 per square foot from HK$13,000 per
sq ft in a month, Chartersince said. Transactions of grade-A offices on Hong
Kong Island were also up in the last two weeks, said Eric Ong, sales director in
the office department of property agency Midland IC&I. "It surprised me that
sales of grade-A offices increased under this poor market sentiment," he said.
Midland IC&I's Kenny Kwok said veteran property investor Lai Ni-jan bought a
1,324 sq ft office at East Point Centre in Causeway Bay for HK$16.55 million or
HK$12,500 per sq ft recently, 17 per cent more than its previous owner had paid
at the end of last year. But Ong said average prices of grade-A offices remained
relatively flat so far this year. "Price movements have been within 5 per cent
only," he said. That means that despite some exceptions, the growth in office
prices continues to lag growth in residential and retail prices, and this had
encouraged investors to shift their focus to the office market, said
Chartersince Surveyors' associate director Desmond Poon Chi-ming. Office prices
in Admiralty range between HK$14,000 and HK$15,000 per sq ft currently, he said,
which was still some 17 per cent below their peak levels reached in 1994 and 13
per cent below their 1997 price levels; whereas retail and residential prices
rebounded to above their peak levels in 1997 a few years ago. "Office prices are
much cheaper, compared with the prices of luxury residential," said Ong. "There
are plenty of luxury flats sold for HK$20,000 to HK$30,000 per sq ft.
Residential prices at The Cullinan at Kowloon Station, for instance, are about
HK$16,000 per sq ft - higher than the prices of offices in Lippo Centre and
other grade-A office buildings in Admiralty." Prevailing low interest earnings
and mortgage rates had also encouraged people to buy office properties recently,
added Ong, who said end-users and long-term investors were now more active in
the market than speculators. "The investors are looking for a high rental
yield," he said. At current prices investors could enjoy a rental yield of some
3 per cent from buying a grade-A office property, said Ong, while yields for
investing in second- or third-tier offices ranged between 4 and 5 per cent. "By
comparison the rental yield in a major housing estate such as Kornhill in Quarry
Bay would be around 2 to 3 per cent only," he said. "You can't get a rental
yield of 5 to 6 per cent in the residential market unless you invest in old
housing estates in second-tier districts." Ong said the outlook for the office
market remained uncertain, and expected the prices to stay relatively flat this
year. Growth in the market was limited to offices in Central, he said, which
benefited the developers. But Poon, of Chartersince, was more optimistic about
the outlook for the office market and said he expected prices of grade-A offices
in Admiralty to rise by some 10 per cent this year.
President Hu Jintao talks as US Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton listen
during the opening ceremony of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in
Beijing on Monday. The United States treaded softly on the subject and welcomed
Beijing’s long-standing pledge to reform the yuan as the two sides opened their
second Strategic and Economic Dialogue. But both countries also made clear that
a stronger Chinese currency was not enough by itself to narrow the whopping US
bilateral trade deficit that has fuelled tensions between them at a time when
the global economic recovery remains fragile. While President Hu Jintao broke no
new ground on the yuan dispute, he set an amicable tone for the two days of
talks during which the world’s biggest and third-biggest economies will seek to
steady their relations. “China will continue to steadily advance reform of the
renminbi exchange rate formation mechanism following the principles of being
independent, controllable and gradual,” he said. The renminbi is another name
for the yuan. Hu said his government wanted to expand domestic demand to create
more balanced growth, something that Washington – worried about its yawning
trade deficit with China – has also advocated. US Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner said the Chinese government was moving in the right direction on the
yuan, which has been effectively pegged to the dollar since the global financial
crisis worsened in mid-2008. “We welcome the fact that China’s leaders have
recognised that reform of the exchange rate is an important part of their
broader reform agenda,” he said. Trying to press the case that appreciation
would be in China’s own interest, Geithner said that a more market-driven
exchange rate would help suppress inflation while also driving private firms to
move up the value chain. China and the United States signalled that there could
be progress on two other trade-related policies that have been additional
irritants in their relations. China said that it was working to resolve the
concerns of foreign companies about an “indigenous innovation” programme that
the United States has said was unduly restrictive and a concern on par with the
yuan. And Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said he was optimistic that the
United States would loosen controls over high-tech exports, a move that would go
a small way to balancing their trade ties. The talks also touched on Europe’s
debt woes, with both sides saying that they were cautiously optimistic that any
fallout would be limited. “The general view was that the pace of the global
economic recovery will be basically maintained,” People’s Bank of Governor Zhou
Xiaochuan told a news conference. The one slight point of open discord were US
calls for a tougher line against North Korea over an alleged sinking of a South
Korean warship, contrasting with China’s appeals for restraint. Tensions flared
between Beijing and Washington in the first months of this year, when China
denounced US criticism of its internet censorship, Washington’s arms sales to
Taiwan, and President Barack Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled
leader. Beijing considers Taiwan a part of its territory, and Hu said on Monday
that it was important for countries to respect one another’s sovereignty.
Beijing officials have said they want only “quiet discussion” of US complaints
that the Chinese currency is held too low in value, giving Chinese manufacturers
an unfair advantage. The Obama administration so far appears willing to go along
in the hope that a quieter approach will give Beijing more political space to
let its currency appreciate. The annual US trade deficit with China fell to
US$226.8 billion last year from a record US$268.0 billion in 2008. But the Obama
administration is keen to lift exports, and the deficit remains a point of
friction with Beijing. 
China, US get down to business - The
United States yesterday pressed China to give "fair access" for foreign
companies.At the same time, China stressed the risks both economies faced from
Europe's debt woes, ahead of top-level talks in Beijing. 
China wishes to learn
more about the U.S. timetable and plan to gradually erase impediments to U.S.
high-tech exports to China, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said Monday.
Speaking at the second round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues
in Beijing, Wang said China had been pleased to hear about the U.S. initiatives
to ease restrictions on such exports. Wang said China also wishes to know the
details of how the United States plans to treat Chinese firms making investments
in the country, as well as U.S. plans to recognize China as a market economy.
Figures by China's General Administration of Customs show bilateral trade
reached 298.26 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, nearly 120 times the level in 1979
when two countries established diplomatic ties. To maintain a sustainable,
mutually-beneficial partnership in economic and trade relations is vital to
China and the United States, respectively as the world's largest developing and
developed country, and to the world economy, Wang said. He said as economic
exchanges between China and the United States broaden and deepen, "it is
unavoidable that some friction and disputes will arise." He urged the two sides
to boost communication and enhance mutual understanding, with due respect to
differences in history, culture, and economic development. Wang said China and
the United States should stand together against protectionism in any of its
forms. He called on the two countries to propose specific measures to curb
protectionism. 
A model is seen standing next to
the all-electric I- Car, during the Beijing Auto China held earlier this year.
Media reports on Monday said central government is planning to award buyers of
green cars with subsidies. China will award buyers of green cars with subsidies
of up to 60,000 yuan (HK$68,000) each, the Shanghai Securities News said on
Monday, as it steps up efforts to cut emissions in the world’s biggest auto
market. The central government has worked out a plan to subsidise green car
buyers and will unveil details by the end of this month, the newspaper said,
citing people with knowledge of the matter. Subsidies will be based on the
performance and energy-savings efficiency of the models, the paper said. Maximum
subsidies for buyers of pure electric vehicles is 60,000 yuan each, while those
for plug-in hybrid and normal hybrid cars are 50,000 yuan and 3,000 yuan
respectively, it said.
They have
no combustion engine, no exhaust pipe and make no emissions or noise. They're
China's first indigenous electric taxis. Beijing hopes they will dramatically
reduce air pollution in cities - and place China at the centre of the future of
the car industry. "You simply start the electric taxi by pressing an 'on/off'
button. The acceleration and braking systems are excellent. It's very
comfortable. You have strong air conditioning, and a colourful LCD display will
tell you everything you need to know, including how many more kilometres the
battery can last," said taxi driver Lu Shiming, 39, sitting in his brand new cab
in Shenzhen. His taxi's cream-coloured leather seats are proving a magnet for
passengers. Lu put his foot down, quickly accelerating to 60km/h, and said the
vehicle performed impressively when climbing steep slopes. "The steering wheel
is light enough and easy to control," he said, adding that the electric car's
performance was better than that of his three previous petrol-powered taxis.
Last week Shenzhen became the first Chinese city to put all-electric taxis into
operation. The city officially launched 30 battery-powered cabs based on local
carmaker BYD's e6 model and promised to increase the number to 100 by the end of
next month. By 2012, the city government hopes the number of electric or hybrid
vehicles on its streets will swell to 24,000 - including 2,500 electric taxis
and 4,000 electric or hybrid buses. Electric cars, with zero emissions, are
hugely attractive at a time when the world is grappling with pollution problems.
Many foreign cities have similar plans to switch their taxi fleets to electric
or hybrid vehicles. Eco City Vehicles (ECV), which makes the official taxis for
London, launched trials of an electric conversion of its Mercedes Vito cab
earlier this year. Better Place, a California-based producer of electric
vehicles, plans an electric taxi fleet in Tokyo. Zap, another US maker of
electric vehicles, unveiled its electric cab at the Beijing motor show this
year. Experts believe electric vehicles will transform the car industry within
five to 20 years. For China, adopting electric vehicles means much more than
just a green revolution. Beijing has long regarded the new automotive technology
as an opportunity to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, cut carbon emissions
and help it leapfrog foreign competitors to grab the lion's share of the car
industry of the future. With its huge car market, political will and
unparalleled government control, China believes it will be able to build up its
electric car industry more quickly than other countries. Wang Binggang ,
director of the electric vehicles project at the Ministry of Science and
Technology, said emission-free cars were now at the top of the country's
industrial strategy, which is directly supervised by the State Council.
"Electric cars are more than just a new technology," Wang said. "At least four
ministries - the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform
Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology - are involved in the project." Government support
and subsidies are important for the fledgling electric car industry. Without an
extended network of service stations and other financial incentives, it would be
unlikely that market forces and education alone could persuade consumers to make
the switch. The BYD electric taxi, powered by an iron battery, has a top speed
of more than 140km/h and can run about 250 kilometres after a 15-minute "quick
recharge" that tops up the battery to 80 per cent of its full capacity,
according to the Shenzhen-based company. The taxi costs more than 300,000 yuan
(HK$343,000), while a petrol taxi costs about 100,000 yuan. So for electric cars
to be commercially viable, the government has to offer direct and indirect
incentives to the taxi drivers and companies. The central government will give a
direct subsidy of 60,000 yuan to the buyer of each electric taxi. The Shenzhen
government will exempt the driver of an electric taxi from the 45,000 yuan
annual licence fee.
Beijing welcomes signs that Washington
may relax controls on high-tech exports to China, Commerce Minister Chen Deming
said on Monday, as the United States and China held talks in Beijing. Chen told
a news conference that relaxing the controls would help balance the bilateral
trade. Chen added that he hoped the reforms would be real and not “lots of
thunder with no rain.” The United States and China, the world’s largest and
third-biggest economies, held their second Strategic and Economic Dialogue in
Beijing, discussing key issues such as yuan reforms, Europe’s debt crisis and
North Korea. 
In partnership with China Mobile, Dell has
launched the Dell Mini 3i smartphone, which is now available nationwide, and
already plans to release improved models later this year. Computer maker Dell,
lifted by a 44 per cent year-on-year revenue increase on the mainland over the
past three months, will accelerate its push into the country's booming
smartphone market with the launch of new models later this year.
Wal-Mart plans to add 10 million square
feet of retailing space in China this year, said a senior executive of the
world's largest retailer Saturday. The plan was disclosed by Scott Price, CEO of
Wal-Mart Asia, while addressing the Global Summit of Women 2010 which ended in
Beijing Saturday. The summit opened on Thursday evening. "This is a huge
expansion of Wal-Mart in China," said Price, who added that Wal-Mart now has
some 200 stores in 87 cities in China. The retailer will also employ more women,
and reduce its energy and resource consumption by 40 percent this year.
The stitched photo taken on May 24, 2010 shows the Arcadian scenery in
Liangjiang Township in Lingui County in Guilin City, southwest China's Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Eight carriages were derailed after
a Shanghai-Guilin train hit a landslide yesterday near Fuzhou, Jiangxi. At least
19 people died and 71 were injured when a passenger train was derailed yesterday
morning in eastern Jiangxi, state media said. The train, en route from Shanghai
to Guilin in the southern region of Guangxi , was derailed at about 2am in a
mountainous area near Fuzhou , Xinhua said. Heavy rain caused a landslide that
buried a section of tracks connecting Shanghai and Kunming , Yunnan , and the
train crashed into the huge mounds of mud and debris, China Central Television
said.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang attends
launching ceremony of MPF Investment Education Campaign at Olympian City in West
Kowloon on Friday. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said all seven million
people of Hong Kong can participate in a televised debate on political reforms
when he takes on Civic Party leader Audrey Eu Yuet-mee on June 17. One day after
issuing a challenge to Eu to enter an unprecedented hour-long live TV debate,
Tsang said he was happy that Eu has taken up the challenge.
Mitsubishi's four-seater,
bubble-shaped electric car, the i-MiEV, goes on sale to the public in Hong Kong
today, the first Asian market outside Japan to get the car. The vehicle, powered
by lithium batteries, costs HK$395,000 from the authorised distributor,
Universal Cars Limited. Six orders have already been placed and the dealer says
it plans to sell about 50 cars this year. The cars are already in use in Hong
Kong, about 30 having been bought by the government and the two electricity
companies in the past six months. Fully charged, the car can travel for up to
120 kilometres, or the equivalent of four return trips between Tseung Kwan O and
Tsuen Wan, with no emissions - in fact, it has no exhaust pipe. It takes about
30 minutes to recharge from a powerful quick-charge station or about seven hours
from a domestic electricity supply. There are only 37 charging stations around
Hong Kong but more will be set up by the end of June. Vivian Lau Lee-kwan,
deputy secretary for the environment, said the launch of electric vehicles in
Hong Kong was significant. "It is an important milestone to promote this new
form of transport to the public," she said. Leonard Cheng Wai-lam, sales and
marketing general manager of Universal Cars, said electric vehicles benefited
the environment and saved money. "The power cost for an electric car is about 80
per cent less compared with using petrol vehicles and zero carbon dioxide
emissions are beneficial to the environment," he said. Universal Cars has
conducted a series of seminars on the latest developments in electric vehicles
and to promote their use in Hong Kong. A prototype i-MiEV car was handed to the
government for a six-month local trial in May last year. In December, the first
batch of mass-production i-MiEVs was delivered to the government.
Chinese Vice President Xi
Jinping (R1) meets with Thomas J. Donohue (L1), chairman of the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, on May
21, 2010. 
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang
(R) meets with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke at the Great Hall of the
People in Beijing, capital of China, May 20, 2010. Chinese Vice President Xi
Jinping on Friday asked Chinese and U.S. business communities to further trade
and economic ties, ahead of next week's high-level Sino-U.S. dialogue on
political and economic issues.
Locke promotes clean-energy deals with
China - U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Friday the United States and
China should lead the way in developing clean energy to meet future energy
demands. Addressing students at China's prestigious Tsinghua University, Locke
said worldwide energy is a six trillion USD market and the fastest-growing
sector is the clean, green energy. Locke is leading a trade mission of 24 U.S.
companies to promote sales of clean-energy technology to China. "These companies
already possess cutting-edge technologies that can help China meet its ambitious
energy efficiency goals while also spurring the creation of new jobs in China
and the United States," said Locke. Washington is seeking clean-energy
technology sales to China to help fulfill U.S. President Barack Obama's pledge
to double exports and create two million jobs within five years. Beijing agrees
that clean energy will be a highlight in China-U.S. trade cooperation.
Meanwhile, China urges the United States to take moves toward easing
restrictions on exports to China. "The clean energy projects involve huge
investments and long-term planning. The U.S. export restrictions, if not
loosened, are a barrier for future cooperation between the two countries," said
China's Vice Minister of Commerce, Ma Xiuhong.
A crippled jet fighter was a second from
crashing into a densely populated area in Shandong's capital, Jinan, this month
before the pilot managed to pull it away and crash into vacant land nearby,
mainland media reported yesterday. People's Liberation Army Air Force pilot Feng
Siguang, 28, died in the accident on May 6, but his last-second heroics saved
hundreds of lives, Xinhua said. His jet crashed 230 metres from a community of
4,000 people, it said.
High-profile dealmaker and former Goldman Sachs top Asian executive Fred Hu has
decided to launch a $10 billion private equity (PE) fund after exiting from the
race for a senior position in the nation's central bank, sources familiar with
the matter said on Thursday. Hu is now courting investments for his
China-dedicated fund called Chunhua. A number of institutional investors,
including the Ping An Group, are keen on investing in the fund, a source told
China Daily on condition of anonymity. Ping An Group, the nation's second
largest insurer, may invest $5 billion in the fund, the source said, adding that
the two sides are yet to finalize the deal. Fred Hu takes the private path, to
float $10b PE fund. Fred Hu, former Goldman Sachs partner, is one of the top
dealmakers in China. The source said the fund could also rope in some foreign
investors, but declined to give more details as the talks were still in initial
stages. Hu could not be reached immediately for comments. The investment arm of
China Construction Bank, Singapore government-owned Temasek Holdings and his
former employer Goldman Sachs are some of the other companies who could help Hu
launch the fund, Reuters reported earlier citing sources close to the matter. Hu,
a veteran dealmaker in China, stepped down as a partner of Goldman Sachs
recently after working with the Wall Street bank for 13 years. In one of his
landmark deals, Hu spearheaded the $3.78 billion investment for Goldman in
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. 
Visitors view exhibits on
an auto expo held in Wuhan International Exhibition Center in Wuhan, capital of
central China's Hubei Province, May 21, 2010. The 8th Central China
International Auto Expo kicked off here on Friday with over 400 autos of more
than 50 brands from home and abroad on show. 
Actors and actresses perform a
show featuring the culture of Zhouzhuang, one of China's most famous water
townships in Kunshan city of Jiangsu province, at Shanghai Expo Park on May 20,
2010. The 15th Zhouzhuang International Tourism Festival kicked off on May 20,
with 180 professional actors and some local residents taking part in the opening
ceremony performance.
Yam rules out sharp yuan rise -
Expectations China will unshackle the yuan from a dollar peg soon and allow the
currency to enjoy a sharp one-off gain are misguided, the former head of the
Hong Kong Monetary Authority said yesterday in Singapore. "Contrary to market
expectations, I think there is unlikely to be a large one- off appreciation of
the renminbi against the US dollar when exchange rate flexibility is
reintroduced," said Joseph Yam Chi-kwong. Yam, now an adviser to China's central
bank, said speculators betting on a yuan appreciation via non- deliverable
forwards could lose a lot of money. It was not in China's interest to relax the
peg anytime soon given jittery European financial markets, he said. Commenting
on financial market speculation that Beijing will soon relax its peg to the
dollar, Yam said: "That is yet another example of the dark side of financial
innovation." Beijing has pegged the currency at 6.83 per dollar since the middle
of 2008 to help the export-geared economy through the global downturn. Advising
investors to focus on economic factors rather than political rhetoric, Yam said
Beijing's policy between July 2005 and March 2008 was to allow a gradual 2-3
percent appreciation of the yuan versus a currency basket, rather than against
the dollar. Should China resume its stated policy, "it would actually require a
significant depreciation in the renminbi exchange rate against the US dollar,"
he said, pointing to the dollar's recent rise against the euro. He added that it
was debatable whether the yuan was undervalued, pointing to China's trade
surplus, which shrank by 30 percent last year. Yam said the recent
intensification of pressure on China to relax its currency peg could be linked
to the large number of bets for a rising yuan via the NDF market that need to be
settled soon. "I have personally very little sympathy for those losing bets," he
said. 
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-Kuen on Thursday invited Civic Party leader
Audrey Eu Yuet-mee to a live television debate on the government’s
constitutional reform proposals.
More than 60 per cent of Hong Kong
people believe the city's statutory minimum wage should be set at no less than
HK$30 an hour, a University of Hong Kong survey has found. Commissioned by Oxfam
Hong Kong - a long-time advocate of a minimum wage to protect the city's working
poor - the survey found 35 per cent of respondents thought the minimum hourly
level should be set at HK$30. Of the 509 people interviewed earlier this month,
11 per cent said the hourly wage should be set between HK$31 and HK$34, 9 per
cent said HK$35 to HK$39, and 26 per cent said HK$40 or above. Dr Robert Chung
Ting-yiu, director of the university's public opinion program, said the survey
polled a cross-section of city dwellers. "We asked the background of these
interviewees during the poll - about one-fourth of them are executives and about
10 per cent are blue-collar workers," Chung said. He said 20 per cent of those
interviewed were clerical staff, 7.8 per cent students, 12.9 per cent full-time
housewives and the rest held other occupations. "The survey covered a wide range
of Hong Kong people and I believe they can truthfully represent the voice of the
city without any bias to the interests of any particular group," Chung said.
Surveys on the minimum wage were also conducted in 2005 and 2008, but it is the
first time a survey has asked about what level it should be set at. The
Legislative Council is expected to pass a minimum wage bill by July, and the
Provisional Minimum Wage Commission will recommend a pay level around the same
time. Public support for minimum-wage legislation was 70 per cent in the latest
survey, against 71.6 per cent in 2008 and 58.6 per cent in 2005. Of those
polled, 72 per cent said a minimum wage should be set at a level that protected
basic living standards of workers and reduced the gap between rich and poor.
Oxfam Hong Kong director Ho Wai-chi said that given the city is one of the
world's wealthiest, it should reward its workers with decent pay. Ho declined to
recommend a minimum wage level but said it should be sufficient for workers to
support their families. Ho also called for a cap on working hours, a view
supported by 66 per cent of those surveyed. "We always stick to our principle of
trying to create a fair society, that the vulnerable should be protected," Ho
said. "In the past, the government also did not support the minimum wage, but
its stance has changed with pressure from the public," he said.
Millions of Octopus card users will be left wondering if they are paying more
than single journey ticket holders when new MTR fares take effect on June 13.
Train passengers with Octopus cards normally enjoy a lower fare than people
buying tickets from vending machines, but the MTR says a fraction of Octopus
card users will pay 10 cents to 20 cents more than single journey ticket users
on some trips. With single journey fares being rounded off to the next 50 cents,
the MTR believes this might mean an excessive amount for some of its shorter,
cheaper journeys, so it waived the rise for such trips. However, these trips
then become more expensive if one uses an Octopus card. Examples include a ride
between Tsuen Wan West and Jordan, which will cost HK$7.50 with a single journey
ticket but 20 cents more with an Octopus card. The MTR said only 100 of its
40,000 fare combinations would be affected. "Commuters can choose if they want
to pay by Octopus card or buy a single journey ticket," said MTR general manager
of marketing Jeny Yeung Mei-chun. When the MTR imposes fare rises averaging 2.05
per cent from June 13, it will mean more than 3.78 million passengers will pay a
few extra cents per ride. The increase will see the MTR's yearly income boosted
by another HK$200 million but a spokeswoman said this was nullified by annual
expenses of HK$600 million with the fare concession packages. 
PCCW chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai tells
shareholders at yesterday's annual meeting that the company will "actively
consider" a possible listing of its shares on the mainland. While legal issues
over PCCW (SEHK: 0008)'s failed privatisation persist, group chairman Richard Li
Tzar-kai gave shareholders reason to cheer with a vow to hand out generous
payouts each year, and a plan for listing its shares on the mainland. "With our
steady operating cash flow, the company is confident on maintaining its practice
of paying attractive dividend to shareholders," Li said at yesterday's annual
general meeting. Shareholders gave a near-unanimous vote to the resolution for
paying a final dividend of 13.3 HK cents per share. Li said PCCW, the largest
fixed-line network operator in Hong Kong, would also "actively consider" a
possible listing of its shares on the mainland. Macquarie Equities Research
analyst Lisa Soh, however, noted that such a listing would unlikely become a big
priority for PCCW this year since the relevant listing rules in Shanghai
remained under development. The Shanghai Stock Exchange just completed, in
March, the draft listing and trading rules for its proposed international board,
which will enable overseas companies and red chips listed in Hong Kong to float
their stock in the country's A-share market. Li said PCCW continued to engage in
discussions with mainland carrier China Unicom (SEHK: 0762, announcements, news)
, which is the company's second-largest shareholder, about potential business
opportunities across the border. He said their exploratory talks had yet to
identify material targets. Still, he said PCCW's various lines of business
continued to perform steadily and these would benefit further from the economic
recovery. The company last year reported an 18 per cent rise in net profit to
HK$1.51 billion from HK$1.27 billion in 2008, on the back of cost-cutting
measures, improved pay-television and content sales and gains made from the
disposal of a property development in Beijing. The so-called PCCW minority
shareholder alliance, which counts more than 450 members, yesterday gave credit
to Li and senior management for sharpening their focus on new opportunities to
grow the company and boost its share price. Alliance spokesman Danny Chan Chung-cheung
cited as an example PCCW's decision, which was announced in January, to apply
for a free-to-air television licence. PCCW runs Now TV, a pay-TV service with
more than one million subscribers that is transmitted over its high-speed
broadband network. Chan, however, noted that "something serious" might be afoot
regarding the reported police investigation of parties involved in the aborted
privatisation of PCCW last year. When asked by a shareholder, Li said it was
inappropriate to comment due to ongoing legal processes. Officers from the
Commercial Crime Bureau in February executed a search warrant at the home of Li
and a number of other residences and businesses connected with the failed
HK$15.93 billion attempt to take PCCW private. When asked for an update on the
case, a police spokesman yesterday said: "We do not comment on individual
cases." In September last year, the board of Singapore-based Pacific Century
Regional Developments, the majority stakeholder of PCCW, withdrew its intended
application to the Court of Final Appeal for leave to appeal against the
decision that blocked its effort to privatise the operator. It said the
"shareholders' best interests are served by drawing a line under this matter and
focusing on the future".
Mainland property prices have
stopped rising and transaction volumes have dwindled since the middle of last
month, the country's top economic planner said yesterday.
Lawrence Tong's
Shanghai home has an air of tranquility, helped by the small garden which he
renovated when he moved in. He only targets ground-floor flats that have decent
outdoor space. Lawrence Tong is not a typical property investor in Shanghai.
While many Hong Kong and mainland investors have their eyes on upmarket
residential properties in the nation's financial hub, Tong has bet on the
secondary public housing market, or gong fang. Gong fang is the term used to
refer to public housing that was originally owned or built by government units
or state-owned enterprises to house their staff. "As part of the housing reform
in the country, staff were encouraged since the 1990s to buy their public
housing units at subsidised prices and retrade them as private housing in the
secondary market," says Tong, who moved from Hong Kong to Shanghai 13 years ago.
"The attractiveness of the public housing is the location. These buildings were
built decades ago and are usually located just downtown of the city," he says.
Some of the flats on the ground floor have gardens. Tong cites the example of
his 40 square metre flat in Changning district, which has a garden of more than
30 square metres. "I used to live in a 100 square metre-plus apartment in a
high-rise building in Shanghai. But it was too big for our two-member family."
So two years ago he sold it and bought his cosy home for 760,000 yuan
(HK$866,000). He used the rest of his sale proceeds to team up with a friend to
buy another 47 square metre gong fang for 1.82 million yuan. Now he rents out
the second flat for 7,800 yuan a month, although he pays water and electricity
costs. This represents a yield of about 5 per cent, which is higher than the 3
per cent yields available from investing in high-rise apartments. "Our target
tenants are expats who are willing to pay above-market rents. The rent can be
easily covered by the housing allowances provided by their companies," he says.
"Europeans like gardens and they do not mind, and even love, living with local
Shanghainese in old districts. They see it as a chance to experience Chinese
culture." However, not all gong fang can be sold to foreigners. "Ownership of
those with historic backgrounds may not be traded. Usage rights may be traded,
but this can only be to Shanghainese buyers." This is not a problem for Tong as
his wife is from Shanghai. Another investment attraction of the gong fang, says
Tong, is the redevelopment potential. Not all public housing flats are
attractive but he only targets those with decent gardens on the ground floor,
since their supply was limited and they therefore offer greater investment
potential. Tong says investors interested in this market have to be prepared to
pay for renovations. "When I bought my home, the flat was very dirty as the
owner put all the rubbish in the garden. I spent more than 300,000 yuan to turn
it around." A Shanghai-based agent says the gong fang market is stable. When the
market boomed, prices did not follow at the same pace, when prices plummeted,
prices remained steady. 
Teacher Ng Mei-lan speaks to Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen about electoral
reform during his visit to Belilios Public School in Tin Hau on Wednesday. Chief
Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen was upstaged by a teacher while visiting a
secondary school to promote the government’s latest package for political reform
in 2012. Tang was speaking to students and teachers at Belilios Public School in
Tin Hau on Wednesday morning. During his speech, he argued that even though the
political reform package may not be perfect for everyone, it, like a student who
gets a B instead of an A on an exam, deserved to be passed. After his speech, a
Liberal Studies teacher, Ng Mei-lan, addressed the chief secretary. She said, as
teachers, they encouraged students, once they were 18, to register as voters and
participate in election, but that Tang, the Chief Executive and other government
officials did not vote even though the by-elections were legal. “It seems that
you all are setting a bad example,” she said, “If we really can elect the Chief
Executive with a ‘one man, one vote’ system in 2017, what should our students do
then? “I am not a member of the Civic Party or the League of Social Democrats,
but I want to tell you the details have not been laid down for universal
suffrage in 2017. She then showed Tang a placard that said in Chinese: “I have
the right to elect the chief executive!” Ng was applauded by the students. The
chief secretary said that he agreed with the message on her placard and that he
too hoped to have the right to elect the Chief Executive in 2017. “In fact, the
Standing Committee made this decision back in 2007,” Tang said. “After we go
through a series of political reforms, everyone should have the right to elect
the chief executive in 2017,” he explained. Tang also defended the decision of
top government officials to not participate in the by-elections by saying that
voting was not compulsory in Hong Kong and deciding whether to vote or not was
the right of each person. “Civic responsibility is about a person making a
decision after thinking independently... It is not about blindly following
others.” he said. Tang also said the government would try to arrange meetings
between moderate democrats and the central government to discuss the political
reform package. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has said the
constitutional reform package would be put to the vote in Legco before the
legislative year ends in July.
TVB host Amigo
Choi Kin-bong's ex-girlfriend Elizabete Kwong Man-wai/TVB host Amigo Choi
Kin-bong at Kwun Tong Court. TVB (SEHK: 0511) host Amigo Choi Kin-bong who
allegedly assaulted his Brazilian- Chinese model girlfriend was put on a good-behaviour
bond yesterday after the prosecution withdrew the charge against him. Choi, 30,
is bound over for good behaviour for one year at a surety of HK$5,000. The trial
scheduled yesterday was cancelled after discussions between defence and
prosecution lawyers for more than two hours, after which the latter withdrew the
charge. Leaving the court with his manager, Choi said to news and entertainment
reporters that he felt "as usual". "Since the thing happened, my family, friends
and I have been worried," he said. "Now it's finally over. I just want to say
[to my family and friends]: You don't need to worry any more." His manager read
a statement outside court: "We are glad that Mr Choi Kin-bong is found not
guilty ... The court ordered a bind-over to solve relationship problems between
a man and a woman ... saving the court's and everyone's time." His ex-girlfriend
Elizabete Kwong Man-wai, who was supposed to testify in the trial, was
tight-lipped and teary when she left the court. Choi, a Chinese-Korean and
former boxer, pleaded not guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual
bodily harm in Kwun Tong Court for hurting Kwong, 20, at his Beacon Heights flat
in December last year. But the prosecution stated the facts, which Choi agreed,
that he pushed Kwong when he tried to get her to delete the cellphone photos and
text messages he had sent her. The pair lived together shortly after they got to
know each other in a TV programme and became close friends in August. On
December 22, they had an argument after Choi got a phone call from an
ex-girlfriend, and he suggested Kwong move out. When Kwong was packing, he
demanded that she delete from her phone their photos and the texts he had sent,
and hit the back of her head after she refused. She fell to the floor; Choi
grabbed her neck with one hand and pressed her chest with the other, but then
searched her bag. They struggled and Kwong was pushed onto the bed. Kwong sought
treatment at a hospital and reported the case to police. A medical examination
found red marks on her neck and chest. Choi, who had been among TVB's most
popular hosts, was suspended after his arrest in December. Choi had a talk show,
My Name is Bong, and was one of the masters of ceremony at this year's Miss Hong
Kong pageant. 
Martin Lee Ka-shing, the younger son of
tycoon Lee Shau-kee, has paid top dollar for a site on The Peak so that all his
family can live under one roof - or, to be more precise, under three or four
roofs. Lee yesterday agreed to pay HK$68,200 per square foot for the land at 35
Barker Road, smashing all local and regional records. The auction for the
53,350-square- foot site lasted about 10 minutes as Lee made the winning 10th
bid. He will now invest hundreds of millions of dollars more to develop the site
into three or four villas, each of up to three stories, for "family use."
"Sometimes what you like just can't be bought with money," he said, explaining
that beautiful views from the high-quality plot convinced him to make the
purchase. Lee currently lives in a 9,000-sq-ft apartment at Eva Court,
MacDonnell Road, with his wife Cathy Tsui Chi-kei and two children. His father -
nicknamed "Uncle Four" - lives in a duplex in the same building. Uncle Four and
his elder son are also likely to move into the new place. "Our family have been
living in apartments over the years," Martin Lee said. "The site's location is
quite nice and suitable, so we are trying for houses." He was interested in the
penthouse at Henderson Land's 39 Conduit Road after Tsui gave birth to their
second daughter, but was later put off by the target price of HK$100,000 psf,
Lee senior said in October. Martin Lee, who is vice chairman of Henderson Land,
beat two other bidders from Sun
Holdings of US debt rise
again - China increased its holdings of US Treasury debt for the first time in
six months - a trend analysts said could last as the dollar is expected to
continue its strong rise.
Shanghai is set to build 1.2 million
new homes in a further bid to stamp out speculation and stabilize property
prices. The news comes as sales in the mainland's financial hub slumped to a
five-year low last week, indicating that measures to rein in the property market
are taking effect. The Shanghai government said it plans to build 23 large-scale
communities, China National Radio reported yesterday. Land for the massive
project will be prepared by the city government within the next 18 months. The
combined construction area will cover up to 105 square kilometers, of which 40
sq km will be for residential development. The 1.2 million homes will total up
to 80 million square meters in area. Shanghai announced a similar scheme last
year. The plan is to provide small and medium-sized homes for sale, affordable
houses for the less well off, and other apartments for rent. New home sales in
the city plunged 16 percent to a combined area of 60,000 sq m from a week
earlier, data from Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services showed. That
is the lowest weekly level since 2005 and is attributed to recent policies to
curb runaway home prices and cool property speculation. The average price
declined 9 percent to 22,873 yuan (HK$26,114) per sq m from the previous week as
more cheaper homes were sold. It was the first time in three weeks that the
average price was less than 25,000 yuan per sq m, although it was still higher
than the annual average level. Beijing, meanwhile, said it will launch "special
inspections" to check on developers, according to China Economic Net. The focus
will be on whether property firms are engaging in illegal or irregular trade
practices, and buyers' complaints. Inspectors will also look into land
development, home demolitions and property management in a bid to improve the
property sector and clamp down on developers who keep their sites idle. 
China cuts timber production to
protect forest - Timber output has been cut to help sustain the environment of
the Greater Hinggan Mountains in northeast China. Annual timber output in the
area since 2007 has been one-third less than the approved level of 2.1 million
cubic meters under natural forest protection rules, said Zheng Xuehui, director
of the planning and statistics department under the Greater Hinggan Forestry
Group. The group reduced output by 350,000 cubic meters in the first four months
of the year. Between 2007 and 2009, the production was more than 2 million cubic
meters under the allowed amount. "After decades of over-felling, the quality of
the forest is deteriorating," said Zheng. "If the practice continued, it would
have a further negative impact on the environment." The Greater Hinggan
Mountains, which has the largest virgin forest in China, had 76.9 million cubic
meters of wood resources, Zheng cited a 2006 survey as saying.
Taiwan's
President Ma Ying-jeou speaks at news conference in Taipei on Wednesday, saying
Beijing could feel compelled to dismantle the more than 1,000 missiles it has
pointed at Taiwan as relations between the rivals improve.
US
Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said on Wednesday that he believed the
turbulent economic events of the past several years has persuaded mainland
leaders that they need to find a new model for economic growth. US Secretary of
Commerce Gary Locke urged mainland on Wednesday to purchase more American goods
to help reduce a huge trade imbalance that has caused friction in US-Sino ties.
“Obviously the trade deficit needs to come down,” Locke said in an interview
ahead of a high-level US-China Dialogue on economic and foreign policy concerns
early next week in Beijing. “There’s two component to it: more exports from the
United States to China and more internal consumption within China so that
they’re less reliant on exports,” Locke said. The former Washington state
governor said he believed the turbulent economic events of the past several
years, including most recently in Europe, has persuaded mainland leaders they
need to find a new model for economic growth. “They recognise that their economy
cannot become so export dependent, especially with the crisis within the EU.
That’s also a major destination for Chinese products,” he said. The US trade
deficit with mainland totalled US$226.8 billion last year, down more than US$40
billion from 2008 but still the largest the United States has with any country.
The huge imbalance has fuelled accusations in the US Congress and manufacturing
sector that mainland is manipulating its currency for an unfair trade advantage
by keeping the price of its yuan artificially low against the US dollar. US
officials have said those concerns will be on the agenda at the two-day US-China
Strategic and Economic Dialogue meeting starting on Monday. Asked at a news
briefing if he thought the crisis in Europe had changed the environment for the
talks by making Beijing more wary of revaluing its yuan currency, Locke said:
“I’m sure it cannot be ignored.” “I think it means perhaps a greater urgency
that the two countries talk about economic policy and the way that we can move
forward on rebalancing our economies,” he told reporters. “So, I think it’s even
better that we’re meeting at this time,” he added. Locke, who is in Shanghai
leading 24 US companies on a clean energy trade mission, declined further
comment on the yuan, saying that was the jurisdiction of US Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner. A primary purpose of the mission is to help meet President
Barack Obama’s goal of doubling overall US exports within five years. He was
also asked when the United States would designate mainland as a “market
economy”, as it did several years ago for Russia. Locke said that depended on
when the country met a strict set of criteria under US law and did not give any
specific timeframe. Mainland resents not being considered a market economy by
the United States, which affects how Washington calculates any anti-dumping
duties it imposes on mainland exports. Locke stopped short of setting an
individual goal of doubling US exports to mainland. But mainland’s push to boost
its use of renewable energy and to increase building efficiency offers big
opportunities in areas where US companies have a lot to offer, he said. In some
cases, it makes more sense for US companies to build factories in mainland, than
to ship the goods from the United States, Locke said. But US company investment
in mainland manufacturing facilities also supports US jobs since many of the
components that go into final goods produced in mainland are made in the United
States, he said. The United States also welcomes mainland investment in the US
manufacturing sector, which helps create jobs in the United States, Locke said.
“That’s been a theme of the United States, with respect to all countries,” he
said. US companies had more than US$45 billion invested in mainland as of 2008,
but mainland investment in the United States remains far below that.
Yin Shuaisong
feeds chickens in his hometown of Zhangpan County, central China's Henan
province, May 18, 2010. Graduating from Henan Agricultural University in 2003,
Yan had worked as a marketing manager for three companies. He quit his last job
with a monthly pay of more than 4,000 yuan in 2009 and started his chicken house
in his hometown from his savings and borrowed money. He has made a fortune with
the chickens and vowed to spread his culturing experience to his fellow
villagers. 
Green Tech Automotive's Terence McAuliffe with MyCars in Wan Chai yesterday. The
second generation is due out later this year. Hong Kong's electric car to hit
the road in US - Hong Kong's first home-grown electric car is expected to enter
the US market next year after its co-developer was acquired by an American
carmaker in a HK$100 million deal yesterday. The deal was signed between Green
Tech Automotive and Hong Kong company Eu Auto Technology, which developed the
all-electric vehicle, MyCar, jointly with Polytechnic University. Green Tech
later made 150,000 electric and hybrid cars last year. Green Tech chairman
Terence McAuliffe said that if MyCar was approved by the American transport
department, it would be on sale in the US by autumn next year. Eu Auto chairman
Peter Sun Kwok-wah predicted that 10,000 to 20,000 of the electric compacts
would be available each year in the US, where they would sell at a higher price
than in Hong Kong. MyCar was launched in Hong Kong last year with a price tag of
HK$97,000 and attracted the Airport Authority and the MTR Corporation (SEHK:
0066) among the first buyers. It extended its reach to Europe in the same year,
being the first locally developed car to hit the international market. "A small
car from Hong Kong will take a big step forward," Sun said at the signing
ceremony. US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke sent his greetings to fellow Democrat
McAuliffe, the chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, in a
video shown at the ceremony, saying: "We're taking the best of technologies
around the world and it's a win-win situation." Secretary for the Environment
Edward Yau Tang-wah said he hoped the government would buy the second generation
MyCar, which is faster, air-conditioned and runs on lithium batteries, and which
will go on sale within six months for about HK$155,000. McAuliffe said MyCar was
a perfect product for American families who needed a second car for short local
trips in small communities. Both the technology and price of MyCar appealed to
McAuliffe. "We don't want a car nobody can afford." At the same time, Eu Auto
signed an agreement with Denmark to provide electric cars for the country's
Bornholm Island. Tourists visiting the island, which is half the size of Hong
Kong, will be able to rent an electric car. Dozens of the cars have already been
sent there. Mitsubishi Motors will unveil its electric car in Hong Kong on
Thursday. About 30 of the cars, priced at HK$395,000 for the public, have been
bought by the government and the two electricity companies. 
The head of policy development for Regina
Ip Lau Suk-yee's think tank has been recruited as special assistant to the Chief
Executive's Office. Ronald Chan Ngok-pang (pictured) will start work tomorrow.
The position of special assistant was created in 2006 to strengthen the Chief
Executive's Office's links with various organisations. The first person to hold
the job, Gary Chan Hak-kan, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and
Progress of Hong Kong, quit in June 2008 to run for a Legco seat. The position
has been vacant since then. Ronald Chan, 27, resigned as a Southern district
councillor yesterday. As the institute announced the appointment yesterday, Chan
vowed that in his new job he would to help promote the government constitutional
reform package and assist in the preparation of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's next
policy address. "As a member of the post-80s generation with experience running
in two elections - one in the district council and one in the Legislative
Council - I would like to help liaise with the community and promote government
policies in the future," Chan said. He won in the district council election in
2007, and stood as the fourth candidate on Ip's ticket in the Hong Kong Island
constituency in the 2008 Legco race. Chan said the Chief Executive's Office had
approached him several months ago, and he had conducted several rounds of
discussions with it before accepting the job. His employment contract with the
government lasts until June 2012, and his monthly salary will be HK$76,155. Both
Chans started their careers as district councillors, and both were recruited to
assist the chief executive at a young age. Ronald Chan yesterday did not want to
compare himself with his predecessor, saying that he would perform his duties
well. The new appointee has also resigned as a member of the West Kowloon
Cultural District Authority, the Liquor Licensing Board, the Greater Pearl River
Delta Business Council, and as the director of policy development at Savantas.
He holds a master's degree in political and comparative sociology from Stanford
University, where he met Ip, who studied there after stepping down as security
minister in 2003. 
Visitors looking at a Goldwind
turbine at a wind power exhibition in Beijing. The wind power equipment maker
expects overseas sales will account for up to 30 percent of its business over
the next three to five years. Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co, the
world's fifth largest wind power equipment maker, said on Monday that it has
received approval from China Securities Regulatory Commission to make an initial
public offering in Hong Kong. The company may offer up to 454.59 million shares,
including 59.29 million shares in over-allotment, according to a statement
released on Monday. Goldwind, which is already listed on the mainland's Shenzhen
stock exchange, said in October it planned to float shares in Hong Kong. Sources
familiar with the company's Hong Kong listing plans said in January that it
aimed to raise $1.5 billion and this would take place in the first half of the
year, according to Reuters. The listing still needs approval from the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange. "The Hong Kong listing exemplifies Goldwind's ambition to expand
its global business and provides the capital that would be used to develop
megawatt-capacity equipment, which is the trend of the industry," said Jiang
Qian, an industry analyst at China Investment Consulting. China has been
encouraging and supporting internationally competitive enterprises like Goldwind
to go overseas by offering preferential policies, Jiang added. Wu Gang, chairman
of Goldwind, told China Daily in an earlier interview that the company is
looking at markets in the United States, Australia, Central Europe and Africa
and he expects overseas sales to account for up to 30 percent of its business
over the next three to five years. Chinese wind power equipment manufacturers
are very competitive in the international market as the result of the relatively
good quality of their products and lower prices, according to industry analysts.
Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers have also seized a bigger slice of the domestic
market from their foreign competitors who are losing ground as their products
are much more expensive. China has overtaken the US as the largest wind power
market. The country will have an installed wind power capacity exceeding 16
million kW by June. Industry experts estimate China will install wind power
capacity of around 10 million kW annually in the coming years, while the
production capacity of the equipment is likely to exceed 20 million kW next
year, raising concerns about overcapacity. Goldwind's revenue in the first
quarter of this year surged 61.69 percent to 1.855 billion yuan but profit only
rose 27 percent to 248 million yuan, indicating a narrower profit margin due to
more intense domestic competition. The company's overseas expansion strategy
will offset the negative impact of domestic overcapacity, according to analysis
by Gerson Lehrman Group Councils. Besides, Sinovel, now the world's third
largest wind power maker and Goldwind's major rival, has outstripped it in
recent years, forcing the company to seek markets abroad, according to Jiang.
Technicians explain to visitors how
solar photovoltaic (PV) power works in Dunhuang, Northwest China's Gansu
province, May 17, 2010. The 10 MW solar PV power plant involves a total
investment of 203 million yuan and will generate on average 18 million
kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year. The construction of the plant will be completed
by June.
A Beijing court on Tuesday sentenced
Wong Kwong-yu, founder of the major retail chain Gome, to 14 years in prison for
illegal business dealings.
A PetroChina employee inspects
natural gas purification equipment in Suining, Sichuan province. China will need
200 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2015. PetroChina Co, the country's
largest oil and gas producer, has signed an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell and
Qatar Petroleum to explore for natural gas in the Middle Eastern country, part
of bid by domestic companies to expand to their gas portfolio. Under a 30-year
exploration and production sharing agreement, the partners will jointly explore
for natural gas in an area covering 8,089 square kilometers. Shell will hold a
75 percent stake in the project and PetroChina the remaining 25 percent,
PetroChina said in a statement. Shell and PetroChina will produce natural gas
under Qatar Petroleum's supervision. According to the agreement the Qatari
company will be the purchaser of any gas produced, said the statement. 
Children practise routines while
dressed in traffic police uniforms in Zhengzhou, Henan province May 17, 2010.
Some 150 students from five primary schools have formed a traffic management
assistance team to help direct the vehicles near their schools under the close
supervision of traffic policemen and teachers as a way to enhance their road
safety awareness.
Hong Kong and USA signs MOU to
promote wine related cooperation - A memorandum to expand cooperation in wine
related business between Hong Kong and the United Stated was signed here in Hong
Kong on Monday. The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Rita Lau
signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Co-operation in Wine- related
Businesses (MOU) with the visiting Secretary of Commerce of the United States
Gary Locke. "Today, our relationship with the U.S. takes another major step
forward. Riding on this MOU, we will strengthen our joint efforts on promoting
wine-related trading, tourism, investment and education," Lau said. The MOU also
covers a number of special areas, including promoting wine alongside regional
and local cuisine, facilitating the organization of wine auctions in Hong Kong
for US wines, and encouraging the provision of quality wine storage facilities
in Hong Kong. Locke said the MOU was a contribution to the National Export
Initiative, which aimed to double American export by 2015. The agreement would
help more American wine from all 50 states to Hong Kong consumers. As one of the
world's leading wine producers and exporters, the United States is Hong Kong's
fourth largest wine provider. Wine imports from the United States amounted to 49
million U.S. dollars in 2009-2010, representing a five-fold increase since Hong
Kong's duty exemption. The U.S. auction houses have also held regular wine
auctions in Hong Kong with record-breaking sales on several occasions. The MOU
on wine between Hong Kong and the United States is the eighth co-operative
agreement concluded by Hong Kong with wine producing countries/regions, coming
after those with France, Bordeaux, Spain, Australia, Italy, Hungary and New
Zealand.
US Commerce Secretary Gary
Locke said Monday he was “very concerned” about mainland policies that could
limit foreign firms’ access to the country’s ballooning clean energy market.
Kicking off his first trade mission to the country, Locke said Beijing’s
policies in favour of local innovation and technology could give domestic firms
a “leg up” over foreign rivals and pledged to raise the issue with mainland
officials. “We’re very concerned about that,” Locke told reporters in Hong Kong,
saying earlier that the policy was “made without any input from affected
businesses and really not subject to any public comment”. The issue comes ahead
of key Sino-US talks scheduled for next week in Beijing, to be attended by US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner,
Locke and other key officials. Relations have been tense for months, with
clashes over everything from the value of the yuan and trade to human rights and
internet freedoms. Locke said Beijing had made some changes to its innovation
policies but added that despite laws guaranteeing foreign firms access to the
mainland market “implementation is often inconsistent at the provincial and
local level”. “This is especially true when it comes to intellectual property
protection,” he told a business lunch on Monday in Hong Kong. “As China moves up
the economic value chain from low-cost manufacturing to higher value-added
research and development, they too will count on protections for their
innovations and free access to other markets.” One directive issued by Beijing –
and cited in the past by Washington as a problem – stipulates that high-tech
goods must contain mainland intellectual property in order to be included in a
central government procurement catalogue. Accredited products would be favoured,
according to the policy, which foreign firms say effectively excludes them from
the process. In a sweeping speech on clean energy, Locke played down
“inevitable” trade spats between the two countries, saying less than 3 per cent
of mainland exports to the US were slapped with antidumping duties last year.
“The disagreements we have are an inevitable byproduct of the growing and mature
trade relationship between our two countries,” Locke said. The US and China
could work together on environmental technologies “to help lead the world away
from the brink of environmental disaster”, Locke said. Mainland invested US$34.6
billion in clean energy last year, up more than 50 per cent on the previous year
– making it the world’s biggest investor in energy-efficient technology,
according to a UN report published this month.
Toyota Crown's
decade-long monopoly on the city's taxi sector will face a challenge when
mainland carmaker Geely Automobile (SEHK: 0175) finalises in the middle of next
year the design of a London taxi that fits Hong Kong's vehicle requirements. The
listed mainland company - which bought Volvo for a bargain US$1.8 billion a
month ago - said it would renew talks with local taxi owners when its modified
London cab - a right-hand-drive, LPG-fuelled vehicle - was ready for mass
production next summer. Most of the London cabs now running in the city are
petrol-fuelled shuttles for private clubs and hotels. Geely's local dealer,
Richburg Motors Trading, has just added another 10. But whether the expensive
London cab could become an affordable option for local commuters - especially
wheelchair-bound people - depends largely on its price, facilities and whether
the government will offer any incentive to the taxi sector to buy the vehicle,
which has a ramp and equipment in the rear passenger seat to secure a
wheelchair. The government backed a charity agency's plan in 2007 to buy 20 vans
that served as taxis for wheelchair-bound commuters. The move infuriated taxi
owners, who had been negotiating for years with Geely over a similar scheme.
Those talks stalled, not just because the taxi trade wanted to see how the other
plan went, but also because Geely considered it risky to inject tens of millions
of dollars into altering the iconic cabs' specifications for Hong Kong's small
taxi market. But Geely executive director Lawrence Ang Siu-lun said the process
was now in motion, and an LPG-fuelled London taxi would be ready for mass
production in a year. "Hong Kong is indeed a small market, but sharing this
market helps promote our brand," he said. "Besides, local taxi owners have been
approaching us for a long time. If there are about 1,000 orders a year, we can
go ahead." About 1,000 of Hong Kong's 18,000 taxis are replaced every year. Ng
Kwan-sing of the Taxi Drivers and Owners Association, one of the groups involved
in the long negotiations with Geely, said both the trade and the passengers were
eager to have a different option from Toyota's new four-seater model. "Many
drivers prefer five-seater taxis, but Toyota stopped producing them since mid
2008 and replaced it with a four-seater," Ng said. "The London taxi is a five-seater.
Its ample space in the rear seat not only allows more room for luggage, which
would benefit airport passengers, but it will also help open a new source of
clientele for us as the cabin can accommodate wheelchairs." There were 41,100
people who required wheelchairs as at late 2008. They are served by about 130
rehabilitation buses and vans, but bookings have to be made up to three months
in advance. Disabled passengers can travel by bus and the MTR, but not all buses
are equipped with the necessary low floors and some MTR stations still have no
lifts. Ang warned that London cabs were unlikely to be cheaper than Toyota
taxis, which cost HK$254,000. A petrol-fuelled London taxi in Shanghai costs
about 208,000 yuan (HK$236,000), but the price would be much higher for Hong
Kong buyers because Geely was investing up to HK$30 million for the modification
and engineering of the LPG version. "Repair and maintenance would also be a
tricky part, as its costs are bound to be high given there will be no bank of
old parts to use in repairs on the new cars," Ang said. Brandon Tong Yeuk-fung,
chairman of another major taxi owner group that has approached Geely, said the
government should support the sector to fund the pricing gap if it wanted to
promote barrier-free transport for the disabled. "I am not talking about direct
subsidies but will the government consider, for example, allowing a separate
queue at taxi stands for the special cabs as an incentive for the trade to
shoulder the extra cost?" The Transport Department said it welcomed initiatives
to provide transport for disabled commuters as long as the vehicles complied
with legal standards. A spokeswoman said the department would assist interested
parties if they applied to introduce wheelchair-accessible vehicles. 
Beijing's attempt to create an
insulated market of clean energy for home-grown suppliers could set up a new
trade clash with Western countries eager to sell green technology to China.
China passed the United States last year as the biggest clean-power market,
stoking hopes for Western sales of wind turbines, solar cells and other gear.
But US and European companies find that while Beijing welcomes foreign
technology, it wants manufacturing done here and know-how shared with local
partners. In the wind industry, foreign suppliers with factories in China say
they are shut out of big projects.
Beijing may launch an expanded
property tax nationwide - rather than in just a number of cities - as early as
this week to curb speculation, a mainland paper reported. The State
Administration of Taxation is expected to submit a document to extend coverage
of the tax to the entire country before Thursday, the 21st Century Business
Herald said, citing an unnamed expert close to the authorities. The source said
a new proposal is to widen the net of the existing tax so that more people will
be liable for payment, while city governments could implement the measure
flexibly according to their own situation. A tax official, however, said he had
not heard of the new move. Expanding tax coverage on a nationwide basis would
have a greater impact on property speculation and contain rising home prices,
analysts said, as investors who have more than one house would be forced to
resell or sublet those that are not occupied. The National Development and
Reform Commission will soon take the lead in drafting a new document that would
be "stricter" than the earlier "10 measures" by the State Council to rein in the
property sector, according to Chongqing Economic Times, quoting market sources.
The new measures may involve the government playing a role in the property
market and increasing the proportion of government investment, if "previous
tightening did not achieve the expected results," one source said. Meanwhile,
the Shanghai government is to sell nearly 40 plots of land in the week starting
tomorrow, the city's Municipal Bureau of Planning and Land Resources announced.
It is the largest number of sites to be sold in a short period. The move is an
obvious signal, according to one analyst, that Shanghai is determined to
stabilize home prices by increasing land supply. Separately, several property
developers in Beijing are reportedly considering offering discounts on their
homes. This follows a similar move made by Evergrande Real Estate (3333) on May
5 to offer a 15 percent discount on all its units. 
Chinese President Hu Jintao (L)
hosts a welcoming ceremony for German President Horst Koehler in Beijing,
capital of China, May 17, 2010. Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday greeted
German President Horst Koehler and proposed stronger bilateral collaboration and
joint efforts to tackle global challenges. Hu gave a red-carpet welcome to
Koehler at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing at the start of Koehler's
five-day visit to China. Following an honor guard reception and a 21-gun
military salute, Hu and Koehler held hour-long talks covering political affairs,
economic cooperation and global challenges. Koehler paid his first state visit
to China in 2007 and attended the Beijing Paralympics in 2008. "The visit,
including your attendance at the Shanghai Expo, reflects the importance you
attach to developing ties with China," Hu said.
A Cathay Pacific airliner from Hong Kong was escorted by military fighter jets
to its destination in Vancouver after what the airline called a "bomb hoax",
police said on Saturday.
Just over 17 percent of voters turned
out for yesterday's by-election - less than half the number for the 2008
Legislative Council election. The by-election was triggered by the resignations
of five lawmakers hoping to create a "de facto referendum" on universal
suffrage. All five are expected to retain their seats against lightweight
competitors. Despite strong appeals for voter support by the Civic Party and the
League of Social Democrats - the two parties behind the by-election - and the
presence of heavyweight democrats canvassing for them, only about 579,000 voters
cast their ballots, a turnout rate of 17.1 percent. This compared with a turnout
rate of 45.2 percent for the 2008 election, when 1,524,249 voters cast ballots.
The highest turnout yesterday was in the Kowloon West constituency, where eight
candidates fought for one seat. But even there, turnout was a mere 19.51
percent, compared with 47.18 percent in 2008. The next highest was Hong Kong
Island at 17.12 percent, compared with 50.17 percent in 2008. "Mad Dog" Raymond
Wong Yuk- man accused the pro-establishment camp of canvassing for "agony aunt"
Pamela Peck Wan-kam in the fiercely contested Kowloon West seat. Wong, 58 - who
resigned from Legco in January along with two party colleagues, Leung Kwok-hung
and Albert Chan Wai-yip, and Civic Party lawmakers Alan Leong Kah-kit and Tanya
Chan Suk-chong - vowed yesterday that they would vote against the revised
constitutional reform package on their return to Legco. "The pro-establishment
camp, including the DAB and Federation of Trade Unions, canvassed for Pamela
Peck in stealth by, for example, setting up booths," Wong said, referring to the
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong. "I expected
that but she is definitely going to lose." Wong claimed Kowloon West residents
had received calls from FTU representatives asking them to vote for Peck, and
some of those who handed out Peck's leaflets in the street were the same as
those who canvassed for Priscilla Leung Mei-fun in the 2008 elections. Wong also
said the battle in Kowloon West seat was not between him and Peck but between
universal suffrage supporters and the pro- establishment camp. While he had
hoped for an overall turnout rate of 30 percent, he said he would be satisfied
with 20 percent given the government's "suppression" of the by-election,
insufficient promotion and the announcement by top officials of their decision
not to vote. Peck denied she had help and described Wong's accusation as "very
ridiculous." Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-
lung defended the decision by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and his
political team not to vote, saying it should not put pressure on civil servants.
"Civil servants are professional and can make their own judgment," Lam said
after visiting a polling station. "We have indicated that our decision should
not affect individuals. We respect the decision of individuals." Electoral
Affairs Commission chairman Justice Barnabas Fung Wah said he cast his ballot in
the morning. "Whether to vote or not, or vote for whom, a voter should make his
personal decision. The Electoral Affairs Commission will respect [the decision]
of voters," Fung said. As of late last night, the commission had received 426
complaints. Lew Mon-hung, a member of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference, said the low turnout rate indicated the de facto
referendum was a failure. Lew - who was repeatedly hissed at by the crowd during
RTHK's City Forum, which drew a record audience of 450 - said he would not cast
his ballot as the by-election was "political sensationalism." Another speaker
and commentator, Johnny Lau Yui-siu, said the low turnout rate did not mean the
campaign was a failure. "At least it heightened concern in the government and
Beijing about the public's view on constitutional reform," Lau said. 
Half a century after founding her first
ballet school in Leighton Road, Causeway Bay, award-winning ballerina and
teacher Jean Wong still goes to the headquarters of her empire in North Point
almost every day. Tall, elegant and perfectly coiffed, she inspects her students
and keeps a close eye on the operation of her school. Shy young students,
dressed neatly in leotards and tights and with their hair pulled up in sleek
buns, appear a little anxious upon seeing Wong. They greet her with a curtsy.
"I still insist that even today, when
[students] see me, they must curtsy and boys must bow. Their hair must be neat
and their shoes spotless," says Wong as she sits at a wooden desk piled with
documents but also supporting a Apple Mac and with an iPhone plugged into the
computer. Wong says her charges learn more than elegant movement in a ballet
studio - it is the dedication and discipline the training demands that matter.
"If they are attending ballet, they must be whole-hearted. They can't say they
are not coming in next week. I want a letter from the parents to explain," she
says. Whatever they go on to do, the results of such training, the manners they
must observe and the strict dress code they follow will stay with them. "They
can walk into a job interview with confidence. They don't need to wear designer
clothes," she says. Opening a ballet school was not the first thing
Shanghai-born Wong did after completing three years of training at the teachers'
training college of the Royal Academy of Dance in London in 1959. Still a
teenager, Wong taught in a British school for a year. But it did not feel right
for her. "I wanted to teach in my own language," she says, recalling how much
got lost in translation during her time in London. "I couldn't stand most of the
French terms ... like developpe [drawing up the leg and extending into the
air]." So Wong came home, and opened her first ballet school with just eight
pupils in 1960. Fifty years on, she runs schools at seven locations including
the North Point headquarters, and the name Jean Wong is synonymous with ballet
in Hong Kong. Any local girl with a liking for ballet would have dreamed of
attending the Jean M. Wong School of Ballet. But unless they had passion and
dedication, it would not have been the place for them. "Talent is rare.
Sometimes you cannot even find one out of 1,000. But with passion, [students]
can work hard enough to [achieve something]," she says. The success Wong has
achieved is no surprise (this year she became the first Asian dancer to be named
a fellow of the Royal Academy of Dance and she was awarded a Bronze Bauhinia
Star by the Hong Kong government in recognition of her contribution to the
development of arts in the city). Her banker father allowed her to pursue
various interests in the arts, from painting to piano. Then she took up ballet,
beginning a life-long bond with the art form. "If it wasn't for my father, I
would've become a miserable housewife," Wong laughs. "Yes, a desperate and
miserable housewife." Even as a child, she knew that teaching rather than
performing was her true calling. Her mother used to take her to see Chinese
opera. Afterwards, she would choreograph shows at home. "I like bossing people
around," Wong says, recalling how she liked to correct her sister's dance moves.
In the early days, she personally taught all her students, but later she
realised this was not the best way to operate a ballet school. So she began
hiring teachers, some of them graduates from the school. The school now has
around two dozen, including some from Beijing. Eleven years ago, Wong founded
JMW for Arts, which teaches other art forms such as painting and music. She
believes learning other forms can complement dance lessons. "I benefited a lot
from learning Chinese painting and music," she says. In her early years, Wong
taught many students from well-off families - among them the children of Raymond
Chow Ting-hsing, founder of the film studio Golden Harvest Entertainment, Run
Run Shaw, Stanley Ho Hung-sun, Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee and Anson Chan Fang
On-sang. Some went on to have successful dance careers, including ballerina and
designer Flora Cheong-leen and choreographer Yuri Ng Yue-lit, her first male
student. Nowadays her students are from a more diverse background, but the
attitude of their parents has changed little. They are happy to let their
children practise ballet, she says, because it is a healthy activity, but
becoming a professional ballerina is another matter. "It is a difficult career,
because it is demanding and short-lived. But it's the happiness that matters
most, instead of forcing [the children] to become lawyers," says Wong. "There's
also this blind attitude towards ballet, that it is something elegant," she
says. "They want their daughters to become elegant after learning ballet, but
they do not know how to appreciate the art form." She hopes to teach students
the theory and history of ballet, as she was taught at the Royal Academy of
Dance, but time is always short. Having said that, Wong feels the public's
attitude towards ballet has changed a lot in the past 50 years. She cites the
sold-out ballet shows at the Hong Kong Arts Festival as a good indicator. "You
need an audience to support ballet, but a ballet performance is not a rock
concert." Thanks to the impact of Wong's school, ballet has become more
accessible and less exclusive. "I'm very proud of influencing so many people's
lives," she says. In the coming few months, Wong will be busy with celebrations
for the 50th anniversary of her venture. An album of articles by former students
will be published. There will be two gala performances of Wong's
autobiographical When Dreams Come True, featuring a finale choreographed by Ng.
More than 1,000 students will take part in the performances at the Hong Kong
Cultural Centre in August. Wong won't say how old she is, but plans to preserve
her legacy are in place. Her daughter Liat is the school's chief executive,
though Wong doesn't plan on retiring any time soon. "I don't know how to play
mahjong," she laughs. "I'm still very happy to come in every day." 
Local history enthusiast Martin Heyes
examines a war plaque at Jardine's Lookout near Parkview. It is one of three
erected to mark the bravery of Canadian soldiers. Hundreds of Canadian soldiers
died in the defence of Hong Kong in December 1941 and in prisoner-of-war camps
afterwards. To mark their bravery and sacrifice, three plaques were erected in
2005 by the Consulate General of Canada and the Hong Kong government at sites
where battles occurred. The problem, five years on, is that they are difficult
to read. "These soldiers sacrificed their lives and it's important that we
should honour their memory," says Martin Heyes, who takes tourists on tours
around Hong Kong showing where the battles were fought. "Not only are the
plaques impossible to read, the concrete [plinths] which they stand on are also
covered in moss at two sites. It's appalling that they should have been allowed
to become a mess. They need to be cleaned and the inscription needs to be
engraved more deeply." Who is responsible for maintaining the plaques remains a
ambiguous. Two of the three plaques are installed at sites managed by the
Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD). One is at Lawson's Bunker in
Wong Nai Chung Gap Road and is part of a war trail. Another is situated outside
the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence. The third, in part dedicated to the
memory of John Osborn, the only soldier here to receive the British
Commonwealth's highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, is situated at
Jardine's Lookout. An LCSD spokeswoman insisted that a recent check of the
plaques under its jurisdiction, had shown that they were in good condition and
that there had been no deterioration in the writing. The one at Lawson's Bunker,
she said, was inspected by the Antiquities and Monuments Office. Museum staff
were responsible for the maintenance of the one at the museum in Shau Kei Wan,
she said. However, the consulate was responsible for maintenance of the plaque
at Jardine's Lookout. Meanwhile, a consulate spokeswoman said they were aware of
Heyes' complaints. "In response to earlier correspondence with Mr Heyes,
officials from the consulate general visited and evaluated the plaques in
2009.We appreciate that they may be difficult to read. The consulate general ...
will continue to consider how these plaques could be made easier to read in
consultation with Veteran's Affairs Canada and the Hong Kong Government," she
said. Two of the three plaques are located on the Wong Nai Chung Gap Trail, a
historical walk developed by the Hong Kong Tourism Board with the assistance of
war historians Tony Banham and Ko Tim-keung in 2005 to commemorate the heroes of
the second world war. Banham said: "I attended the dedication of these plaques,
and even then - Hong Kong's climate being what it is - we knew that they
wouldn't last forever. But it is certainly disappointing that they have decayed
so fast." The one at Lawson's Bunker marks the bravery of the Brigade
Headquarters Canadian "C" Force and their brigadier, John Lawson, who on the
morning of December 19, 1941, found himself and his men increasingly surrounded
in a bunker dug into the hillside. He refused to withdraw and in his last words
over a telephone to his commanding officer, he said he was "going outside to
fight it out". The one at the museum is dedicated to the Royal Rifles of Canada,
including "C" company and their commander, Major Wells Bishop, for their actions
on the night of December 18, 1941, when the Japanese army reached Hong Kong
island. The plaque at Jardine's Lookout commemorates all members of the Winnipeg
Grenadiers, including Sergeant Major Osborn. After throwing several grenades
back that the Japanese had thrown at the Canadians, there was one grenade Osborn
knew he did not have time to retrieve. So he warned his comrades and threw
himself on it. 
Cats may have nine lives but getting a
medical insurance policy to cover just one of those is likely to prove difficult
in Hong Kong. The city's estimated 50,000 insurance sales people write very few
policies for pets, despite animals playing an important part in the lives of
hundreds of thousands of families. With an increasing number of Hong Kong
couples opting to have Fido and Whiskers instead of children, this appears to be
a market just waiting to be tapped by insurers. But very few insurers offer
cover here even though it is a booming market overseas. Government statistics
show there are 171,790 dogs licensed in Hong Kong; the real figure is believed
to be closer to 300,000. There are no statistics on the number of cats, rabbits
and other types of pets but they are believed to be just as plentiful. But
despite their teeming numbers, just a few companies such as Blue Cross and RSA
offer pet policies. Wong Man-chiu is a pet owner who feels the animal kingdom
has been forgotten by the insurance industry. His insurance agent has sold him a
wide variety of cover - life, medical, retirement, education - but the policy he
really wants is for Oscar, his five-year-old Samoyed. Unlike other countries
where pet owners can buy insurance at the local vet or the supermarket, Wong has
found it extremely difficult to buy insurance for Oscar.
China today launches its annual
fishing ban in the South China Sea - a unilateral act that comes amid
unprecedented tensions in the disputed area and fresh fears that Beijing is
using the moratorium to assert its sovereignty claims there. The mainland's
fisheries administration vessels will seek to enforce the 10-week ban on most
kinds of commercial fishing from the 12th parallel north of the disputed Spratly
Islands up to the Chinese coast, encompassing waters around the disputed Paracel
Islands. The ban is going ahead despite a diplomatic protest from Vietnam -
which claims both island groups - and recent incidents involving intensified
patrols by new Chinese fisheries protection ships, some of which are armed with
heavy machine guns. The incidents have included China's largest fishing
protection ship, the 4,600-tonne Yuzheng 311, being surrounded by more than 20
Vietnamese fishing and coastguard vessels last month as it attempted to stop
harassment of Chinese fishing boats. The Yuzheng - a converted naval vessel -
was also intercepted by Malaysian naval ships and aircraft as it patrolled south
of the Spratlys late last month, according to mainland press accounts.
American artist Arturo Di Modica shows
off Shanghai's Charging Bull, which is modelled on the one gracing Wall Street.
Shanghai unveiled a new landmark on its Bund waterfront over the weekend, a
bronze bull sculpture inspired by Wall Street's Charging Bull representing
China's rising financial ambitions. American artist Arturo Di Modica - the
sculptor behind the New York bull who also created its Shanghai sibling - was at
the unveiling. At 2.5 metres high and weighing 2.5 tonnes, the Shanghai
sculpture was the same size as the Wall Street version, but "redder, younger and
stronger", Di Modica said. "It's a mixture of Western and Chinese cultures,"
said Di Modica, adding he was inspired by both the Charging Bull and the Chinese
Zodiac's Ox. The confident stance of Shanghai's Charging Bull represented a
bullish and prosperous future for the rising financial centre, Di Modica said.
The Shanghai officials who commissioned the sculpture had previously said they
wanted their bull to weigh twice as much the one on Wall Street. The city
requested a bull that was younger and stronger than New York City's bull to
symbolise "the energy of Shanghai's economy", Zhou Wei, the head of Huangpu
district said. "That's why the head of the Bund's bull looks up while the Wall
Street Bull looks downward," he said. In the early 20th century, the
neo-classical buildings along the Bund were known as the "Wall Street of Asia"
acting as home to giants such as HSBC (SEHK: 0005) and AIG. The central
government has declared it aims to build Shanghai, which has long been China's
business heart, into an international financial centre by 2020.
The China team celebrates with the
Thomas Cup trophy after defeating Indonesia in the final round of the Thomas Cup
badminton championship in Kuala Lumpur May 16, 2010. China crowned at the Thomas
Cup men's badminton team championships for the fourth straight time here on
Sunday by cruising over powerhouse Indonesia 3-0 at the Putra Stadium. Lin Dan,
ranked second in the world, dominated the opener with an easy win over Taufik
Hidayat 21-7, 21-14, producing a powerful start for the reigning champions. Cai
Yun/Fu Haifeng made it a sweet revenge in the first doubles match where they
edged out Olympic champions Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan 25-23, 16-21, 21-12 to
lift China to a 2-0 lead. The second singles Chen Jin then held back the
challenges from Simon Santoso, who exerted himself to the utmost, by coming from
behind 19-21, 21-17, 21-7, to clinch the winning point for China.
A
canopy of tubes with air-cleaning algae won a design contest for the city's
border point for a bridge across the Pearl River estuary. A team of three young
local designers has won top prize in a competition to design the Hong Kong
border point for the bridge across the Pearl River estuary. Their concept of a
canopy made of intertwining tubes full of air-cleaning algae won first prize in
the professional group category of the competition, in which Hong Kong designers
won three of the top awards. Paul Mui Kui-chuen, Benny Lee Chiu-ming and Agnes
Hung Oi-kee beat 91 competitors in their category - including planners,
engineers and architects - and walked away with HK$450,000 in prize money. The
competition received 160 entries from more than 20 countries and regions. More
than half were from overseas, including the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia,
India, Egypt, Romania and Jordan. Francis Ho Suen-wai, permanent secretary for
Transport and Housing, said at yesterday's award presentation that all entries
were of a very high standard. "Some of them are very creative and incorporate
environmental concepts," Ho said. The trio's design uses algae to remove
pollutants and exhaust fumes from nearby traffic then supplies clean air as a
mist to busy areas such as the passenger drop-off point. Glass panels on the
roof can be turned at angles to maximise sunlight at different times of day. The
lobbies either side of the immigration clearance area are designed as
courtyards, with trees and flowers, so friends and family can be farewelled or
welcomed in a pleasant environment. Green features like rooftop systems to
harvest rain and sea water for cooling purposes were features of the other two
winning entries. The first runner-up created an interesting internal space with
no columns, while the second runner-up designed a rooftop that looks like two
hands locked together. Highways Department chief engineer Bok Kwok-ming said the
contractor may merge all three concepts into the ultimate design. The terminal
building is located at the northeast of the Chek Lap Kok Airport. The bridge
will halve the journey time between Hong Kong and Zhuhai and Macau and is
expected to be completed by 2015. 
US Secretary of
Commerce Gary Locke stops off in Hong Kong today at the start of the first
cabinet-level trade mission of the Obama administration. Joined by
representatives from 29 US companies, Locke will be promoting American clean
energy technologies and services on an 11-day trip to China and Indonesia as
part of the US initiative to double exports in the next five years. "Innovative
companies like these bringing emerging technologies to a dynamic new market are
going to play a big role in meeting President Obama's ambitious goals laid out
in his export initiative," Locke said on Wednesday. He added that the mission
would help meet the goals of China and Indonesia to curb emissions and boost
energy efficiency. American executives will also visit Shanghai and Beijing to
make a bid for a growing market in green technology and services. They are
competing with a mainland clean energy industry that is flush with investment,
and has become a notable supplier to US and European markets. But while Chinese
firms like solar panel producer Suntech dominate their corner of the market
nationwide, some analysts said there was ample potential for foreign companies
to make inroads. "There's definitely room for innovative technologies," said
Will Pearson, a global energy and natural resources analyst at the Eurasia
Group, which assesses political risk for multinational companies. A need in
China for new wind and solar technologies, as well as advances in mitigating
local manufacturing pollution and energy emissions, he said, could mean business
for companies on the cutting edge. United Solar Ovonic is among the firms vying
for that edge. Martha Duggan, the vice-president for government and regulatory
affairs at the Michigan-based company known as Uni-Solar, will meet in Hong Kong
with utilities, energy and construction companies in hopes of boosting sales of
a flexible solar laminate designed to be integrated into roofs. "Today, our
sales in China are not as significant as sales in Europe," Duggan said. "But we
see a path forward and see developments that sales in China will continue to
grow." The laminates are produced in the United States, and finished, assembled
and distributed on the mainland through a joint venture in Tianjin, an
arrangement Duggan says is "floating all boats", creating jobs in China as well
as the US. But some sceptics in the US have questioned whether companies with a
limited history of exporting to China can start now. "Structurally, there are
limits" to foreign companies' access to Chinese markets, says Derek Scissors, an
analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Locke's presence "won't make any
difference", he said. China recently lowered trade barriers for wind technology,
a bright spot in a sometimes contentious relationship with the Obama
administration on trade issues. Disputes over China's currency valuation, US
export controls on hi-tech products, and punitive tariffs by both sides are
expected to be raised during the bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue in
Beijing following the trade mission. At the press conference in Washington on
Wednesday, Locke said US government officials would raise concerns about
policies intended to promote indigenous innovation in China - at the unfair
expense of foreign companies, they charge. The US delegation includes such
corporate heavy hitters as Dow Chemical, Boeing Commercial Airplanes and the
coal producer Peabody Energy. Locke will meet Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
and Secretary of the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah during his visit to Hong
Kong.
Caricatures of
(from left) Wong Yuk-man, Alan Leong Kah-kit and Leung Kwok-hung, three of the
lawmakers who resigned to trigger the by-elections, at a rally in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and his ministers have announced they will
not vote in tomorrow's Legislative Council by-elections, ending weeks of
speculation. In a statement last night, Tsang said the mainstream community view
was that the by-elections could have been avoided. "Many regard it as an abuse
of the electoral system and a waste of taxpayers' money," he said. "In view of
the unique nature of this by-election and after careful consideration, I have
decided not to vote in this by-election. All members of my political team share
this view and, of their own accord, have also decided not to vote." He said
civil servants should not be affected by his decision. "It is entirely their own
decision whether or not to vote, which will be duly respected by the
government." In previous polls the government has encouraged people to vote.
There has been much speculation of a government boycott because of pressure from
Beijing. Members of the public do not seem very keen to vote either - a tracking
poll released yesterday showed turnout could be as low as 22 per cent. If the
poll is accurate, the five legislators who resigned to force the by-elections
will be voted back in. The telephone poll, conducted by the University of Hong
Kong's public opinion programme, questioned 1,243 eligible voters between May 5
and 12. The sampling error was plus or minus 3 per cent. Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu,
who is in charge of the programme, said: "Looking at all three stages of the
survey together, one can say that there is not much change during the campaign
period, and voters' propensity to vote has remained low." He predicted turnout
of between 22 per cent and 29 per cent. Turnout in the Legco elections two years
ago was 45.2 per cent. A by-election in 2007 saw turnout of 52.1 per cent. Five
lawmakers - three from the League of Social Democrats and two from the Civic
Party - resigned in January to force the by-elections, which they regard as a de
facto referendum on the pace and scope of democratisation. Beijing has denounced
the tactics as unconstitutional. Twenty-four candidates are running, but none
are from the government-friendly camp. Last night 700 people rallied in
Centenary Garden, Tsim Sha Tsui, shouting, "We want a referendum", "No to
functional constituencies" and "We shall fight to the end". The league and Civic
Party, which organised the rally, urged people to vote and said the higher the
turnout the greater would be the pressure on the government and Beijing to allow
Hong Kong full democracy. Wong Yuk-man, one of the league lawmakers who quit and
who is seeking re-election tomorrow, said the government had done all it could
to denounce the by-elections. "This by-election is legal. As chief executive of
the Hong Kong government, [Tsang] should encourage people to vote to exercise
their civil rights instead of discouraging people from voting," Wong said. He is
not worried about the findings of Chung's opinion polls. "You cannot trust these
polls. Many people tell me in person that they will come out to vote," Wong
said. James Sung Lap-kung, a political scientist at City University, said last
night's statement might put some people off voting. Commenting on the decision
to issue the statement late last night, Ivan Choy Chi- keung, a political
scientist at Chinese University, said the government was trying to avoid media
coverage.
Former Citic
Pacific (SEHK: 0267) chairman Larry Yung Chi-kin is under fire over a
controversial Hainan Island deal involving the sale of land by the local
government to one of the tycoon's private firms at below market prices. At
Citic's annual general meeting and press conference yesterday, Citic Pacific
chairman Chang Zhenming denied the conglomerate had done any improper deal with
Yung over the land in a tourist resort on the island, where Citic is the major
developer. But minority shareholders remained dissatisfied with the answers
given by Citic over the deal which came in the same month that Yung resigned
over the company's huge foreign currency losses. In April last year, the same
month that Yung resigned as Citic Pacific chairman over the company's US$1.9
billion foreign exchange losses incurred in 2008, one of Yung's private firms
acquired land in Wanning city on the Shenzhou peninsula at far below market
prices. His company acquired 54,000 square metres of land, with a maximum
buildable area of 27,000 sq metres, at 700 yuan (HK$797) per square metre of
buildable land. According to local official statistics, the market price of the
land should be more than 6,000 yuan per square metre. Citic Pacific had first
rights to that land. Citic Pacific is the main developer of the area, having
signed an agreement in 2005 with the Wanning city government to invest 10
billion yuan to develop the seaside resort. "Larry Yung bought the land very
cheap - at one-tenth of the market price. Citic Pacific was willing to let him
have 27,000 sq metres of buildable land around the same day he resigned," Leung
Kwok-keung, a representative of Citic Pacific minority shareholders, said. Chang
said the company had "no conflict of interest in Hainan". "We have no connected
transactions with Yung that need to be disclosed. Yung got the land through
bidding from the Hainan government," he said. Asked why Yung had acquired the
land so cheaply, Chang said he had been told by Hainan officials that they
wanted the development of the resort accelerated. He added that Citic Pacific
had sold part of its land in the resort to China Poly Group, a large state-owned
enterprise linked to the family of the late Chinese paramount leader Deng
Xiaoping, because the sale would raise the market value of Citic Pacific's
property holdings in the resort. Separately, Citic Pacific should provide all
relevant documents to the Hong Kong authorities for their ongoing investigation
of the company's forex losses, a joint statement by Leung and fellow investor
Bernard Yip To-fai on behalf of Citic minority shareholders said. Citic
Pacific's legal adviser had told the company it had the right to withhold some
documents from the authorities over the forex losses, said Citic Pacific
managing director Zhang Jijing. However, Leung said that reason was "entirely
nonsense". "If things are okay, why is Citic Pacific afraid of the disclosure?"
he said. Yip said withholding documents would hinder the investigation and Citic
Pacific should follow the example of Goldman Sachs and give all the information
to the regulators. Minority shareholders also questioned executives on why they
agreed to pay US$835 million over an earlier agreed price for an iron ore mine
in Australia.
Don't
blame the trick photography - there really were very few visitors traversing the
walkway to the China pavilion at the World Expo on Thursday. Organizers need to
400,000 visitors a day for the rest of the expo if they are to meet their target
of 70 million. Dozens of chief editors of mainland newspapers have gathered in
Shanghai for a four-day summit on promoting the city's World Expo, local media
reported. The conference appears to be a crisis meeting to find ways to boost
the event's visitor numbers, which are languishing at less than half the
predicted figure. The 67-member delegation - which includes top editors from the
People's Daily, China Youth Daily and "city papers, evening papers and internet
portals from across the nation" - toured the 5.28 square kilometre expo site
yesterday in the guise of expo volunteers, the Shanghai Evening Post reported.
The summit is intended to establish an "expo reporting association" to provide
"more exceptional materials to be broadcast across the nation and worldwide" and
help promote "a successful expo", the paper reported. However, mainland
journalists privately admit that interest is flagging in the multibillion-dollar
fair, in line with the lower-than-expected visitor numbers. A reporter at a
state-owned paper in a nearby city on the Yangtze River, who asked not to be
identified, said his editors were not enthusiastic about promoting the show. "We
had a few people stationed in Shanghai ahead of the expo's opening, but they
came back on May 4," he said. "We don't really think anything newsworthy is
going to happen at the expo. Anything we would be interested in covering can be
done using Xinhua. We may send some people back in July or August, while
students are on their summer holidays, but not before that." His comments are
reflected in the mood in the expo media centre. A hive of international activity
during the opening days, it is now deathly silent and virtually empty. Yesterday
afternoon it was home only to a handful of journalists, almost all of whom were
from domestic media. Just under 2.4 million people have visited during the
expo's first 14 days, less than 45 per cent of the number originally expected.
The expo will need to maintain a daily average of almost 400,000 for the
remaining 170 days if it is to hit its target of 70 million visitors. It has
drawn more than 200,000 on just five days so far. Yesterday was the expo's
busiest day yet, with almost 240,000 people entering by 7pm, 14,000 up on the
peak set on the opening Sunday. Large numbers of school groups began visiting
the park during the latter half of the week, something which did not appear to
be happening during the first week. The European and Asian zones - the park's
busiest sections - bustled with people throughout the afternoon, with reasonably
long queues outside the most popular pavilions. However, there was not the same
degree of chaos seen during the opening holiday weekend - and waiting times were
noticeably shorter than the three or more hours seen on previous busy days.
"It's certainly busier than it has been, but I wouldn't say it's the busiest day
yet," said one staff member in the Porterhouse Irish pub in the European
section.
China
yesterday reported a US$55 billion surplus on its capital and financial account
for the first quarter, a sign that inflows from surging foreign investment and
money brought in by commercial banks is putting increasing liquidity pressures
on the world's third-biggest economy. As speculation about a stronger yuan
heightens, Beijing is also facing an uphill task to rein in hot money inflows,
economists said. It was the first time the State Administration of Foreign
Exchange published quarterly data for the country's balance of international
payments. The foreign-exchange regulator didn't provide comparative figures for
the year-earlier period, but for the first half of 2009, the surplus on the
capital and financial account was calculated at US$61 billion. "Our latest
research shows that hot money inflows have accelerated since late March due to
an influx of capital betting on yuan appreciation and to take advantage of
investment opportunities in the property and agricultural sectors," said Li
Youhuan, a professor at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, a renowned
researcher of fund flows. "The speculative capital would prove a big threat to
the local economy because of its aggressive way of playing the markets," he
said. China attracted US$17.5 billion of foreign direct investment in the first
quarter and Li said the remaining US$37.5 billion of surplus on the capital
account included investments by China's sovereign wealth fund into domestic
companies and foreign exchange turned in by commercial lenders as Beijing raised
the banks' reserve requirement ratio twice in the first quarter. The reserve
requirement ratio is the percentage of total deposits that banks are required by
the People's Bank of China to set aside and save with the central bank. Chinese
banks can use foreign-exchange to increase their reserves. "Without a full set
of official figures, it is therefore impossible to work out a clear-cut figure
for the hot money inflows," Li said. China's capital account surplus blew out
from US$19 billion in 2008 to US$144.8 billion last year. In the first quarter,
the country's current-account surplus that covers trade in goods and services,
declined 48 per cent to US$40.9 billon from a year ago. The country's foreign
reserve hit a record US$2.45 trillion at the end of March, the People's Bank of
China said last month. For the first three months, the surpluses on both capital
and current accounts added US$95.9 billion to the mainland's forex reserve.
"While the trade surplus is down, other drivers resulted in an additional
US$95.9 billion going into the official reserve, generating appreciation
pressure on the currency," said Jinny Yan, an economist with Standard Chartered
Bank. Li Huiyong, an analyst with Shenyin & Wanguo Securities, predicted that
the country could still post a trade surplus of US$100 billion this year despite
slower export growth. The SAFE said the publication of the quarterly data for
international payments was aimed at enhancing transparency. 
China, Arab
nations ink statement to upgrade ties - President Hu Jintao (2nd R) meets with
the chief delegates of Arab nations in Beijing Friday. China and Arab nations
are establishing a new partnership in an era of growing globalization,
demonstrating a new cooperative model for developing countries of the world. The
two sides on Friday upgraded their ties as they wrote a common declaration to
develop a strategic and cooperative relationship. Both sides pledged to support
each other on matters that are of core interests, deepen cooperation on
political, trade, energy, environment and cultural issues, and push for closer
communications on global and regional topics. The declaration was made as the
two-day, fourth ministerial meetings of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum
concluded on Friday in North China's port city of Tianjin. Both sides also
signed an action plan outlining the specific measures to be taken, between 2010
and 2012, to promote China-Arab relations. While meeting with the chief
delegates of Arab nations in Beijing the same day, President Hu Jintao urged the
two sides to have closer coordination on reforms of the international system to
maintain the common interests of developing countries and deal with global
challenges. Hu said China firmly supports the peace process in the Middle East
as well as Arab nations' just cause of striving for legitimate rights. Hu also
reiterated Beijing's support for a nuclear-free Middle East amid growing
international calls for such ambitions. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa
expressed appreciation for China's important role in pushing forward the
Middle-East peace process, calling China a strategic and cooperative partner.
The China-Arab Cooperation Forum was established during President Hu Jintao's
visit to the Arab League's headquarters in January 2004. Hu noted at the time
that the formation of the forum was a continuation of the traditional friendship
between China and the Arab world and an important move to promote bilateral ties
under new circumstances. The Xinhua News Agency said the documents inked on
Friday between the two sides show that China and Arab countries have similar
strategic cooperation goals, huge trade potential and deep cultural exchanges.
Hailing the meeting as a landmark in China-Arab history, Foreign Minister Yang
Jiechi said the new strategic cooperative relations will not only become a
driving force for China-Arab relations, but will serve as a model for relations
between developing countries.
Planet Yoga, which runs three yoga schools
in Hong Kong, said on Friday it would close down due to financial difficulties.
The move will affect more than 13,000 yoga enthusiasts.
Housing Secretary Eva Cheng Yu-wah on Friday said the Real Estate Developers’
Association (REDA) had agreed to the government’s new measures aimed at making
flat sales in Hong Kong more transparent. Cheng said the new guidelines proposed
by Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah for the of selling uncompleted and
completed flats would come into effect on June 1. She also said that after
discussing the measures with property developers, the government had accepted
one amendment suggested by them. “This is to exempt developers from announcing
price lists for flats three days before the date of a transaction - if the
transaction involves selling the whole property to a fund or an investor, rather
than to public,’’ she said. But the developers would have to disclose the price
list five days after the transaction, Cheng denied that this was a concession to
developers. “The new rules for regulating flat sales would apply to all flats
sold to the public. “We think the small amendment [suggested by developers] was
reasonable. It’s a different issue between selling the whole property to
investors and selling the units to individual buyers,” she said. In a bid to
curb speculation and increase transparency, the financial secretary proposed new
measures in April to tighten flat sale regulations. The new measures require
sales brochures be made available seven days before the start of sales and that
transactions involving developers’ board members and immediate family members be
made public. Other measures include the requirement that price lists be
announced at least three days before start of sales and that at least one show
flat unit represent the actual size and condition of the flat buyers will get.
The US blames China for its huge trade
deficit, yet the real issue is America's inability to save - America's fixation
over China has not come out of thin air. Jonathan Spence, Yale's legendary
sinologist, has suggested that it has deep psychological roots. In The Chan's
Great Continent (1999), Spence argues that, since the time of Marco Polo in the
13th century, the West has had a consistent knack for seeing China through the
same lens as it sees itself. This bias is painfully evident today. Consistent
with Spence's thesis, the United States is blaming China for problems that are
largely self-inflicted. America faces many tough problems in the early 21st
century. But none seem as painfully intractable as those bearing down on US
workers. A productivity paradox is at the heart of the problem. Despite a
doubling of productivity growth over the past 15 years, workers' pay has
continued to lag. This outcome violates one of the most basic tenets of
economics - that workers are eventually rewarded in accordance with their
marginal productivity contribution. The Great Recession of 2008-09 has added
insult to injury, pushing the official US unemployment rate up to 10 per cent.
Curiously, China is being singled out as a major culprit behind this tough set
of circumstances. At work, goes the argument, are the external pressures of a
massive US trade deficit - the most visible manifestation of ever-increasing
foreign penetration into America's vast domestic markets. Since China accounts
for the biggest bilateral piece of the US foreign trade deficit - about 39 per
cent of the total trade gap in 2008-09 - it is also judged responsible for a
disproportionate share of the forces bearing down on the compensation and jobs
of American workers. The verdict is typically sealed by the claim that these
pressures are an outgrowth of a deliberately undervalued renminbi - supporting
charges of a currency manipulation that breaks the rules of a just globalisation.
A growing bipartisan coalition in the US Congress demands consequences for these
violations - either a reversal of Beijing's currency policy or punitive trade
sanctions. While such an argument is both emotionally appealing and politically
expedient, it suffers from a fatal flaw: the US does not have a bilateral trade
problem with China. It has a savings problem that has spawned a multilateral
trade deficit. Indeed, the US had trade shortfalls with over 90 countries in
2008-09. This is a direct by-product of one of the classic stress points of
macroeconomics: savings-short nations are in a serious bind if they wish to keep
growing. In order to do so, they must import surplus saving from abroad - and
run current account and multilateral trade deficits to attract the foreign
capital. America's sad savings record speaks for itself in that regard. The net
national savings rate - the sum total of depreciation-adjusted saving by
households, businesses and the government sector - has averaged just 2.4 per
cent of national income since 2001. Moreover, reflecting a gaping federal budget
deficit, domestic saving plunged into negative territory in mid-2008 and fell to
an astonishing minus 2.5 per cent of national income last year. That's a record
low for the US. With such an unprecedented shortfall in its overall savings
position, massive US current account and trade deficits are unavoidable. Yes,
China represents the biggest bilateral piece of this multilateral imbalance. But
there is good reason to believe that this reflects the outsourcing decisions of
US multinationals, as well as a strong preference by US consumers for low-cost
goods made in China. Yet China-bashers choose to blame it on Beijing. The
counter-factual argument does not support this claim. If the value of the
Chinese currency were higher, a persistently savings-short US economy would
still be facing a massive multilateral trade deficit. It is possible that the
Chinese piece would be smaller, but, unless America miraculously starts saving
again - highly unlikely in an era of trillion-dollar budget deficits - that
would then require the non-Chinese piece to be larger. It would be like
rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Again, this is not a China problem.
It reflects, instead, the unavoidable repercussions of America's chronic savings
problem. If Washington were to up the ante on China-bashing and impose
broad-based trade sanctions on Chinese exports, as many politicians, prominent
academics and other so-called experts suggest, there is good reason to believe
that China would retaliate. Depending on the severity of America's action, that
retaliation could take several forms - ranging from a World Trade Organisation
complaint, to Chinese trade sanctions on imported US products to a reduction in
China's demand for US Treasuries. The latter two options would hardly be
inconsequential for the US. Tariffs on US exports to China would hit what is now
America's third-largest export market - a serious problem for the Obama
administration's newly stated goal of doubling US exports over the next five
years. Similarly, reduced Chinese buying of US Treasuries would be highly
problematic for the funding of Washington's trillion-dollar budget deficits. If
China plays that trump card and reduces its participation in upcoming Treasury
auctions, the dollar would undoubtedly plunge and long-term interest rates would
soar - developments, in and of themselves, that could well trigger the dreaded
double-dip recession in a still- fragile US economy. The Washington consensus
smugly believes that China wouldn't dare take actions that might jeopardise the
value of its vast holdings of dollar-denominated assets. However, in keeping
with Spence, this is yet another example of a classic Western misinterpretation
of Chinese values. Rightly or wrongly, China feels that it has been mistreated
by the West for nearly 200 years. Yet China today is a proud nation with a
strong sense of nationalism. Irrespective of the consequences retaliation might
have for its currency portfolio, I suspect today's China would find it
unfathomable to ignore an aggressive trade action by the US. Stephen S. Roach is
the chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and author of The Next Asia. This is an
excerpted version of a longer article that first appeared in American Review.
The increasing number of mainland
shoppers has encouraged Hongkong Land to invest HK$151 million to renovate the
retail podium of Prince's Building in Central. "About 25 per cent of the
shoppers in our shopping malls came from the mainland," said Raymond Chow Ming-joe,
an executive director at Hongkong Land. "We found that increasing [numbers of]
mainland travellers with higher income choose to go shopping in Central in
recent months, as the malls have a greater selection of brands. "The retail
traffic at our shopping malls may be less than the other malls, but the spending
per head is higher than the others." He declined to disclose figures. Renovation
work had started and was scheduled to be completed early next year, Chow said.
Average rents for the company's retail space in Central rose by 3 per cent last
year, its annual report says. Chow expects retail rents to have stronger growth
this year as the demand for retail space is strong. The firm's retail portfolio
is fully let. International brands also appear optimistic about Hong Kong's
retail outlook and have expanded in the city. Alfred Dunhill previously leased a
3,800 square foot retail shop in Prince's Building. In March the firm expanded
to an 8,000 sq ft shop on three floors in the building, its largest store in
Asia. Cartier has also taken a 10,000 sq ft retail space on three floors in the
building. It will be the largest Cartier shop in Hong Kong after renovation is
completed by the end of next year. Previously, the retailer occupied a 3,200 sq
ft shop. Jewellery shop Van Cleef & Arpels and footwear brand Berluti have also
expanded their shops to 3,200 sq ft and 2,300 sq ft respectively, up from 1,700
sq ft and 700 sq ft. In the office market, Chow said rents in Hongkong Land's
Central portfolio began to pick up in the second quarter. According to global
real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, office rents in Central grew by
7.5 per cent in the first quarter, the highest growth among the city's business
areas. "The demand for office has fully recovered," Chow said. "It seems like
the global financial crisis never happened." He found demand was mainly driven
by the resumption of expansion plans by financial institutions this year, while
many professional services companies from the United States and Europe also came
to Hong Kong to set up new offices.
HK Int'l Airport honored world's best in its category - Hong Kong International
Airport ( HKIA) has been named the world's best airport among facilities serving
40 million-plus passengers in 2009, the fourth consecutive year for the honor,
the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) said on Friday. HKIA also took the third
place in both regional and overall categories in the Airport Service Quality (ASQ)
survey conducted by the Airports Council International. In the 2009 ASQ survey,
HKIA achieved a record high of 4.76 points out of 5 points, which means that
more than 98 percent of respondents rated it as "excellent" or "very good". Key
areas that were particularly commended by passengers included terminal
cleanliness, airport ambience, free internet connection, availability and
cleanliness of washrooms, and comfort of gates and waiting areas. The ASQ
survey, which interviewed over 275,000 passengers at 118 airports in 2009, is a
leading industry benchmarking program that allows airports to measure their
improvements and benchmark their customer service year on year.
Nigeria and China State Construction
Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) have signed a US$23 billion deal to
build three refineries and a petrochemical complex in Nigeria, a world’s major
oil exporter, an official statement said Friday. Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) and CSCEC signed the deal on Thursday to jointly seek US$23
billion in financing and credits from the China Export & Credit Insurance
Corporation and a consortium of mainland banks for the projects. “NNPC aims to
accelerate the construction of new refineries in Nigeria to stem the flood of
imported refined products into the country, currently estimated at US$10
billion,” an NNPC statement said. CSCEC wants to “expand its presence on the
African continent and establish its footprint firmly in the Nigerian oil and gas
landscape”, the statement said. The refineries are expected to add some 750,000
barrels per day capacity in Nigeria and position NNPC in the international
trading of refined petroleum products, it said.
Beijing will spend more
than one trillion yuan to lengthen its urban metro rail networks from 940
kilometres at the end of 2009 to more than 3,000 kilometres by 2015. Beijing
speeds up metro rail plan across 25 cities - China set to have world's biggest
subway network by 2012. The mainland plans to build the world's biggest urban
rail network as it battles to get people off increasingly traffic-snarled roads
in its major cities and onto public transport. Beijing has accelerated an
already aggressive plan to build thousands of kilometres of rail lines in the
nation's expanding cities to cope with worsening traffic congestion. China is
already second only to the United States in terms of the size of its urban metro
rail network, but will become the biggest by 2012. It is building 500km of urban
metro rail lines every year. Currently, 25 cities across the country have been
given the green light to build metro rail networks. It is expected that 87 metro
rail lines with a total length of 2,495km will be built by 2015, according to
the China Railway Construction (SEHK: 1186) Corp (CRCC), a leading Chinese rail
construction firm listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong. That is a more ambitious
rollout than previously planned, in which 15cities would construct 1,700km of
urban rail network track by 2015 with an investment of more than 600 billion
yuan (HK$683.88 billion). Li Guoyong, deputy head of industrials at the National
Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), yesterday told Bloomberg that the
mainland will spend more than one trillion yuan to increase the length of its
urban metro rail networks from 940km at the end of 2009 to more than 3,000km by
2015. That compares with China's investment in urban metro railway from 1995 to
2008 of about 140 billion yuan, according to Beijing Huaxinjie Investment (BHI)
Consulting, a transport consultancy firm. Road networks across increasingly
crowded coastal cities cannot cope with increasing traffic, Chen Jing, BHI's
sales manager, said. Since the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the capital has
implemented restrictions on cars yet traffic congestion is worsening, Chen said.
Continued economic growth means the cost of a small car will soon be within
reach of millions of people in regional cities across the country. Consumer
finance options will make cars even more affordable. Major cities are already
feeling the impact of soaring car ownership among the middle class. A Beijing
consultant said that since 2002 the number of cars in the city had soared from
two million to over four million. "China is undergoing very fast urbanisation
and to control traffic congestion it needs to build subways," the consultant
said. "The government wants to increase the public transit percentage of total
travel within cities." The government also wants to encourage green transport
like metro rail instead of people driving polluting cars. Between now and 2015,
Beijing's official plan is to spend 35 billion yuan each year to expand its
metro system from 230km to 561km. The Ministry of Railways and Sichuan province
signed an agreement this week to push the construction of a metro railway in the
provincial capital Chengdu. In the next five years, Shanghai will build 200km of
urban metro railway, in addition to its 400km of operational metro rail lines,
Xinhua reported.
Tires for motor cars are ready for
shipment at a Michelin plant in Clermont Ferrand, France. The French company has
expanded its network to China's third-and fourth-tire cities, with more than
5,000 dealerships across the nation. French tire maker Michelin is reinforcing
its brand and reputation in the high-performance tire market by launching the
latest products as Chinese customers become more demanding. "We are putting more
attention on the high performance tire market than before, a segment that is
growing at a speed twice that of the overall tire market in China last year,"
said Antoine Guerin, vice-president of marketing and sales with Michelin (China)
Investment Co Ltd. Michelin launched its Pilot Sport 3 tire in China this week,
a new generation of high-performance tires. The launch follows the market entry
of the Primacy LC last year. The Pilot Sport 3 series, with 18 different models,
are for sports cars, compacts and large, powerful sedans as well as roadsters
and coupes. "As the exact answer to the quest of Chinese sports car owners for
tires for driving pleasure and safety," said Guerin. He added that the company
believe that the new tire will set a new benchmark in the luxury sport segment
in China. Along with the ever increasing passenger vehicle population in China,
car owners in the developing market are focusing more and more on accessories,
such as tires. According to a recent AC Nielsen survey of car owners in Beijing,
Shanghai and Guangzhou, driving comfort and vehicle safety have become the
primary factors determining consumers' choice of sports tires. US tire maker
Goodyear also plans to launch a high-performance tire this July, aiming at
growing demand in China's luxury sport vehicle segment. "It's very important for
Michelin to win a high reputation in the high-end market to establish respect in
China's tire market", said Guerin. "And brand is key to winning in the local
tire market as Chinese car owners trust dependable brands when they buy their
cars and change their tires for the first time." "Although China's tire market
is still far from reaching the mature ratio of 30 to 70 between OEM and
replacement markets, we see great growth potential in both segments," said
Guerin. Banking on future demand for replacement tires as the new vehicle
population grows, Michelin is now fully preparing a service and distribution
network, in addition to its efforts to reinforce its brand. The French company
has expanded its network to the third- and fourth-tier cities in China, with
more than 5,000 dealerships across the nation, including over 1,100 premium
dealers. "We are now focusing on the training for the dealers in a bid to
improve our services," said Guerin. "This year, Michelin China will provide
training for over 4,000 staff for our dealers." 
In 13 years centralised slaughtering
of chickens has gone from a public health imperative to prevent bird flu to
financially unviable. Along the way, most live-chicken traders have quit the
business - making it a highly attractive proposition for the remaining vendors.
They buy their stock at HK$13 a catty and sell it for more than double that. Now
former live-chicken vendors who gave up their licences are demanding them back.
They say they, and the people of Hong Kong, have been cheated. Meanwhile,
legislators yesterday called on the government to increase the supply of live
chickens to prevent profiteering. Secretary for Food and Health York Chow
Yat-ngok told the Legislative Council a consultant engaged to study central
slaughtering, which was to have replaced the live chicken trade altogether, had
concluded it was not viable because live chickens now accounted for such a small
share of the market for chicken. The market share of chilled and frozen chicken
had increased from 60 per cent in 2003 to over 90 per cent last year. "Also,
Hongkongers might not accept that they may need to spend as much money on
slaughtered chickens as on live ones," he said. Chow said the government would
consider the consultant's report and give a decision to Legco later. A senior
government official acknowledged the remaining 131 vendors - down from a peak of
almost 500 - who rejected government offers of HK$800,000 to HK$3.2 million to
surrender their licences by July 2008 operate like a cartel. "This is like the
Western Harbour Crossing, where the operators do not need to care too much about
the number of customers as long as the charge is high enough," said the
official, who did not want to be identified. But Hong Kong Live Poultry
Wholesale Association chairman Tsui Ming-tuen said traders' costs justified
their mark-up. Former chairman of the Poultry Wholesalers and Retailers
Association Steven Wong Wai-chuen, who surrendered his licence in July 2008 for
compensation of about HK$3 million, said: "The whole industry feels like it has
been cheated. In fact, all Hongkongers were cheated." But remaining vendors are
jubilant. "Many of us still think fresh chickens taste better, so I will never
surrender my licence," said Chow Hon-ling, a live-chicken vendor in Kowloon
City. Wong said: "If they had mentioned that the policy of central slaughtering
might be retracted, many of us would not have left the industry." He said some
who had left were considering using their compensation to obtain licences again.
Wong does not believe finances alone lie behind the government's apparent change
of thinking. "The risk of bird flu has decreased. When the government first put
forward central slaughtering, they did it for health reasons, not because it was
financially viable," he said. Tsui called the finding wise. "It is obvious no
one is willing to invest in the central slaughterhouse." About 18,000 live
chickens are available every day, of which about 60 per cent are from local
farms. The trade was restricted to prevent bird flu, which first jumped the
species barrier to infect humans in Hong Kong in 1997, when six of 18 people who
caught the H5N1 virus died. The spread of the disease prompted a cull of all
live chickens in the city. Two further mass culls followed. Infectious-diseases
specialist Dr Lo Wing-lok said the current risk controls against bird flu were
sufficient. "We're already very safe now. Central slaughtering would not lower
the risk further. It would be a waste of public funds," he said. Government
officials first raised the option of centralised slaughtering in the wake of the
1997 outbreak. Seven years ago, the Team Clean unit set up to improve public
health following the Sars outbreak reiterated the idea. The government took up
the proposal and said in 2006 that central slaughtering would come in by last
year. 
Sylvia Tang displays fake buns made for
this year's Cheung Chau bun scramble, the trophy and a model of the bun tower. A
record number of competitors have signed up for this year's Cheung Chau bun
scramble, and a bumper crowd is also expected. The festival, on May 21, falls on
Buddha's birthday - a public holiday and the start of a long weekend. A total of
215 people - 171 men and 44 women - have entered the bun scrambling race this
year - the most since the leisure department took over running the event in
2005. The contest will be divided into two categories: individual and invitation
relay. For the first time, men and women will compete separately. "Past
contestants have told us that they think men and women have different builds and
powers, so for the first time we're separating the two groups," Sylvia Tang,
chief leisure manager (New Territories West) of the Leisure and Cultural
Services Department, said. The number of women signing up for the event was a
record and 10 more than last year, Tang said. Tickets would be distributed free
on a first come, first served basis from 10pm on May 21, she said. Police expect
about 50,000 visitors to flock to Cheung Chau throughout the day, especially in
the morning, and a strong police presence will be in place to ensure safety. The
opening ceremony for the contest will begin at 11.30pm, and the event starts at
midnight. An extra ferry service will leave Cheung Chau for Central at 1.15am on
May 22, Polly Chan Siu-mui, senior transport officer for the Transport
Department, said. Bus services from the ferry terminal in Central to various
destinations will also be extended from about 1am to 2.30am that morning. A
total of 1,500 spectators will be allowed to enter the soccer pitch at the Pak
Tai Temple playground to watch the scramble. Plastic buns, which look very
similar to real ones but are less slippery to step on, have been used for the
scramble since 2007. About 10,000 plastic buns have been made for this year's
event. In the past, many real buns had been wasted, Tang said.
David Cameron is no stranger to Hong
Kong. In 1985 when he was just 18, he spent three months here working for
conglomerate Jardine Matheson. Cameron's father was a stockbroker for Jardine's
chairman. The younger Cameron took up an administrative post, which required no
experience but which enabled him to acquire a taste for work during his gap year
after graduating from Eton and before going to Oxford. Cameron's Hong Kong links
actually go back much earlier - his great-great- grandfather Sir Ewen was the
London head of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank.
Ford and its mainland venture
partners, Mazda and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co, are seeking central
government approval to end their three-way tie up, a report said.
Flowers placed by survivors
mourning family who died in the Sichuan earthquake frame a window looking out on
a devastated landscape. Tourism has become the major source of income for
Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the devastating earthquake two years ago
yesterday in Sichuan , and local authorities hope to make it a pillar industry
to support residents' daily lives in the future. Zhu Yaozhong , the acting
deputy county head, told a press conference in Guangzhou on Tuesday that of all
the county's economic indicators last year, the service industry, which mainly
relies on tourism, was the only one that rose since 2007. Without giving
specific figures, Zhu - also the deputy director of the Development and Reform
Commission of Guangdong, the province selected by the State Council to help with
the rebuilding of Wenchuan - said the fast-growing tourism revenue reflected the
key role the industry is playing in supporting reconstruction in the
worst-affected areas. "It showed tourism had contributed the most to Wenchuan,
and we think it might become a well-known place for international tourism in the
future," he added. According to the Wenchuan Tourism Bureau, more than 30,000
tourists visited the county and spent about 8.2 million yuan (HK$9.3 million)
during the Labor Day holiday on May 1-3. This was a dramatic increase when
compared with the figures for the same period in 2007. Zhu said that most of the
"hardware rebuilding" work was over, and they now faced the challenge of
rebuilding local residents' lives. Creating job opportunities for residents will
be the top priority. Besides boosting tourism, Guangdong planners are also
working on attracting manufacturers to invest in the area. Chen Maohui , deputy
secretary general of the Guangdong provincial government and acting deputy
Communist Party secretary of Wenchuan, said it was hoped that two industry zones
under construction - one in Wenchuan's Xuankou, and the other in the suburbs of
provincial capital Chengdu - could provide 20,000 jobs to the county. According
to the statement by the Guangdong government, eight enterprises from Sichuan,
Guangdong, Hong Kong and Taiwan promised to invest 2.3 billion yuan in the
Guangdong-Wenchuan Industrial Zone in Chengdu. These companies have been told
that their factories should be ready to start operation by the end of this year.
Chen added that some Guangdong-based companies would launch a job fair soon
offering about 4,000 posts to Wenchuan residents. By the end of last month,
nearly 88 per cent of the 702 projects Guangdong was helping to build in
Wenchuan had been completed, the statement released yesterday said. The province
alone has invested 8.2 billion yuan in the county's reconstruction.
Shenzhen executive vice-mayor Xu Qin , a close ally of Guangdong party chief
Wang Yang , has emerged as the leading candidate to become the city's next
mayor, nearly a year after former mayor Xu Zongheng was removed amid a graft
probe. A major leadership reshuffle is expected to be announced at the annual
meeting of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress, between May 27 and 31. The
position of Shenzhen mayor is the last important position in Guangdong left
unfilled after a round of reshuffles last month that saw the appointment of new
party bosses for Guangzhou and Shenzhen and a new Guangzhou mayor. Shenzhen
officials believe that a power struggle involving candidates and their
higher-level supporters has delayed the announcement. Various government sources
from both Shenzhen and Guangzhou said Xu Qin was "almost confirmed" to become
mayor after acting Shenzhen mayor Wang Rong was promoted to become Shenzhen's
party boss last month, although the decision was not finalised. "There are only
two weeks left before the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress opens and the
limited time period isn't enough for an outsider to be parachuted in," a
Guangdong official familiar with Shenzhen affairs said. But he said Shenzhen's
annual congress could still be postponed, because certain decision-making
procedures needed to be gone through before it could announce a new mayor. There
has been speculation that 49-year-old Xu Qin, originally from Jiangsu, could be
the next Shenzhen mayor, ever since he was transferred from his position as
director of the hi-tech industry development department at the National
Development and Reform Committee (NDRC) to become the city's executive
vice-mayor. Cadres parachuted in from outside are usually promoted to higher
positions after serving in regional government for several years. When Xu was in
Beijing, he worked as Wang's subordinate for four years when the Guangdong party
chief was a vice-minister at the State Development and Planning Commission, the
predecessor of the NDRC, between 1999 and 2003. Xu was swiftly promoted from a
division head to department director during Wang's tenure and was transferred to
Shenzhen six months after Wang became party chief of Guangdong. Xu received his
doctoral degree in business administration from Hong Kong Polytechnic University
in 2004 and is said to be familiar with the special administrative region's
economic development. Hong Kong newspapers have reported that Guangdong
propaganda chief Lin Xiong , 51, could be a rival for the mayoralty. Lin worked
for the General Office of the Communist Party's Central Committee in the 1980s
when it was headed by Wen Jiabao , now the Premier. Lin was later promoted to be
the deputy party boss of Dongguan and Maoming , and party boss of Zhaoqing .
The government is proposing three
measures to revitalise the secondary market of Home Ownership Scheme flats but
the suggestions have been criticised as unattractive. To help HOS flat owners
pay the premium that allows them to sell or let their flats on the open market,
the government has suggested the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation provide a
guarantee arrangement. With that guarantee, banks could provide a second
mortgage loan to HOS owners enabling them to pay the premium. Flat owners could
settle the premium loan by instalment, along with their mortgage payments.
Another suggestion would extend a mortgage guarantee period of up to 25 years
to, for example, 30 years. The Housing Authority has been providing up to
25-year mortgage default guarantees to banks to help HOS flat buyers get
mortgage finance. The government also proposes to streamline sale and purchase
procedures for second-hand HOS flats, such as shortening the time it takes
applicants to get Housing Authority documents from three weeks to two. But "the
degree of revitalisation is not enough", Dr Lau Kwok-yu, associate professor at
City University's public and social administration department, said. "Only when
HOS flats are easily tradable in the market will people be attracted to buy or
sell HOS flats." He said the government could learn from Singapore which allowed
HOS owners to let their properties even before they finished paying the premium.
"For example, after an owner repaid a certain amount of premium, they can lease
their property on condition that they give part of the rental income to the
government," he said. Echoing his view, Centaline Property Agency associate
director of research Wong Leung-sing said the proposed measures would not hugely
relieve HOS flat owners' premium payment burden and were not attractive. Wong
Kwun, chairman of the Federation of Public Housing Estates, feared the measures
would attract speculators. The proposed measures came after the financial
secretary announced in his budget in February that ways to revitalise the HOS
secondary market would be explored, as most HOS flats are priced below HK$2
million and could cater to the medium and low-priced property market. There are
some 320,000 HOS flats. About 64,700 flats are tradable on the open market and
about 255,400 still have not paid a premium. The Housing Authority's subsidised
housing committee is to discuss the issue on Monday. The authority yesterday
also released the price list of 4,000 HOS flats which will go on sale next
month. The prices, based on transactions in the second-hand market between
February and April, are about 70 per cent of market price. The proposed prices
range from HK$620 per sq ft to HK$3,710 per sq ft. The cheapest HOS flat is in
Lung Hin Court, Tai O, on Lantau Island, at 375 sq ft and priced at HK$302,400.
The most expensive one is a 666 sq ft apartment in Shau Kei Wan's Tung Tao
Court, with a price tag of HK$3.28 million, or HK$3,450 per sq ft. Some prices
are about 10 per cent higher than those from the same estates sold by the
authority late last year, beefed up by a robust property market. More than 1,110
flats on sale are at Yau Tong's Yau Chui Court, while another 1,294 flats are in
Tin Shui Wai. The rest are scattered in areas such as Kwai Tsing, Wong Tai Sin,
Ma On Shan and Tseung Kwan O. The income limit for applicants has been raised
from HK$23,000 to HK$27,000, for a two-person household and they cannot have
assets of more than HK$530,000. The authority estimated that at least 106,400
households were eligible to apply for HOS flats. In view of public demand, the
authority is suggesting changing the quota allocation ratio between "green form"
and "white form" applicants to three to two, instead of a ratio of four to one.
Green form applicants live in public housing or are eligible for it, and white
form applicants are families on low incomes who live in private apartments.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, which reported healthy first-quarter growth,
could face a tough time this year if deteriorating market conditions crimp new
listings.
Crowd control measures have been put in
place to ensure Hong Kong's annual bun scrambling competition on Cheung Chau
later this month would be safe, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Government spokeswoman Sylvia Tang said the event would be carefully planned to
ensure there were not excessive numbers of people at the event. The annual bun
scrambling competition is a traditional activity, where participants compete by
climbing bamboo “mountains” to snatch buns. The tradition has been carried on
for decades. It began as a ritual for fishing communities to pray for safety
from pirates. Today, it has become one of the most well-known Chinese festivals
on the island. Tang said this year’s competition was expected to attract a lot
of spectators. The bun carnival would be held on a soccer pitch at Pak Tai
Temple Playground from Friday, May 21 until Saturday, May 22. Tang said that
apart from invited guests, only 1,500 people would be allowed on the soccer
pitch. The venue would be divided into five zones, with only four open to the
public. The carnival was suspended in 1978 due to 100 people being injured by a
bamboo “mountain” which collapsed during the competition. It resumed in 2005.
Bruce Lee biopic to be shot in June - A biopic about Bruce Lee will mark the
70th anniversary of the late action hero's birth on November 27 of this year,
M1905.com reports. Filming of "Bruce Lee" is expected to begin at the end of
next month, the report says. It is slated for release before November 27. The
film will tell Bruce Lee's pre-stardom story. Hong Kong-based
singer-turned-actor Aarif Lee will play young Bruce. Aarif Lee was named Best
Newcomer at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards in April for his performance in
the family drama "Echoes of the Rainbow". Manfred Wong, producer of "Bruce Lee",
says Aarif's appearance in "Echoes of the Rainbow" reminded him of Bruce Lee,
and that he thinks Aarif is the ideal actor for the role. Karen Mok and Tony
Leung Ka-Fai will play Bruce Lee's parents. The film will be helmed by
"Bodyguards and Assassins" assistant director Wai-Man Yip.
A French-style Expo group
wedding ceremony is held in the Expo Garden on Tuesday. Thirty-five Chinese
couples from all over the world said "I do" in a French-style group wedding
ceremony on Tuesday, witnessed by their families and thousands of visitors at
the Expo Garden. As the chief witness at the wedding, Jean Germain, mayor of the
city of Tours in France, announced the beginning of the first French-style Expo
group wedding with the theme of "Tender Spring" at the Expo Culture Center.
Germain had been the witness for 200 Chinese couples who participated in group
weddings in Tours in the past two years. Tuesday's ceremony was the first time
the mass Tours wedding had taken place in Shanghai, in China and at an Expo. All
the newlywed couples were offered a tour to the France Pavilion as VIP guests
and granted wedding certificates by Germain, plus a French meal cooked by
Michelin star chefs at the Six Sense restaurant in the France Pavilion. A team
of specialists from Tours worked on the flower decoration, make-up, photography
and dresses for the wedding. At the ceremony, dancers from Tours performed a
French tango while a comic group gave comedy shows. All attending couples
entered a lucky draw, which offered the winning couple a nine-day European trip
for their honeymoon. As the eldest pair of couple, 42-year-old Sandy Gao and her
48-year-old husband, surnamed Zu, flew from the United States last Thursday
especially for the memorable wedding ceremony. "Initially we planned to register
our marriage in the mainland. After learning about the wedding in the Expo
Garden, I really wanted to participate in this kind of special wedding to
celebrate the new beginning of our lives," Gao said. Although Gao was a bit
rushed in her wedding preparations, she still felt lucky that her application to
be a part of the wedding was successful. Wang Li, 32, had been looking forward
to a group wedding for its exciting atmosphere and unusual style of celebration.
Each couple was allowed to invite up to seven family members and close friends
to attend the ceremony, celebrating the precious moments with the lovebirds. "I
want my wedding to be perfect and unique, so I choose to attend the group
wedding from my heart," said Wang, who brought five family members and two best
friends to witness the exciting moment. "Spring is my favorite season and Expo
is the biggest cultural festival in Shanghai this year. I am so happy that I'm
part of this event with wishes from my families and friends," she said. Wang's
mother, Qian Lanying, thought the French and Expo wedding would be the most
meaningful and memorable experience for all of them. "I was so surprised when
Wang told me that she's attending the French Tours Expo group wedding. I wish
the couple to be happy forever," said Ren Li, Wang's best friend, who planned to
apply to the next session of the French Expo group wedding in June. Four more
French-style Expo group weddings held by Tours city are scheduled until the end
of October. "More happy couples will get married in the Expo Garden soon," said
Lise Han, the main organizer of the French Expo weddings from Tours. Most of the
couples were born in the 1980s, a generation full of characteristic ideas and
leading the fashion trend by breaking traditional customs. "France, the dream
country of our generation, is the symbol of romance. It's also my dream to get
married in the most romantic style. Especially it's the Expo period in Shanghai
which makes the wedding ceremony more unique and symbolic for us," said
25-year-old bride Cai Mianmian, an interpreter from Fujian province. She and her
husband, Zeng Dongjie, fell in love when they were classmates in senior high
school 11 years ago.
One of the vice-presidents of the National People's Congress was robbed in Paris
by two men on a motorbike who smashed her car window as she was on her way to
the airport, police said yesterday. Uyunqimg, the third-highest ranking female
official in China, was on the A1 motorway north of the French capital on her way
to Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday at around 6.30pm when the thieves struck,
officers said. No one was hurt in the incident, but the pair managed to smash
the car's rear window and grab the official's handbag before escaping. An
investigation has been launched. Uyunqimg is the highest-ranking ethnic
Mongolian in the central government. The highway from Paris to Charles de Gaulle
is a notorious hunting ground for smash-and-grab gangs. In February, French
judicial officials reported that Kristina Chernovetska, the daughter of the
mayor of Ukrainian capital Kiev, was robbed in the same way. Chernovetska
reportedly lost jewellery worth €4.5 million (HK$44.48 million) in the robbery.
But aides to mayor Leonid Chernovetsky denied the incident had taken place.
A China Southern Airlines plane is
seen taking off from Shanghai's Hongqiao airport in this file picture. China
Southern has overtaken JAL as Asia’s largest carrier by passenger numbers,
according to figures released on Wednesday. China Southern Airlines is now
Asia’s largest carrier by passenger numbers after overtaking troubled Japan
Airlines Corp, or JAL, according to figures provided by the two companies. China
Southern actually overtook JAL in 2008 when its passenger volume rose to 58.24
million, according to data supplied by the mainland carrier on Wednesday. The
airline, which has mainland’s largest fleet, extended its lead even further last
year as its numbers climbed to 66.28 million passengers, China Southern said.
“Authoritative data shows China Southern Airline surpassed JAL as [Asia’s] top
carrier in passenger volumes in 2008, but the story has only been publicised
lately,” said a China Southern official, who said he could not be named under
company policy. “It is also a sign of how China’s economy expanded so fast
despite the financial crisis,” the official added. JAL carried 46.87 million
passengers in 2008 and 41.98 million last year, according to figures provided by
the Japanese carrier. The struggling Japanese airline is restructuring with the
help of a state-backed turnaround fund after filing for bankruptcy in January.
It has said it will slash international and domestic capacity over the next year
by 40 per cent and 30 per cent respectively, compared to the 2008 fiscal year.
Combined with previously announced route-cutting plans, JAL will cease to run 28
international routes and close 11 international bases, while 50 domestic routes
will be terminated, along with eight offices. China Southern, in contrast, has
said it expects passenger numbers to rise 13 per cent this year to nearly 75
million passengers. The carrier announced last month it had swung back to profit
last year thanks to a government bailout and improving domestic demand. Since
late 2008, Beijing has injected nearly US$2 billion into the nation’s top three
carriers, including China Southern, to help them weather slowing demand caused
by the financial crisis.
Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao (C, front) meets with members of a delegation of the Japan Business
Federation in Beijing, May 12, 2010. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Wednesday said
Sino-Japanese relations are continuously improving and developing. "This lays an
important political foundation for the two sides to jointly cope with the
international financial crisis and increase cooperation," Wen said when meeting
with a delegation of the Japan Business Federation. Wen hailed the important
contribution of China-Japan economic and trade cooperation in promoting economic
growth of the two nations and East Asia at large. He said the acceleration of
economic restructuring, changing development modes, and achieving sustainable
development were common issues for China and Japan, and this was a challenge and
opportunity as well for economic and trade relations. Wen hoped the businesses
would increase cooperation in energy saving, environmental protection and new
energies. Members of the Japanese delegation said Japan was glad to see the
strategic and mutually beneficial direction of bilateral ties. China's economy
first broke away from the impact of the international financial crisis and had
maintained rapid growth. This offered favorable conditions for deepening
Japan-China economic and trade cooperation, they said. They hoped to learn more
from China's development strategy, and work with China to increase personnel
exchanges and strengthen coordination at bilateral and regional levels, in a bid
to promote Asian economic integration and world economic recovery. The
federation groups most of Japan's leading companies, industrial associations and
regional economic organizations.
Macau-based Sands China, the world’s
second-most valuable casino operator, has its sights on expanding into Japan,
which it predicts could become Asia’s largest gambling market. In Macau, the
firm’s second-quarter outlook is “extremely good”, CEO Steve Jacobs said on
Tuesday after the firm posted first-quarter earnings that quadrupled from a year
ago on a strong performance in the former Portuguese enclave and strict cost
controls. “All indications are it’s going to stay as strong as it is today,”
Jacobs said, referring to the outlook. “In a month where the market was up by
about 70 per cent, you’ve got to assume that we did fairly well.” Macau, the
world’s largest and fastest-growing gambling market, generated record gambling
revenues in April, up 70 per cent from a year earlier. Sands, which has been
approached by local gaming firms in Japan, is eager to move into a market with
the potential to be Asia’s largest gambling market, Jacobs said. Expanding in
Asia beyond Macau has become important for casino operators such as Sands and
Wynn Resorts, which worry about Beijing’s erratic travel restrictions on
mainlanders visiting Macau, the only place in the country where casino gambling
is legal. Japan has long debated legalising casino gambling and could make a
decision soon as it looks to the example of Singapore, which recently opened two
major casino resorts, Jacobs said. “My own personal view is that their decision
to go … or not to go will be made sooner than most people think,” he said. “I
think what they are trying to do is to find an element to drive tourism – so
they are looking more to integrated resorts as opposed to a casino resort or a
casino only.” Sands China’s parent Las Vegas Sands opened its US$5.5 billion
Singapore casino resort, the world’ second-most expensive, late last month.
Japan has made slow progress on allowing casinos, partly due to fears they could
trigger social problems. If Japan moves to legalise casino gambling, the first
casino could open by around 2014-15, said Jacobs, who was chief executive of an
international management services firm before he joined Las Vegas Sands in March
last year. Others are less optimistic. “Japan would be the Holy Grail of gaming
in Asia,” said Aaron Fischer, head of CLSA’s Asian gaming research, adding that
a large appetite for gambling and a high average income would create strong
demand for casino operators. “But CLSA has been talking about gaming
legalisation in Japan for the last five years, so we’re not holding our breath.”
Cost overruns for Sands China’s next mega casino resort in Macau’s Cotai Strip –
billed as the next Las Vegas Strip – are “a low probability”, Jacobs said,
adding that US$1.7 billion of the financing is “already in the ground”. Analysts
fear that a possible move by Macau’s government to restrict the number of
non-resident workers on construction projects could result in cost overruns or
project delays for Sands China. The project, whose first two phases will cost
US$2.35 billion to develop and is set to open by the third quarter of next year,
will house the world’s biggest casino as well as Shangri-La, Traders and
Sheraton hotels. They would complement Sands China’s three existing Macau
casinos, including the massive Venetian Macao. Analysts say Sands China is their
favourite pick among Macau casino stocks due to the firm’s aggressive expansion
plans and exposure to the mass-market gambling segment, which is more resilient
to economic turbulence than the VIP gambling segment. Sands China, whose rivals
include Wynn Macau and Melco Crown Entertainment, reported January-March net
profit of US$110.51 million versus US$26.66 million a year ago. The results were
widely expected as Sands China had reported its first-quarter profit of US$113.3
million, according to US GAAP standards, last week, together with Las Vegas
Sands.
Fok Siu-wing, the father-in-law of
mainland mother Zeng Lixia, who was charged HK$48,000 after she gave birth at
Princess Margaret Hospital in December 2007. Higher fee for mainland mums giving
birth is fair, judge rules - A group of mainland mothers married to Hongkongers
are calling for public hospitals to end what they say are discriminatory
obstetrics fees after a court upheld a policy that forces them to pay more than
local women for giving birth here. They were reacting to a judgment handed down
at the Court of Appeal yesterday, in which a judge upheld the 2007 charging
package that requires non-resident mainland mothers to pay higher obstetrics
fees than residents. The judgment was regarding a case taken out by the
father-in-law of one mainland mother, Zeng Lixia. The Hospital Authority had
rejected her request to waive her non-resident obstetrics fees, and she had
asked for a judicial review of the decision, calling the 2007 law
discriminatory. The court had dismissed it. She appealed against that dismissal.
Zeng was given a bill for HK$48,000 after she gave birth at Princess Margaret
Hospital in December 2007 after the new charges were in place. Yesterday, the
court granted her appeal, sending her request for a waiver back to the
authority. The Mainland-Hong-Kong Family Rights Association and Zeng's
father-in-law, Fok Siu-wing, called the decision to uphold the 2007 charges
unfair, saying mainland mothers married to Hongkongers should have the same
right to give birth as residents. "The government cannot forbid mainland
pregnant women from giving birth here," Fok said. Under the changes to
obstetrics charges in 2007, non-resident mothers had to pay HK$39,000 for a
pre-booked obstetrics package and $48,000 without a prior booking, while
residents enjoy subsidised fees. One woman from the rights group, Linda So
Lin-tat, said yesterday she saw no reason why she should feel forced to give
birth on the mainland. "I have married a Hong Kong man, so why must I go back
when it comes time to give birth?" In his judgment, Mr Justice Andrew Cheung
Kui-nung said the residency requirement was not illogical as a bar for deciding
who should get subsidised fees. "It may work harshly in individual cases but
that fact does not render the policy illegitimate or unjustified," he said. The
authority, he said, was duty-bound to provide a high standard of health care to
residents, and resources were finite. If the demands on obstetric services were
such that meeting them threatened the quality of care in other kinds of health
services, it was logical to trim demands. Despite upholding the policy, however,
he said Zeng's was not a case where it was appropriate for the authority to
refuse to waive the fees. The authority addressed Zeng's case in a way that she
and her family rightly perceived as "entirely impersonal and without regard to
their circumstances". In her case, the authority could have used its
discretionary powers to waive the fees, but in letters refusing to do so there
was no evidence that it had acknowledged such powers, the judge said. Secretary
for Food and Health Dr York Chow Yat-ngok said the court's ruling was correct.
"We think that Hong Kong's medical system, especially obstetrics service, should
mainly service local pregnant women," he said after attending the Hospital
Authority's annual convention in Wan Chai. But Chow said he was also sympathetic
towards mainland women with Hong Kong husbands, who might need a waiver of fees.
Hospital Authority chairman Anthony Wu Ting-yuk said he respected the court's
decision and would review the case. 
A Gamesa wind turbine tower section
is unloaded from a ship at a port in Texas. The Spanish company plans to bring
its advanced 5-megawatt wind turbine to China, said chairman & CEO Jorge Calvet.
Gamesa charts China entry plans - Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa is planning
to enter China's offshore wind power sector by the end of next year, a top
company official said on Monday. Gamesa is currently in talks with a German wind
power company for a possible acquisition, and will enter China's offshore wind
power market by the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012 if the deal goes
through, said Jorge Calvet, chairman & CEO. If the deal does not take shape, the
company has an internal plan to enter the sector during the same period, said
Calvet. Gamesa plans to bring its advanced 5-megawatt (mW) wind turbine to
China, he said. Meanwhile the company on Monday started building a wind turbine
plant at Baicheng city in Jilin province, in line with its plan to tap into the
fast growing wind power market in China. The new plant is expected to come on
stream in the middle of 2011. It will produce wind turbines with a capacity of 2
mW. The facility will have annual production capacity of 250 wind turbines in
the first phase. Products will be sold to wind farms in Jilin province, the
company said in a statement. "The new plant represents a great opportunity to
keep serving our clients as a reliable partner in the province that the
government has identified as the one with the highest wind power capacity in
China," said Calvet. China plans to build seven wind power bases, which will
have 74 percent of the country's wind power capacity by 2020. Wind power in
Jilin is expected to account for 39 percent of the nation's wind power capacity
by then, 30 percentage points more than now. Gamesa installed its first wind
turbine in China in 2000, and has since sold over 2,000 turbines. The company
employs around 1,000 people in the country. The company's fast expansion is due
to China's rapid development of wind power. The wind power industry in China has
been witnessing annual growth rates in excess of 100 percent in the past four
years. China has chosen the sea off eastern Jiangsu province to build the
country's first batch of offshore wind power projects, according to the National
Energy Administration (NEA). Public bidding for the four projects will start
later this month. Construction of offshore wind power projects will be the main
focus of China's wind power industry in the future. As the country boasts rich
offshore wind energy resources, China has great potential in this field, said
Shi Lishan, deputy director of the new energy department under the NEA.
A Beijing court has jailed 20 defendants for the fire that engulfed parts of the
new multitrillion-yuan China Central Television headquarters, killed one fireman
and tarnished the reputation of the state-owned channel. The fire was sparked by
an unlicensed fireworks display on February 9 last year, the last day of the
Lunar New Year holiday, as determined by an official investigation. About 30
people were investigated initially, but only 21 were charged. Xu Wei, a CCTV
department head in charge of the new headquarters, was sentenced to seven years
in prison, the harshest punishment handed down yesterday. Others were sentenced
to between three and six years; three were given suspended sentences. One was
exempted from criminal punishment. The No 2 Intermediate Court found that Xu was
the person who decided to have a fireworks display at the construction site of
the new headquarters, commissioned the fireworks from Hunan , and agreed to the
use of industrial-grade fireworks, knowing the construction site did not have a
licence to do so. The trial was marked with controversy because families of some
of the victims said the punishment was unfair while others said more people
should have been punished - including higher-ranking CCTV officials or even
Beijing officials. Apart from Xu, the defendants were six other CCTV officials,
contractors, security officers at the site, and related business associates who
helped in the procurement of the fireworks from Hunan, transported and stored
them in Hebei , and prepared the display. There was also a shareholder and a
technician from the Hunan fireworks manufacturer. When the trial was heard in
March, the sister-in-law of Xue Jiwei , owner of a logistics business, said Xue
could not have committed a crime simply because he organised transport of the
fireworks. She told local media that if Xue was guilty, so should the
"manufacturer of the lighter that lit the fireworks and manufacturer of the
pickup truck". Xue was one of the 13 defendants sentenced to between three and
six years, according to Xinhua's report. The fire killed one firefighter and
injured eight - six firefighters and two construction workers. It charred over
80 per cent of the surface of the building on the north side of the iconic new
CCTV headquarters, causing damage of 160 million yuan (HK$182.23 million). CCTV
operations have still not been relocated to the new headquarters, originally
known for its outlandish glass-structure design by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas
in the shape of a pair of enormous trousers. And the charred annex, part of
which housed the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which was only weeks from opening,
still stands rather embarrassingly as debates continue over what to do with it.
The fire raised questions over abuse of power and a cover-up. The building on
fire became material for mocking photos online. Internet users and some
Beijingers said they were fed up with the arrogance of the state-owned
broadcaster.
Three centenarians (on
wheelchairs), whose cataract disease was cured with the support of the Life &
Sunshine Pavilion, visit the China Pavilion on Monday. The Life & Sunshine
Pavilion is the first pavilion dedicated to disabled people in the history of
Expo. 
Children guided by a
policewoman and a teacher escape from a building during a drill in Nanjing
experimental kindergarten in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province,
May 10, 2010. The drill was held Monday in Nanjing, aiming at teaching children
to escape from buildings and to protect themselves when earthquakes happen.
One of Hong Kong's top judges has
expressed concern at a growing tendency for people to take what he describes as
a "shotgun approach" to constitutional challenges. Vice President of the Court
of Appeal Justice Frank Stock also warned they may misunderstand the nature of
discrimination when mounting legal challenges. Justice Stock outlined his
worries as he and two other judges rejected a legal challenge against the
government's decision to charge mainlanders more than Hong Kong residents to
give birth in public hospitals. In his judgment released yesterday, Justice
Stock said: "There is in constitutional challenges a developing tendency to
adopt a shotgun approach, by which every provision in the Basic Law, the
[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights], and the Bill of Rights
that might remotely be said to touch upon the subject matter at hand, is thrown
into the pot by the pleader even though only one or two clearly identifiable
foundations for the argument readily present themselves." He warned that this is
an "addictive tendency which makes life more difficult for the Court and which
ought to be resisted." The judge went on to say that differences in the way
people are treated do not necessarily constitute discrimination. "If the
differentiation in treatment is attached to circumstances or situations which
are not comparable, the issue does not arise, for discrimination entails a
failure to treat like cases alike. "Even if the circumstances are comparable,
the differential treatment will not constitute discrimination, as contemplated
by the ICCPR and therefore by the Basic law, if the difference in treatment is
justified, the burden of showing which is on the government." Law Society
Council vice president Junius Ho Kwan-yiu said Hong Kong should follow the
United States and set up a constitutional court.
Low visitor numbers dent high
hopes at Shanghai Expo - But organisers of the six-month event, launched with
great fanfare including a star-studded party and a mammoth fireworks show along
the Huangpu river, are worried they will fail to draw the 70 million visitors
they have predicted. “If the situation continues, we will take measures to
increase the flow of visitors,” an Expo official who did not want to be named
was quoted as saying by the Global Times newspaper. The Expo, a display of
culture, ideas and technology from 189 countries and dozens of companies, is
seen as a showcase of China’s growing political and economic clout. Organisers
have repeatedly given the magic attendance number of 70 million as the hallmark
of success, but so far, turnout has fallen far short of the daily average of
380,000 needed to meet that goal. Even though all 500,000 opening day tickets
were sold out, only 207,000 people came. Organisers who keenly offered hourly
attendance updates at the outset are now only giving daily figures. Shanghai –
keen to show the world it is a cosmopolitan city on a par with London and New
York – nevertheless hopes it can set an Expo attendance record, topping the 64
million people who visited Osaka in 1970. Portia Luo, a 29-year-old secretary
watching Mongolian musicians and Canadian aboriginal dancers perform at the
site, said reports of big crowds and long waits in the hot sun had
“definitely... scared some people” away. Across the river only a handful of
visitors wandered through the city exhibits by London, Madrid, Hamburg and
others highlighting how they are embracing the Expo’s theme, ‘Better City,
Better Life’. More than 33 million tickets have been sold and the Shanghai
government plans to give a free ticket to each household in the city, boosting
potential attendance so far to 40 million, organisers say. They have urged
ticket holders not to wait until Expo’s final weeks to show up, but 54-year-old
retiree Jiang Lijun said she did not want to tackle the heat and would likely
wait until at least September to visit with her family. “We saw too many media
reports saying that there are very long queues at the Expo park,” Jiang said
outside a downtown shopping mall. Tough security also may have dampened
tourists’ enthusiasm. Authorities have insisted on rigorous searches in rail and
subway stations, car inspections and major road traffic restrictions around the
site. For those braving the first week of Expo, the lower-than-expected turnout
meant lines were flowing smoothly at the site’s hotspots by the end of the week.
After the China pavilion, the most popular venues on the opening weekend were
the Swiss, French, German, Spanish, British, Italian, Japanese and South Korean
pavilions, organisers said. The US pavilion is also drawing crowds. Countries
are seeking to improve the visitor experience, looking to benefit from positive
word-of-mouth. At Colombia’s pavilion, Mandarin voiceovers for films and
narrated tours of exhibits about the country’s beaches and coffee had been added
in recent days. “This is all about entertaining people,” said pavilion director
Juan Pablo Cavelier.
China swung to a trade surplus
in April after a rarely seen deficit in March, but exports only narrowly topped
imports, providing little comfort for policymakers fearful of another round of
global financial woes triggered by the European sovereign debt crisis. The
country recorded a trade surplus of US$1.68 billion in the month, defying
expectations of a second straight deficit after March's US$7.2 billion
shortfall. But the April surplus was a decline of 89 per cent from the surplus
recorded a year earlier. Exports rose an annual 30.5 per cent in April, while
imports jumped 49.7 per cent from a year earlier, according to data from the
General Administration of Customs. Tom Orlik, China analyst with Stone &
McCarthy Research Associates, said the data suggested March's deficit was an
aberration, rather than signalling a structural shift in China's trade account.
Mingchun Sun, chief economist with Nomura International, said imports in April
fell to a more reasonable level after a particularly strong sprint in March. He
forecast imports will grow by 26 per cent year-on-year in 2010 because of higher
crude oil price expectations, while exports will continue to recover, resulting
in annual growth of 11 per cent. "Since we expect imports to grow much stronger
than exports this year, we also expect China's trade surplus to narrow to US$70
billion in 2010 from US$196 billion in 2009," Sun said. Despite the recovery in
the trade account, analysts are divided over whether Beijing will allow the yuan
to appreciate amid growing concern over the European debt crisis. Beijing
re-pegged the yuan against the US dollar in mid-2008 - after a 21 per cent
appreciation in the previous two years - in an effort to cushion China's slump
in exports amid the global financial woes. Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and
other top officials seized on the March trade deficit to argue against the need
to revalue the country's currency. But most economists said at the time that it
was a short-term event since it partly reflected rising commodity and raw
material prices in international markets that would eventually be passed on to
finished goods for export. Orlik said a vanishing trade surplus combined with
the emergence of a sovereign debt crisis in Europe may have changed the
calculation on the yuan exchange rate as the latest crisis created uncertainty
in the outlook for trade. "The April data will do little to strengthen the
argument from China's trade partners that appreciation is a necessary part of
the search for balance in the global economy," Orlik said. But analyst Wang Hu
said the rising trade surplus will add pressure to allow the yuan to appreciate.
"We expect the yuan to resume its appreciation in the second quarter as a result
of the rising trade surplus," Wang said. Gao Shanwen, chief economist with
Essence Securities, said the Greek crisis signalled that the international
outlook remained uncertain, which will affect China's export performance in
coming months. "The impact of the Greek debt crisis will be reflected in China's
trade performance in the second half of this year," Gao said. Orlik said the
crisis had taken heat out of the yuan debate. "For the Europeans, a silver
lining to the Greek cloud has been a fall in the value of the euro against the
yuan - strengthening the competitiveness of European exporters," Orlik said.
Hong Kong's pavilion at
the World Expo in Shanghai has drawn a mixed response from visiting legislators,
with some questioning whether the HK$145 million funding is value for money.
While a number of government-friendly lawmakers gave their thumbs-up at the site
yesterday, others questioned if the technology on display - available years ago
- really showcased the city's characteristics. A 42-member delegation from the
Legislative Council visited the mainland and Hong Kong pavilions, as well as
Japan, Saudi Arabia and African pavilions, as part of a three-day visit to
Shanghai. The three-storey Hong Kong pavilion features a 3-D video showing the
city's landmarks, interactive electronic games introducing the city's
environment and economic development, and a miniature of the Hong Kong Wetland
Park. "It is very characteristic of Hong Kong. The 3-D video is wonderful," said
Lau Kong-wah, vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and
Progress of Hong Kong. "I think the money the Finance Committee approved for the
project is worth it." Federation of Trade Unions' vice-president Wong Kwok-kin
was more critical. "The pavilion can perhaps help promote Hong Kong, but what of
Hong Kong is it promoting? I don't see anything representative of Hong Kong
here." Democrat Cheung Man-kwong, who does not have a home return permit and
whose previous visit to Shanghai was in the 1970s, said the pavilion focused too
much on games and failed to show Hong Kong's culture and values. "Situated next
to the China pavilion, it would be more meaningful if the Hong Kong pavilion
could present Hong Kong's high regard for freedom, democracy and the rule of
law." Information technology sector representative Samson Tam Wai-ho said he was
afraid the exhibits would give foreign visitors the impression that Hong Kong's
technology lagged behind other places. The government said the pavilion was
presenting the city's best technology. "Legislators had a very rushed visit and
didn't have sufficient time to observe our efforts," said Permanent Secretary
for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Joshua Law Chi-kong. "In fact the
pavilion's transparent design represents the transparent and open society of
Hong Kong. The message conveyed is very good." 
Neil Orvay at the Sense of Touch spa in Repulse Bay, one of five he owns in Hong
Kong. His ambition in the next few years is to take the chain across the
mainland. 
The Jade 95 Explorer 9 (left), priced at
HK$77 million, featured at the Gold Coast Boat Show. The almost 30-metre monster
motor yacht, worth HK$77 million, opened its enormous decks to the public in the
annual Hong Kong Gold Coast Boat Show this weekend at the Gold Coast Yacht and
Country Club. It is the biggest and most expensive yacht among about 70 on show
at the event. A bar lounge is a must on any luxury yacht, and this one has two.
There is a giant sofa for sunbathing on the top deck which converts into a golf
practice pitch from which one can hit balls into the sea. And if the three guest
rooms and a master bedroom are not impressive enough, a look into washrooms
reveals more luxury: heaters installed underneath marble floors, so no one gets
cold feet. Jade Yachts vice-president Memphis Han Tsung-lin said the boat could
serve as a family hotel during a trip around the Caribbean. Made with steel and
aluminium, the yacht was well-fitted for long-distance trips, he said. One tank
of fuel was enough to power the boat from Hong Kong to Guam. The yacht, with a
top speed of 12.5 knots, may be slower than others, with a trip to Taiwan
expected to take about 44 hours. But many owners chose to fly to pick-up points
after crews had sailed their boats there, he explained. Jade Yachts began
production in 2004 and its yachts were 15 to 20 per cent cheaper than European
ones, he said. But if you're a dedicated James Bond fan, you can view yachts
produced by Sunseeker, the manufacturer which built Superhawk. The boats are
pretty easy to spot: they are the ones berthed beside an Aston Martin, Bond's
vehicle of choice. The Predator craft can move along at more than 40 knots,
making it the speediest boat in the Gold Coast show. It is bigger than the
Superhawk and can go as fast as turbojets heading to Macau, Sunseeker Asia
managing director Gordon Hui Yip-wang said. "A Predator is like a sports car,"
he said. People usually choose them for personal enjoyment instead of business
purposes." The 25.6 metre Predator at the show comes with a HK$47 million price
tag. Another James - the Liberal Party's former chairman James Tien Pei-chun
owns a 35 metre one which cost him about HK$90 million. Still, you don't have to
spend squillions to buy a yacht. The cheapest one at the show is an open-top
sailing yacht - without a toilet - priced at a mere HK$200,000. A 16.75 metre
yacht is a step up, at HK$4 million, plus about HK$400,000 annually for crew,
fuel and miscellaneous costs, Gold Coast Yacht and Country Club general manager
Albert Wu I-ming said.
A prospective student eyes design work on display at the Hong Kong branch of the
Savannah College of Art and Design. An American art and design university that
has been awarded a heritage building in Kowloon to use as its first branch in
Asia has attracted local and overseas applicants for its inaugural academic year
this autumn despite its high tuition fees. More than 100 people attended two
information sessions held yesterday by the Hong Kong branch of the Savannah
College of Art and Design (SCAD), which will begin its first academic year in
September at the historic North Kowloon Magistracy. Some put in applications on
the spot. The college said the two sessions had attracted a good mix of students
from local and international schools, as well as a few from Singapore and the
Philippines. Singaporeans David Low, a 27-year-old animator, and his illustrator
friend Shawn Ye, also 27, attended yesterday's morning session during a 10-day
holiday in Hong Kong, and had their portfolios with them. The two friends said
they had been working in the creative field for two years but did not have
degrees. Low said he had been hearing about the college for a long time and
decided to apply for a four-year animation degree course after learning that
SCAD would be opening a branch in Hong Kong. Ye, on the other hand, wants to
study illustration. "There are only a limited number of arts schools that award
proper degrees in Singapore," said Low. Studying in a city close to home would
be cheaper and convenient, he said. The tuition fees are US$29,000 per year.
Both Low and Ye said that studying at SCAD for four years would be very
expensive but they wanted to give it a try. They hope to apply for scholarships
from the school and are considering seeking financial aid from their country's
Media Development Authority, which offers funding for students studying art and
design overseas. "It'd be impossible without scholarships, unless you are very
rich," said Low. The college says half its students receive scholarships and
more than 90 per cent receive financial aid. Ginger Hansen, recruitment director
for SCAD Hong Kong, said it would have up to 300 students in the first academic
year. She did not disclose the number of applicants but she said the response
had been strong and there had been applications from more than 30 countries.
Hansen said that of the eight disciplines available at the Hong Kong campus,
graphic design was the most popular with applicants.
Clockwise from bottom right:
Kizmet Wong Sum-yee, Cherie Cheng Siu-mui, Brady Chan Tin-hang, James Kung Chun-hin
and Jessica Kung Sze-nga at the Young Astronaut Training Camp last year. When
Jessica Kung Sze-nga was little, she loved nothing more than looking up at the
dark night sky with thousands of glittering stars. The mysterious universe
fascinated her and she dreamed about exploring the stars when she grew up.
Jessica, now 14, and her younger brother James Kung Chun-hin, 13, are still
striving to explore the universe by either becoming astronauts or contributing
to the field of astronomy in the future. "When asked about my ambitions, I
always said I wanted to be an astronaut," Jessica said. Jessica and James are
two of 30 students who joined Young Astronaut Training Camp in Beijing and
Xichang last year. The camp this year will be organised jointly by the Leisure
and Cultural Services Department, the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, the
China Astronaut Research and Training Centre, and the Xichang Satellite Launch
Centre. It will last for seven days. Chan Ki-hung, curator of the Space Museum,
said the programme was valuable for students. "We aim to provide an opportunity
for secondary school students to appreciate China's remarkable achievements in
space technology, to motivate and educate them in astronomy and space science
and undergo Chinese astronaut training," he said. The students will visit major
space facilities in China including the China Academy of Space Technology,
Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Centre, the National Astronomical
Observatories and Xichang Satellite Launch Centre. The training camp runs from
late July to early August in Beijing. Candidates should be full-time secondary
school students aged 12 or above and be nominated by their school. Candidates
should be 1.4 to 1.75 metres in height and in good health, independent,
extrovert, confident and interested in space science. Three rounds of selection
including a quiz, fitness test, communication skills and overall performance
assessment. All local secondary schools can now nominate students to join until
May 31.
Hong Kong residents have long
favoured property in Britain, particularly central London property, as an
investment. Most weeks newspapers carry details of yet another new London
development "pre-launching" in a nice hotel room in Hong Kong. It seems selling
to Hong Kong investors is a tried and tested method for financing new
developments in London and there appears to be an endless appetite for such
investments. Such purchases can seem all the more attractive partly due to the
weakness of sterling and partly due to the prices, which fell in the credit
crunch and have yet to surpass their historical peaks. As with any other
investment, failure to consider the tax implications and plan correctly can be
costly.
Singer Eason Chan of Hong Kong of
China performs during his concert in Rotterdam of the Netherlands, May 8, 2010.
The concert was the last of his 2010 Europe Tour. 
Zhu Houze, a former Communist Party propaganda chief known for his liberal
views, died aged 79 yesterday of lung cancer at Beijing Hospital. Zhu Hua said
his father (pictured) died at 12.16am. There would be no farewell or memorial
ceremony for him. "The funeral will be held among relatives, and his ashes will
be brought back to our hometown," he said. Born in 1931 in Zhijin county,
Guizhou , Zhu was widely respected for his cultural policies and support for
transparent politics during his work as head of the party's Central Propaganda
Department between 1985 and 1987. Zhu advocated a liberal environment and a
tolerant attitude of the media and intellectual circles. 
World expos have traditionally offered
glimpses of the future - Thomas Edison's light bulb made its premiere in Paris
in 1878, for example - and the one in Shanghai is doing the same. The
zero-carbon pavilion, billed as the first public building in China that causes
no pollution, is a hot ticket at the expo as the world debates ways to cut
carbon intensity. But visitors impressed by the dazzling innovations in China's
efforts to make industry more environmentally friendly should not get too
excited. The technologies on display are fresh out of the laboratory and may
take years - if not decades - to be practicable. The zero-carbon pavilion is one
example. The 2,500-square-metre structure is not only energy efficient, but also
generates power. It is equipped with heat-retaining glass, solar panels and
wind-resistant chimney caps, and can reprocess, recycle and reuse things people
usually dump. However, such a building won't be a reality for at least five
years, Chen Shuo, the general co-ordinator of the pavilion, said. And unless it
is built at a certain scale, the cost of construction will be forbidding, he
said. "Most importantly, [the display] is to instil in people's minds the
benefits of living in a zero-carbon structure," he told the Science and
Technology Daily. Beijing has pledged to cut its carbon intensity by up to 45
per cent by 2020 from 2005 levels, announcing its first-ever such targets in the
run-up to the global climate conference in Copenhagen in December. But meeting
the target would be an uphill task, given that the mainland relies on
coal-burning for 70 per cent of its power - compared with the worldwide average
of 30 per cent. Bin Hui, the research department chief at the Shanghai
Environment and Energy Exchange, told the Sunday Morning Post (SEHK: 0583) that
the expo is of "propaganda value" to enhance local companies' awareness of
cutting carbon emissions. The exchange has set up a platform on which carbon
reduction credits could be "sold or donated" to the expo pavilions. "The trading
is symbolic, but an increasing number of people and companies will be interested
to find out what carbon credit is, and then help develop the platform further in
the future," Bin said. World expos have always been recognized as a kind of
"technological Olympics" where the latest scientific innovations can be
exhibited. Organisers of the Shanghai fair are hoping not only to catch the eyes
of its targeted 70 million visitors, but also provide a platform so that the
city can reach out to the worlds of science and business. Mayor Han Zheng said
the expo would draw interest from a world seeking new growth engines as it tries
to recover from a financial downturn. One thing the mainland has done to take a
step ahead of the United States is the commercialising of the "smart grid" - the
introduction of 21st century technology into the 20th century power supply
system, which enables people to use energy more efficiently. A smart grid
exhibition is making its debut in the state grid pavilion. In October, US
President Barack Obama announced a US$3.4 billion plan to fund a power
transmission system, which included the smart grid. Green technology does not
just come from state laboratories. For Xinri E-Vehicle, the world's largest
maker of electric bicycles, the move to promote its clean-tech products at the
expo ticks all the right boxes. Gavin Hu, its deputy general manager, is
confident that a sponsorship deal with the Shanghai expo is worth the money the
company shelled out. "It is important to be part of the grand event ... it's
part of our branding strategy," Hu said. "Millions of visitors will get to know
the brand and products. I am sure they will be deeply impressed by the electric
vehicles." Electric bicycles and vehicles have gained ground on the mainland in
the past years as people seek greener transport alternatives. By the end of
2008, more than 21 million electric bicycles had been sold in China by more than
1,000 manufacturers, according to the China Bicycle Association. Xinri projected
a sales growth of at least 10 per cent this year because of its World Expo
campaign. "Masses of people have little knowledge about sophisticated
technologies, or they just don't bother to learn. They baulk at the awkward
jargon," he said. "It's good to show them how they can use these technologies in
daily life." 
Chinese, Russian
presidents meet on bilateral cooperation.
US architect John
Portman, 86, has committed 40 years to reviving large downtown areas with luxury
hotels and commercial towers, including New York's Times Square and Atlanta's
Peachtree Center, but his most recent project is much more intimate and small
scale. It is to restore a historic residential area of 51 houses in Shanghai.
The real estate project, called Jianyeli, is located in the former French
Concession in downtown Shanghai's Xuhui district. The houses in the area are
unique for their Shikumen style architecture. Shikumen, which literally means
"stone door frame" was developed in the early 1900s to meet the housing demands
of booming old Shanghai. The houses are urban Western adaptations of traditional
Chinese courtyard houses and were once described as "Chinese houses with a
Parisian sensibility". Begun in 2008, the Jianyeli project is scheduled to be
completed by the end of this year. "We will make it a residential community, not
a tourist attraction," Portman says. "We want to be as true to the existing
architecture as possible." Restoring a small world - "But only inside, we have
to recognize that this is the 21st century, and we're doing the inside in such a
way that anybody living there will have everything they need," he adds.
Jianyeli's east side, which was in worse condition than the west side, is being
dismantled brick by brick. The area will be built into a luxury residential
community with 51 Shikumen-style villas, 62 apartments and more than 4,000
square meters of retail space. A seven-story-high tower designed by Portman will
be erected at the center of the area, replacing a water tower. This will be a
landmark and "reflect the new beginning of Jianyeli," according to Richard
Jones, executive vice-president of Portman Holdings. People will be able to
climb up a stairway inside the tower and see the entire neighborhood. "It's been
a very challenging project. It's very difficult to rehabilitate something than
to build something new," Portman says, "but we're very excited about it. It
brings us back from these huge projects to the human level again." A successful
architect and developer, Portman started his own business in 1953 after serving
in the Navy during World War II. In 1960, while his company was working on the
Atlanta Merchandise Mart, Portman had a chance to visit Brasilia. He had hoped
to learn from its much-acclaimed urban planning, but was disappointed by the
city's lack of attention to human needs. He then went to Scandinavia and other
places to learn "how things were put together." "We spend a lot of time on
structure and latest material and latest technology. But we don't spend enough
time on the impact of the environmental circumstances we create on people,"
Portman says. "I also became interested in a bigger context - not just a single
isolated building, but the impact that building can have as a catalytic element
to provide other things that will grow from it," he adds. The mart in Atlanta,
which was later named AmericasMart, became the start of the Peachtree Center,
the downtown area of Atlanta. Peachtree continues to evolve according to
Portman's design into a place with interconnected office towers, restaurants,
hotels and retail shops. It set the example for many of the mixed-use projects
inside and outside the United States. The Peachtree Center was so successful
that when former Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping visited Atlanta in 1979, he
invited Portman to visit China later that year with Atlanta's official
delegation. That eventually led to Portman's first project in China, the
Shanghai Center. "When I first visited China, there was no color. The national
flag was the only color," Portman recalls. "And Shanghai was not cheerful about
people coming from the outside." However, Portman says, China was opening its
doors and the Western world was coming in.
"How can we accelerate
that and create a situation that is a great benefit to both China and the West?"
Portman recalls, thinking. The architect came up with a concept of a major hotel
with apartment towers, some office space and retail stores. "If a man from
Germany, the US or Canada came in and set up an office there, we wanted to
provide everything he needed. We wanted to create a home away from home,"
Portman says. Thus Portman created the Shanghai Center, the first mixed-use
project in China, which is now "a model of how you put things together instead
of building an isolated tower, " he says. Since then, Portman Holdings and John
Portman & Associates (JPA) have taken over many "high-rise" projects in Beijing
and Shanghai, including Beijing Yintai Center and Shanghai Tomorrow Square. In
1993, they set up an office in Shanghai to further tap the Chinese market. Grace
Tan, president of JPA, says that half of the company's projects are in China
these days. "Most of our projects focus on Shanghai and Beijing, but we are also
excited to see that in recent years, we've begun to be approached by clients
from Wenzhou, Qingdao, Xi'an and Changsha. We can see that we're going away from
main cities," Tan says. Not only that, Portman's business is gaining more
penetration into other Asian countries. In Seoul, South Korea, a gigantic real
estate project that covers 1,500 acres is now under construction. The main
building, the 2,000-foot Incheon Tower, is designed by Portman and functions as
a landmark at the entrance to the city proper of Seoul from the airport. Again,
Jianyeli provides a big contrast to all these projects. "The significance (of
the Jianyeli project) is for us to be part of something that's very significant
for Shanghai, to be part of preserving this cornerstone of Shanghai's heritage,"
Jones of Portman Holdings says. "It also gives us the ability to show our
clients that we can not only build high buildings." In Portman's own words,
Jianyeli is a "reminder, a wonderful opportunity to bring back the essence of
that time and era."
The secretary for justice said yesterday
he felt there was no reason to depart from the stance that functional
constituencies were merely "transitional arrangements" on the way to universal
suffrage, in what appeared to be the administration's first public affirmation
of this principle. At a constitutional reform forum attended by academics,
lawmakers, officials, and the business community, Democratic Party chairman
Albert Ho Chun-yan asked Wong Yan-lung whether the government had withdrawn from
its stance that functional constituencies were transitional, as previously
expressed. Ho cited a government report made in 1999 to the United Nations,
under the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in Hong Kong, in which the
government - dismissing international criticism that functional constituencies
discriminated against voters - stated these seats "are transitional" because the
ultimate aim "is the election of all members of the Legislative Council by
universal suffrage". Wong replied: "I see no reason to withdraw from what was
already written there. But I don't feel that is indicative of a conflict with
... the current government stance." Wong said the government had always
maintained there was still time to debate the nature and future of functional
constituencies in the context of functional constituencies. After the forum, Ho
said he believed Wong had effectively reaffirmed the principle that functional
constituencies were merely transitional. "The only logical inference, is that if
they are only transitional then they must be abolished when we implement
universal suffrage," Ho said. Last month Ho posed the same question to the
secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs, Stephen Lam Sui-lung, who
managed to avoid denying or confirming the government still maintained that
position. Pan-democrats and many in the legal community maintain that the Basic
Law only envisioned functional constituencies to be merely transitional
arrangements to prepare for direct elections of all lawmakers under universal
suffrage. However, this government has since been non-committal about the future
of trade-based seats, while the business community does not believe they have to
be abolished. Wong stressed again yesterday that the government was committed to
the electoral model complying with principles of universal and equal suffrage -
but that it was only authorised to propose reforms for the 2012 elections, which
will not be conducted by universal suffrage. Any elaboration of the definition
of "universal and equal" would affect the reform discussions conducted by the
next administration, he said. Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah, who was at
the forum, said he also believed this was the first public affirmation of this
stance. "I suspect that this government does believe that functional
constituencies are merely transitional. But they don't dare say they must be
abolished. Why is it they don't dare say this publicly? Is it because that would
not be in line with Beijing's view? This is what is most worrying," Tong said.
Both Tong and Ho are part of the Alliance for Universal Suffrage, which has
indicated it will vote down a reform proposal unless it is given clear
assurances functional constituencies will be abolished. In his speech, Wong
urged pan-democrats to support the proposal. "The 2012 political reform may not
be what everyone considers to be a large step ... but whether in your eyes this
is a large or small step, it is nevertheless a step in the right direction
towards universal suffrage." He said accepting the package would not create
barriers against abolishing functional constituencies. "On the contrary, because
the next administration would then have a greater consensus, with greater
democratic elements, they will be able to involve even more people, under more
conducive circumstances, to resolve the issues."
Las Vegas Sands Corp's new
US$4.18 billion Cotai casino complex must make do with 40 per cent fewer new
gaming tables than originally anticipated following the Macau government's
decision to cap the number of tables in the city at 5,500. Sands planned to add
670 tables to its half-built, 6,000-room resort with Sheraton, Shangri-La and
Traders branded hotels across the street from the Venetian. But following the
government's announcement in March that it would limit the supply of new gaming
tables until 2013, Sands has received approval to add only 400 new tables at the
property. "We met last week with members of the Macau government and we've been
assured in writing of 400 tables to start with, and there are assurances of
reviewing tables as we go over the next couple of years," Sands president and
chief operating officer Michael Leven said yesterday. Macau had 4,811 gaming
tables at the end of March, and the decision to try to cool red-hot growth in
the casino industry with the 5,500-unit cap has complicated things for resort
developers in the midst of large-scale expansions. In addition to Sands, which
has spent US$1.73 billion towards building its new property, Galaxy
Entertainment (SEHK: 0027) is building a HK$14.1 billion Cotai resort scheduled
to open next year with space for about 600 tables. Sands will work within the
new quota but still plans to open the property with 670 tables. In addition to
the 400 new units, it plans to relocate 170 of its 1,131 existing tables at the
Venetian, Sands and Four Seasons casinos. The remaining 100 units will be newly
added electronic gaming tables, which are technically classified as slot
machines. "We will open with enough tables to justify the [performance] numbers
that we've projected," Leven said. The parent of locally listed Sands China said
that net revenue at its three Macau properties rose to US$935.85 million in the
first quarter, up 23.9 per cent from a year ago but 1.8 per cent short of the
previous quarter's record revenue. But the firm's increase in cash flow nearly
doubled the pace of revenue growth owing to cost cutting and a slight shift
towards more "direct" VIP play, where the casino bypasses junket agents who
command hefty commissions in order to issue credit directly to players. Earnings
before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) at the Macau
properties came in at a record US$259.17 million, up 49.7 per cent from a year
earlier and 4.3 per cent from the previous quarter. Sands' Cotai project was
stalled in November 2008 as the developer ran out of funds in the wake of the
financial crisis, laying off around 11,000 builders. The company now plans to
open the project in phases from next year. Funding for the remaining US$2.35
billion to finish the property will include US$500 million of the proceeds from
last year's Hong Kong listing, contributions from ongoing cash flows and a
US$1.75 billion syndicated loan. Executives expect financing to close later this
month and full construction on Cotai to resume in three to four months, after
all the construction contracts are signed. 
Shao Qiwei and Janice Lai toast
closer ties - Beijing has unveiled its first official office in Taiwan,
signalling the start of a mainland presence on the island that could lead to the
normalisation of ties between the two former rivals who are technically still at
war. The Taipei office of Beijing's Cross Strait Tourism Exchange Association
yesterday became the first mainland office on the island in 61 years. Shao Qiwei,
director of the China National Tourism Administration, attached importance to
the opening, calling it a milestone in cross-strait ties that would pave the way
for further rapprochements and cross-strait peace. "Three days ago, the Taiwan
Strait Tourism Association also officially opened an office in Beijing, marking
the first time in 61 years the two sides have swapped regular tourism
representative institutions," Shao said in announcing the opening of the
mainland office in Taipei. He was referring to the inauguration of the
semi-official Taiwanese tourism representative office by Taiwan's tourism
minister, Janice Lai, in Beijing on Tuesday. To show the mainland's goodwill
towards improving ties with the island, Shao announced that Beijing authorities
would allow mainland tourists from Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Xinjiang,
Ningxia and Gansu to visit Taiwan, which he said would bring to 31 the number of
mainland provinces, regions and municipalities given visiting rights. He said
Beijing would also explore the possibility of allowing mainland tourists to come
to Taiwan for individual visits without needing to join tour groups, as required
currently, and to further expand tourism co-operation with the island. "For
anything that could benefit compatriots in cross-strait exchanges and promote
cross-strait tourism, we will do all we can to make that feasible," Shao said.
The exchange of tourism representative offices was made possible following a
pact signed by Taipei's Straits Exchange Foundation and its mainland
counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait in Beijing
on June 13, 2008. The agreement was one of the few pacts signed by the two
bodies, which represented their respective governments in landmark fence-mending
talks after Ma Ying-jeou of the mainland-friendly Kuomintang party became the
island's president in May that year. Ma decided to adopt a policy of engaging
the mainland to improve ties. The 2008 talks led to direct cross-strait air and
travel links as well as a flurry of exchange visits by high-level officials from
the two sides. The swap of the representative offices - barely two years on -
has drawn a mixed reaction in Taiwan. "I am happy to see such a development,
which I think is positive for people between the two sides of the Taiwan
Strait," said 62-year-old Chen Shu-yang, a retired businessman with mainland
origins. But social worker Alexander Wang expressed concern that developments
may be happening too fast and could lead to the tiny island being swallowed up
by the giant mainland. "Don't you think the pace of development is too fast?" he
asked. Wang Kung-yi, a professor at Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of
International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said: "The swap of the tourism
offices shows that the two sides are gradually heading towards normalising their
relations, and this is positive in the economic spectrum." But politically it
might not be to Taiwan's advantage, given that the ultimate purpose of the
mainland was to make Taiwan a province of the People's Republic, he said. George
Tsai Wei, professor of political science at Chinese Culture University in
Taipei, however, saw the swap of the offices as a "positive development in
cross-strait ties". He saw it as going in the right direction and as something
"which should not be overinterpreted".
Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) is
welcomed by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin upon his arrival
in Moscow, capital of Russia, May 8, 2010. Hu Jintao arrived in Moscow on
Saturday to attend ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of victory over Nazi
Germany during World War II.
The MTR Corporation (SEHK:
0066) has resubmitted its design for the office towers above the future
high-speed rail terminus in West Kowloon, with little change except for the
height of the buildings. The Town Planning Board had asked the rail company to
revise the design because it found the three office towers "short and bulky" and
was concerned about air ventilation around the 58,800-square-metre site. In the
latest design, by architecture firm Aedas, the three towers will form a "stepped
height profile" ranging from 19 to 28 storeys. In the original plan, they were
21 to 23 storeys. Other parameters, including the site coverage, gross floor
area and public open space remain the same. The original design had been
described by the Planning Department as "unnecessarily compressed to a rather
uniform height ... resulting in an almost flat roofline". It also said "the
three office towers appear as one single cubiform mass, which results in adverse
visual impacts" when viewed from the Star Ferry in Central. The department,
advising the board, says it has no objection to the revised design, adding the
new height profile will "slightly improve" air ventilation around the site. But
the MTR will still need to submit an air ventilation assessment as a condition
for the board's approval. The company should also consult the Secretary for Home
Affairs on the design of the pedestrian deck connecting the West Kowloon
Cultural District. The terminus site will provide public open space of 8,900
square metres. The board's metro planning committee will discuss the plan today.
The government has intended the buildings atop the future terminus site to form
a high-grade office hub together with the International Commerce Centre above
Kowloon station. Development density was slashed last year, with the plot ratio
- the maximum potential gross floor area to land area - dropping to five from
8.89.
Wong Fuk-wah, brother of Qinghai quake
hero Wong Fuk-wing, carries his brother's portrait at a funeral service at the
Universal Funeral Parlour in Hung Hom on Friday. Over 300 Hongkongers braved the
rain outside the Universal Funeral Parlour in Hung Hom on Friday morning to pay
a final tribute to local hero Wong Fuk-wing. The Hong Kong volunteer died
rescuing earthquake victims at an orphanage in Yushu, Qinghai, in April. After
Wong’s family, and four Qinghai orphans whose lives he saved, had paid their
last respects, his coffin was taken from the Universal Funeral Parlour in Hung
Hom and carried by hearse to the Cape Collinson Chinese Permanent Cemetery in
Chai Wan where he was buried near his father. More than 300 Hong Kong citizens,
some holding white chrysanthemums, lined the street to bid farewell to Wong,
local media reported. One woman said she had been moved by Wong’s selflessness
in sacrificing his life to save other people. “He wss a dedicated volunteer and
went a long way to Qinghai to help other people,” she said. Another woman said
that, despite the heavy rain, she felt she had to come and pay a final tribute
to Wong. The 46-year-old Wong worked as a truck driver in Hong Kong and was
known as a dedicated volunteer in the mainland. In Qinghai at the time of the
quake, Wong survived the initial earthquake. However, he died while trying to
rescue teachers and orphans trapped inside a collapsed building that later
collapsed on him. Before this, he had managed to save three children and a staff
member.
Shi Yan helped found the
Little Donkey Farm using Community Supported Agriculture guidelines. Every
Saturday, Huang Bin drives with his family to a farm 40 kilometres away from
their home in Beijing to check on how their vegetables are growing. The 33-year
old businessman rented a 30 square metre plot of land a year ago and has been
raising cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, kidney beans and other vegetables. "The
vegetables we harvest every week are enough for my family to eat," said Huang.
"During the harvest season, from May to October, we even give some of our
vegetables to friends." The reason he became a vegetable gardener was to
guarantee enough safe food for his daughter. "I read in newspapers that some
girls started having their periods when they were only eight years old and some
girls' breasts started to grow when they were only six because they had eaten
pork that had a hormone in it," he said. "I was afraid the same thing could
happen to my girl, so I decided to look at organic farms." Huang found the
Little Donkey Farm west of the capital. He rented a piece of land, and now the
family grows its own food there. Concerns over food safety spread on the
mainland after it was revealed that some businesses had added prohibited
chemicals to the food they produced in the name of profits - the most prominent
being melamine-tainted milk two years ago. People resolved to learn more about
the chemicals in their foods, and some have started organic farming on their
own. A widely circulated SMS said in part: "The Chinese had to learn much more
chemistry than we were ever taught in school, we came to know about panaplate [a
type of pesticide] in ham; Sudan red dye in salted duck eggs; formalin in hot
pot; paraffin wax from rice; chlorinated lime from buns; and melamine in milk."
News reports about tainted food led to a sense of desperation among consumers:
"Where can we find food that we know will be safe?" asked one concerned parent.
If regular food can be tainted, how about organic food on the mainland market?
In an investigative report published in February by the Science News Biweekly,
an official magazine of the Chinese Academy of Science, Liuminying Ecological
Farm - reputed to be the biggest organic vegetable farm in the Beijing area,
which grows about 4,000 tonnes of supposedly organic vegetables per year - was
found not to grow its vegetables to organic standards set out in 2005. These
standards forbid the use of any farm chemical, non-organic fertiliser or feed
supplement. Reporters discovered bags of several types of farm chemicals left on
the land of the Qingpuyuan Vegetable Company, which grows its vegetables there.
An employee told the magazine they had secretly sprayed the crops with
pesticide. "They used fertiliser when no visitors were there," the magazine
quoted another farmer in Liuminying village as saying. "Sometimes they even use
synthesised urea [a fertiliser with high nitrogen release] during the key growth
period." The magazine also reported that, when production of organic foods
failed to meet quotas, some producers stuck "organic" labels on non-organic food
bought from peasants. The company denied the report, but the seeds of public
doubt were sown. Two other organic farms were also found to be in violation, one
of which even provided agricultural products to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Against this backdrop, Huang decided to grow the food himself, and a group of
people in Beijing have joined him. The Little Donkey Farm has more than 23
hectares of land near Phoenix Ridge in Houshajian town. It's has about 270
families as members. Shi Yan , a PhD student at Renmin University, helped found
the farm last year after working on a US organic farm for half a year and
contacting a programme there called Community Supported Agriculture, which
provides a way for the public to buy directly from farmers. When Shi returned to
China, she started her own programme with the support of her tutor, the
university and the Haidian district government. The farm offers two categories
of annual membership. Members can either rent a plot and grow vegetables by
themselves with the farm providing the seeds, organic fertiliser, tools and
expertise; or, for a higher fee, they can simply buy vegetables the farm grows.
The farm will ship a box of vegetables to members' homes every week for 20
weeks, and the amount is enough for a four-person family. "Our members are
mostly private company owners, teachers and professionals, all of whom are
highly educated," Shi said. "They pay more attention to food safety, and 80 per
cent of them have children. "The farm, which borrowed ideas from CSA, is a new
model in China trying to eliminate food safety problems. We want to build a
direct connection between the farm and community so farmers can send their
products directly to residents who want to buy them." But membership, which must
be paid in advance, is not risk-free, as there is always the risk of crop
failure regardless of who grows the vegetables. Even so, Shi is convinced the
risk is worth it. "If you want to make your food safe, the first thing you have
to know is where the food comes from, who grows it and how it's grown." she
said. "The key is connecting peasants and consumers directly ... to ensure food
safety. This way, we not only have safe food to eat, but also build a harmonious
relationship between urban and rural areas."
A photographer taking pictures at
Jiugongshan wind farm in Hubei province. China's wind power capacity has seen an
annual growth of over 100 percent in the past three years. China will take
radical measures to increase the use of new energy in the 12th Five Year Plan
(2011-15), a move that reinforces the nation's commitment to improve the energy
mix and reduce pollution. Development of new energies, including nuclear, hydro,
wind and solar will be highlighted in the country's 12th Five Year Plan for the
energy industry, said industry sources. The four sectors are also the most
developed new energy resources in the country at present. China is also drafting
a stimulus plan for its new energy sectors, and it is likely to be announced
within the next year, said sources. Earlier media reports said the new energy
plan would involve total investments running into several trillions of yuan.
Zhou Xi'an, an executive with the National Energy Administration (NEA), told
reporters earlier that development of nuclear energy, wind energy, solar energy
and biomass energy, as well as clean coal technologies would account for an
integral part of the country's 12th Five Year Plan for the energy industry.
China has already set a target to increase the use of non-fossil energy to 15
percent of primary energy consumption in 2020. "With such a target in mind,
China should take steps to increase the figure to around 13 percent by the end
of 2015," said Li Junfeng, deputy director-general of the Energy Research
Institute (ERI) under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Echoing Li's view, Wang Zhongying, a researcher with ERI, said development of
new energy is integral for China to achieve its emission control targets.
According to a recent report by World Bank, China needs an additional investment
of $64 billion annually over the next two decades to implement an "energy-smart"
growth strategy. Such investment should be aimed at making the power and
transport sectors more efficient and developing renewable energy, said the bank.
Many new energy sectors in China have seen tremendous growth in recent years.
For instance, wind power has seen growth rates in excess of 100 percent in the
last three years. In line with the rapid growth in the industries, China has
also adjusted the blueprint for some other sectors. For instance, the country
made a plan in 2005 to increase its nuclear power capacity to 40 gigawatts (gW)
in 2020, when it would account for 4 percent of the country's total power
capacity. But in line with the quick growth of the industry, the target has been
raised to between 70 gW to 80 gW, according to officials with both the NEA and
NDRC. China has 11 nuclear power reactors under operation at present. These
reactors have a total capacity of 9.1 gW and account for around 1 percent of the
nation's total power capacity. However, some analysts said it will be a long
time before the new energies actually emerge as alternatives to coal and oil.
"Coal and oil will still remain the mainstream energy in the country," said Lin
Boqiang, a professor at Xiamen University. 
With high property prices a burning issue, the administration is to bounce
questions about home ownership back to the people. The key issue in a
consultation exercise announced by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
yesterday is whether the government should subsidize home ownership. Tsang
revealed to lawmakers that the administration will seek views in the next five
months - and then make its stance known in his policy address in October. The
Transport and Housing Bureau will run the consultation, in which key points will
include: Identifying who the government should help and how to go about it; If
it would be fair for the government to use public funds to help people buy their
own homes; Whether or not the supply of public housing flats and waiting time
for them would be affected if land is set aside for Home Ownership Scheme flats;
and Projecting the impact on the property market if some plots that would have
gone to private developers are used instead for HOS projects. Tsang acknowledged
growing concern that Hong Kong property prices are increasingly out of reach.
"The government understands that some residents are not eligible to apply for
public housing flats as their income or assets exceed the required level; nor
can they afford to buy their own homes," he said. But in a question-and-answer
session in the Legislative Council, Tsang also warned that government action
could have a major impact on prices. If there was a slump, he said, it would be
hard for authorities to stabilize the situation. So the government has to be
careful. "Last time when the bubble burst, during the Asian financial crisis,
many people blamed the government for having encouraged them to buy homes and
turning them into negative asset holders," he said. "Should we bear the
responsibility?" He noted that people suffered great pain in property-price
bubble bursts in 1997, 1998 and 2000. He went on to label movements in the
property market during the past 15 months as "abnormal," which brought about a
raft of measures to stamp out bad sales practices and make transactions in
private developments fairer. Authorities are also trying to increase the supply
of flats, Tsang said. On a call from legislators to make some proposed
guidelines legally binding, Tsang said administrative means are preferred over
legislation as it takes less time to put them in place. Also, he wants to wait
and see if private developers agree with proposals. Democratic Party legislator
Lee Wing-tat accused the administration of a delaying tactic by going for a
consultation. The idea could be to await interest-rate increases in the United
States and Europe at year's end, which could cool the local property market.
Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Wong Kwok-kin also expressed the fear of
official foot-dragging, while Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and
Progress of Hong Kong lawmaker Chan Kam-lam called for quick measures to
increase the supply of flats.
Rice noodle
roll with cha siu, a popular dish although not the healthiest. Yet a survey
found people also eat lots of fruit and vegetables. We eat a healthy diet that's
rich in fruit and vegetables and low in salt and sugar - yet almost half of us
are overweight or obese. Those are the surprise findings of the city's first
study on diet patterns. The survey found that the average adult ate more than
160 grams of vegetables a day, an amount almost equal to the combined weight of
meat, seafood and dim sum consumed in a day. Fruit is also popular, with each
person eating nearly 140 grams a day. Oranges topped the list, followed by
apples, bananas and pears. Respondents enjoyed a diet relatively low in soy
sauce, sugar and salt - with consumption of these flavourings amounting to less
than two teaspoons. The study, commissioned by the Centre for Food Safety, took
two years and involved 5,008 adults aged 20 to 84. Although 40 per cent said
they never looked at the nutritional information on food labels, they had a good
knowledge of what constituted a healthy diet, with three in five correctly
stating that two or more servings of vegetables should be eaten every day. Terry
Ting Ho-yan, president of the Hong Kong Nutrition Association, said the findings
were much better than he expected. "I am surprised that the survey has shown
such a low daily intake of red meat, as they are one of the favourites of Hong
Kong people." The study found that average daily consumption of beef was 12.14
grams, compared with 29.69 grams of pork and 24.39 grams of chicken. "I doubt if
eight out of 10 patients I asked would eat such a small portion," Ting said. The
findings do not explain why more than 47 per cent of those polled were
considered overweight and obese, according to Body Mass Index calculations. This
is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their squared height
in metres. A BMI of 18.5 to 25 indicates a person is of normal weight, while a
figure lower than 18.5 suggests that the person is underweight. A number above
25 indicates the person is overweight, while anyone over 30 is considered obese.
Men were more likely to be overweight. Some 8.5 per cent were underweight,
mainly young women. Ting said breaking down food intake volumes into average
statistics might not fully reflect the actual situation. He said it might be
better to assess a person's overall diet. The centre proposed a similar survey
on youngsters aged below 20 be conducted soon. 
A public memorial would be held on
Thursday afternoon for Hong Kong hero Wong Fuk-wing – who died while rescuing
earthquake victims at an orphanage in Yushu, Qinghai in April.
Retired civil servant Mike Rowse is taking up a job as a search director with
headhunting firm Stanton Chase International, after the government gave him the
all-clear. Rowse, who retired as InvestHK director general at the end of 2008,
said he would start work today. He submitted his application to the Civil
Service Bureau in January and learned that he had been approved yesterday.
Although Rowse already signed off on his employment terms, he must be cleared by
the bureau before he can formally work for Stanton Chase. He said the bureau did
not impose any special restrictions on his employment. Since leaving the
government, Rowse has asked the bureau for approval seven times. The
applications refer to Rowse being a director of his own company, a co-host of
RTHK's Backchat program, a host of a television talk show on ATV, a regular
columnist for the South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583) and the Hong Kong
Economic Journal, an "occasional columnist" for The Wall Street Journal and a
search director at Stanton Chase. The executive search firm position is the only
full-time employment for Rowse. Rowse said he had never dealt with or heard of
Stanton Chase before but was approached about joining the firm despite lacking
the relevant experience. Rowse will join fellow search directors Brian Crossley,
who specialises in the logistics and transportation sector, and Kevin Moore, who
covers the technology industry. Stanton Chase's Hong Kong office was set up in
2007 and is headed by Ivo Hahn, who e-mailed Rowse "out of the blue" late last
year about working for the firm. Rowse said he was in discussions about joining
another firm at the time but eventually decided on Stanton Chase. 
A general view of the dragon boats to be
used during the boat race at Swan Lake in Hefei, East China's Anhui province,
May 6, 2010.
Maxim's tickles taste buds of world
at Expo - Hungry Shanghai World Expo visitors can now savor the taste of Hong
Kong's famed wonton noodles, barbecued meat and dim sum. The delicacies are
being dished up by Maxim's cooks along with the popular pineapple bun and silky-
smooth Hong Kong-style tea. The restaurant chain won a contract to serve food in
Zone C's 20,000-square-foot food plaza. With the expo attracting a large number
of visitors, Maxim's Group has implemented crowd and food quantity control
measures. While keeping about 60 customers queuing at cashiers, general manager
(fast food) John Sham Yuen-pang said staff take down their orders while they
wait. "This means each customer can order from the cashier counters in just 12
seconds," Sham said. At peak times it takes about 15 minutes for a customer to
pay and be served their food. The group, which has formed a joint venture with
Shanghai Eastern Mei-Xin Air Catering, has adopted aviation catering food safety
procedures. This is to ensure no one falls ill. Supplies are kept at between
zero and five degrees Celsius. Replenishing stocks depends on the daily flow of
visitors. On the menu are 60 to 70 Hong Kong delicacies priced from 10 yuan
(HK$11.30) to 50 yuan at its fast- food outlet and 75 yuan to 100 yuan per
person at its Chinese restaurant. Sham said it is about 10 to 15 percent higher
than fairly priced restaurants in Shanghai. Customers are served by 270 staff
recruited and trained in a three-phase program. Most are graduates or
undergraduates from the catering, tourism or hotel management fields, with some
from the Shandong College of Tourism and Hospitality. About 10 have knowledge of
foreign languages such as French and Korean and were elected as ambassadors.
Regina Ip rated most popular lawmaker -
Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee is continuing her transformation from highly unpopular
government minister to popular lawmaker, coming out on top of a popularity
survey of lawmakers for the first time in her political career. According to a
University of Hong Kong survey, Ip scored 55.1 points, beating the Civic Party's
Audrey Eu Yuet-mee to the top spot. Ip also scored the highest average rating,
with 59.3 marks for the past 12 months - even though she did not always make the
top 10 in the surveys, conducted four times a year. It was a long way from the
days when, as security chief responsible for introducing the controversial
national security bill under Article 23 of the Basic Law in 2003, Ip was ranked
the least favourite government official. In 2008, her four-strong ticket in the
Hong Kong Island constituency obtained 61,073 votes, and after just a year in
the legislature a similar university survey found that she ranked as the
second-most-popular lawmaker at the close of the legislative year. The survey
conducts a preliminary round to test the recognition rate of lawmakers, and then
asks respondents to rate the top 12 most recognisable lawmakers to form the top
10 rankings. Ip did not score any points in the previous survey. Ip said she
fell off the radar last time round, acknowledging she "did not make a lot of
waves" at a time of controversy over the unveiling of the government's political
reform package. But she said the most recent results reflected her work in
speaking out against the government's lowering of the threshold for compulsory
sale of older buildings from 90 to 80 per cent of the owners of individual
units. Eu came second in the most recent poll, but tops the list of most
appearances in the top 10. Unionist lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan was rated third,
while Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Wing-tat was rated fourth.
In
an open appeal for pan-democrats to support the government's constitutional
reform package, Beijing's representative body in Hong Kong warned yesterday of a
lose-lose situation if the Legislative Council vetoed the proposals again. Li
Gang, deputy director of the central government's liaison office - in a rare
speech on political reform - urged lawmakers to act "bravely" and "responsibly"
to reach consensus. He said passing the package would "create favourable
conditions for realising the universal suffrage timetable". Chief Secretary
Henry Tang Ying-yen also warned lawmakers against walking a "road of no return".
Both were speaking at a seminar organised by the Alliance for Constitutional
Development, a coalition of Beijing-friendly groups. 
It has been 15 years since an Israeli
finance minister visited Hong Kong or the mainland. But it is probably no
coincidence that the first official visit by Dr Yuval Steinitz, who was
appointed Israel's finance minister 14 months ago, follows Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration last year to stem the flow of terrorist funding
by ending the world's dependence on fossil fuels. Steinitz said "there is some
relation" to the calls to cut oil dependency to fight terror, although it was
not the purpose of the delegation's visit. Steinitz was joined by Environmental
Protection Minister Gilad Erdan. "Even leaving terrorism aside, I think it's
quite clear now that over reliance of the world on oil is dangerous," Steinitz
said. During the three-day visit, the Israeli delegation met top government
officials, including Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah. The delegation
will next visit Shanghai and Beijing. "We decided, with the complete backing of
Prime Minister Netanyahu, that it's very, very important that we create a single
level of co-operation, not just for imports and exports, but deeper
co-operation, not just with the West but with the East," Steinitz said. Israel
is reaching out to Asia at a time of the mainland's rising economic and
political clout. Mainland support is seen as key to pushing green technology and
alternative fuels around the world, which Israel hopes will hurt the ability of
oil-rich countries like Iran and Syria to continue as state sponsors of
terrorism. Iran and Syria, accused by the US as supporters of terrorism, back
Hamas, Hezbollah and other resistance groups.
Wong Koon-wai (left) and Jelly Law
learn restaurant skills at CCC Kung Lee College. Law says she loves the hands-on
training. Secondary-only schools that offer vocation-oriented teaching to
students who do not necessarily want to go to university are an unexpected
casualty of the new academic system that extends free education from nine to 12
years. Educators say the system - six years of primary and six years of
secondary schooling instead of six primary and three junior secondary as before
- means pupils spend more time at school, better preparing them for future work
and further studies. But it has left secondary-only direct-subsidy schools
struggling for students and looking for ways to stay afloat. Three of the four
such schools in the direct-subsidy system have suffered drastic drops in
enrolment. The problem arises from a new class structure that no longer produces
an excess of Form Three graduates for the schools to draw from, and from the
impending scrapping of the Form Five public examination - the Hong Kong
Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) - that once yielded a supply of
repeaters seeking a second shot at the test. The additional three years' free
education at government schools has also lessened the appeal of direct-subsidy
schools, which charge fees. "When we went last year to schools to promote [our
school] to Form Three students, the response was tragic," Lee Kwok-wai,
principal of Caritas Charles Vath College in Tung Chung, said. The college, set
up in 2003, could muster only two classes of 30 Form Four students for the
present academic year, compared to six classes of 40 the year before. Under the
previous class structure five or six Form Three classes were whittled down to
four Form Four classes. But under the new structure the same number of students
will progress from Form One all the way to Form Six. Also the end of the HKCEE
this year means no more Form Five graduates in future, further depriving such
schools of another source of students. "Form Three graduates who show more
aptitude for vocational training will just be trapped for three more years at
their original schools if they don't come to us," Lee said. "Not all students
are capable of entering university or want to contest the limited publicly
funded undergraduate places. Many just want to be exposed to job training
earlier." Leung Wai-yin, vice-principal of CCC Kung Lee College in Causeway Bay
- where Form Four admission numbers have dropped 56 per cent, from 724 in
2008-09 to 322 - criticised the government for failing to promote vocational
education. "It was the Education Bureau which encouraged us to set up such
vocation-oriented schools. Now they promote the new academic structure at our
expense," she said. The heads of the three affected schools say the initial
years following the launch of the new structure will be "bleak", with plummeting
admission numbers threatening their financial stability and survival. To ride
out the slump, they have launched a series of measures, such as advertising and
reaching out to youth and parent associations. In addition to the four core
subjects - two languages, maths and liberal studies - required by the local
curriculum, Caritas Charles Vath College offers vocational classes in seven
fields, including tour guide training and property and clubhouse management.
With only 60 Form Four students paying an annual tuition fee of HK$8,400 each
this year, Lee said they ran the risk of a deficit. While a government or aided
secondary school must admit a minimum of 61 students to stave off closure, a
direct subsidy scheme school is not subject to such requirements. A DSS school
gets government funding on a per-student basis, with one student entitled to
about HK$30,000 per year, and it has the privilege of being able to charge
school fees, which is not enjoyed by an aided school. Although the special
arrangement means DSS schools can function with smaller class sizes, Lee says
they still need to fill certain student quotas to break even. He said the school
had to admit a minimum of 200 students for each form to get an "optimum" balance
sheet. "There have to be a total of 600 students for three forms in three years'
time." Leung, of CCC Kung Lee College, said the school had received about half
the number of Form Four students that it had in the past. "All the government or
aided schools are going out of their way to retain students," Leung said. "Even
if some students are obviously not academically inclined, the schools will still
let them progress to Form Four on a trial basis instead of letting them go to us
for fear that insufficient student numbers will threaten their own survival.
"Some students might switch to us midway into Form Four after discovering that
they could not get used to the new senior curriculum." One of eight students who
joined the school midway through Form Four, Jelly Law Tsz-ying, said the new
curriculum at her original school had killed her enthusiasm for learning. "I
didn't have any idea what such main subjects as history and liberal studies were
about. I was so depressed," she said. "I love the studying style here, which has
a lot of hands-on training. I don't want to go to university. I want to work at
a hotel counter after I graduate." Leung said the schools might have to cut
teaching staff and offer fewer subject choices if the admission numbers remained
dismal. The Form Four intake for the current academic year at Yeo Chei Man
Senior Secondary School in Tseung Kwan O, which offers practical training
including design and tourism and hotel management alongside the local
curriculum, was only 180, compared with more than 200 the year before. Acting
principal Hui Hon-wing said the Form Five repeaters the school admitted in the
past were alone enough to constitute a class. "But there won't be any more Form
Five graduates," he said. The school had not foreseen the challenge in securing
admissions associated with the launch of the new academic structure, he said.
"We didn't really consider this ... Then 12-year free education suddenly cropped
up. You don't have to pay school fees if you go directly to senior secondary
after Form Three in a government or aided school. But we charge school fees,
which is a big disincentive to switch."
Jemy Hu with the Seawind 300C in Zhuhai. Aviation enthusiast turns childhood
dream into business venture - Before the Cultural Revolution swept across China
in 1966, many young people on the mainland built and flew their own aircraft.
The practice was encouraged by the government, keen to cultivate a large pool of
potential pilots, replicating a policy adopted by the former Soviet Union as
well as Germany during the second world war. "There were government-backed aero
clubs in every major city on the mainland some 40 years ago," said Jemy Hu
Jinming, general manager of Zhuhai Yanzhou Aircraft Corporation. The light
aircraft manufacturer is expanding its production in Zhuhai now that Beijing has
appointed the city as the nation's manufacturing hub for light aircraft. Hu, 63,
who was a young boy during the golden days when flying was encouraged, now has a
vision of reigniting the enthusiasm for flying among the young, and growing a
non-commercial pilot pool. "Boys and girls who showed potential were picked to
join the clubs where they could learn to build and fly their own planes," he
said. 
Molson Coors Brewing Co posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit but its
shares pared losses with the announcement of a new venture in China with a local
brewer. Molson Coors Brewing Co said overnight on Tuesday it will take a 51 per
cent stake in a joint venture with Hebei Sihai Beer Co to expand its presence in
the mainland.
Rail expansion provides missing links
- The huge investment in infrastructure in Shanghai to prepare the city to host
the World Expo will open up more development hubs, according to property
consultants. Forecasters expect new city hubs to follow 300b yuan infrastructure
spending - In addition to a short-term direct impact on retail sales and tourism
flowing from the event and the preparation that went into its staging, there
would be a major and indirect impact over the long term, said Brodie. Nearly 300
billion yuan (HK$340.7 billion) was invested from 2003 to 2009 to prepare for
the expo, he said, and the major driver of future change to the property
landscape in the city would be the expansion of the transport infrastructure.
Shanghai has 420km of metro railway line, double the length at the end of 2008.
A wave of affluent Chinese are
investing in new blocks of flats rising in and around London's former wharves
and docks - now among the most sought-after locations in the city. Others are
buying large homes in prime central London. The mainly cashed-up buyers who do
not depend on mortgage loans have been largely unaffected by the credit
clampdown in China, which has triggered a sharp fall in mainland sales. Estate
agency Knight Frank reports that over the past 12 months, 31 per cent of clients
buying homes through its Canary Wharf offices were from China. Most were after
two-bedroom flats priced at £300,000 to £600,000 (HK$7.1 million). Their
preferred location was Mill Harbor, near Canary Wharf, because they believe the
2012 Olympics in neighboring Stratford will lift property values throughout East
London, Knight Frank reports. "Generally, we have found Chinese like to buy
below the £1 million price point," said Meriam Makiya, a Knight Frank sales
manager. "They prefer apartments on high floors with good views." When buying in
the suburbs, Chinese investors wanted locations with good transport links to the
capital's city centre, she said. They also preferred developments that offered
security and facilities like a gym or swimming pool. "They buy and then visit
the development after exchanging contracts," she said. "However, when purchasing
property priced north of £1 million, they tend to come over to Britain before
committing." Estate agency Savills has sold two flats at NEO Bankside, a project
near the Tate Modern art gallery, to Chinese investors who are increasingly
making their presence felt in established prime central London. "In 2009, Hong
Kong and [mainland] buyers accounted for 5 per cent of all foreign buyers in
prime central London," said Liam Bailey, head of residential research for Knight
Frank. Mainland demand has increased despite credit tightening in China since
most Chinese investors are cash-buyers and do not need a mortgage. Gary Hersham,
a director at West London estate agency Beauchamp Estates, said the first of 12
mainland buyers, all businessmen, appeared in his offices two months ago. They
wanted homes valued at £1 million to £3 million in West London for mothers and
children to live in, while the fathers stayed in China. Educating children in
British schools was their main objective for buying these homes, he said. All
bought with cash. Budgets for Hersham's wealthiest Chinese clients reach £10
million. "At the top-end of the range, we are seeing `high rollers' who
regularly come to London in order to `play at the tables'. They come into our
offices from the various casinos in Curzon Street with the intention of buying a
luxury pad for their children in prime Belgravia, Mayfair or Knightsbridge,"
Hersham said. Guy Meacock, associate at buying agency Prime Purchase, said he
was helping a Chinese family buy a £15 million house in Knightsbridge. The
husband was planning to float his company on the stock exchange. In the Home
Counties, 20 per cent of Prime Purchase clients looking for country homes come
from Hong Kong and the mainland, compared to zero per cent a year ago. "They are
taking advantage of the perceived weak pound," Meacock said. The pound has
fallen against most currencies over the past 12 months, including a 0.58 per
cent fall against the Hong Kong dollar and a 0.55 per cent fall against the yuan.
The pound continues to wobble over fears that tomorrow's general election will
lead to a hung parliament in which no party has a majority. The markets are
concerned this could delay the formation of the next government and decisive
action being taken to tackle Britain's budget deficit, which is heading towards
12 per cent of gross domestic product, a level close to that of Greece.
An artist's impression of the River Green project being developed by a private
firm owned by the Kwok family in Vancouver. Aspac Developments, a private
company held by the Kwok family, the controlling shareholders of Sun Hung Kai
Properties (SEHK: 0016), is undertaking a major redevelopment project in
Vancouver, Canada. The River Green project, which will take up to 15 years to
complete, is set to transform the old Coal Harbour in Richmond, located on a
tributary of the Fraser River within the metropolitan sprawl of Vancouver. The
area, previously a railway yard and docklands, will be redeveloped into luxury
flats and office towers. Richmond, on the Fraser River delta, is home to about
79,000 Chinese Canadians, about 45 per cent of the Chinese population in the
country, according to a 2006 census. Aspac has bought the development site and
is planning to build three million square feet of residential and commercial
property comprising about 2,600 units. According to an official from Magnum
Projects, the property's marketer, the first phase of 458 units, ranging from
700 sqft to 4,000 sqft penthouse flats, will be offered in six buildings this
month. James Wong, an estate agent specialising in Richmond properties, said
prices of older homes in the area averaged between C$700,000 (HK$5.35 million)
and C$900,000, while new homes ranged from C$1.5 million to C$2 million. "There
are a lot of old or second-generation or older immigrants that are already here
and over the years have good equity in their home. They may buy either for
investment or for their children." He added that unlike the United States, where
it was difficult for non-residents to get a loan, Canada was different. "Here,
the banks can do up to 65 per cent financing, whether you are a resident or
non-resident. That makes a big difference because people can use some leverage
and that provides liquidity for people to invest in real estate," Wong said.
Prices have not been released for units in the new development but they are
likely to be expensive as Vancouver property has soared in the past 12 months.
According to the MLSLink Housing Price Index covering all of greater Vancouver,
the average price for all properties was C$584,435 in March, up 20.3 per cent
from a year earlier and 2.8 per cent above the previous high in May 2008. The
benchmark is misleading, however, as the average price for a detached home on
Vancouver's west side was C$1.6 million in March, up 38.5 per cent from a year
earlier. In east Vancouver, the average was C$734,300. Aspac paid a reported
C$141 million to buy 11 hectares of waterfront land featuring dramatic views of
the mountains, ocean and Vancouver Island. In turn, the city used the money to
create its C$178 million Richmond Olympic Oval, the site of the speed skating at
Vancouver's recent Winter Olympics. In its post-Games incarnation, the centre
will be transformed into a fitness facility for the public and the development
of top athletes. Looking over the model of River Green in Aspac's C$9 million
showroom to promote the project, Xi Yueli, an immigrant from Xiamen, said she
had no doubt the project would be popular with Chinese. "Chinese like Richmond.
It's central to the city, lots of good restaurants and shopping here, and you
can walk around without getting lost." Bob Rennie, Vancouver's "condo king",
said Asian investors accounted for about 25 per cent of his market. "With the
amount of money being made in China and with the acceptance of China to
Vancouver, we have to be in the top two places on the planet for China to look
at, to move money to." Rennie forecast Vancouver property prices would "very
safely" rise between 4 per cent and 4.5 per cent this year.
Electric power workers rush to
repair Electric facilities in the quake-hit Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
of northwest China's Qinghai Province, April 19, 2010.
Taking a cue from government-imposed sale
restrictions, the Urban Renewal Authority yesterday revealed a tightening of
rules on buying property. Eight new measures include a ban on individuals buying
more than two homes in any future URA project. The authority also stipulates
that only individuals - not companies - can buy from a first batch of flats, and
they should make up at least 90 percent of transactions, reflecting a
determination to help end-users. It also asks partner developers to hand in for
approval the choice of first homes and make written declarations for connected
transactions. Partner developers at its new redevelopment projects must comply
with all measures or risk an exclusion from future projects for six to 12
months. While the restrictions will apply to projects yet to commence, the
authority will also "encourage" current partners to consider the measures in the
cause of transparency, openness and fairness for users. "The community at large
generally has a higher expectation on the authority to adopt higher standards of
good practice," said chairman Barry Cheung Chun-yuen. The government last month
unveiled nine new measures to force developers to be more transparent in selling
homes. Sixty percent of the 1,000-plus homes coming from the authority in the
next 18 months will be 600 square feet or less, Cheung said. The authority is a
statutory public body with a mission of enhancing urban living. Board members
are appointed by the chief executive. Eddie Hui Chi-man, a Polytechnic
University professor concerned with real estate, sees a ban on any form of
internal sales and the disclosure of all sold flats within 24 hours as the most
significant measures. "No other organization has made any move on internal
sales," Hui noted, so the URA is in a "vanguard." Hui also said that the URA - a
de facto landowner - has much sway over partner developers, which must abide by
whatever tender requirements it sets. But its influence is limited, he added, as
its projects are modest when viewed in the context of the overall market. Still,
the authority was caught in an embarrassing situation when partner New World
Development (0017) was accused of selling flats at The Masterpiece to business
associates before the public sale in August to give the impression there was a
keen interest in the project. The authority revealed yesterday that company
buyers made up 50 percent of transactions at the upmarket project in Tsim Sha
Tsui compared with 20 percent at most in other recent projects. Justin Chiu
Kwok-hung, executive director of Cheung Kong Holdings (0001), said the new
measures from the authority are acceptable, noting they can raise transparency.
The authority has refrained, however, from asking developers to release sales
brochures and price lists seven and three days, respectively, before any launch
- an idea that has met with much resistance. Hui, meanwhile, believes MTR Corp
(0066), partly owned by the government, may be the next organization to restrict
sales, though its profit-making nature may make prevent it from shouldering as
much social responsibility as the URA. 
Revenue from stamp duty will likely fall
by nearly 30 percent next year, the head of taxes has warned. The HK$42.38
billion collected in duty during the 2009-2010 financial year was "abnormal,"
Commissioner of Inland Revenue Chu Yam-yuen said yesterday. The amount
represents a 32 percent rise over the previous year. The government is adopting
a prudent approach by forecasting a 29 percent slump in stamp duty for the next
financial year - by more than HK$12 billion to around HK$30 billion. "Over the
past year, the property market was very active, but it was not a normal
situation. So we decided to adopt a prudent approach to estimate [next year's
figure]," said Chu, adding the estimate is based on trends. Stamp duty is mainly
levied on property transactions, the lease of premises and transfer of Hong Kong
stock. Revenue from property transactions last year jumped 62 percent over
2008-2009 to HK$16.24 billion. Chu said the tax department has long been closely
monitoring property speculators who may try to dodge paying profits tax. The
department's high-tech officers identify up to 6,000 suspected greenhorn
property speculators every year, he added. But Chu admitted it is difficult to
track speculators who do not have Hong Kong residence. Under the law,
corporations that make quick money by speculation should pay profits tax at a
rate of 16.5 percent while non-corporations pay 15 percent. Late last month, the
government proposed a raft of measures in an attempt to cool the property market
and make sales of new flats more transparent. Over the past year, total tax
revenue collection slid 6 percent to HK$179 billion. And the department expects
a further 7 percent fall to HK$166 billion next year. Chu said the 26 percent
slump in profits tax collections last year was partly offset by the boom in
stamp duty. The department also found that the top 100,000 earners contributed
67.5 percent of Hong Kong's salaries tax revenue in 2008-2009, a dip of 11.9
percentage points over the previous year. Chu attributed the drop in part to the
financial tsunami, which hit the incomes of the rich. For 2009-2010, the
government is owed HK$7.89 billion in unpaid taxes - a rise of 9 percent. Chu
considers it a "reasonable level" as the economy is still recovering. However,
he would not comment on the department's recent move to file a writ in the
District Court seeking more than HK$340 million in unpaid taxes from businessman
Tony Chan Chun- chuen. But he did say that anyone who makes money in Hong Kong -
including those providing fung shui consultancy services - should pay taxes. The
department yesterday sent out 2.04 million individual tax returns. Taxpayers
have to return the forms by June 3. Those who file the forms online may have the
deadline extended to July 3.
Officials yesterday unveiled
increased safety features in new breathing apparatus supplied to firefighters in
the wake of a Cheung Sha Wan blaze that claimed a senior fireman's life. The
high-tech apparatus features blinking masks and beeping alarms that help track a
fireman in distress as well as a device that tracks the amount of air supply
left. About 1,500 of the gadgets, which cost an estimated HK$20,000 each, have
been in use since April 8 after passing two weeks of testing. The death of Yeung
Chun-kit two months ago raised concerns over the safety of the old breathing
apparatus. The most novel feature of the new equipment is a scout - an
electronic handheld device connected wirelessly to the breathing apparatus which
tracks the amount of air left in the tank. "After three minutes of usage, the
scout will start recording how long the fireman can breathe in order to work
safely," said divisional officer (diving) Kwan Kam-wing. An electronic countdown
of the amount of air left in the gadget is also displayed in the mask itself,
making it easier for firefighters to keep track. Besides tracking data, the
scout is also designed to automatically set off an alarm if the fireman
collapses at the fire scene and needs help. "If the scout is dropped or left
alone for 20 seconds while in use, it will start beeping and raise an alarm so
other firemen can know [a colleague] is in need of help," Kwan said. The mask
also features blinking red lights to alert colleagues if a fireman is in dire
need of help. Fears aired by members of the Fire Services Department Staff's
General Association that the scout is not waterproof were allayed when the
gadget was dumped into a bucket of water. The test proved that the gadget was
still working after it had been submerged completely. "The scout is protected by
a rubber cover which is waterproof. Also, while at a fire scene, water spraying
from a hose may not even enter the scout directly," said chief fire officer Lai
Man-hin. "But by submerging [the device] completely, water has a higher chance
of entering it, but it was fine." He added that firemen need time to familiarize
themselves with the new equipment, and they are encouraged to report any
defects. Association chairman Chiu Sin- chung rued that some members did not
approach him regarding concerns over the gear and went to the media directly.
"We must understand the truth and liaise with the department. Firemen must have
the confidence to use the apparatus, and the first priority for us is always
safety," he said. 
Standard Chartered said it made
record first-quarter earnings thanks to buoyant commercial and investment
banking business and improving consumer banking in Asia.
RTHK staff
celebrate at Television House yesterday the 78 international and local awards
the broadcaster won in 2009-10.
The Broadcasting Authority is investigating if Commercial Radio has breached the
rules on political advertising, but it would be premature to say the rules
should be reviewed, a top government official said. Secretary for Commerce and
Economic Development Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan made the comment after the Democratic
Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong paid a controversial
HK$500,000 sponsorship fee to Commercial Radio for a program it co-hosts.
Democratic Party lawmaker Emily Lau Wai-hing spent HK$38,000 to place an
advertisement with the same private radio station calling on the public to
attend a march in support of universal suffrage. Questions have been raised as
to whether their actions violated the Broadcasting Authority's Radio Code of
Practice on Advertising Standards, which says no advertisement of a political
nature shall be broadcast except with prior approval of the authority. No such
approval was sought by Commercial Radio for the DAB's sponsorship or Lau's
advert. "[A review of the regulation of political ads] should be made after
public discussion. It's too early to talk about it at this stage," Rita Lau
said. The authority had received 20 complaints by yesterday about the DAB's
sponsorship for Night Rider 18, which is airing for 18 weeks from 2am to 6am. A
second-tier member of the party will co-host each episode, interviewing
youngsters and taking calls. Twelve complaints were filed about Emily Lau's
advert. The authority would examine the complaints and pass them to its
Complaints Committee, Rita Lau said. It would then request Commercial Radio to
submit its input. The Legislative Council's panel on information technology and
broadcasting will meet on May 13 to discuss whether a grey area for the
placement of political ads exists that the current code fails to regulate. Panel
member Cheung Man-kwong disagreed it was premature to talk about regulation of
political ads. "Commercial Radio should stop the sponsored program immediately,
and the government should review the restrictions now." Meanwhile, the Trade
Development Council said yesterday it had not interfered with production when it
sponsored a segment on Commercial Radio to promote a trade fair in Fuzhou. It
said the content of the segment and all interviews were done by the radio
station, which broadcast it in its talk show On a Clear Day. The station has
been criticised for failing to make it clear the segment was sponsored by the
council.
Property investor and developer Chinachem
Group yesterday launched its third Hong Kong hotel, underlining its active
return to business after winning a legal battle over the ownership of the estate
of its former chairman, the late Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum. Director Joseph Leung
Wing-kong (pictured), said the group was now a potential bidder in the auction
of four sites expected over the next three months. "We may join the land
auctions. It will depend on the prices of the sites," Leung said. The group's
432-room L'Hotel Island South is the first hotel completed in the Aberdeen
industrial district since the Planning Department relaxed the land use of
industrial sites in the area in 2001. Last week, the privately held company
leapt back into the spotlight by putting flats up for rent at the controversial
24-storey residential tower at 129 Repulse Bay Road, a building that has been in
mothballs for the past eight years. On February 2, the High Court ruled that an
estimated HK$100 billion fortune left by Nina Wang belonged to the Chinachem
Charitable Foundation, denying the validity of a will possessed by businessman
Tony Chan Chun-chuen. The recent activity has had commentators speculating that
Chinachem could be interested in a public listing, but executive director Dr
Kung Yan-sum insisted yesterday there was no timetable for such a move. "We are
not necessarily going to go public," he said. Sylvia Chung, Chinachem's general
manager for hotel development and operations, said yesterday the standard room
rate at L'Hotel ranged between HK$700 and HK$800 a night. She expects the
occupancy rate to exceed 80 per cent by the end of the year. "We believe about
40 per cent of our guests will be business travellers, while the others will
come for leisure. About 30 to 40 per cent of the guests will be from the
mainland," she said. Chinachem is the largest privately run developer in Hong
Kong, having developed more than 300 residential and commercial projects. Its
luxury Repulse Bay development offers 100 serviced or rental apartments, which
range from 1,800 to 7,700 square feet and are available from HK$90,000 to more
than HK$400,000 a month.
US to increase exports to cut trade
deficit - Gary Locke, US secretary of commerce, is expected to lead a trade
mission to China in May. The United States will try to boost exports to China -
rather than limit imports from the country - to reduce its huge trade deficit,
US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke has said. Locke will lead a trade mission to
China from May 15 to 21, ahead of the second US-China Strategic and Economic
Dialogue (SAED) scheduled for May 23. The mission will be "focusing on promoting
US exports for a broad range of new energy technologies, including clean energy,
energy efficiency, and electricity transmission, distribution and storage,"
Locke told China Daily in an email interview. "China is our second-largest
trading partner, our largest source of imports and the largest export market for
American goods outside of North America. "We believe increasing our exports to
China - not limiting our imports from China - is the best way to address the
trade deficit," he said. "To accomplish this goal, we are actively promoting the
export of American goods and services." Locke's remarks come among rising trade
tensions between the two countries, which have announced anti-dumping tariffs on
some of each other's products over the past weeks. Beijing announced last
Wednesday that it would slap anti-subsidy duties of up to 31 percent on chicken
products from the US after the US Commerce Department initiated an anti-subsidy
and anti-dumping investigation into Chinese aluminum extrusion manufacturers.
Beijing is also under mounting pressure from Washington to let its currency
appreciate as many politicians and economists in the US say the value of the
yuan is kept artificially low against the dollar, which they contend is a key
reason behind the huge US trade deficit with China. China refutes the claim,
saying US restrictions on exports of high-tech products are the root cause of
the deficit. According to US foreign trade statistics, the trade deficit with
China reached $227 billion last year, compared with the record $268 billion in
2008, the largest between any two countries. Total bilateral trade volume hit
$366 billion in 2009. Zhou Shijian, a senior fellow at the Center for US-China
Relations affiliated to Tsinghua University, agrees with Locke's game plan but
added "the problem is what the US can sell to China". The United States
considers it a "very sensitive" issue when China seeks more imports of high-tech
products, as they are often referred to as dual-use technologies that can be
applied in both military and civilian fields. "But the US can export more
high-tech products for civilian use such as environmental protection and green
energy products," which China is in dire need of, Zhou said. An increase in the
exports of such products will help create job opportunities in the US, where the
jobless rate hit 9.7 percent in March. In 2007, China signed an agreement with
US-based Westinghouse, under which it will use the company's AP1000 technology
to build two nuclear power plants. The $8-billion agreement, the first
large-scale joint venture nuclear project, created more than 5,500 jobs in the
US. On Google's recent move to exit from the Chinese mainland market, Locke said
"this is a business decision" by the company. But he said the US is concerned
"about China's increasing use of industrial policies that may restrict market
access and discriminate against foreign goods and services". Some foreign
companies in China say those policies favor domestic businesses, but some
Chinese companies have long complained that the government offers too many
preferential policies to foreign firms. Premier Wen Jiabao reassured foreign
companies last week that they will not face discrimination in the country as the
government will "unswervingly" continue its opening up drive that will
facilitate foreign investment. "The policy of encouraging indigenous innovation
treats all businesses in China the same. It will not exclude foreign companies,"
Wen said when he met some European business people who have enterprises in
China. Locke also expressed hope for a more open market in China. "China
recently issued new policy guidelines that may provide more openness and lower
market access thresholds to foreign investment in certain sectors. We look
forward to more details." 
People hold umbrellas to shelter from
the sun as they line up to enter the French pavilion at the World Expo
yesterday. Twenty-six visitors were treated for heatstroke. Visitors sweltered
in blazing sunshine at the World Expo in Shanghai as the multibillion-yuan mega
fair entered its second day. With crowds visibly bigger than those on the
opening day causing longer waiting times, the higher temperature began to take
its toll on the throngs of day-trippers.
A lady shows the tourism introduction
pamphlets of China's Taiwan Province at the Beijing Office of the Taiwan Strait
Tourism Association in Beijing, China, May 4, 2010. The Beijing Office of the
Taiwan Strait Tourism Association (TSTA) held its opening ceremony at the LG
Twin Towers on Jianguomenwai Road in Beijing on Tuesday. The office is a
non-government institution to offer an effective platform for reciprocal
communications and exchanges in tourism across the Taiwan Strait.
Actors perform during the Beijing
culture week, the first of its kind among China's provinces, during Shanghai
Expo in Shanghai, China, May 4, 2010.
Swire Properties - the real estate
unit of Swire Pacific (0019) - opens its retail book today in Hong Kong's
largest initial public offering so far this year to raise up to HK$20.8 billion.
The valuation of 32.4 times to 35.8 times its estimated underlying profit is
fair, chief executive Martin Cubbon said in a video conference yesterday. The
property unit seeks to sell 910 million shares at between HK$20.75 and HK$22.90
apiece. Underlying profit, excluding fair value gain of property revaluation, is
expected to grow 10 percent to HK$4.23 billion this year, finance director
Charles Bremridge said. The developer plans to use 41 percent of the proceeds to
pay down its debt from Swire Finance, which will slash its debt to equity ratio
to 13 percent from 30 percent. It will spend another 29 percent on loan
repayment to secure a revolving loan facility of HK$9.5 billion. The firm also
aims to invest 11 percent of the proceeds to fund existing property projects in
Hong Kong, the mainland and Britain, while the remainder will be placed in
short-term deposits or in the money market as a reserve for any investment
opportunities. The minimum cost for a board lot of 200 shares is HK$4,626.21.
Swire Properties is set to make its trading debut on May 14. Three listing
candidates will begin marketing their IPO plans this week to raise a combined
HK$10 billion. Mainland lighting product supplier NVC Lighting kicks off its
roadshow today to raise HK$2.34 billion, market sources said. Giti Tyre, one of
the mainland's largest tire makers, will start a roadshow tomorrow to get as
much as HK$3.9 billion. Chinese iron ore producer China Tian Yuan Mining is
expected to raise US$400 million (HK$3.12 billion) to US$500 million. It is
expected to start marketing the deal on Wednesday. 
The owner of a soy sauce shop in
Causeway Bay is likely to feature in the first case under a new compulsory-sale
rule for private redevelopment. He has twice received an offer from a developer
for a Haven Street shop in an old building since the new law came into force
last month. The law, passed by the Legislative Council in March with strong
support from the functional constituencies, allows developers to force the sale
of remaining flats in a building older than 50 years once they have acquired 80
per cent of the property interests in it. This is down from the previous 90 per
cent threshold. Lawyers have expressed concern that the new law challenges the
Basic Law, which protects property rights. Many see it as riding roughshod over
private property rights. Victor Sin Ho-yuen, having lost his shop at 44 Haven
Street under the 90 per cent threshold, is no stranger to the compulsory-sale
law. Under the new law, a shop at 42 Haven Street that Sin owns, and also his
flat, are being seen by the industry as the first premises lined up for
compulsory sale. His properties, accounting for 12 per cent of the ownership of
No 40 and No 42, are the only two unsold to Soundwill Holdings - which, in the
name of Haven Properties, has acquired ownership of the rest of the two blocks
over the past few years. While negotiating with Sin, the developer gained
approval from the Buildings Department in March to redevelop the blocks in Haven
Street into a 35-storey apartment block with a clubhouse. And to show it "has
taken reasonable steps to acquire" the remaining properties - a series of
unanswered offers being a prerequisite for an application for compulsory sale -
Soundwill has sent two letters in the past month to Sin with an offer - which he
declined to quote - to buy his units, each of 1,200 sq ft. "What I want is ... a
shop in the same area so I can continue my business, and a flat nearby so my
mother doesn't need to adapt to a new place," Sin said. A Soundwill Holdings
spokeswoman confirmed the company would soon apply for a compulsory sale while
negotiating with Sin. She would not comment on his call for a shop-for-shop
option. Sin said a consultation service available at the Housing Society and the
Institute of Surveyors - which the Development Bureau offered when lobbying
lawmakers to pass the law - was useless. Staff at the Housing Society's building
management consultation centre in Wun Sha Street, Tai Hang, could only explain
to him the contents of the law, "which I may know even better", he said. "I
asked what else I could do to keep my properties since I have no money for
litigation, but the officer only said I could apply for legal aid." The property
owner, however, may not be eligible for the means-tested aid. The Institute of
Surveyors gave him a list of firms that handle compulsory sale cases. "I asked
if the institute could provide a free valuation service, and the answer was no."
The bureau has promised a mediation system to protect minority owners but there
is no launch date. The 90 per cent rule was introduced under the Land
(Compulsory Sale for Redevelopment) Ordinance, which was passed by the
pro-government Provisional Legco in 1998, and was reduced to 80 per cent under
the new rule passed last month. Constitutional law expert and former Bar
Association chairwoman Gladys Li said in a speech to the legal profession last
month that the ordinance had a complete lack of balance and challenged the Basic
Law. Important policy considerations were not reflected in the bill, she said.
In 1998 when drafting the bill, government officials said the law would target
defective titles, untraceable owners, those owners who had died without leaving
a will or owners demanding unreasonably high prices. But the statute does not
mention these groups of owners. At one stage it was suggested an "undue
hardship" provision be inserted so the Lands Tribunal, in determining whether
redevelopment was justified, would consider the interests of minority owners.
The officials then in charge dismissed the need for such a provision, saying the
tribunal would consider "other relevant factors", including owners' hardship.
However, since the law was applied, judges have repeatedly said that they have
no factors to consider other than the "economic lifespan test": if the repair
cost of the building exceeds the enhancement in market value brought by the
work, redevelopment is justified. "There is absolutely no room for the tribunal
to take into account all relevant factors [including owners' hardship]," Li
said. A lot of middle-class home owners may be further affected with inadequate
compensation to find a flat in the same area, now that the threshold was
lowered, and the government may relax development restrictions in the Mid-Levels
as well in a few years time, she said. Gordon Cruden, former president of the
Lands Tribunal, said in his book Land Compensation and Valuation Law that the
ordinance was "the culmination of long-voiced complaints by developers". "The
statutory power to permit the compulsory purchase by a private owner of another
owners' estate ... goes considerably beyond previous legislation," Cruden wrote.
He said the law was different from land resumption laws made for the government
or the Urban Renewal Authority, which must have a public purpose for land
resumption. "The private purchases are generally made for spot development for
private profit and are not part of a wider comprehensive development plan for
the public good," he said. Reforms should be introduced to address the
shortcomings of the present public auction system, as in practice the developer
was the sole bidder. The government could consider whether the sale price should
be determined by the tribunal, he said. "Where minority owners ... consider they
are disadvantaged ... relief might in certain circumstances be available under
the Bill of Rights or the Basic Law," he said. Sin does not see a judicial
review as the answer. "I'm already facing a court case and I'm appealing over
the sale price of my lost shop. It would be too much of a burden for me."
The
Hong Kong Monetary Authority has revealed that it has set up a subsidiary to
make HK$12.2 billion worth of investments over the next few years, signaling
what could be a more diversified and aggressive portfolio. 
Despite huge queues causing
backlogs of more than four hours at the most popular national pavilions, staff
at the top attractions insist they are well prepared to handle the crowds. But
some said they were negotiating with expo organisers on how to provide more
protection against the elements. Franck Serrano, director of the France
pavilion, said although they received an unexpected 100,000 visitors on
Saturday, the expo's first day, the pavilion had "no problem" coping with the
crush. "The queue keeps moving, so people actually spent less time waiting than
they had expected." But he admitted that visitors had to wait two to three hours
to get inside. "It is very routine that visitors at the expo have to queue for a
long time for the popular pavilions," he said. "People are willing to queue."
France is one of a clutch of striking pavilions - along with those of Japan,
South Korea, Saudi Arabia and the United States - that are the real honeypots
for expo visitors, attracting swarms of people. But the lengthy waiting times
and intense heat yesterday caused some visitors to question the lack of cover.
"They must have spent a fortune on that [Denmark] pavilion, why didn't they
think to include some shelter for people in the queue?" Wu Minmin said. "We have
been in this line for over an hour, and the sun is really fierce. It's bad
enough now, but just imagine when there's a summer downpour. Even a simple
canopy would be an improvement." Some of the most exceptional queues were
outside the porcupine-shaped Britain pavilion. The three-deep queue stretched
around the corner and down to the end of the block before doubling back on
itself into a small park. "Waiting times for our pavilion averaged over three
hours [yesterday]," Carma Elliot, the British consul-general in Shanghai, said.
"We knew well in advance that we would be getting crowds of that sort of size
and we've been keeping people informed about how long they can expect to wait.
"But supervision of the queues outside our pavilion is handled by the expo
authorities, so we have been discussing with them ways to make the experience
more bearable." The building's designer, architect Thomas Heatherwick, who was
visiting the pavilion yesterday, said he was delighted with the response. "It's
great that people have grabbed hold of the idea and run with it," he said. "We
weren't sure if they would." While some pavilions were packed with visitors, a
handful of countries were still scrambling to open their exhibits. Expo director
Hong Hao said last night there were still seven incomplete national pavilions,
but he declined to name them. A review of the expo site by South China Morning
Post (SEHK: 0583, announcements, news) reporters over the past two days found
the incomplete pavilions are those of four eastern European nations, two from
Africa and one from South America. The gates to South Africa's pavilion were
hidden behind red-and-white plastic tape, while the displays inside appeared
almost complete. "We received instructions [yesterday] that we are not to speak
to the press," a security guard said. "The building will be open on May 6." Next
door, the Egypt pavilion's doors remained closed. The situation was similar at
the Venezuela pavilion. In the European zone, work looked to have been abandoned
on the Latvia pavilion, while Albania's was locked shut. 
Mainland’s increase in bank reserve requirements was aimed at taming liquidity
and inflationary expectations, the country’s vice-minister of finance said on
Monday. The proportion of deposits that mainland banks have to keep in reserve
has been raised again as Beijing tightens credit further and slowly exits from
its massive economic stimulus package. In a sudden move yesterday, the People's
Bank of China ordered mainland lenders to increase their reserve requirement
ratio by 50 basis points from May 10 to cool down the overheating economy and
control credit expansion. The current RRR is 16.5 percent for large banks and
14.5 percent for small ones. So far this year, the RRR has been hiked three
times - in all instances by 50 basis points - with the first increase effective
from January 18 and the second from February 25. Some economists had forecast a
rise in benchmark interest rates this month. "It was not surprising for the
central government to raise the RRR again, after seeing overheating
macroeconomic data in the first quarter," said CITIC Ka Wah Bank chief economist
and China banking strategist Liao Qun. "There remains a large possibility that
Beijing will increase the interest rate by 27 basis points in May, if April's
macroeconomic data maintained strength." However, Hang Seng Investment Services
chief analyst Mark Wan Chuck-pui said the mainland would raise interest rates
only after the United States - in September at the earliest in line with market
expectations. "There will be an influx of hot money which will heat up the
economy even further, if China raises interest rates at the same time as the
yuan is allowed to appreciate," Wan said. Experts expect Beijing to revalue its
currency in the second half. Wan said that the RRR hike could help ease the need
for the central government to raise rates. Citi Investment Research economist
Shen Minggao agreed and expects the RRR to be raised once more in the second
quarter ahead of an interest rate increase. But Shen said there is a possibility
the central government will raise interest rates two or three times this year if
the consumer price index exceeds 3 percent and keeps rising. The China
Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, meanwhile, said the purchasing managers'
index for the manufacturing sector rose 0.6 percentage point to 55.7 percent in
April.
Boom time as mainland parents
spend a fortune on their children - Tong Tong has been the biggest spender in
his family since he was born. The fixed expenditure on the 11-month-old boy
includes baby formula imported from the United States, disposable diapers made
in Japan, clothes bought online and various nutrient drinks and vitamin pills.
The average monthly spending on the baby is close to 10,000 yuan (HK$11,355),
almost 80 per cent of the family's total expenses, said Tong Tong's father, Yang
Liangfeng, a senior engineer in an integrated circuit manufacturing company in
Beijing. Yet the costs do not stop there. Yang and his wife recently signed up
for an "early-education class" for their son with a one-off payment of 13,000
yuan, a big chunk of the couple's monthly salary of 18,000 yuan. "It's so
expensive," Yang, 30, said. "But my wife insists it's necessary for my son to
take more physical exercises offered in the class because he appeared to be a
slow learner." Even so, Yang said the outlay for Tong Tong was modest compared
with what his friends and colleagues spent on their children. "A colleague said
her daughter would never drink milk without having an imported fruit juice
first." Tong Tong is one of 16.2 million children born on the mainland last
year. According to National Bureau of Statistics figures, the number of births
in the country has been climbing steadily over the past decade, from 11.5
million in 1999. Demographic experts say a new baby boom is emerging on the
mainland as children born in the previous boom - in the 1980s - are now entering
marriageable and child-bearing age. This upward birth trend may last until 2015.
The boom is fuelling a heated market for baby and children's products. Today's
new parents, who are more educated and richer than the older generations, are
willing to pay more for their children's health and happiness and ensure their
future academic success.
Crowd dwindles at May Day rallies
- Despite predictions of a record turnout, only about 4,500 people joined
yesterday's Labour Day marches - 1,500 fewer than last year.
Visitors to the Hong Kong pavilion
were in for a surprise yesterday - rather than the ultra-modern metropolis they
were expecting, many were left filled with a sudden desire to commune with
nature. "I was simply stunned with the wetlands garden on the roof. It was so
relaxing and I never realised Hong Kong had so much nature," said Zhou Qiong , a
Shanghai native visiting with her parents and younger brother. "We had to queue
for nearly two hours to get in but it was worth it." The pavilion was a big hit
with domestic visitors. Shortly after the pavilion opened yesterday morning, a
queue of at least 600 people had formed under the glaring sunshine. Yang Guoyuan
, pushing his elderly mother in a wheelchair, said seeing the city's pavilion
had been his top priority for the day. "My sister lives in Hong Kong, so it was
like going to visit her," he said. "It was pretty small inside, but that is just
like the real Hong Kong." The journey through the three-storey building starts
with an animated 3-D film paying tribute to Hong Kong cinema. Visitors then move
to the first floor where an exhibition promotes ecological themes using hi-tech
interactive games which are controlled by participants' movements. There are
more interactive games on the upper floor, including the chance to design a bank
note and Web portals that connect to the Hong Kong Science Museum and Chek Lap
Kok airport. The tour ends with a rooftop garden dedicated to Hong Kong's
country parks. "I loved the 3-D film," said Wang Tianming , a tourist from
northern Jiangsu province. "The action figures leapt right out at me." Opening
the pavilion, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen praised the efforts of the
production team. "The concept, design, preparation and implementation of this
project have involved a wide range of people and groups," he said. "Everyone
involved has put their hearts, minds and precious time into this project." Tse
Cheung-hing, deputy director of the pavilion, said the building could handle up
to 12,000 people a day. Professor Lawrence Lau Juen-yee, vice-chancellor of
Chinese University, said he was impressed with the Hong Kong pavilion's
environmental message. 
Curbs on mainlanders visiting Macau,
Asia's biggest casino hub, remain tight as Beijing continues to crack down on
money laundering and gambling by officials misusing public funds. They find it
easier to get to Singapore - where the world's second most expensive casino
resort, built at a cost of US$5.5 billion, has just opened - than to Macau.
Mainland gamblers at Marina Bay Sands, the resort that Las Vegas Sands Corp
opened on Tuesday, said approval for their visits to Singapore had come quickly
and smoothly. "It's very easy to come to Singapore," said Fang Hong, 36, from
Anhui province. "It took me just one week to get approval. This new casino is
impressive and offers good services." Fang said he had lost S$100 (HK$567) in
the hour after Marina Bay Sands' opened. A Shenzhen public security official in
charge of reviewing applications for overseas travel said there were no
restrictions on residents visiting Singapore, although civil servants had to get
their supervisors' approval. 
The Airport Authority is looking
at introducing controversial full-body scanners, which show images of passengers
under their clothes, as part of stepped-up efforts to combat terrorism. It has
sent officials to Amsterdam's Schiphol and London's Gatwick airports, which are
among several that have installed the scanners since the attempted Christmas Day
bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit by a man with
explosives strapped to his thigh and groin. An authority spokeswoman confirmed
yesterday that it was studying the "whole body imager" but said no conclusion
had yet been reached on whether or when to implement such screening. She said
that before any trial was conducted the authority would consult relevant parties
on issues such as privacy, health and safety. Human Rights Monitor said it
opposed mandatory use of the scanners, and called for proper consultation and
statutory protection for travellers' privacy before any such "serious intrusion
of privacy" was introduced. At least 24 airports in the United States along with
key airports in Britain, Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol have installed
the scanners. Trials at some airports, including Manchester in Britain, showed
the scanners revealed intimate images, including genitalia and breast
enlargements. An official familiar with airport security said the authority and
the Aviation Security Company (Avseco) had sent officials to Schiphol and
Gatwick early this year to study the scanners. Passengers have no right to
refuse a scan at London's Heathrow airport but it is optional in the US, where
those who decline are subjected to full-body pat-downs. Two types of imaging
technology - millimetre wave and backscatter - are used by the scanners. Hong
Kong is looking into the backscatter variety, which uses low-level X-ray beams
to create the body's reflection on a monitor. The scanners cost HK$1.2 million
to HK$1.6 million each. If introduced, they would be installed at the passenger
security checkpoint in the restricted area at Hong Kong airport, the official
said.
Mystery
Samaritan saves 100 dogs' lives - One hundred abandoned dogs are to be moved
from Hong Kong to a new home in the New Territories today after a mystery
benefactor saved their lives by temporarily donating a house and garden for them
to live in. A convoy of cars, vans, buses and trucks will begin driving the
homeless pets this morning from the kennels of Hong Kong Dog Rescue in Pok Fu
Lam to their new home on a hillside outside Tai Po, which was given to the
struggling charity with only days to spare. The transfer - nicknamed Dog-kirk by
some of the charity's supporters - will involve more than 100 people, with one
volunteer comforting each dog as it is removed from the Pok Fu Lam kennels,
which are being emptied to make way for redevelopment by the owner, Swire.
Founder Sally Andersen faced having to have most of the unwanted dogs destroyed
when the lease on the Pok Fu Lam kennels, which ran out in November but was
extended for five months by Swire, finally expired at the end of April. With the
deadline to quit the kennels less than two weeks away and an alternative venue
in the New Territories blocked by planning objections, an anonymous well-wisher
offered Hong Kong Dog Rescue the isolated house with a 40,000 square foot
garden. Since the South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583) highlighted the
charity's plight, 80 of its 180 animals have been adopted, given temporary
foster homes or placed in private kennels, leaving 100 to be moved in the
32-kilometre canine evacuation starting this morning. Andersen, whose charity
seeks homes for stray dogs that would otherwise be destroyed, said: "It has been
an extremely stressful few weeks. The offer of this house was a life-saver for
the dogs - literally - because until it came up we just didn't know what was
going to happen." An intermediary approached the charity with the offer of
temporary use of the house, which is isolated from other houses and situated
next to a water treatment plant and a columbarium. The owner's identity is a
closely guarded secret. "I know she is a woman and I should imagine she is
wealthy, but that is about all I know," Andersen said. "The house has a huge
garden, so the dogs will have a lot of space to run around, but the
accommodation is going to be tight. "Rather than individual kennels, they'll all
be sleeping together in a big dormitory-like bedroom. The 30 dogs who have gone
to private kennels are only there for a month while we settle in, so they will
come back to us, and the numbers will go back up." The Tai Po house has been
loaned to Hong Kong Dog Rescue for six months only, meaning the long-term search
for a new home will continue after this weekend's operation. "The house hasn't
been lived in for a few years, and the garden is all overgrown, so we've had
teams of volunteers going up there every day to clear the undergrowth. We've got
contractors putting up basic fencing to separate the garden from the driveway,"
Andersen said. The motorised convoy will take the dogs in small groups from Pok
Fu Lam to Tai Po, and Andersen is still seeking additional volunteers to help
the animals cope with the trauma of the move. "Some of them are going to be
extremely stressed," she said. "It isn't going to be easy to get them in the
cars. We want a volunteer per dog to sit with the dogs so they are not loose in
cars. The really frightened ones we will have to put in travel crates and just
see how it goes." The operation to move the dogs begins at 9 am. Volunteers will
stay overnight with the animals in the two-storey house to help them settle into
their new surroundings.
The number of mainland tour
groups coming to Hong Kong over the Labour Day holiday is expected to fall 10
per cent because of the World Expo, although the total number of visitors will
probably rise 10 per cent, a travel industry official said yesterday. This week
is a peak travel period for mainlanders, who usually flock to Hong Kong to shop
and see the sights. Joseph Tung Yao-chung, executive director of the Travel
Industry Council, said the six-month expo, which opens today, would have a
slight impact on the number of tour groups coming to the city, especially those
from eastern China. But, as more mainlanders tended to visit Hong Kong on their
own, the total number would probably rise 10 per cent compared to last year.
"Package tour bookings so far show a 10 per cent drop," Tung said. "But we don't
get that many tour groups so the drop will not have that much of an impact." In
May last year, fears about the spread of swine flu had a dramatic effect on the
number of people coming to Hong Kong, with arrivals from the mainland falling
9.6 per cent year on year, according to data from the Tourism Board. Mainlanders
make up nearly two-thirds of the city's visitors. The expo is expected to draw
an estimated 70 million people, most of them mainlanders. 
John Coverdale, Hong Kong-based co-head
of HSBC's commercial banking business, has slipped his steady hand onto the
tiller almost unnoticed. Unlike Michael Geoghegan, the bank's supremely
confident and self-assured chief executive, who is king of the soundbite, the
quietly-spoken Coverdale often takes a few minutes to answer a question. While
Coverdale is effusive before the tape recorder is turned on, he displays the
natural caution of a divisional head speaking for his organisation the moment he
goes on the record. He also winces slightly as he trots out the bank's key
messages - such as the often-repeated "we are open for business", which
Geoghegan has said on a loop for more than a year to highlight HSBC's financial
strength compared to competitors which are still licking their self-inflicted
credit crunch wounds. He is obviously at his best toiling quietly in the
background, making sure HSBC's dull but extremely worthy commercial bank
continues to form the solid backbone of the institution's earnings - it made
US$30 billion of profits from 2004-09. But he has a massive job. The commercial
bank, which provides all the bread-and-butter banking services companies need,
from working capital loans to treasury management, is a behemoth. It made a
US$4.275 billion pre-tax profit in 2009. If it stood alone and was valued on the
same earnings ratio as the HSBC group, it would command a US$112 billion market
capitalisation. That is more than twice the stock market value of Barclays,
Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Bank of New York Mellon and
American Express at press time. Coverdale runs the emerging markets side of the
commercial bank, including Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. He
has held the job for a year, and executives who work for him say they appreciate
his steady hand on the tiller, saying the best thing he did since arriving in
Hong Kong was change nothing. Coverdale seems proud that he slotted into his new
role, having previously been the bank's deputy chairman in Saudi Arabia,
virtually unnoticed outside HSBC. He revels in the fact HSBC is a bit of a
boring bank, which does not encourage its executives to rock the boat.
Shanghai puts on a dazzling
display - The biggest World Expo in history got off to an explosive start in
Shanghai with a star-studded gala opening ending in a huge fireworks display
that virtually tore the night sky open.
Shanghai Expo opens its doors -
Hundreds of thousands of people flooded into Shanghai’s World Expo on Saturday
at the start of a six-month showcase of culture and technology seen as the
latest sign of China’s growing economic might. Organisers have said all 500,000
tickets are sold out for opening day at the massive Expo park along the Huangpu
river, where visitors will wander through the exhibits of 189 nations, as well
as dozens of companies and organisations. “Everything is very colourful,” Cui
Yan, a 23-year-old Chinese university student, said outside the Mexican
pavilion. “The architecture is amazing.” “There are so many highlights − I’m
worried I can’t see all of them on this trip,” said Cui, who travelled from
Ningbo, in neighbouring Zhejiang province, to be one of the first to catch a
glimpse of the Expo pavilions. A sea of people waited to visit China’s red
inverted pyramid − the centrepiece of Expo park − with 50,000 tickets handed out
within five minutes of the park opening. Queues were long at all pavilions but
by 4:30 pm about 200,000 people had entered the park − less than half the number
of tickets sold. Eager visitors used umbrellas to shield themselves from the
blistering sun as they waited patiently, the long queues doing nothing to dampen
their enthusiasm. “I want to see the Canada pavilion first. So many of my
relatives have emigrated to Canada, and I want to get an idea of what kind of
life they’re living,” retiree Huang Huifang, 58, said as she ran towards the
building. Shanghai kicked off the Expo on Friday night with a star-studded music
and fireworks extravaganza, signalling it would be bigger and brighter than the
more low-key World’s Fairs in recent years. Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Hong
Kong action film star Jackie Chan and Chinese pianist Lang Lang performed for
thousands of guests including Chinese President Hu Jintao and about 20 other
world leaders. A record number of countries are participating in the event,
which is expected to attract at least 70 million visitors − the vast majority of
them Chinese, many of whom have never travelled outside the country. Li Huahe, a
47-year-old telecoms company employee from Urumqi in far-western Xinjiang, said
he bought his ticket months ago but could only stay a few hours before heading
home. “I woke up at 5.00am and I have a 2.00pm flight. I’m worried about the
crowds. I want to see at least one pavilion today,” Li said outside the Swiss
pavilion, which boasts a chairlift that soars over a three-storey-high meadow.
Nations with an eye on China’s consumer market of 1.3 billion people are pulling
out all the stops to attract the attention of Expo visitors. “I really hope
people will discover the attitude of the Netherlands. We want to have friendly
relations with China,” Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said as he
surveyed the grounds from the top of the “Happy Street” pavilion, which aims to
capture the feel and creativity of Amsterdam. Denmark has made a splash by
bringing its “Little Mermaid” statue out of Copenhagen for the first time,
France has Impressionist paintings and India is bringing in a cast of Bollywood
stars. Li Kai, seven, was stunned when he was told the statue was real. “It’s
shocking. I thought it was fake. We should treat her well because she travelled
so far,” said Li. The hamburger and ice cream cone debuted at past Expos and
food is once again playing a major role in attracting Chinese visitors to
pavilions. Belgium was promoting fries with mayonnaise, Australia was serving
meat pies and France featured champagne tasting. “This is the first time I’ve
eaten foreign specialitty food, I will try more,” visitor Yang Wei said,
sampling Uruguayan barbecued beef. In Shanghai, the spotlight will be on the
cutting-edge design of the national pavilions, all embracing the theme of
“Better City, Better Life”. Highlights include Britain’s stunning dandelion-like
“Seed Cathedral”, Spain’s “Big Basket” made of 8,500 wicker panels, and
Switzerland’s pastoral pavilion. Du Yuping, a 52-year-old steel company employee
from Shanghai, came prepared for the queues with a folding stool. He said he
came to Expo Park last week on a trial opening day and ended up waiting up to
three hours to see one pavilion, but was pleased to see that operations were
running more smoothly on Saturday. “I want to visit Expo at least six times,” Du
said, sitting on his chair in the queue outside the Norwegian pavilion. “I’m
focusing on European pavilions today.”
Robin Lee,chief executive of Baidu, said the company has seen higher customer
loyalty since the end of May. Chinese search engine Baidu Inc on Thursday said
it benefited from Google's partial exit from the country and anticipates more
customer gains in the next few quarters. Analysts, however, said that Google's
bleeding might slow in the second quarter, as mainland users' continued access
to the Google Hong Kong site may ease advertisers' concerns. Robin Lee, chief
executive of Baidu, said the company benefited from Google's decision to move
its search engine to Hong Kong last month. "We have seen more confidence and
higher customer loyalty since the end of last quarter," Lee said during a
conference call on Thursday. Baidu also benefited from the overall market growth
and the deployment of its new online advertising platform "Phoenix Nest". The
company said on Wednesday that its profit more than doubled in the first three
months of this year. Net income for the period rose to 480.5 million yuan ($70.4
million) from 181.1 million yuan a year back. Google's loss is really Baidu's
gain. Incidentally this is the first earnings report from Baidu after its
closest rival Google said in March that it was moving its search engine on the
mainland to Hong Kong. The US search company's decision led to most of its
advertisers reducing spending by about 30 percent. "The fall of Google's market
share in the first quarter reflects the advertiser's concerns on the future of
Google's Hong Kong site and its soured relationship with the Chinese
government," said Edward Yu, president of Analysys International. "Since the
site is still accessible to users in the mainland, we expect Google's market
share to recover in the second quarter," he said. According to Analysys
International, Google's market share in China fell to 30.9 percent in the first
quarter from 35.6 percent three months earlier. Baidu's market share rose to 64
percent from 58.4 percent, the Beijing-based research firm said. The search
engine market share is based on revenue, rather than user numbers. Access to
Google's new site in Hong Kong has been normal for most mainland users. Google's
other services, such as maps, video and music search are also functioning
normally. 
Beijing is the first city to respond
to the central government's efforts to restrain sizzling home prices by limiting
families to purchases of only one new home.
More than 2,000 young competitors
participate in a Chinese chess and weiqi (Go game) contest in Yinchuan, capital
of Ningxia Hui autonomous region on May 1, 2010.
Pan-democrat legislators on Friday
criticised Legislative Council president Tsang Yok-sing for threatening to
resign if the government’s electoral reform package lacked a single, decisive
vote. The government’s constitutional reform bill can only be passed by a
two-thirds majority – or if 40 Legco members vote for it. Speaking on local
radio on Thursday, Tsang, former chairman of The Democratic Alliance for the
Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said he might resign as Legco
president and vote for the bill if the administration lacks only one vote. But
Civic Party chairwoman Audrey Eu Yuet-mee said on Friday Tsang had hurt his
reputation for impartiality as Legco president. “He should not only resign as
chairman, but resign from the legislature and contest the by-election for Hong
Kong Island – like the pan-democrat lawmakers,” Eu suggested. Democratic Party
lawmaker Lee Wing-tat said Tsang had broken a promise he made when was elected
Legco president. “Before the election, he said he would not vote in Legco.”
“Now, he can’t tell the public he is a man who keeps his promises,” Lee told
local media. According to Legco’s rules, its president must inform all members
if he or she resigns from office - but still remains a Legco member. If Tsang
resigns as Legco president, Legco House Committee chairwoman Miriam Lau Kin-yee
will become acting president before a new one is elected. 
Customs officers launched a two-week operation from April 20 to stop the sale of
counterfeit goods in Hong Kong during the Labour Day "golden week" holiday. A
spokesman said late on Thursday that officers had already raided 21 retail
outlets and five shops. “More than 4,500 counterfeit items worth over HK$1
million were seized, including mobile phones and accessories, cosmetics, leather
goods, clothing and watches,” he said. Nine men and seven women, aged from 24 to
49, have been arrested. Customs officers would continue to conduct inspections
at popular shopping spots during the holiday, the spokesman added. Labour Day on
Saturday starts off the “golden week” holiday, which lasts until May 7. During
this time, stores have sales and promotions and extend opening hours. Tourists,
especially those from the mainland, visit Hong Kong for shopping. In 2007, a
month before the “golden week” holiday, some tourists from China claimed they
were sold fake goods, such as jewellery, while in Hong Kong. After this
incident, the number of tourists from the mainland fell. Common counterfeit
goods in Hong Kong include designer handbags, DVDs and jewellery. A person in
possession of, or who sells fake goods, are liable to a maximum fine of
HK$500,000 and imprisonment for five years. Suspected cases of counterfeiting
activities can be reported to customs at tel: 2545-6182.
French President
Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy visit Beijing's Forbidden City
on Friday. Sarkozy, who arrived in China on Wednesday, then headed to Shanghai
to attend the opening ceremony for the World Expo. Authorities closed off the
Forbidden City, the ancient imperial palace in the heart of the capital across
from Tiananmen Square, for the visit by the French leader and his wife, Carla
Bruni-Sarkozy. Sarkozy, sporting a dark suit and tie, and his wife, in a grey
trouser suit and dark round glasses, strolled around the sprawling grounds for
about 45 minutes, accompanied by security personnel. France’s first couple has
included several sightseeing stops on the trip, including a visit to the ancient
capital Xian to see the 2,200-year-old terracotta warriors, a tour of the Great
Wall and a visit to the Ming tombs. Sarkozy’s visit was aimed at breathing new
life into Sino-French relations, which hit a low point in 2008 when the French
president expressed shock at a Chinese security crackdown in Tibet in March and
later met the Dalai Lama. He called China a “strategic partner” and said he
would work with President Hu Jintao on a variety of issues, from the Iranian
nuclear stand-off to global monetary reform. On Iran, Sarkozy told the Chinese
leader that while dialogue was still an option with Tehran, sanctions had to be
considered as a last resort if the Islamic republic refused to co-operate with
the international community. “China hopes to use dialogue to solve this problem.
France completely understands China, and we are willing to discuss this problem
together at an appropriate time,” state media quoted Sarkozy as saying. “But if
dialogue does not work, then we can only use sanctions,” he added at a joint
media appearance with Hu on Wednesday. China – one of the five permanent members
of the 15-member UN Security Council – has so far been reluctant to embrace
tough new punitive action. Sarkozy seemed eager to mend fences, steering clear
of several sensitive issues in his public appearances. He refrained from adding
to pressure on China to allow the yuan to appreciate, saying it was “totally
unproductive to make accusations against one another” and better to focus on an
overhaul of the global monetary system. The French leader also did not speak
publicly on human rights concerns, such as the treatment of political dissidents
or religious freedom. He was set to return to France later on Friday after the
World Expo opening gala in Shanghai.
Beijing has issued rules
limiting families to one new apartment purchase as authorities try to rein in
rampant property speculation and soaring prices, reports said on Friday.
President Hu Jintao and South
Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak shake hands prior to their meeting in Shanghai
on Friday. 
Fireworks are presented for the opening
ceremony of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, April 30, 2010. 
Splendid pre-ceremony performances
held at Expo Park.
Splendid pre-ceremony performances
held at Expo Park.
Former Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief
executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, once the world's highest paid central banker,
has a new job in academia. Yam has been appointed a distinguished research
fellow at The Chinese University of Hong Kong's newly formed Institute of Global
Economics and Finance. The part-time role means Yam will take part in research,
share his experience and insights with top bankers and brokers, conduct classes
for Chinese University students and deliver lectures. It is not known how much
he will be paid. Before retiring as HKMA chief executive at the start of
October, Yam was the world's highest paid central banker, receiving HK$11.9
million in 2008 compared to US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's
US$191,300. Yam was Hong Kong's first central banker and occupied the post from
the authority's establishment in 1993. The People's Bank of China in December
recruited him to be an executive vice-president of an advisory body to the
central bank. It is not known whether the bank pays Yam for the work. The
Institute of Global Economics and Finance has been set up to contribute concepts
and policy ideas on opening up China's financial system. It will also launch
educational programs related to global finance and banking issues, such as the
internationalization of the yuan. Besides Yam, the institute has enlisted top
professionals and academics including Nobel Prize-winning economists James
Mirrlees and Robert Mundell. At a university event to announce his appointment
yesterday, Yam slipped easily back into central banker mode, offering his views
on the outlook for the yuan. "It will be impossible for the yuan to keep on
rising forever," he said. "Mainland officials have also said the yuan has not
been undervalued." Yam reiterated his view that the yuan could become the third
major international currency, after the US dollar and euro. He also believed
Beijing's tightening of credit and other measures to cool down the property
market would have a positive economic impact.
Customs has stepped up its blitz on
counterfeit goods ahead of the May Day Golden Week. Over the past fortnight,
officers have seized 4,500 pirated items worth about HK$1 million and unearthed
five "storage warehouses" in Yau Tsim Mong. Nine men and seven women aged 24 to
49 have been arrested. Most are shop owners. The fake goods include mobile
phones, cosmetics, luxury watches, brand-name bags and - ahead of the FIFA World
Cup in South Africa - football strips. Intellectual Property Investigation
Bureau divisional commander Koon Hon-chuen said it will strengthen surveillance
in tourist shopping areas. There were 167 cases in the first quarter this year,
the same as in 2009. A total of 1,014 cases were recorded for the whole year.
Meanwhile, traffic at Kowloon West's Olympic City during the May Day Golden Week
is expected to increase 15 percent to 157,000 people and bring in HK$7.26
million in sales. Sino Group is predicting overall growth of 13 percent for
Olympic City, Golden Coast Piazza and Island Resort Mall. with 262,000 visitors.
To attract more high-spending mainlanders, Olympic City is offering a one-night
stay and buffet breakfast for two. It is also hosting a South African Festival
from today until May 9. The 10-day Golden Week lasts from May Day until Mother's
Day on May 8. Spokespersons for major shopping malls including Times Square and
Elements said mainlanders are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Times Square
has increased its cross-border bus service to 30 a day to pick up tourists from
Shenzhen, Foshan and Guangzhou. Elements expects mainland shoppers to contribute
40 percent to its overall turnover. The Hong Kong Tourism Board reported tourist
spending rose 3.2 percent to surpass HK$160 billion last year. Chairman James
Tien Pei- chun said average spending of transit visitors also went up 20
percent. 
French President
Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, arrive at the Great Hall of
the People. Wen pledges that China will play a bigger part in global issues -
China yesterday pledged to take a greater role in global issues as it vowed to
work with the European Union on nuclear non-proliferation, energy security and
climate change. In wide-ranging talks between Premier Wen Jiabao and European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the two sides also agreed to fight
protectionism and tear down trade barriers. "China will undertake greater
international responsibilities," Wen said in a joint media appearance with
Barroso after their talks. "This is not only to meet international expectations
but also serves China's interests." The two sides also agreed to set up a
climate change hotline between top environmental officials of the EU and China
to help both sides co-ordinate their positions in global greenhouse gas
negotiations, Barroso said. On the Iranian nuclear issue - a key concern of the
EU and United States - Wen did not say whether Beijing would support new
sanctions against Tehran. He said only that China was committed to the global
nuclear non-proliferation regime and upholding peace in the Middle East. Wen
said: "China will remain in touch with the relevant parties and will play a
positive and constructive role for the early and proper settlement of the
Iranian nuclear issue." Western nations are calling for a fresh round of UN
sanctions but Beijing - a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security
Council - has so far resisted such a move. "China and the European Union have
far more consensus than differences," Wen said. "We both stand for world
multi-polarity and diversity and we both believe that major decisions in world
affairs should be taken in an open, democratic and transparent manner." Barroso
and his delegation will leave Beijing today to attend the opening of the World
Expo in Shanghai. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla
Bruni-Sarkozy - who will also attend the expo - yesterday walked the Great Wall
and wandered the imperial Ming Tombs on a sightseeing stop during their visit to
China. Sarkozy's trip is being billed as a return to healthy diplomatic
relations between the countries after spats over Tibet. The French leader is
also pressing Beijing to support further sanctions on Iran over its nuclear
program. Hours before Sarkozy's planned meeting with NPC chairman Wu Bangguo ,
the French first couple visited the tombs and a section of the Great Wall
usually closed to the public, French officials said. The tombs, on Beijing's
outskirts, were chosen by 13 of the 16 Ming dynasty emperors, who ruled between
1368 and 1644, as their last resting place. Sarkozy will travel to Shanghai
today, where he will attend the opening ceremony for the expo and visit France's
stand at the fair. On Wednesday, the couple went to Xian to visit the terracotta
warriors. 
More
than seven years ago, after Shanghai won the right to host the 2010 World Expo,
thousands of people whooped it up on the city's streets. People from all walks
of life believed the big show would help Shanghai catch up with Beijing, which
was splashing out roughly US$40 billion on the 2008 Olympics. The municipal
government mobilised enormous resources to ensure that expo-related projects
were completed on time, allowing the city to show its best face to the world.
Real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle says Shanghai has spent US$95 billion on
expo-related infrastructure, with analysts describing the scale and pace of
development over the past two years as something never seen before - anywhere.
Now the Shanghai government and people are hoping it all pays off. Xinhua has
reported that the international fair could create as many as 250,000 jobs in the
city and increase Shanghai's gross domestic product growth by 5 percentage
points. If the expo attracts the 70 million visitors that have been forecast,
income from ticket sales and food and beverage sales could top 10 billion yuan
(HK$11.4 billion). The hospitality sector will be one of the top beneficiaries
of the six-month event, which looks like being a windfall for the city's 310
star-rated hotels and 6,000 or so inns, which have 334,000 rooms and 557,000
beds. Cheng Meihong , a deputy director of the Shanghai Tourism Administration,
told a press conference this month that hotel prices were expected to rise
slightly during the expo, as thousands of travellers from other parts of the
country and abroad flocked to Shanghai. But economists say that while the expo
may boost the retail and hospitality sectors in the short term, it will be
difficult for Shanghai to sustain rapid growth after the event. "After all, the
economy doesn't necessarily hinge on the event," Morgan Stanley analyst Allen
Gui said. "Taking a long view, the outlook is still unclear because it's too
early to assess whether the massive infrastructure investments are redundant or
properly needed." When the expo opens tomorrow, Shanghai's Metro system will
have 420 kilometres of track in operation - nearly double last year's total.
That breakneck pace of subway expansion has seen "decentralised" office blocks
sprout up outside the central business district. At the end of last year,
Shanghai had 415,000 square metres of decentralised Grade A office space, Jones
Lang LaSalle said. It predicted the figure would jump to 1.8 million square
metres by the end of 2013. More corporate tenants are leaving the city centre to
take advantage of cheaper rents in the suburbs. Shanghai, one of the mainland's
two main economic locomotives, failed to dodge the bullet when the global
financial crisis struck two years ago. Shrinking external demand knocked the
steam out of Shanghai's economic growth and robust retail sales, which grew 13.6
per cent last year, were not enough to offset the export slowdown. The city's
GDP grew 8.2 per last year, 1.7 percentage points less than in 2008, and the
second consecutive year of single-digit growth. Shanghai had posted double-digit
growth in the previous 16 years - from 1992 to 2007 - as exports from the
Yangtze River Delta boomed and foreign capital flooded in. To add to the blushes
of the city's leaders, including Mayor Han Zheng , Shanghai's GDP growth last
year was also among the lowest recorded by any of the provincial-level regions.
"Shanghai would have to draw a lesson from the slowdown in the past two years,"
Zhang Youwen , the chief world economy researcher at the Shanghai Academy of
Social Sciences, said. "It will be difficult to gauge how much the expo can help
the local economy in the long term." The city took a hammering from the global
financial crisis, lagging behind mainland rivals whose economies kept growing
rapidly, fuelled by Beijing's 4 trillion yuan stimulus package. Shanghai has
been striving to shift its economic focus from manufacturing to services,
seeking to become a big-name metropolis on a par with New York, London and
Paris. Beijing drew up an ambitious blueprint for the city last year,
encouraging Shanghai to transform itself into a global financial and shipping
centre. However, in the absence of substantive liberalization policies,
economists have seen the plan as nothing more than an empty promise. Without
full convertibility of the yuan, they said, Shanghai's dream of becoming an
international financial hub centre would remain illusory. An official with the
Pudong Financial Services Office said district government and city government
officials were preparing to host several events during the expo where they would
lobby for accelerated market deregulation and seek to attract more overseas
investors. Some other governments around the country have also sniffed out
opportunities during the expo, hoping to promote investment and trade when
influential government officials and businesspeople visit the big show. "We
can't afford to miss the big party because it provides a good chance to get to
know the big shots," said Guo Yi , a deputy director of the economic research
department in Jining , Shandong . "It will be a platform to promote Jining's
trade and draw investment to the city."
President Hu visits
Shanghai World Expo Park.
Chinese President Hu
Jintao (C) visits China Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo Park in Shanghai,
east China, April 29, 2010. Hu Jintao paid a visit to the Shanghai World Expo
Park Thursday, two days ahead of the opening of the global event. 
Chinese President Hu
Jintao use sign language to express greetings to a volunteer at Life Sunshine
Pavilion in the expo site in Shanghai, east China, April 29, 2010. Chinese
President Hu Jintao paid a visit to the Shanghai World Expo Park Thursday, two
days ahead of the opening of the global event. 
Enjoy sleepless city of Shanghai.
As Western investments into mainland
companies go, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UK private equity firm Actis
Capital's decision to plough US$73 million into yoghurt drink maker Hunan
Taizinai may qualify as one of the worst. On April 12 the company, which
operates across China but is legally based in the Cayman Islands, was wound up
by a court in the balmy British territory, owing creditors 2.7 billion yuan
(HK$3.1 billion). But back in January 2007, the company and its founder, Li
Tuchun, were the stuff of private equity managers' dreams. Li was a self-made,
energetic entrepreneur who left a state-owned enterprise in Shenzhen in 1990,
aged 30, with 300 yuan in savings. He built Taizinai, which produces probiotic
drinks similar to Japan's Yakult, into a supermarket brand that tapped into the
vast potential of China's nascent consumer goods sector. But by August 2008,
Taizinai was insolvent, according to a confidential report by accountants
Deloitte. After he won the foreign investment, Li massively overexpanded his
business, the accountants said. Deloitte also said it suspected Li of inflating
sales and assets and making payments out of the company that "drained cash". The
report was not an audit, but a draft discussion paper that the accountants
prepared for the private equity investors after addressing detailed questions to
Taizinai's management, including Li. 
After days of intense speculation, the
future of outgoing Swire Pacific (0019) heavyweight Philip Chen Nan-lok is now
clear. He will join Hang Lung Group (0010) and subsidiary Hang Lung Properties
(0101) as managing director of both firms. And he will get HK$21 million a year
for his services. Chen - the first Chinese to head Cathay Pacific (0293) -
announced on April 19 that he will step down as chairman of John Swire & Sons
(China), deputy chairman of Cathay Pacific and all other Swire posts on July 1.
He said the decision was prompted by his "desire to pursue other interests." The
shock announcement triggered media speculation that Chen will join PCCW (0008) -
which issued an immediate denial - or Hysan Development (0014). Hang Lung
chairman Ronnie Chan Chi-chung said he looks forward to working closely with
Chen, and that their appointment talks began "a few months ago." "Chen is a
well-rounded person, with experience in all aspects and also has a good
personality," Chan said. "I think he is a management professional who is hard to
come by," he told The Standard. Chan said though Chen lacks property experience,
the departing Swire executive will prove to be a good leader for Hang Lung's
property experts. "I believe the group will have bright prospects with Chen as
managing director," he said. Chen will succeed Nelson Yuen Wai-leung on July 15.
That is the day Yuen retires after 32 years of service with the group to become
a board adviser. He has been managing director for the past 17 years. Chan noted
Chen's pay will be "exactly the same" as Yuen's was because he will have similar
responsibilities. According to Hang Lung's statement to the bourse, Chen is,
apart from the HK$21 million a year, entitled to a bonus of HK$5.2 million at
the end of June next year. In addition, Chen will be granted the option to apply
for 10 million Hang Lung Properties shares and receive a director's fee from
Hang Lung Group. His total remuneration from the Swire Group in 2008 and 2009
was HK$15.1 million and HK$14.2 million, respectively. Hang Lung Group closed
down 3.3 percent at HK$39 and Hang Lung Properties ended 2.7 percent down at
HK$29.20 before Chen's appointment was announced.
Cathay Pacific Airways (SEHK: 0293)
said on Wednesday its operations had returned to normal after its flights to
Europe were disrupted for a week after ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano
covered a huge part of the European continent. Cathay Pacific’s chief executive
Tony Tyler said although the airline’s business had been affected, it was too
early to decide whether it would adjust its fares like other airlines. “The
closure of the European airspace has some impacts on our revenues, but I am
pleased to say we are recovering very quickly. “It’s too early to calculate the
total financial impact, we will probably make a statement about it later,” Tyler
said. 
'Referendum' push has failed, top adviser
says - Think-tank polls say most oppose poll campaign. The campaign to make next
month's Legco by-elections a "de facto referendum" on democratisation is a
failure, the government's chief adviser declared yesterday. Professor Lau
Siu-kai, the head of the Central Policy Unit, said its surveys had consistently
shown that more than half the people opposed the campaign. Five lawmakers from
the League of Social Democrats and the Civic Party resigned from their seats to
trigger the polls, hoping to offer voters the chance to show they wanted
"genuine" democracy. Campaign organisers rejected Lau's claim. Lau said the unit
had conducted more than three public opinion polls in recent months - he could
not recall how many exactly, nor over what time period they had been done. Each
had a sample size of about 1,000. In each survey, more than half the respondents
said they opposed the movement for a "de facto referendum" and thought it had
failed. Citing the findings and those of others, Lau said people did not think
the campaign would put pressure on Beijing to compromise on electoral reform,
and felt it lacked large-scale support. League chairman Andrew To Kwan-hang
dismissed Lau's conclusion. "Uncle Kai already maxed out his credit limit when
he wrongly predicted the turnout of the march on July 1, 2003." Lau reportedly
predicted only about 30,000 would join the protest, which saw an estimated
500,000 people take to the streets. Meanwhile, a minister had a message for
pan-democrats unhappy with the government's proposal for electoral reform in
2012: take it or leave it, and don't expect any second helpings. Since the
government had already "racked its brains" in preparing the proposal - which
pan-democrats look likely to veto - there would be no room to come up with one
more democratic, constitutional affairs chief Stephen Lam Sui-lung said. Under
questioning from Democrat Cheung Man-kwong, Lam said if Legco voted down the
proposals there would not be enough time before 2012 to restart the five-step
process Beijing has set down for drawing up electoral reforms. But Cheung said
after the meeting that the government would have no option but to come up with a
new proposal if its refusal to make concessions meant the current one was
vetoed. The government is proposing to create 10 new Legco seats. But five of
them would be functional constituency seats voted on by 405 district councillors.
The membership of the Election Committee that picks the chief executive would
rise by half, to 1,200. Pan-democrats have rejected these proposals on the
grounds they are too conservative and lack a road map to universal suffrage.
A top executive of the MTR Corporation
(SEHK: 0066) acquired his degree from a diploma mill in the United States that
was ordered to close seven years ago. According to the MTR's annual report last
year, operations director Andrew McCusker holds a degree in mechanical
engineering from the now-defunct Kensington University in California. The
school, however, was never accredited by a recognised accrediting agency or
association recognised by the United States Secretary of Education, shareholder
activist and former HKEx (SEHK: 0388, announcements, news) director David Webb
has found. "[McCusker] may well be a highly experienced and competent engineer,
certainly the MTRC seems to think so," Webb wrote in his online newsletter. "But
he might benefit from dropping his claim to a degree in engineering." The
school, according to the Los Angeles Times in 1996, had no classrooms,
laboratories or dorms; the campus was housed in a small office building, while
students earned their degrees at home without attending a class or meeting
instructors. The First Circuit Court of Hawaii, where the university was
incorporated, ordered it to be shut down in 2003 and tuition fees to be refunded
to all students since 1999, after it failed to obtain degree-awarding status.
The MTR Corp said McCusker, 65, had more than 15 years of experience when he
joined it as operations engineering manager in 1987, and the company looked not
just at education, but also at work experience, when recruiting for senior
positions. It was understood McCusker had worked for about eight years when he
began his Kensington degree in 1980. Edmund Leung Kwong-ho, former chairman of
the local branch of Britain's Institution of Mechanical Engineers - where
McCusker is a chartered member - said the institute required members to have an
accredited degree, but an engineer with ample work experience could also apply
as a mature candidate. 
Automated Systems Holdings, the leading
information-technology services provider to the Hong Kong government, plans to
accelerate expansion on the mainland and across Southeast Asia after recording
virtually flat sales in its last fiscal year. "We are working closely with
Beijing Teamsun Technology, the group's controlling shareholder, to capture more
business opportunities throughout the mainland," Automated chief executive Lai
Yam-ting said yesterday. Lai said potential mergers and acquisitions were being
considered for growth in Southeast Asia, where Automated already had operations
in Thailand. The company posted a HK$115.8 million net profit in the year to
March, up 171.4 per cent from HK$42.7 million a year earlier, boosted by a
one-off gain from the disposal of its global managed services business in August
last year. Revenue fell 2.3 per cent to HK$1.33 billion, due to a slowdown in
information-technology hardware and services sales. Lai, however, noted that the
improving economy helped the company grow in the January-March period, when it
generated HK$28.8 million in profit before taxation that was higher than those
of the previous three quarters combined. He said Automated would focus more on
growing its technology solutions business - which includes professional,
maintenance and outsourcing services - as it further develops operations on the
mainland and across Southeast Asia. About 61.2 per cent of the firm's revenue
for the year to March still came from its traditional infrastructure business,
which is based on sales of hardware such as computer servers and storage
systems. Market research firm International Data Corp forecast the mainland
information-technology services market this year to reach 82 billion yuan from
73.09 billion yuan last year. Lai said Teamsun, which bought the 68.4 per cent
holding of US-based consulting and outsourcing specialist Computer Sciences Corp
for HK$262.4 million in September, provides Automated with strategic support on
the mainland through its 30 branches nationwide.
Kong Siu-kau, 63, has a tea break at the
entrance to his cage home. Cages can cost HK$1,500 a month. The redevelopment of
old buildings in Hong Kong is cutting down the supply of "cage homes" in
centrally located areas and forcing up rents for the unemployed and
underemployed who can least afford to meet higher living costs. On a per square
foot basis, those who occupy "cages" of no more than 15 sqft created by
subdividing old apartments into up to 50 separate living compartments now pay
landlords from several hundred dollars to up to HK$1,500 in rent each. That
translates into a rental charge of HK$100 per square foot, which is at least 25
per cent higher than the per square foot cost of renting a luxury house on The
Peak, where effective rents for a 3,000 sqft house range between HK$70 and HK$80
per sq ft.
French President
Sarkozy seeks to bury the hatchet with Beijing - French President Nicolas
Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, arrive at the airport in Beijing on
Wednesday. French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for
a visit aimed at reinvigorating ties tested two years ago over Tibet and at
winning China’s support for new sanctions against Iran. The French president,
making his second state visit to China, was to head straight into a meeting with
his opposite number Hu Jintao and address the media to kick off the official
part of his three-day trip. Sarkozy – along with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy
and a delegation of top ministers – began the day with an initial stop in the
ancient capital of Xian, where the couple visited the famed terracotta warriors
under tight security. The French leader will also meet Premier Wen Jiabao and
other top officials during his time in Beijing before heading to Shanghai on
Friday for the start of the World Expo. “China has become an absolutely
indispensable actor on the world stage,” Sarkozy told China’s state Xinhua news
agency in an interview published on Wednesday. “Today, there is not one major
issue that we can handle without you.” Paris hopes to win China’s support for
fresh UN sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program, but first
Sarkozy has to seal France’s reconciliation with Beijing, two years after a
heated row over Tibet. In March 2008, just four months after Sarkozy’s first
state visit to China, ties soured when the French leader expressed shock at the
security crackdown in the Chinese-ruled region after protests there led to
deadly violence. A month later, the Chinese leadership was incensed when
pro-Tibetan demonstrators booed and jostled the Olympic flame as it was carried
through Paris on its way to the Beijing Games. Tensions peaked when Sarkozy met
the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, in December 2008, before
starting to ease when the French leader met Hu at the G20 summit on the
financial crisis last year. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, during a
visit to China in December, said any “misunderstandings” between Paris and
Beijing were a thing of the past. In his talks with Hu, Sarkozy is expected to
seek Beijing’s backing for an overhaul of the global monetary system by the G20,
but a French official said the leaders would not directly discuss foreign
concerns over the yuan’s value. On Thursday, he will meet China’s top legislator
Wu Bangguo, the second highest-ranking figure in the Communist hierarchy, before
seeing Wen on Friday. The French president will mix politics with sightseeing
during the trip, with scheduled visits to the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs and the
Forbidden City. Sarkozy will on Friday head to Shanghai, where he will
officially open the French pavilion at the World Expo and take part in the
opening ceremony for the six-month exhibition. Cooperation agreements on
ecology, higher education and the creation of new businesses are to be signed
during Sarkozy’s visit, according to French officials. “New chapters are about
to be written in China’s relationships with France and with the European Union,”
the China Daily said Wednesday in an editorial. “French President Nicolas
Sarkozy’s three-day visit shows how each side has let bygones be bygones. It
could be seen as a formal announcement to the world that the China-France
relationship is now back to normal.” Hu is scheduled to make a state visit to
France later this year. 
VIP guests take a look at the Aston Martin concept Rapide, a 12-cylinder,
four-door sports car at the Beijing Auto China on Sunday. Luxury auto market
zooms ahead in mainland - The businessman climbed into the Rolls Royce Phantom
with the gold-plated Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament and sank his feet into
wine-red carpet. He says he has a Mercedes S600 sedan and a Jaguar sports car at
home but needs something for work. “I just have to consider whether it’s too
flashy. But otherwise there’s no problem. The price isn’t a big problem,” said
the 32-year-old visitor to the Beijing auto show, who would give only his
surname, Liu. Free-spending new rich who have made mainland a key growth market
for luxury goods makers are more important than ever to US, European and
Japanese creators of high-end automobiles. Sales here are surging while they sag
elsewhere and manufacturers are pulling out the stops to woo mainland buyers.
Mainland is “increasingly becoming the engine of our industry”, said Dieter
Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG. Sales of its Mercedes-Benz cars in mainland soared
112 per cent in the first quarter of this year to 23,600 vehicles. Volkswagen
AG’s Audi unit, BMW AG’s Rolls Royce, Fiat SpA’s Ferrari and other makers of
high-priced wheels are seeing similar gains. The surge has been propelled by an
economic boom that created a new crop of millionaires and several dozen
billionaires in a country that had almost no private cars 15 years ago. Mainland
now has 825,000 people worth at least 10 million yuan (HK11.35 million),
according to Rupert Hoogewerf, a researcher of wealthy mainlanders. The new rich
“need some luxury products to validate themselves”, said Wang Honghao, editor in
chief of the automotive magazine Trends Car. “Whether it’s luxury cars or luxury
luggage, or perfume, clothes, accessories, it’s all the same.” Mainland’s auto
market, the world’s biggest since last year, defied the global downturn on the
strength of Beijing’s 4 trillion yuan, which boosted stock and real estate
prices. Luxury car sales in mainland soared 66 per cent in the first quarter
from a year earlier, well ahead of 14 per cent growth in the United States and a
6 per cent fall in Germany, homeland of Benz and BMW, according to JD Power and
Associates. BMW AG’s Rolls Royce says sales in mainland, its third-largest
market after the United States and Britain, rose 200 per cent in the first
quarter from a year earlier to more than 20 vehicles despite a base price of 6.6
million yuan. Rolls Royce’s mainland sales are so strong that it added a
production line and hired more workers partly to meet the demand. “I see China
will even overtake the UK, our home market, this year and that we will see the
Chinese market as the second-most-important market after the US,” CEO Torsten
Mueller-Oetvoes said. As mainland’s jet-setting elite gets more sophisticated,
luxury automakers are focusing on building their brand image with this niche
audience. Rolls Royce publishes a Putonghua luxury lifestyle magazine and
invites customers from mainland to visit its factory in Goodwood, England, to
see their cars being made. Mercedes-Benz hired movie stars Zhang Ziyi and Li
Bingbing to promote its cars. Luxury automakers are opening dealerships in
cities as farflung as Chengdu and holds private gatherings for buyers who want
to share their enthusiasm for cars. Mainland customers are getting more
discerning and companies need to work to reach them, said Matthew Bennett,
regional director of Aston Martin Asia Pacific. “It’s simple things like
increasing the number of people in the company who can speak Mandarin,” he said.
“The growth in China doesn’t come for free. You have to invest and it will
come.” China’s most popular luxury car is the Audi A6L, favoured by government
officials. Sales were up 14 per cent in March over a year earlier to 9,983,
though that was driven partly by stimulus spending that is winding down this
year. Aston Martin – which showcased a DBS like the one James Bond drove in
Quantum of Solace – sold about 80 cars in mainland last year. Bennett said
mainland is likely to become the company’s top market in Asia by next year,
though he would not give a sales target. Bennett got a surprise when he showed
the company’s concept Rapide, a 12-cylinder, four-door sports car, to VIP
customers in Beijing in January. “We had about five or seven people on the night
who said, ‘Yup, fine, I’ll take it’,” he said. “They hadn’t seen other colours.
They hadn’t driven the car. We hadn’t confirmed the price at that point. They
said, ‘No, no, I’ll have it’.” The price: 3.6 million yuan. The luxury car
market already is big enough that manufacturers are willing to make basic
changes to suit wealthy mainland customers. Mercedes unveiled an extended
E-class sedan at the Beijing auto show aimed at mainland buyers, who are more
likely to sit in back and have chauffeurs. The new Mercedes gives them an extra
140 millimeters of legroom in back. Zetsche said the company is open to changing
other cars. “I don’t think it would be wise generally to adjust and change the
vehicles to become ‘more Chinese’,” he said. “On the other hand, there are
specifics in this marketplace. … To acknowledge these specifics makes sense and
therefore we have this extended version.”
