China Economy Forum

[bobsm]

SASAC: CHINA RAIL CONS Wins Bid of Kolasin-Kos Railway Project

2015/10/14 08:17

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) announced that during the national holiday, CHINA RAIL CON's subsidiary China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) received a notice in relation to the tender of Kolasin-Kos railway project. The company won the bid for the tender which made a significant breakthrough for Chinese companies in the European railway market.


SASAC: CHINA RAIL CONS Wins Bid of Kolasin-Kos Railway ProjectAASTOCKS Financial News - Latest News

 

[bobsm]

Annual GDP growth nearly 8 percent during the Twelfth Five-year Plan period
(People's Daily Online) 08:39, October 15, 2015

According to a report issued by the National Bureau of Statistics on Oct. 13, during the Twelfth Five-year Plan (2011-2015), China's annual GDP growth is expected to be nearly 8 percent, which not only is 2.5 percent higher than the annual global GDP growth of the same period, but also is ranked top among the major economies in the world.

From 2011 to 2014, China's annual GDP growth was 8 percent, which has transformed from high-speed growth to high-middle speed growth. In 2014 China's economic aggregate was 63.6 trillion yuan or 10.4 trillion USD, ranking second in the world and accounting for 13.3 percent of the world's total.

During the Twelfth Five-year Plan period, China's economic restructuring have taken new steps. The tertiary industry has become the biggest industry. In 2012 the current price added value of China's tertiary industry accounted for 45.5 percent of the GDP, which meant that the tertiary industry had surpassed the first industry and become the largest industry. In 2014 the proportion of the tertiary industry accounted for 48.1 percent of the total GDP. And in the first half of 2015 the figure rose to 49.5 percent.

With the steady progress of urbanization at the end of 2011, China's urban population for the first time exceeded their rural population. From 2011 to 2014 the urban population annually increased nearly 20 million, which has brought tremendous investment and consumption demand. During the Twelfth Five-year Plan period the economic operation quality and the sustainable development capacity of China continues to rise.

According to the report, clean energy consumption, such as hydro power, wind power, nuclear power and natural gas accounted for 16.9 percent of the total energy consumed in 2014, which was 3.5 percent higher than that of 2010.


Annual GDP growth nearly 8 percent during the Twelfth Five-year Plan period - People's Daily Online

 

[TaiShang]

China sees 10,000 new firms every day: official
October 11, 2015
China sees more than 10,000 firms born every day amid government support for entrepreneurship, a vice minister said on Saturday.

Most of the firms are small enterprises. Data was collected last March through the end of August this year and about 6 million firms were registered during the period, said Xin Guobin, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology.

The government has been cutting taxes and fees, helping small firms save about 48.6 billion yuan (7.93 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of the year, Xin said.

Lending to small firms stood at 16.2 trillion yuan at the end of June, up 14.5 percent from last year, Xin said.

However, he admitted small firms are facing challenges amid economic slowdown, slumping product prices, rising costs and production overcapacity.

 

[ahojunk]

China-DPRK border trade zone opens
2015-10-16 09:27 | Xinhua | Editor: Mo Hong'e

Authorities in northeast China's Liaoning Province on Thursday opened a trade zone with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The Guomenwan trade zone in the city of Dandong covers an area of 40,000 square meters and involves an investment of 1 billion yuan (158 million U.S. dollars).

Residents living within 20 km of the border will be able to exchange commodities at the marketplace with people from the DPRK and enjoy a duty-free policy if spending less than 8,000 yuan (1,260 U.S. dollars) per day.

"This will be an open trade platform," said Chen Quantong, chairman of China All Access (Holdings) Ltd, operator of the trade zone.

Chen said apart from buying in the brick-and-mortar stores in the zone, consumers can also make purchases on its e-commerce platform.

Tang Shenfei, deputy director of Liaoning provincial bureau of foreign trade and economic cooperation, said the zone will help boost the border trade and increase incomes of both Chinese and DPRK people.

Dandong is the key hub for trade, investment and tourism between China and the DPRK. There are more than 600 border trade enterprises in the city, and trade with the DPRK accounts for 40 percent of the city's total trade turnover.

 

[ahojunk]

AidData dispels notions about China's motivation in aid to Africa
by Christopher Katella, AidData | October 15, 2015

Research published by AidData, a leader in the global movement to change the way that development assistance is targeted, measured and evaluated that is housed at William & Mary, found that Chinese aid to Africa does not favor authoritarian or corrupt regimes, despite the rhetoric of Western policymakers. However, African countries that align with China’s voting at the United Nations General Assembly tend to receive more development assistance from Beijing.

These two findings are included in a massive, updated dataset tracking more than $94 billion in Chinese funding to 50 African countries from 2000 to 2013.

In "Apples and Dragon Fruits: The Determinants of Aid and Other Forms of State Financing from China to Africa," AidData researchers from William & Mary, Heidelberg and Harvard universities refute popular misconceptions and clarify common misunderstandings about what the Chinese are up to in Africa.

The main source of confusion, they find, is a failure to differentiate between aid in the strictest sense (“official development assistance,” or ODA) and more commercial forms of state financing. Beijing has made the problem worse, they find. By disclosing little reliable information about its overseas development activities, it has fueled speculation and made it difficult to confront false and exaggerated claims with evidence.

Among other findings, the authors report that:

● When African states consistently vote with China in the UN General Assembly, or align their voting with China’s voting over time, they tend to receive more ODA from Beijing.

● Contrary to a commonly held belief by Western policymakers, China does not privilege authoritarian regimes or so-called “rogue states” in its allocation of ODA.

● China does not seem to take commercial self-interest or natural-resource acquisition considerations into account when it allocates ODA. In fact, Chinese ODA flows to Africa are strongly oriented towards poorer countries, suggesting that Beijing considers humanitarian needs when making allocation decisions.

● Despite the popular perception that “Chinese aid” is funnelled to corrupt and natural resource-rich countries, Chinese ODA does not favor countries that are rich in natural resources and countries with higher levels of corruption. It is less concessional – and more commercially-oriented – forms of Chinese state financing (e.g. so-called “other official flows,” or OOF) that flow disproportionately to such countries.

● China’s aid-giving motivations actually bear a striking and surprising resemblance to those of Western donors.

Visit aiddata.org/aiddata-working-paper-series to download “Apples and Dragon Fruits.” AidData worked with Foreign Affairs to create this visualization, also released today: Aid and Other Financing to Africa from China.

The analysis in “Apples and Dragon Fruits” was made possible through a large and ongoing open-source data collection and triangulation initiative at AidData that to date has helped identify more than 2,300 Chinese development projects in Africa (via china.aiddata.org). The updated (1.2) version of AidData’s Chinese Official Finance to Africa dataset – also released today – reflects and includes data drawn from more than 6,000 sources, including academic case studies, NGO reports, individual Chinese ministry press releases, diplomatic cables, implementing agency websites and media reports. It also eliminates some data gaps, including health-aid information that was corrected based on feedback from Chinese government officials and university researchers.

The introduction of “Health of Record” scores that help external users distinguish between project records that are more reliable and project records that require further validation.

 

[bobsm]

IBM allows gov't to access its software codes
2015-10-16 11:21China DailyEditor: Wang Fan

In order to unlock the billion-dollar government procurement market, IBM Corp will allow the government access to its software codes, a senior executive said on Thursday.

The company is the first overseas tech major to publicly announce such a move.

IBM agreed to let the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and its certified institutes to examine IBM products in a "cleanroom" to make sure they fit national information security policies, said Steve Mills, senior vice-president of IBM software and systems unit.

Calling the plan "the ability to address 'secure and controllable' China initiative," Mills said the company's growth in China needs government sponsorship.

He did not specify if all the products the company sells in China will submit to the examination.

Charlie Dai, principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc, said the move demonstrated the collaborative attitude of IBM to work with Chinese government and help in the digital transformation for Chinese companies.

"It also shows that IBM is under pressure to sustain its business growth in China, addressing the security concerns of Chinese government and ecosystem expansion are two critical steps," Dai said.

China is on full alert about information security threats since former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden unveiled massive surveillance schemes carried out by the US government.

Information technology products purchased by government bodies and State-owned enterprises all come under the category of government procurement sector.Industry regulators are vetting all the items for possible security vulnerabilities.

IBM allows gov't to access its software codes

 

[bobsm]

4G comes of age with 400m users likely by end of year
2015-10-15 10:03
China DailyEditor: Qian Ruisha

Editor's Note: The Communist Party of China Central Committee meets later this month in Beijing to set the course for the world's second-largest economy over the next five years. China Daily takes stock of the major economic progress achieved during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15).

Less than two years after China first started getting used to fourth-generation telecom technology, the country has become the world's largest 4G market, with the biggest user population and most sophisticated networks.

Identified arguably as the brightest achievement in the national information technology sector over the past five years, the country has the goal of connecting 400 million people to 4G networks by the end of the year.

Chen Shanzhi, vice-president of Chinese telecom equipment maker Datang Group, is in no doubt about the importance of this next generation technology in telecom.

"The rapid expansion in 4G was one of the greatest successes of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15)," he said.

China's ambitious 4G plan started a decade ago, when the central government was drawing its five-year national development strategy for the telecommunications sector.

Initial trials of the Time Division-Long Term Evolution technology－or TD-LTE, a 4G standard mainly developed by local telecom companies－were kicked off at the beginning of the 12th Five-Year Plan.

China pushed TD-LTE standard ahead of other widely accepted standards, hoping the self-developed technology would become a driving force for the sector.

China Mobile Ltd, the country's biggest telecom carrier by subscribers, started offering the commercial use of the TD-LTE in early 2013.

The smaller carriers, all State-owned, had to wait until the last days of that year to receive licenses to fully commercialize their 4G networks, using the European-originated LTE FDD, or Division Duplex standard.

China Mobile has dominated the domestic 4G market since then, with more than 200 million subscribers by August, according to its latest statistics.

There were more than 277 million 4G users nationwide, a 65 percent surge compared to the year before, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The number of 3G users, currently the largest telecom customer group, meanwhile, steadily declined as many upgraded to 4G, according to the ministry. The number of 3G users dropped more than 7.8 million in August, the steepest fall in three months.

Cao Shumin, president of the government think tank, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said sales of 4G smartphones have risen at the same pace－at around 40 million a month－as has the level of mobile data traffic.

"The building of advanced telecom infrastructures in recent years has spurred an array of related sectors, and fits into the national strategy of letting the development of IT lift domestic consumption," Cao said.

Chinese customers have a growing choice of phones available, too, from the 6,000 yuan ($944) iPhone 6S to relatively inexpensive devices priced below 800 yuan.


4G comes of age with 400m users likely by end of year

 

[ahojunk]

The best human rights - free from poverty, good living condition (including clean sanitation), stable, safe and orderly environment, ...

-------
China resettles 6.8 mln to escape poverty
2015-10-17 07:29 | Xinhua | Editor: Gu Liping

China has resettled 6.8 million people from poor areas with harsh environments in an attempt to free them of poverty, the country's top economic planner said on Friday.

Since 2001, the central government has spent 36.3 billion yuan (5.7 billion U.S. dollars) on resettlements, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). From 2010 to 2015, China has spent 23.1 billion yuan on resettling 3.94 million citizens in 17 provinces and regions. There are still about 10 million poor Chinese living in mountains and deserts who need to be resettled in the next five years.

More than 600 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the past 15 years, accounting for about 70 percent of all those brought out of poverty worldwide,.

Addressing the Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum in Beijing on Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged that China will do more to lift the country's remaining 70 million poor people above the poverty line by 2020.

 

[bobsm]

Chinese bag Dubai power plant deal
menafn.com | Posted: 15 Oct 2015

Dubai Water and Electricity Authority has chosen a consortium including China's Harbin Electric and Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power as the preferred bidder to build and operate a 1,200 megawatt clean coal power plant.

The plant is the first phase of the 1.8 billion Hassyan clean coal project under planning by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA). One unit of 600 MW is to be operational by March 2020 and another unit of the same size by March 2021.

DEWA will be the major stakeholder with a 51 percent share in the company established to build and operate the Hassyan plant.

But the bulk of the cost will be shouldered by the consortium. It is talking to Chinese-state owned credit agency Export-Import Bank of China and lenders including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Standard Chartered and Abu Dhabi's First Gulf Bank about a 1.4 billion loan for the project, Paddy Padmanathan, chief executive of ACWA Power, told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of an event to announce the preferred bidder.

DEWA will finance around a further 200 million of the project, with the consortium raising the final chunk from equity, officials said.

The consortium bid to provide electricity at a levelised cost of 4.501 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour based on May 2015 coal prices, DEWA said.

Harbin Electric and Alstom of France will build the plant while those companies as well as ACWA and U.S.-based NRG Energy will operate it, DEWA said on Tuesday. DEWA said it plans to launch two additional projects to bring the eventual total capacity of Hassyan to 3,600 MW.


Chinese bag Dubai power plant deal - OFweek News

 

[Raphael]

China robot sales to almost triple by 2018: industry group| Reuters

Sales of robots in China are set to almost triple by 2018, defying a slowdown in the wider economy, the International Federation of Robotics said on Friday.

China is trying to modernize its industrial production and has identified robotics as a major area for growth amid labor shortages and fast-rising wages.

The world's second-largest economy still has far lower robot penetration than other big industrialized economies - just 36 per 10,000 manufacturing workers versus 478 in South Korea, 315 in Japan, 292 in Germany and 164 in the United States.

Frankfurt-based IFR said in a statement that annual robot sales to China would jump to 150,000 by 2018, up from 57,000 in 2014.

"The robotics industry is exhibiting rapid growth – completely unperturbed by the current economic fallow period experienced by other areas of Chinese industry," China Robot Industry Alliance Secretary General Song Xiaogang said in IFR's statement.

China's robot market is still dominated by foreign players like ABB, Kuka and Yaskawa but China is encouraging its own robot makers with subsidies and the number of Chinese robotics firms is growing fast.

Few of them have their own technology and struggle to compete on price alone, but in the long run the domestic robot industry is expected to become a leading force.

 

[EAsian]

CHINESE GDP BEATS AT 6.9% | Business Insider
Chinese Q3 GDP is out, and as it has done in three of the past four GDP reports, it’s beaten expectations by 0.1%.

In annualised terms the economy grew by 6.9%, ahead of expectations for growth of 6.8%. The figure was slightly below the 7.0% growth rate reported in the June quarter. Despite the small beat, the annual growth rate was the slowest recorded since Q1 2009.

According to the preliminary estimate from China’s national bureau of statistics (NBS), value added growth of the primary industry was 3,919.5 billion yuan, up 3.8% year-on-year, while that for secondary industry was 19,779.9 billion yuan, an increase of 6.0%. Growth in the nation’s tertiary industry, the largest component of all three, was 25,077.9 billion yuan, up by 8.4%.

From a quarterly perspective, GDP increased by 1.8%, ahead of expectations for growth of 1.7%.


“In the first three quarters of 2015, as the recovery of the world economy was weaker than expected, China was facing increasing downward pressure of domestic economic development,” said the NBS.

“Under the tough situation, the Central Party Committee and the State Council took full consideration of domestic and global situations, adopted scientific measures to stabilize economic growth, promote reforms, enhance restructuring, benefit people and control risks, implemented effective range-based, targeted and discretionary macro regulation, further deepened the reform and opening up, encouraged mass entrepreneurship and innovation and increased supply of public goods and services. As a result, the overall performance of national economy was stable and moving in a positive direction.”

While the GDP growth rate came in ahead of expectations, monthly data released for September – with the exception of retail sales – undershot badly to the downside.

Industrial production grew by just 5.7% from September 2014, a figure well below the 6.1% pace seen in August and expectations for a moderation to 6.0%. Urban fixed asset investment, essentially infrastructure investment, also tanked compared to its previously lofty standards, increasing by just 10.3% over the past 12 months. The reading, down from 10.9% in August, was well below market expectations for growth of 10.8% and marked the slowest annual expansion seen since June 2000.

While the monthly readings on infrastructure and industry missed, fitting with the economic rebalancing currently underway in China, retail sales grew by 10.9%, topping the 10.8% level expected.


The market reaction to the data has been mildly positive, perhaps reflective of the view that despite the GDP beat, weakness in the monthly data may see further monetary and fiscal stimulus arrive in the months ahead, further underpinning growth.

Stocks have moved higher, or have come off their intrasession lows, while the Australian dollar, a proxy for sentiment towards China, is currently trading up 0.17% against its US namesake at .7269.

 

[Huan]

It feels like a D+ grade on a report card. lol

 

[TaiShang]

China's property investment up 2.6% in first 3 quarters
| October 19, 2015, Monday |

ONLINE EDITION

Investment in China's property sector rose 2.6 percent year on year to 7.05 trillion yuan (US$1.1 trillion) in the first three quarters of 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics announced Monday.

The growth was 0.9 percentage point slower than that in the first eight months and down by 2 percentage points from that in the first half.

China retail sales up 10.9% in Sept.
| October 19, 2015, Monday |

ONLINE EDITION

CHINA'S retail sales of consumer goods grew 10.9 percent year on year in September, slightly higher than 10.8 percent for August, official data showed Monday.

The figure marked the highest rate of growth since the beginning of this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In the first three quarters, total sales rose 10.5 percent from a year earlier to 21.61 trillion yuan (US$3.4 trillion).

In the same period, retail sales in rural areas expanded by 11.7 percent, outpacing the rate of 10.3 percent for sales in urban areas.

Online sales surged by 36.2 percent to 2.59 trillion yuan from January to September, totaling about 12 percent in gross retail sales, the NBS said.

@Economic superpower

China's industrial output up 5.7% in September
| October 19, 2015, Monday |

ONLINE EDITION

China's value-added industrial output expanded 5.7 percent year on year in September, down from 6.1 percent in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

Year-on-year growth in the first three quarters stood at 6.2 percent, slightly down from 6.3 percent in the first eight months.

Manufacturing output expanded 6.7 percent, down from 6.8 percent in August. Mining output growth slowed to 1.2 percent from the 4 percent in August. Meanwhile, the output of the electricity, heating, gas and water sectors increased 0.7 percent, down from 1.2 percent last month, the bureau said.

The figures also showed that industrial output in China's western areas rose 8 percent in September year on year, followed by 7.8 percent in central regions and and 6 percent in eastern regions. Industrial output in the northeastern areas dropped 1.8 percent.

China uses value-added industrial output to measure the final value of industrial production, or the value of gross industrial output minus intermediate input, such as raw materials and labor costs.

The NBS data only tracks the output of large Chinese companies with annual primary business revenues of more than 20 million yuan (US$3.15 million).

 

[oproh]

For an economy the size of China, that kind of growth is so impressive.

 

[liall]

For an economy the size of China, that kind of growth is so impressive.

It still is the slowest for China since 2009. We need China to grow faster so that we can grow fast as well.