China economic headlines

China Economic Headlines
General news on Chinese economy
China tackles underlying problems in economy
China has realized some fundamental economic problems contributing to the ongoing overheating in certain economic sectors and has begun to take actions against them. These issues, identified at an executive meeting of the State Council in mid-July and by renowned economists, are as follows: Over- investment and low consumption rate; Excessive government interference in micro-economic affairs, which often leads to irrational investment decisions; and High cost and high energy consumption, or an extensive mode of production. (Aug 3, Xinhuanet)

China industry data points to soft landing
Growth in China's industrial output slowed in the year through July for the fifth
month in a row but the central bank said it would keep a tight grip on credit to
help steer the economy to a soft landing. Economists said they expected the
moderating trend to persist, slowing industrial growth to around 15 percent as
credit curbs and government orders to halt investment in overheated sectors
continued to ripple through the world's seventh-largest economy. (Aug 10,
Reuters)

Stronger Consumption in July
China saw yet another rapid year-on-year growth of consumption in July, as
retail sales surged to 50.9 billion US dollars, a 13 percent increase over one
year ago. The National Bureau of Statistics says the July growth was a little
slower than the 13.9 percent in June, but it was still one of the highest growth
rates in eight years if such contingent factors as the SARS epidemic last year
are discounted. (Aug 13, CRI)
Israel-China Bilateral Relations
Datang selects RADCOM for 3G monitoring solution
RADCOM, a network test and quality management solutions provider,
announced that Datang Telecom Technology, has selected the Cellular
Performer system for mobile data services testing. Datang Telecom
Technology is a telecommunications integrator and equipment supplier
headquartered in Bejing, China. They use the Cellular Performer to monitor the
performance of mobile subscriber services provisioned over TD-SCDMA based
networks. The Cellular Performer is a system solution that monitors the performance of Radio Access, Core Signaling and Core IP network components. By detecting network errors and abnormal session/call scenarios, it significantly decreases troubleshooting time and expense. (Aug 11, TD-SCDMA) News on various sectors

Agriculture
Super Paddy Field Yields 14 Tons per Hectare
China's experimental super paddy field in the country's south-eastern province of Fujian has yielded some 14 tons of rice per hectare. The Ministry of Agriculture plans to promote the field and its innovative planting methods next
year in southern China. The rice seeds were first sent to space for genetic
alteration and then the best ones were selected and crossbred by Chinese rice
expert Xie Anhua. (Aug 13, CRI)

Consumer Goods

Digital camera standard in pipeline
The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) confirmed yesterday that it is working
on a national standard for digital cameras to ensure the healthy development of
the industry, reported Monday's China Daily. However, there was no exact
timetable for the release of the standard so far. (Aug 2, Xinhuanet)

Chinese consumers prefer foreign high-tech goods
High-tech products of Chinese brands are less appealing to domestic
consumers than foreign brands, according to a China Digital Brand Survey
conducted by the organizing committee of the 2004 China Internet Conference.
Foreign products beat home brands in notebooks, mobile phones and digital
cameras. The home brand Lenovo led its foreign rivals as favorite PC; Google,
Baidu and 3721 remained the favorite search engines for Chinese cyber surfers.
(Aug 3, C114)

China DVD Player Industry Suffering from Oversupply
The oversupply of DVD players in China forced over 30 small makers to shut
down in the first half of this year and pushed typical retail prices down to 500 to
600 yuan, around 70 US dollars, per unit. (Aug 9, CRI)

China's exports of high-end color TV grow hugely in first half
China's exports of high-end color TVs grew hugely in the first half of the year,
as the country exported 30,000 PDP (plasma display panel) color TVs -- 115
times as many as last year, according to Ministry of Commerce statistics. The
total value of the sets was 55.38 million US dollars, almost 300 times as much
as last year. (Aug 10, Xinhuanet)

Energy

Last pipe welded for China's west-east gas pipeline project
The last pipe of China's landmark project to pump natural gas from the
resource-rich west to the energy-thirsty east was welded Tuesday morning,
according to sources with China National Petroleum Corporation. Trial
operation of the pipeline, which runs more than 4,000 kilometers, is scheduled
for Oct. 1, with formal operation slated for Jan. 1 next year, according to the
company which oversees the construction of the project. (Aug 3, People's Daily)
China's crude oil import to break 100 mln tons this year
According to an analytical estimation by Ministry of Commerce China's crude oil
import will for the first time break through 100 million tons this year to hit a
record of 110 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 21 percent. The import of
refined oil is to reach 40 million tons, a rise of some 40 percent. (Aug 3,
People's Daily)

China to Enhance Imports of Natural Gas
China will speed up imports of liquified natural gas from overseas, since the
demand for natural gas greatly exceeds supply. An energy official in the
National Development and Reform Commission says natural gas is a clean energy resource and China is predicted to be short of 80 billion cubic meters by Environment

Environmental industry booms
The coming of the 2008 Olympic Games to China and the 2010 Expo Shanghai
have pulled foreign giants into a booming environment protection industry in the
country, reported Monday's China Daily. Official sources have revealed that
China will invest US$85 billion altogether in the environmental protection sector
during the 10th Five-year Plan period (2001-05). (Aug 2, People's Daily)

TEDA promotes recycling economy
The development of the recycling industry, a modern concept worldwide,
occupies a prominent place on the work agenda of the Tianjin Economic and
Technological Development Area (TEDA). The idea of recycling economy has
been implemented in building the development area into an ecologically-sound
industrial park. In the park, wastes produced by one enterprise are raw
materials for another. Circulation and interdependence among enterprises
means there will be no waste discharge. (Aug 4, China Daily)

IT

China's PC makers to install Linux OS
The world's third largest Linux software manufacturer, Thizlinux Laboratory,
said at least six Chinese PC companies will install the Linux Operating System
in their products to replace the dominant Windows OS. The company said
these PC makers will experiment with new Linux products, but the country's
largest one, Lenovo, is not included on the list. (Aug 3, C114)

China's OSS alliance is founded to withstand Microsoft
The formal establishment of China Open Source Software Promotion Alliance,
the first open source software (OSS) organization of China, was announced
recently. It indicates that the open source software with Linux as the
representative has developed into a new stage. (Aug 9, CE)

High-tech businesses number tops 13,000 in Beijing
High-tech businesses are helping to fuel economic development in China's
capital city, as their number has topped 13,000, said the Beijing Municipal
Science and Technology Committee. During the first half of this year, local
high-tech industries added value amounted to 17 billion yuan (US$2 billion), up
20 percent on a yearly basis. (Aug 8, Xinhuanet)

China's contracts of imported technology exceed 4000
The Ministry of Commerce says the contracts worth a total of more than 6.4
billion US dollars, a large increase over the same period of last year. Most of
the contracts involve technological consultation and service, and the
technologies imported mainly come from Europe, Japan and the United States.
(Aug 9, CRI)

China High-Tech Import and Export Soars
China's high-tech products import and export volume has exceeded 170 billion
US dollars in the first seven months of this year, up by nearly 50 percent over
the same period of last year. According to the latest figures, laptop computers
have become the leading export product. Imports of integrated circuit and
digital machine tools have seen rapid growth. (Aug 10, CRI)

CHINA: Government websites fail to make the grade
An independent think-tank has handed bad reports to local governments on the mainland for their websites' ability to deliver services. The Wasaitahan Investment Corporation, based in Beijing, assessed the websites of 336 city governments and found most were simply used for announcements rather than service platforms. The central government has set aside 800 billion to 1 trillion
yuan in the 10th five-year plan to realize its internet project strategy. (Aug 11,
SCMP)

First Chinese-developed Internet IPv6-compliant wireless router
Beijing Jiaotong University has created the first Chinese developed Internet
IPv6-compliant (Internet Protocol version 6) wireless router, based on the
university's own intellectual property and technology, Su Wei, director of the IP
Network Laboratory under Beijing Jiaotong University, told Interfax. (Aug 12,
Interfax)

Medical & Healthcare

China allows direct importing of medicines
From Sunday, China will allow cities to directly import medicines. The State
Food and Drug Administration says 18 cities will have the right to import
medicines directly. The cities include Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao and
Guangzhou. (Aug 2, CRI)

Chinese Companies to Make Viagra Variant After Pfizer Loses Patent
Chinese pharmaceutical makers are planning to jointly produce a local variant
of Viagra after Pfizer of the US lost its patent protection in China for the popular
drug. The 17 pharmaceutical companies, headed by Tonghua Hongtaomao
Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. from northeastern China, are hoping to set up a joint-
stock company to make an erectile dysfunction drug that would cost only half
the price of Viagra. (Aug 6, CRI)

Telecom

Dural-mode service's prospects blurred
China Unicom, the country's No 2 cellular operator, is expected to launch its
dual-mode mobile phone service, which will support both GSM and CDMA
networks, this week. But analysts suggest the service might not boost Unicom's
business. (Aug 3, China Daily)

Smart phone sector in China shows bright future
The smart phone market in China is promising judging from the first quarter
sales, according to the Ministry of Information Industry. Some 655,000 smart
phones worth 1.94 billion yuan ($235 million) were sold in January to March, up
195.05% from the sales volume in the first quarter of last year, according to
ministry statistics. (Aug 3, TD-SCDMA)

China records 305 million mobile phone users at end of June
The number of mobile phone subscribers in China increased by 35 million
during the first half of this year to 305 million, while that of fixed-line telephone
users grew by 33 million to 295 million, according to statistics recently
published by the Ministry of Information Industry. (Aug 4, TD-SCDMA)

China leads the world in voice and video IP networks
China, the fastest growing economy in the world, is developing a world class IP
communications network to support the world`s most populous nation. At the
heart of virtually all large-scale communications backbones for the country`s
banking, insurance, natural resources, telecommunications, disaster relief,
social welfare, and academic networks are Polycom video, voice, web and data
communications and network solutions. (Aug 5, TD-SCDMA) Alliance to promote SCDMA development
An alliance was established on Friday in Beijing to boost the development of
SCDMA (Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), a homegrown wireless
access system. It enrolled 11 domestic telecom equipment providers and IT-
related suppliers including Lenovo, TCL, Amoi, Konka, Hisense, Skyworth,
Xinwei Technology and Datang Telecom. (Aug 7, China Daily)

China's Next 10 Big Techs Predicted
According to a report in CRI online Sunday, China is expected to make ten big
science and technology breakthroughs in the next 10 years, in the fields of
communications, internet, computer chips, genetics, biological and protein
research, pharmaceutical biotechnology, Chinese word processing and nano
materials and technology. Experts from the Ministry of Science and Technology
and the national key technology institutions anticipate the following: - The
mobile industry is expected to become self-supporting in cell phone patents in
five years time; - Applying micro-technology to the computer chip will improve
the technology of computers; - Pharmaceutical biotechnology, which China has
a strong good foundation, will become the most advanced in the world. (Aug 8,
CRI)

BREW, Java Wars Shift to China
A battle for wireless application software is heating up in China. Separate
announcements made this month by QUALCOMM and partners of Sun
Microsystems reveal a greater intensity with regards to the companies'
respective BREW and Java platforms in the region. (Aug 9, Internetnews)

China Mobile Approves MS Windows Mobile Handset Embedded With
iaJET Technology
With the approval by the China Mobile, they became the world's first MS
Windows Mobile handset to pass the China Mobile IOT test for Java Service.
These two styles of high-level Java mobile handset, which have caught the
attention of various markets, are embedded with iaSolution's leading iaJET
Java technology, hoping to bring mobile users a unique way of experiencing
Java entertainment services. (Aug 10, ChinaTechNews)

China 2004 SMS volume projected at 550 bln
China's short-message volume is expected to total 550 bln in 2004, doubling
overall from the 2003 level, the official Xinhua news agency reported. China
has 100 mln users, and will see China Mobile's SMS handling volume of 350
mln this year, up from 170 bln in 2003, the report said. China Unicom, the
country's number two operator, has forecast volume of 200 bln short messages,
or four times as many as last year. By 2006 mobile phone users are likely to
send 1.4 trln short messages, the report said. (Aug 11, AFX-ASIA)

Others

China avoids double taxation on expats
Overseas persons who stay in the Chinese mainland for less than a year
should pay personal income tax on what they earned within the country, but
their incomes from outside the country will be tax-free, a senior official of the
Ministry of Finance said here Monday. According to Chinese law, both
residents and non-residents of the country are subject to income taxation. Non-
residents include foreigners and overseas persons from Hong Kong, Macao
and Taiwan, who have no residency in the country and live here less than one
year. They account for the majority of expatriates in China. (Aug 2, Xinhuanet)

Commerce, market watchdogs ban direct recruitment of workers in China
by overseas businesses
Overseas businesses, individuals and foreign agencies in China are not allowed to directly recruit laborers in China, China's commerce and market watchdogs have said in a regulation. Chinese businesses that hope to recruit
Chinese laborers for work overseas must get approval from the Ministry of
Commerce (MOC). They must meet the standards set by the regulation and
obtain relevant license before carrying out such business, according to the
regulation, jointly released by the MOC and the State Administration for
Industry and Commerce (SAIC). (Aug 4, People's Daily)

China's Influence On Global Standards Reaching Critical Levels?
China is no longer content with just being the world's pre-eminent manufacturer:
it is increasingly active in the development of global technology standards,
Deloitte & Touche LLP finds in a study released today. The report, "Changing
China," details how China's standards initiatives will shape global competition in
the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector for years to come.
Deloitte identified four practical strategies for technology firms to consider as
China's technology standards develop: Collaborate with standard setters;
Compete selectively, focusing on areas where standards are harder to mandate;
Innovate specifically for the Chinese market; Seed emerging markets to
encourage growth and establish early control. (Aug 5, Chinatechnews)

Lung cancer, traffic accidents -- top causes of death in China
Lung cancer and traffic accidents have become the top causes of deaths in
China, according to recently publicized official research. The study by the
government-linked Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, which aimed to map
out patterns of deaths in the Chinese population, found that lung cancer has
replaced stomach cancer as the main cause of death among all cancers, the
China Daily said. (Aug 6, AFP)

Reinsurance sector rules on the way
The increasing presence of foreign reinsurers will benefit the Chinese market
with greater underwriting capacity, better competitive environment and faster
technical improvements, China Daily cited the insurance watchdog as saying
Tuesday. (Aug10, Xinhuanet)

Venture capital from overseas on the rise
The venture capital (VC) business on the mainland has shown signs of
recovery after making its debut on the mainland not long ago. As the domestic
stock market, including the newly-opened SME market in Shenzhen, is still
coping with cumbersome difficulties inherited from the planned-economy era,
some Beijing-based observers say that overseas investment and listing will
continue to be the main channel for entrepreneurs and investors. (Aug 10,
China Daily)
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Source: http://www.moital.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/0A235C58-E7B8-44AB-B947-8DB998BBB6B8/0/issue51.pdf