Aug. 12 - Officials from the Zhejiang provincial development and reform commission assured that while companies in the region were suffering from financial difficulties, it was not as grave as previously reported in the media.
“Private firms in our province did suffer a reduction in profit, tight liquidity and a low level of creativity,” Liu Ting, deputy director of the Zhejiang provincial development and reform commission, told Xinhua.
Zhejiang province is home to 203 firms included in the country’s top 500 private companies. Businesses active in the export industry have been feeling the pressure from tighter currency policy, rising prices of raw material and changes in tax policies.
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by Chua Siew Joo
SHANGHAI, Aug. 11 - It seems the news of Lenovo Group’s impressive profits arrived at an opportune moment, coinciding with the start of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008.
With its current focus on direct retail sales and emerging markets, Lenovo group is not affected by the slowdown in the United States. It achieved a profit of US$110 million in the last quarter, ended in June 2008. China sales alone accounted for 41 percent of sales while Greater China sales increased by 22 percent to US$1.2 billion.
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Aug. 4 - Retail sales in rural China reached RMB1.62 trillion in the first six months of 2008, up 20 percent from the same period last year, the Ministry of Commerce revealed on Thursday.
The growth rate was 5.7 percentage points higher than that of the first half last year, said the MOC in a statement on its website.
Per-capita cash income among China’s peasant-class stood at RMB2,528 in the first half of 2008, up 19.8 percent according to the National Bureau of Statistics. China has about 900 million rural residents. Read the rest of this entry »
BEIJING, Aug. 1 - The RMB14.3 billion Beijing-Tianjin high speed rail service officially began this morning with the first train setting off from Beijing’s South Railway Station.
Operational just in time for the Olympics, the service reaches 350 kilometers per hour, making it the worlds fastest. Similar trains in Japan and Spain run at 320 kph, while in France, Germany and Italy they run at 300 kph (though France’s TGV holds the record for the world’s fastest train at 574.8 kph). Read the rest of this entry »
Aug. 1 - China increased the tax rebate on textiles and garments from 11 percent to 13 percent today.
The tax relief will help textile exporters who have been hurt by slumping demand, higher costs, and the RMB rising value
This increased tax rebate is expected to boost exports, most significantly for silk, chemical fiber, wool yarn, and cotton products, China Daily reported. Read the rest of this entry »
July 18 - The made in China label that can be found anywhere from clothing and kitchenware to electronics and medicine, has taken a beating recently, and while product safety remains a concern, China has remained the world’s factory, mainly because there is simply no one else who can do it. Vietnam is simply too small, and India just doesn’t have the infrastructure.
However, as the cost of oil and labor rises, many purchasing managers and exporters are wondering whether China is still an outsourcing opportunity. After all, why travel half-way around the world when a maquiladora in Ciudad Juárez can build the same appliance.
Michael Borchert, chief China representative for the U.S.-based sourcing and sales firm Precision Components, believes that while the face of sourcing is changing in China, a lot of old truths still remain. Below, he explains what has changed, and what has stayed the same in the China sourcing game. Read the rest of this entry »
HONG KONG, July 15 - Canadian entrepreneur Michael Agopsowicz has proposed a new seaplane service to the Hong Kong government, the South China Morning Post reports. The route, a Hong Kong-Macau service from Kowloon’s old Kai Tak Airport site to the Pak On Ferry Terminal in Macau, would be the first time since 1961 that seaplanes have seen active commercial service in Hong Kong.
The proposal, which was put forward to the permanent secretary for transportation, Francis Ho Suen-wai, has received favorable comments as Hong Kong seeks to bolster its image as a city of interest and distinction. “An alternative means of fast transportation between Hong Kong and Macau should be a welcome addition to enhance connectivity and choice,” Ho said. Read the rest of this entry »
By Jean-Charles Briand
HANGZHOU, July 15 – This is the first part in an ongoing series that will focus on development parks in the Yangtze River Delta. Over the next few weeks, we will highlight several parks, looking at their strengths and weaknesses and future outlook. Today, we look at the Singapore-Hangzhou Science and Technology Park. .
Located within the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Area, the real estate developer Ascendas, in collaboration with local authorities, is developing a new development zone: the Singapore-Hangzhou Science and Technology Park. With a total area of 43 hectares, the SHSTP should provide after completion 800,000 square meters of gross floor area. Read the rest of this entry »
July 11 - Industry experts are predicting that sales of residential houses in China’s southern city of Shenzhen may slip further to prices found 10 years ago.
During the first half of this year, housing prices decreased by 36 percent to an average of RMB11,014 per square meter compared to October’s RMB17,350 per square meter.
Of Shenzhen’s six districts, Bao’an reported the biggest drop in May, with the average housing price reaching RMB10,418 per square meter, down 7.3 percent from last month. In comparison, the average housing price in Longgang District decreased by fell only 2 percent during the same period to RMB8,910 per square meter.
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July 10 - China’s textile and garment exports have significantly plunged, resulting in a 3.7 percentage decline in the growth rate from September to May. China Customs attributes the slowdown to the rapidly appreciating RMB, increasing production prices, in addition to an export rebate rate cut and the slowing global economy.
Xinhua reported that textile and garment exports—worth US$66.2 billion at the beginning of 2007—saw a growth rate drop of 0.2 percent last year. Under strain, Chinese exporters have moved large portions of their mainland production to the central and western regions where labor costs are relatively lower.
During the first five months of 2008, central provinces like Henan, Hunan, and Sichuan, saw a 30 percent increase in their textile and garment output as they began to appeal to domestic textile enterprises more. Read the rest of this entry »
for Dezan Shira & Associates, the foreign direct investment legal and tax practice responsible for China Briefing 
