Thread: China's general economy info

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4203568.htm

www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-20 14:48:04

BEIJING, Feb. 20 -- CNOOC Ltd, China's biggest offshore oil and gas producer, has signed a production sharing contract to explore for crude oil and natural gas and develop an area offshore of Equatorial Guinea.

The contract area covers 2,287 square kilometers with a water depth between 30 meters and 1,500 meters, according to a statement issued by the Beijing-based company over the weekend.

The contract was signed between CNOOC Africa Ltd, the National Oil Company of Equatorial Guinea and the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy, according to the statement.

The exploration period was set at five years, and CNOOC will act as the project's technical operator, the statement said

Under the terms of the contract, CNOOC will conduct seismic data interpretation and drill exploratory wells.

Zhu Mingcai, a CNOOC vice president, said the signing of the agreement represents another sign of progress in CNOOC's overseas expansion effort.

The parties to the agreement said they foresee significant breakthroughs in the area, which has favorable geological conditions, Zhu said.

China is encouraging its companies to secure oil and gas supplies at home and abroad to meet rising domestic demand.

CNOOC said in January that it aims to boost oil and natural gas output by about 9 percent this year, aided by contributions from new wells.

Output may rise to the equivalent of 170 million barrels of crude oil this year, from 157 million barrels in 2005, CNOOC said.

Production at fields off the coast of China may amount to 149 million barrels this year.

(Source: ShanghaiDaily.com/Agencies)

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/102074.asp

Smoke billows from a power plant over the skies of Beijing. China expects its power shortages to end this year, relieving its fast-expanding economy of a seemingly intractable bottleneck

China expects its seemingly perennial energy shortages to end this year, only to risk facing the opposite problem of having too much power-generating capacity, state media and analysts say.
.
The elimination of the nation's widespread brown-outs will come about as new capacity comes online while growth in electricity demand slows, the China Daily reported.
.
"This marks a turning point in the electricity supply shortfalls of a few years ago," said Zhang Guobao, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, the top planning body.
.
China first reported failures to meet power demand in 2000 and the situation deteriorated steadily. In 2004, 24 of China's 31 provinces and regions suffered outages.
.
Many major power plants had run low on coal supplies due to bottlenecks in the industry's over-burdened transport networks and soaring demand stemming from the country's rapid economic growth.
.
On the supply side, the situation is now gradually being relieved, with a total installed capacity of 750 gigawatts by 2010, up from 500 gigawatts late last year, the paper said.
.
On the demand side, power consumption is expected to rise by less than seven percent annually over the next five years, down from annual increases of at least 10 percent during the past five years, the newspaper said.
.
This is a side effect from a recent government drive to curb over-investment in energy-intensive sectors such as steel and machinery, and to encourage growth in the service and high-tech IT industries, according to the report.
.
The abrupt increase will be initially welcomed by enterprises that have been screaming for more fuel in recent months, but it may backfire, analysts warned.
.
"They will probably have an over-supply problem very soon, after investing heavily in the power sector in recent years," said Yiping Huang, an economist with Citigroup in Hong Kong.
.
"So what they'll likely have to do is start rationing new investment (in power plants)."
.
Power is not like more tangible commodities that can be easily transported around, and it is not an option to bring down the excess supply by selling it cheaply inside or outside of China's borders.
.
"Electricity doesn't travel very well. And there's no big power consumer among China's immediate neighbors that China can sell to," said Tai Hui, a Hong Kong-based economist with Standard Chartered Bank.
.
There are already signs that power producers are getting jittery, lobbying for the right to price their products higher when their own input, overwhelmingly coal, gets more expensive.
.
"The government should introduce a system that will pass the high fuel costs to end users," said Wang Yonggan, secretary general of the China Electricity Council, an industry consortium.
.
"Otherwise, electricity producers will suffer severe losses as fuel prices fluctuate."
.
Although market conditions could be tough for electricity producers, they might be able to find a market among companies that have so far resorted to stop-gap measures to keep up their production.
.
"What we could see would be companies that stop using their own diesel generators and buy from official suppliers," said Standard Chartered's Tai Hui.
.
The vast increase in new generating capacity has done little to change China's energy mix.
.
Most new capacity in China is coal-fired, and the fossil fuel will remain China's main energy source for decades to come even if its proportion of the nation's total power consumption is declining slowly.
.
The China Daily Monday quoted official statistics as saying the country's dependence on coal is expected to fall to 70.2 percent in 2010 from 75.6 percent last year. — AFP
China expects its seemingly perennial energy shortages to end this year, only to risk facing the opposite problem of having too much power-generating capacity, state media and analysts say.
.
The elimination of the nation's widespread brown-outs will come about as new capacity comes online while growth in electricity demand slows, the China Daily reported.
.
"This marks a turning point in the electricity supply shortfalls of a few years ago," said Zhang Guobao, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, the top planning body.
.
China first reported failures to meet power demand in 2000 and the situation deteriorated steadily. In 2004, 24 of China's 31 provinces and regions suffered outages.
.
Many major power plants had run low on coal supplies due to bottlenecks in the industry's over-burdened transport networks and soaring demand stemming from the country's rapid economic growth.
.
On the supply side, the situation is now gradually being relieved, with a total installed capacity of 750 gigawatts by 2010, up from 500 gigawatts late last year, the paper said.
.
On the demand side, power consumption is expected to rise by less than seven percent annually over the next five years, down from annual increases of at least 10 percent during the past five years, the newspaper said.
.
This is a side effect from a recent government drive to curb over-investment in energy-intensive sectors such as steel and machinery, and to encourage growth in the service and high-tech IT industries, according to the report.
.
The abrupt increase will be initially welcomed by enterprises that have been screaming for more fuel in recent months, but it may backfire, analysts warned.
.
"They will probably have an over-supply problem very soon, after investing heavily in the power sector in recent years," said Yiping Huang, an economist with Citigroup in Hong Kong.
.
"So what they'll likely have to do is start rationing new investment (in power plants)."
.
Power is not like more tangible commodities that can be easily transported around, and it is not an option to bring down the excess supply by selling it cheaply inside or outside of China's borders.
.
"Electricity doesn't travel very well. And there's no big power consumer among China's immediate neighbors that China can sell to," said Tai Hui, a Hong Kong-based economist with Standard Chartered Bank.
.
There are already signs that power producers are getting jittery, lobbying for the right to price their products higher when their own input, overwhelmingly coal, gets more expensive.
.
"The government should introduce a system that will pass the high fuel costs to end users," said Wang Yonggan, secretary general of the China Electricity Council, an industry consortium.
.
"Otherwise, electricity producers will suffer severe losses as fuel prices fluctuate."
.
Although market conditions could be tough for electricity producers, they might be able to find a market among companies that have so far resorted to stop-gap measures to keep up their production.
.
"What we could see would be companies that stop using their own diesel generators and buy from official suppliers," said Standard Chartered's Tai Hui.
.
The vast increase in new generating capacity has done little to change China's energy mix.
.
Most new capacity in China is coal-fired, and the fossil fuel will remain China's main energy source for decades to come even if its proportion of the nation's total power consumption is declining slowly.
.
The China Daily Monday quoted official statistics as saying the country's dependence on coal is expected to fall to 70.2 percent in 2010 from 75.6 percent last year. — AFP China expects its seemingly perennial energy shortages to end this year, only to risk facing the opposite problem of having too much power-generating capacity, state media and analysts say.
.
The elimination of the nation's widespread brown-outs will come about as new capacity comes online while growth in electricity demand slows, the China Daily reported.
.
"This marks a turning point in the electricity supply shortfalls of a few years ago," said Zhang Guobao, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, the top planning body.
.
China first reported failures to meet power demand in 2000 and the situation deteriorated steadily. In 2004, 24 of China's 31 provinces and regions suffered outages.
.
Many major power plants had run low on coal supplies due to bottlenecks in the industry's over-burdened transport networks and soaring demand stemming from the country's rapid economic growth.
.
On the supply side, the situation is now gradually being relieved, with a total installed capacity of 750 gigawatts by 2010, up from 500 gigawatts late last year, the paper said.
.
On the demand side, power consumption is expected to rise by less than seven percent annually over the next five years, down from annual increases of at least 10 percent during the past five years, the newspaper said.
.
This is a side effect from a recent government drive to curb over-investment in energy-intensive sectors such as steel and machinery, and to encourage growth in the service and high-tech IT industries, according to the report.
.
The abrupt increase will be initially welcomed by enterprises that have been screaming for more fuel in recent months, but it may backfire, analysts warned.
.
"They will probably have an over-supply problem very soon, after investing heavily in the power sector in recent years," said Yiping Huang, an economist with Citigroup in Hong Kong.
.
"So what they'll likely have to do is start rationing new investment (in power plants)."
.
Power is not like more tangible commodities that can be easily transported around, and it is not an option to bring down the excess supply by selling it cheaply inside or outside of China's borders.
.
"Electricity doesn't travel very well. And there's no big power consumer among China's immediate neighbors that China can sell to," said Tai Hui, a Hong Kong-based economist with Standard Chartered Bank.
.
There are already signs that power producers are getting jittery, lobbying for the right to price their products higher when their own input, overwhelmingly coal, gets more expensive.
.
"The government should introduce a system that will pass the high fuel costs to end users," said Wang Yonggan, secretary general of the China Electricity Council, an industry consortium.
.
"Otherwise, electricity producers will suffer severe losses as fuel prices fluctuate."
.
Although market conditions could be tough for electricity producers, they might be able to find a market among companies that have so far resorted to stop-gap measures to keep up their production.
.
"What we could see would be companies that stop using their own diesel generators and buy from official suppliers," said Standard Chartered's Tai Hui.
.
The vast increase in new generating capacity has done little to change China's energy mix.
.
Most new capacity in China is coal-fired, and the fossil fuel will remain China's main energy source for decades to come even if its proportion of the nation's total power consumption is declining slowly.
.
The China Daily Monday quoted official statistics as saying the country's dependence on coal is expected to fall to 70.2 percent in 2010 from 75.6 percent last year. — AFP China expects its seemingly perennial energy shortages to end this year, only to risk facing the opposite problem of having too much power-generating capacity, state media and analysts say.
.
The elimination of the nation's widespread brown-outs will come about as new capacity comes online while growth in electricity demand slows, the China Daily reported.
.
"This marks a turning point in the electricity supply shortfalls of a few years ago," said Zhang Guobao, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, the top planning body.
.
China first reported failures to meet power demand in 2000 and the situation deteriorated steadily. In 2004, 24 of China's 31 provinces and regions suffered outages.
.
Many major power plants had run low on coal supplies due to bottlenecks in the industry's over-burdened transport networks and soaring demand stemming from the country's rapid economic growth.
.
On the supply side, the situation is now gradually being relieved, with a total installed capacity of 750 gigawatts by 2010, up from 500 gigawatts late last year, the paper said.
.
On the demand side, power consumption is expected to rise by less than seven percent annually over the next five years, down from annual increases of at least 10 percent during the past five years, the newspaper said.
.
This is a side effect from a recent government drive to curb over-investment in energy-intensive sectors such as steel and machinery, and to encourage growth in the service and high-tech IT industries, according to the report.
.
The abrupt increase will be initially welcomed by enterprises that have been screaming for more fuel in recent months, but it may backfire, analysts warned.
.
"They will probably have an over-supply problem very soon, after investing heavily in the power sector in recent years," said Yiping Huang, an economist with Citigroup in Hong Kong.
.
"So what they'll likely have to do is start rationing new investment (in power plants)."
.
Power is not like more tangible commodities that can be easily transported around, and it is not an option to bring down the excess supply by selling it cheaply inside or outside of China's borders.
.
"Electricity doesn't travel very well. And there's no big power consumer among China's immediate neighbors that China can sell to," said Tai Hui, a Hong Kong-based economist with Standard Chartered Bank.
.
There are already signs that power producers are getting jittery, lobbying for the right to price their products higher when their own input, overwhelmingly coal, gets more expensive.
.
"The government should introduce a system that will pass the high fuel costs to end users," said Wang Yonggan, secretary general of the China Electricity Council, an industry consortium.
.
"Otherwise, electricity producers will suffer severe losses as fuel prices fluctuate."
.
Although market conditions could be tough for electricity producers, they might be able to find a market among companies that have so far resorted to stop-gap measures to keep up their production.
.
"What we could see would be companies that stop using their own diesel generators and buy from official suppliers," said Standard Chartered's Tai Hui.
.
The vast increase in new generating capacity has done little to change China's energy mix.
.
Most new capacity in China is coal-fired, and the fossil fuel will remain China's main energy source for decades to come even if its proportion of the nation's total power consumption is declining slowly.
.
The China Daily Monday quoted official statistics as saying the country's dependence on coal is expected to fall to 70.2 percent in 2010 from 75.6 percent last year. — AFP

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/855/2006.../262@53029.htm

2006-02-20 14:30:46 CRIENGLISH.com

China has announced its introduction of revised corporate accounting standards and registered accountants' standards to meet the needs of its market economy. The revised standards, in line with internationally accepted rules, signal a move that will likely boost foreign investors' confidence in the quality of financial information in China's fast-growing economy. Wei Tong elaborates:
China's Ministry of Finance issued the revised standards, including 39 items for corporate accounting and 48 items for auditing by registered accountants. The issuing and implementing of the two codes are expected to improve China's market-oriented economic system.

Jin Renqing, China's Finance Minister, says what's most noticeable about the new standards are that they are brought into line with international rules.

"The newly-issued standards are aimed at improving the quality of financial information. More strict and scientific regulations are applied to the format and announcement of financial information. The basic accounting standard to be adopted in China will be based on the International Financial Reporting Standards."

Jin Renqing says that the new corporate accounting standards will be put into practice for listed companies starting the first of January next year, while the new standards for auditing will be implemented at the same time by accountants' offices on the Chinese mainland.

The move gives further evidence of the Chinese government's determination to internationalize its economy. Both domestic and international economic authorities have given positive feedback on the newly-issued standards.

David Tweedie is the chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board.

"The benefits of these accounting reforms for China are clear. The new Chinese standards that incorporate accounting principles familiar to investors worldwide will encourage investor confidence in China's financial reporting and capital market. There'll also be an additional spur of investment from both domestic and foreign sources of capital."

It's acknowledged by some economists that the new standards will benefit the healthy development of China's capital market.
But, at the same time, some believe the introduction of the new standards will be a challenge for local accounting firms, which have already been struggling to compete with big international firms.

Wei Tong, CRI news.

http://english.people.com.cn/200602/...21_244662.html

China's total expenditure in advertising in 2005 reached 243.9 billion yuan. Although the lowest in the past three years, advertising spending on credit cards, foreign alcoholic beverages and some new luxury products surged, thus putting China among the world top three following the US and Japan, according to a report released yesterday by Beijing-based CTR Market Research.

The report indicates that China has entered into a slow growth period in advertising spending, but the growth in some luxury products is quite amazing, advertising spent on credit cards grew 80% to 900 million yuan and foreign alcoholic beverages surged 156% to reach 1.1 billion yuan in 2005.

As WTO accession runs deep in China, tariff on imported alcoholic beverages declined, China's huge market capacity and young Chinese pursuit of foreign brands have attracted a lot of foreign wine dealers to make ads in China.

With economic development, China's middle class is being formed. They are in some degree influenced by western culture and in pursuit of western lifestyle. Luxury goods will become a new heat in future market, according to Tian Tao, vice president of CTR.

Although traditional media like TV, newspapers still dominate advertising market, newspapers are losing market share to TV, radio, outdoor and other media. Advertising expenditure in newspapers declined by 1% in 2005 while TV advertising increased by 19%.

Outdoor advertising showed a prosperous trend last year as a series of new media forms like LCD TV in buildings and mobile TV emerged. Expenditure in outside advertising reached 13.2 billion yuan, up 79% in 2005.

By People's Daily Online

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english...ent_521197.htm

By Jiang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-17 08:31


China inked 661 technology import contracts with a total value of US$1.83 billion in January, according to statistics released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce.

The number of technology import contracts reflected an increase of 14.5 per cent over the previous year. Royalties from the technology imports totalled US$690 million.

The ministry said the import of whole-set and key equipments, such as railway engines, led overall imported technologies.

In January, contracts of whole-set and key equipments, which involved in technology import, increased more than three times year-on-year to US$600 million.

The European Union remained China's largest technology source last month.

It chalked up US$940 million worth of technology contracts with China, reflecting a 150 per cent increase over a year ago.

The European Union's technology exports to China accounted for more than half of China's total in January. It was followed by Japan and South Korea.

The railway sector witnessed the fastest increase last month. Technologies flowing into the industry soared 24-fold year-on-year to US$1.06 billion.

According to statistics published by the ministry, China had a major increase in technology imports during its 10th Five-Year Plan from 2001 to 2005.

The value of imported technology stood at US$70 billion during the past five years, accounting for nearly one-third of the total since China's reform and opening up in 1980s.

The imported technologies helped promote the upgrading of domestic industrial structure, the ministry said.

"Technology and production capability in a number of industries, including electrics, metallurgy and petrochemical, were remarkably enhanced by the imports," it said.

However, the imported technology only represents a small figure when compared to the country's exports of high-tech products.

Encouraged by the central government's policies, China's export of high-tech products has grown into a major portion of total exports.

The country's high-tech product export totalled US$600 billion between 2001 and 2005, data from the customs showed.


(China Daily 02/17/2006 page9)

Close

http://www.edu.cn/20050927/3153720.shtml

China will trial produce the advanced regional jet for the 21st century, (ARJ-21), or a kind of short-haul passenger plane wherein the country possesses the intellectual property, late this year.

It will be the first advanced jet China designs its own in accordance with international practices, which has passed an appraisal for airworthiness. It is believed that the looks of the plane will do away with the monopoly formed by Boeing and Airbus on the Chinese market of airplanes.

Huang Qiang, president of the first Airplane Designing Institute with China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I), said his institute, based at Yanliang near Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, had been busy with the jet's final interface designing, but details of the designing for the plane will be completed by the end of the year.

And systematic designs of the passenger jet have been done and provided by 19 international suppliers, acknowledged Huang, who didn't disclose the exact number of planes that will be turned out during trial production.

The plane's maiden flight will be conducted in late 2006.

According to Huang, ARJ-21 planes will each have a passenger cabin 3.14 meters wide and 2.06 meters high, and designed to have 78 to 105 seats, and they will be capable of flying 39,000 feet above the ground.

So far, AVIC I has so far received orders from three Chinese air companies for 35 ARJ-21 planes.

Airbus to Announce New CH Production Site

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/855/2006.../262@53424.htm

2006-02-21 10:51:22 CRIENGLISH.com

Airbus will announce the Chinese production site for its A320-family single-aisle aircraft next month, making China the first country assembling Airbus jets outside of Europe.
Related Story: China to Join Airbus in A350 Design and Manufacturing

The four candidate cities are Tianjin, Shanghai, Xi'an of Shaanxi Province and Zhuhai of Guangdong Province.

The European aircraft giant said details of its partnership with the Chinese aviation industry, including the annual production volume and the name of its partner, would be made public by the middle of the year.

Laurence Barron, president of Airbus China, made the remarks last Friday on the sidelines of the delivery of two A319s to Shenzhen Airlines.

Airbus and the National Development and Reform Commission of China began studying the feasibility of setting up an assembly line in China shortly after the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding during Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to France at the end of last year.

Currently five affiliates of China Aviation Industry Corp I (AVIC I) and AVIC II are producing parts for Airbus aircraft. The aircraft is assembled in France and Germany.

At the same time, Barron said Airbus will sign official agreement with AVIC I and AVIC about details of the work share of the Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Centre in the first half of this year.

The engineering centre was set up last July and will design the A350 parts to be manufactured in China. The agreement will decide which part of the ultra-long range A350 will be designed at the centre.

Airbus has agreed to allocate up to 5 per cent of the work share to China.

The centre will be a joint venture in which AVIC II holds a 25-per-cent share, AVIC I takes 5 per cent and Airbus holds the rest, Barron said earlier last year.

The double-decker A380 will be showcased at Asian Aerospace 2006 beginning today in Singapore, Airbus said in a newsletter yesterday.

It said the super jumbo would fly to China for the first time later this year during the sixth China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.

"If possible, we would also like to have a tour for the A380 in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou," Airbus said.

Airbus plans to deliver about 80 aircraft to China in 2006, Barron said. Last year the Toulouse-based company delivered 65 planes to Chinese airlines, a 20 per cent year-on-year rise, accounting for one-fifth of its global delivery.

Shenzhen Airlines will have six A320 family aircraft in service this year including the two new A319s that arrived last Friday.

(Source: ChinaDaily)

http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=40293

China to design parts for new Airbus

SHANGHAI: China and Europe's Airbus expect to sign a final agreement in about two months that will see Chinese engineers design parts for the new A350 commercial jet, an Airbus spokesman said Monday.

Two framework agreements signed mid last year between China Aviation Industry Corp 1 and 2 will allow the state-run groups to be responsible for five percent of the design and production of the new airliner.

"The deal totals five percent of the volume of the airframe of the newest A350, including design and production," said Gu Wei, spokesman for Airbus in Beijing told AFP.

Chinese engineers will make the A350 components at Airbus's new technology centre in Beijing, although which parts have yet to be decided, said Gu.

Currently Airbus has 54 Chinese engineers working at the centre but aims to raise that number to 200 by 2008, Gu said.

Owned jointly by the European Aerospace, Defence and Space company and British defence group BAE Systems, Airbus already has a network of sub-contractors in China to give it a presence in the globe's third largest aviation market.

Since the mid-1980s Chinese manufacturers have delivered to Airbus parts for doors, noses and wings valued at more than 500 million dollars, according to an earlier report by the official Xinhua news agency.

But the European giant wants to ramp up the construction of plane parts in China to help lift sales in a country that is seeing explosive growth in the commercial aviation sector.

"We want to upgrade our cooperation with Chinese so it involves not only production but also design. The formal design work will start after the final contract is signed," said Gu. - AFP

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...g&refer=canada

Bombardier, China's AVIC I in Talks on C-Series Parts

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Bombardier Inc., the world's third- largest commercial-aircraft maker, said it's in talks to buy and produce parts with China Aviation Industry Corp. I, part of a plan to resume its $2.1 billion program for a new line of planes.

Bombardier on Jan. 31 shelved plans for the proposed C Series because it couldn't find airline customers. Still, it's in talks with Beijing-based AVIC I, China's biggest aircraft maker, to make ``some major components'' of the plane if it gets built, Bombardier's new commercial plane program director Benjamin Boehm said in Singapore today, without giving details.

An agreement with AVIC I, a supplier of doors and other parts for Bombardier planes, may help the Montreal-based company resume its development of aircraft that seat between 110 and 130 people. Low-fare carriers in Asia have been boosting the market for aircraft with between 100 and 150 seats, spurring Airbus SAS and Boeing Co. to report record orders last year, led by their A320 and 737 models.

Bombardier hopes that state-owned AVIC I ``might become a very important partner in the building of the C Series,'' Boehm said in an interview at the Asian Aerospace 2006 show today. Liu Yonghui, AVIC I's spokesman, could not be reached to comment in Singapore.

Abandoning Program

Abandoning the C Series would leave Bombardier out of the growing market for larger aircraft as demand shrinks for 50- to 90-seat planes. Sales of these small regional jets fell 26 percent last year, the second straight annual decline.

The C Series was shelved because it failed to sign up any buyers, Bombardier said. The program may be revived in 2007 as Northwest Airlines Corp. and other potential customers exit bankruptcy protection, according to a Feb. 15 speech by Bombardier's aerospace chief Pierre Beaudoin.

Separately, OAO Sukhoi Co.'s civilian plane unit, which is developing an aircraft for between 70 and 100 people, said today that it is not interested in working with Bombardier on the jet. Bombardier when it shelved the C Series Jan. 31 had said it was talking to the Russian plane maker about a possible partnership.

``I don't know what they can offer us as the C Series program is closed,'' said the company's Asia Pacific regional director Anatoly Mezhevov in Singapore today.

Finmeccanica today said it will invest in 25 percent of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft.

Bombardier may spend another $20 million on the plane this fiscal year to devise a plan that may include outside partners and will review the project's status within a year.

The C Series will also compete with Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA's Embraer 195 model. Bombardier and Brazil's Embraer are the world's biggest makers of planes that carry fewer than 100 people.

Bombardier is also considering stretched versions of all existing aircraft models, Boehm said, without giving details.

Embraer already has a $50 million venture with state-owned China Aviation Industry Corp. II in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin that makes ERJ 135, 140 and 145 planes. The ERJ 145, the biggest of the three, can carry 50 people as far as 1,550 nautical miles (2,871 kilometers), or from Singapore to Hanoi.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4190937.htm

www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-17 08:41:24

BEIJING, Feb. 17 -- Domestic auto production rose 52 percent in January to 391,600 units from a year earlier while car sales jumped 73 percent to 418,900 units, Xinhua reported Thursday, citing an industry group's data.

However, January's car production was 4 percent lower than December and sales fell 8 percent from the previous month, the report said, citing data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The report didn't provide the previous months' figures for comparison.

January's numbers are traditionally lower than those of December, when automakers tend to boost production and sales to meet their full-year targets.

January also had fewer working days this year as the weeklong Chinese New Year holiday, which started Jan. 29.

Domestic total vehicle production in January rose 28 percent from the same month last year to 521,600 units, though it fell 7 percent from December last year. Vehicle sales totaled 530,100 units, a 45 percent rise from January last year but a fall of 15 percent from December, the report said.

Domestic commercial vehicle production fell 13 percent year on year and 16 percent month on month to 130,000 units in January. Sales of commercial vehicle also declined by 10 percent from January last year and by 33 percent from December to 111,100 units, according to the report.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4218207.htm

www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-23 18:01:41


BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The number of mobile phone subscribers in China hit a record of 400 million at present, a source with the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said on Thursday.

Statistics show that the number reached 398 million at the end of January with an increase of 5.37 million in the month, twice the increase of fixed-line users.

The average increase every month has been between 3 million and 4 million in the past 12 months, said the ministry source.

China's mobile subscribers have gained a stronger momentum of growth since they outnumbered fixed-line phone subscribers in October 2003.

Along with the increase in mobile phone subscribers, the short message volume climbed 65.7 percent year-on-year in the first month to 33.72 billion.

The ministry source also said in January that this year China's total post and telecommunications revenue reached 55.34 billion yuan, up 10.8 percent over the same period last year.

China imported its first mobile phone telecom facilities in 1987, and it took a decade for the number of subscribers to reach 10 million. Four years later, the country had the largest number of mobile phone subscribers in the world. Enditem

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4225745.htm

www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-25 10:03:26


LHASA, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Traveling overland through snow-capped mountains and high-land meadows to visit mysterious Tibetan Buddhist shrines on the world's highest plateau will soon no longer require the grit and resolve of an adventurous backpacker.

This July the first train of the new Qinghai-Tibet railway will whisk passengers from Beijing to Lhasa in 48 scenery-filled hours.

Tourists venturing to the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region from China's national capital can now get there by land in the lap of luxury. Special tourist trains will feature hotel-like services and special viewing cars for the journey to the 'roof of the world'.

Railway officials say they've tried to think of everything to allure the suit-case traveler who might previously eschewed the arduous travel required to get to the world's 'third pole'.

Huang Difu, who is in charge of the Qinghai-Tibet railway construction project says, "The trains will offer suites and hotel-like services. There will oxygen bars to help travelers adjust to the higher altitude,"

The completion of the new rail line, which snakes through rugged mountain regions and a flower-filled idyllic countryside, has been a source of great national pride.

The railway is hoping its trains will also make visiting the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau another of China 'golden' tourist routes.

It is expected to bring many new tourist dollars to Tibet and other provinces. Research by experts with the Academy of Social Sciences in Tibet and the Institute of Industrial Economy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences say that the new overland route could bring fundamental changes to Tibet's tourism.

Tibet is working with the neighboring provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan to jointly explore how to bring more visitors to the region. Developers are expected to invest some 50 billion yuan (6.25 billion U.S.dollars) over the next decade to improve tourist facilities along the railroad. Enidtem

http://www.statesman.com/life/conten...26yangtze.html

By Jean Scheidnes
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, February 26, 2006

WUHAN, China—The things non-Western people do to appeal to Western tourists are an endless source of fascination, chagrin and puzzlement to me.

For example, a Salvation Army-esque marching band banged out "Jingle Bells" as my mother and I hurried toward a cruise ship on the Yangtze River.

Could Hollywood movies have given someone in China the impression that Christmas is synonymous with celebration in America? I never got an answer. But "Jingle Bells" in October was the first sign that we were in for an other-worldly experience. By that time, we'd been challenged by China's otherness for several days — as pollution and scenes of poverty compounded mere culture shock and language frustration.

This was all right. After all, we did not go to China to avoid challenge. We went to witness an economy exploding with the energy of 1.3 billion free-enterprise communists. We hoped to comprehend the scale of the Three Gorges Dam, which is being built to fuel that economy.

Likewise, we did not cruise the Yangtze ("yang-zee") for a fun-filled illusion of utopia.

It just wasn't that kind of cruise.

In lieu of swimming pools, casinos and midnight buffets, we got a crash course in Chinese culture that made my head spin, a chance to marvel up close at the monumental dam project and a respite from China's overwhelming cities.

The Yangtze's waters originate in Tibet and flow 3,800 miles through China before emptying into the East China Sea. The most celebrated of its diverse features are the towering mountains and limestone cliffs of the Three Gorges. In the stretches between gorges, where the river widens and the land loses its verticality, farms thrive on misty shores, but hundreds of these settlements will have been submerged by 2009, when the controversial dam will be complete, and one has to assume that the higher water line will have rendered the gorges somewhat less dramatic.

Our six-day cruise, which started in Wuhan and ended in Chongqing, was the centerpiece of a three-week tour run by Boston-based Grand Circle Travel. We spent five days in Beijing (population 14 million) and four days in Shanghai (16 million) before boarding Regal China Cruises' Princess Elaine in Wuhan (8 million). A few of the 258 passengers were Chinese but the majority were members of American and British tour groups.

The 150 staff members, at least those who interacted with passengers, were a young and sweetly enthusiastic bunch. The same people who cleaned the rooms also served in the dining rooms, taught lessons and gave demonstrations during the day, and sang and danced for our entertainment at night. They were curious about the United States and hungry for conversational English.

Each Regal China ship has an English-speaking cruise director from the United States who is fluent in Mandarin. Ours was Jared, an impressive young man from Kansas City who was working for undergraduate credit from Brigham Young University.

We gathered on the outer decks and glassed-in lounges of the ship's bow to hear him narrate our passage through each of the Three Gorges. Between Jared and the rest of the staff, we learned about the geography of the river, the dam, Mandarin, Chinese medicine, tai chi, herbal skin care, mah jongg, kite making, silk embroidery, vegetable carving, folk dance and other regional specialties.

As for the amenities, Regal China calls itself "five star," but consider the source. Our vessel was built in 1993 in Germany for cruising Russia's Volga River. The outer decks featured only Astroturf and plastic chairs. On the other hand, our cramped double room was temperature-controlled. We could take hot showers and watch the shore through our amply sized window while drinking hot tea.

It was chilly out there, with damp air whipping around us, especially in the shadows of the gorges.

The ship sailed nonstop through undramatic scenery on the first full day, which gave us a chance to turn our attention inward and simply unwind from the urban pressures of Beijing and Shanghai. I decided to take advantage of the Chinese medicinal services offered and get a full-body massage for only $31.

In China, massage is considered a medical necessity, not an indulgence. As such, the facility was Spartan and the massage itself was at times jarring, not soothing. The masseuse was not meticulous about keeping the towel over body parts that a person might want to keep covered. But for another $31 I got a 45-minute reflexology session (foot rub) that was heaven. I ordered my mom to get one, too.

Meanwhile, we were heading swiftly toward the largest public works project in history, the hotly-debated Three Gorges Dam. It will be almost four times larger than the Hoover Dam in terms of electrical output. Proponents say it will provide the country with sorely needed electricity, allow for the passage of larger ships on the river and sharply reduce the severity of flooding.

However, it is forcing the resettlement of 1.3 million people, mostly farmers who are deeply rooted to their land.

Opponents say the reservoir, which will be 360 miles long, is submerging the best agricultural land in the region, and that heavy sediment might continue to hinder navigation. Sites of cultural and historical importance are being lost, although efforts are being made to salvage artifacts and put them in museums.

And finally, the environmental impact throughout Asia is immeasurable. But the debates are moot at this point, as the dam is already about two-thirds complete, and the water level has already risen 511 feet, with only 66 feet to go.

On day three we went ashore at Sandouping, which was chosen as the site for the dam because it had a natural island, a natural granite foundation and low seismic activity. A park and visitors' center there was throbbing with tourists, mostly Chinese. The dam is certainly a feat of engineering and a great source of national pride, from what I could tell. After reboarding, we joined other ships crowding through the five-stage locks, which took most of the afternoon, before we encountered our first of the Three Gorges, the jagged cliff-bound Xiling Gorge.

I chose not to concern myself with sorting out which gorges are which. The designations are confusing because each of the Three Gorges is actually a series of gorges, not just one. And the individual gorges have names like "Gorge of The Ox's Liver and The Horse's Lung." It's useless to try to make fine distinctions on the first pass, and better to go with overall impressions.

We awoke on day four in the Wu Gorge.A ferry took us into the verdant Lesser Gorges, where we noted goats, monkeys and one of the last undisturbed "hanging coffins," so called because an ancient culture cantilevered some of them on poles extruding from the rock faces. Others, like this one, were simply inserted into crevices.

We came to a landing where several crews of rough-hewn gondolas known as "peapod boats" awaited to take us up the narrow, lagoon-like Shennong Stream. When it became too shallow to row, the trackers jumped out and towed us with ropes.

Years ago, they used to do this in the nude, making for a pretty famous attraction. On this day they wore jackets and tiny shorts. But the experience was undiminished. Back on the Princess Elaine that afternoon, we continued through the arid and brushy Qutang Gorge.

The following day we went ashore at the city of Wanzhou, the largest city due to be flooded by the reservoir, though not entirely. We visited a family that was among the first to be resettled from lower ground, now submerged. With the money they received from the government, they bought a building and now earn income from renters. They clearly preferred this to their old life of farming. We also dropped in on a kindergarten, an acrobat school and a museum dedicated to the hanging coffins that have been rescued from the rising water.

Finally, the next day we disembarked in Chongqing (population 14 million, 31 million if you count the entire "municipality"), formerly known as Chungking. We explored a museum dedicated to the American forces in World War II, a painters' village, and the Chongqing Zoo, where I was allowed to enter an enclosure and pet a giant panda.

Major highlight!

After Chongqing, our group flew to Xi'an (7 million) mainly to see the Terra Cotta Army. More than 8,000 life-sized and one-of-a-kind terra cotta soldiers guarded an emperor's tomb for more than 2000 years. They were discovered in 1974 and the excavation is ongoing.From Xi'an we continued to Guilin (a mere 600,000) mainly for a day cruise on the Li River and a visit to an orphanage that Grand Circle Travel helps support. Finally we went to Hong Kong (6.4 million,) mainly to shop.

Touring China is exhausting and emotionally taxing, but after you recover, what remains is an education. I'm convinced China will be the world's single biggest force of economic and environmental change in the next 100 years, if not right now. Whether you go to China or not, China is coming to you. It will touch every dollar you touch. Try to go see it. Make friends with it. Get used to it.


If you go . . .

Three-week 'China & The Yangtze' tours with Grand Circle Travel start at $2,695. I paid $3,487, including taxes, airfare from Austin and adjustment for peak season.

(800) 221-2610, www.gct.com.

You also can book a cruise directly through Regal China Cruises. It costs $360 to $480, depending on the season and the direction. If you sail downstream, from Chongqing to Wuhan, it takes four days instead of six. Peak season: April, May, September, October. www.yzcruises.com/english/ships/RegalChina.asp.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_f...tent_id=118698

BEIJING, FEB 24: Buoyed by higher prices for commodities and petrochemical goods, profits of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) grew by an impressive 25% year-on-year in 2005 to $112 billion, a record high, the government said.
Profits of SOEs touched a record at $112 billion in 2005, registering a growth of 25%. The sales revenue of the soes totalled $1,424 billion last year, up 19.2% from the previous year, vice-minister of finance, Zhu Zhigang said.

Zhu attributed the rapid growth to sound macro-economic practices, improved corporate governance, restructuring, and higher commodity and petrochemical prices. China’s macroeconomic regulation in the past year was designed to make its rapid economic growth sustainable by cooling investment in overheated sectors as iron and steel and cement, while increasing investment in agriculture, energy, transportation and public services, or the ‘weak links’ of the country.

Between 1999 and 2004 China cut 80,000 SOEs, or 37% of the total. The number of soe employees dropped 49% to 38.25 million, Xinhua quoted Zhu as saying.

http://english.people.com.cn/200602/...10_241638.html

News from Ministry of Railways on Feb. 9 said that China's railway have performed even better than expected, making historical records in transportation olume, the cargo transportation as well as cargo turnover. China's railway leads the world in various aspects.

According to statistics, the passenger visits by railroad in 2005 stood at 1.15 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.3 percent; and direct passenger trips 434.52 million, up 6.9 percent. The passenger turnover reached 603 billion passenger/km, up 5.6 percent.

Also in 2005, the volume of cargo dispatched by railway across the country hit 2.7 billion tons, up 8.2 percent, and cargo turnover 2,054 billion ton/km, up 7.5 percent.

By People's Daily Online

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4121796.htm

www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-31 10:02:24

LHASA, Jan. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region reported 69 billion yuan (8.6 billion U.S. dollars) of fixed assets investment between 2001 and 2005, three times as much as in the previous five-year period.

About 50.8 billion yuan (6.35 billion U.S. dollars) of the investment was appropriated from the central coffer to boost infrastructure construction in the region, said a report on the regional social and economic development during the 10th Five-Year Plan Period (2001-2005).

In the past five years, 42,700 kilometers of highways opened totraffic and track laying was completed on the world's most elevated railroad linking Tibet to neighboring Qinghai Province.

The region's installed power generating capacity was expanded to 500,000 kilowatts, an increase of 150,000 kilowatts from year 2000.

The past five years also witnessed the construction of more water conservancy and storage facilities that provide safe drinking water for 588,000 herders in Tibet. Enditem

http://english.people.com.cn/200601/...06_233407.html

China plans to input a total of 160 billion yuan (about 20 billion US dollars) on railway construction in 2006, Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun said in Beijing Friday.

At the national railways working conference in Beijing, Liu said the construction of 13 new express passenger rail routes will start this year, with the pace of another 11 rail routes under way to be accelerated.

The year 2006 will witness a large-scale railway building momentum in China, said Liu, noting that the ministry will launch a total of 87 railways projects this year.

As a step to renovate part of the country's outdated low-speed railways, a total length of 3,860 electrified rail routes will go into service across the country in 2006, Liu said.

Meanwhile, two key projects of the railways sector will become operational in 2006, said the minister, one is the highest-latitude Qinghai-Tibet Railway which will go into trial operation in July, and the other is the electrified Beijing-Shanghai Railway to be in service in the year.

Preparations for China's sixth large-scale speed-lift for railways is also scheduled to be completed before October this year, the minister said.

Source: Xinhua