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HSK – China to enhance regulating property market

manlearnoncn — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:17:32 +0000

China will enhance regulating its property market in 2011 and strengthen implementation of the tightening measures already unveiled by the government, a senior official said Wednesday.

Jiang Weixin, minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at a national work conference that China would clamp down on speculative home purchases and curb excessive growth in property prices next year.

The country has rolled out a string of tightening measures to cool the real estate market in 2010, including suspending mortgages for third-home purchases, speeding up trials of property taxes and raising down payment requirements for first-home buyers, which have “helped contain speculative demand to some extent”, Jiang said.

Further, Jiang noted that the ministry would assess local governments’ performances in stabilizing property prices to ensure central government measures are properly implemented.

China will also continue to increase the land supply available for residential property and strengthen management of the Public Housing Fund in 2011.

The country built 5.9 million units of affordable housing and renovated 1.36 million dangerous rural dwellings in 2010, compared with the annual target of 5.8 million units and 1.2 units, respectively, Jiang said.

Further, China will increase the supply of affordable housing, renovate more shantytowns and develop public rental housing to solve the housing problem of middle- and low-income earners, the newly-employed and migrant workers, Jiang said.

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learn mandarin – Brazil sets conditions on China’s toy story

manlearnoncn — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:16:32 +0000

Amid the backdrop of the rising Brazilian currency, the real, against the yuan, Brazil increased tariffs on toy imports from China by 15 percent on Wednesday.

It’s the third time in eight days that the South American nation has launched a trade-remedy case against Chinese imports.

The measure aims to help Brazilian toy manufacturers gain a competitive edge, as China accounts for as much as 90 percent of the nation’s total toy imports. However, the move will not hurt Chinese manufacturers too badly, as the industry’s export volume to Brazil is still small, said experts.

According to the Brazilian Foreign Trade Chamber, the South American country has raised duties from 20 percent to 35 percent on 14 types of toys including dolls, puzzles, tricycles and electric trains.

The tariffs will be effective by the end of 2011.

The move comes in response to a request from Brazilian toymakers for help in fending off the fierce competition posed by the influx of Chinese imports.

The tariff increase is the third time Brazil has initiated a trade-remedy case against China during the past eight days.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Brazil announced it started anti-dumping investigations into imports of Chinese seamless steel pipes on Dec 22, and non-stainless steel household vessels on Dec 24.

Meanwhile, on Dec 21, the Brazilian Citric Acid Industry Association applied to its government to launch an investigation into Chinese imports of the acid.

“It is an unavoidable trend that Brazil is launching more trade-remedy cases against China, as they are competing at the same level in many sectors. China must be fully prepared for that,” said He Weiwen, a council member of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies.

China supplies more than 90 percent of Brazil’s toy imports, and figures from the Ministry of Trade of Brazil show that they totaled imported toys worth $290 million between January and November.

But Brazil is still a small market for Chinese exporters. According to China’s General Administration of Customs, the value of China’s exports of toys and parts grew by 30.3 percent to $9.34 billion during the first 11 months of this year, only 3 percent of which went to Brazil.

The United States and European Union are China’s top two export markets for toys, buying about 60 percent of the total output from Chinese factories. This year, the emerging markets of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) rose to the fifth-largest export market for China, replacing Canada.

As the developed nations established more trade barriers for imports of toys and demand shrinks, Chinese toy makers have started to cast their eyes on the emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia and ASEAN.

According to a study published this month by Brazil’s State Development Bank, imports of Chinese goods in the 12 months through August increased 37 percent to $21.4 billion, from $15 billion in the whole of 2009.

In August, the Brazilian government began to reduce import tariffs on toy parts and raw materials from 20 percent to 2 percent, in a bid to enhance the competitiveness of its domestic producers.

It is estimated toy sales in Brazil will reach $1.8 billion this year, 49 percent of which will come from products made abroad.

learn Chinese online – Price stability main target of monetary policy

manlearnoncn — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 04:15:45 +0000

Price stability should always be the main target of China’s monetary policy, a central bank official said Wednesday.

Sheng Songcheng, director of the Financial Survey and Statistics Department of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), wrote in a statement posted on the website of the PBOC, saying that the central bank may place more emphasis on economic growth during harsh economic days.

“But in the long run, keeping prices stable is always the main target of the country’s monetary policy,” he said.

China announced earlier this month that it would shift to a prudent monetary policy in 2011 from its moderately loose stance.

Sheng said China should take asset prices into consideration when formulating monetary policy, as housing and stocks have become important parts of residents’ personal property.

Further, Sheng said the country should speed up the pace of interest rate liberalization by adopting a more market-based interest rate policy, including encouraging financ

learn Chinese – Efforts ease produce’s path to marketplace

manlearnoncn — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:14:48 +0000

China is stepping up efforts to simplify the means of bringing agricultural products to the marketplace to reduce costs and address rising inflation.

These efforts will also help international retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour optimize their purchasing systems in China and ease the way for exports of agricultural products, said officials.

The 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015) sets as a goal that consumers in medium and large cities will be able to buy one-third of their fresh produce at supermarkets, as opposed to the current 15 percent, said Minister of Commerce Chen Deming on Wednesday.

With the fiscal support of the central government, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly launched a pilot program in 2009 that has been making it easier for international and domestic supermarkets to purchase directly from farmers.

In the past two years, supermarkets in China have signed contracts with farmers totaling 5 billion yuan ($755 million), reducing the average cost of bringing agricultural products to marketplace by 10 to 15 percent, Chen said.

Han Changfu, minister of agriculture, said the program was effective in fighting price increases in agricultural products throughout October and November, with vegetable prices remaining relatively stable in supermarkets.

Owing in part to the rising prices of agricultural products, the consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, hit a record 5.1 percent in November, intensifying pressure on policymakers to ease inflation.

The program has helped train farmers in brand-building and the income of those involved rose on average about 4,000 yuan, according to the statistics.

About 2,000 companies have participated in the initiative, including Wal-Mart, Carrefour and the domestic supermarket Wu-Mart.

“The program has played an active role in expanding the consumption of domestic produce, safeguarding the market supply and stabilizing prices of agricultural products,” Chen said.

However, he added that the mechanisms need to evolve further to enlarge the coverage and attain balanced development among regions and areas.

Chen called on big retailers to purchase more produce directly from farmers in second- and third-tier Chinese cities and said such programs will help introduce international quality-certification systems to these areas to improve food safety.

“Imports of China’s agricultural products are larger than exports, and a more standardized domestic market and circulation system will help Chinese agricultural products entering international markets,” Chen said.

As of November, Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, had set up 62 produce-purchasing bases in 18 Chinese provinces and cities. It now buys agricultural products from 730,000 farmers nationwide.

Carrefour, the second-largest retailer, has set up purchasing centers in 19 cities and established cooperation with more than 300 production bases .

Foreign trade is expected to slow in 2011 and the government is increasingly working at boosting domestic consumption.

China’s total retail sales rose by 18.4 percent year-on-year to 13.92 trillion yuan in the first 11 months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Chinese School – Officials vow to boost graft fight

manlearnoncn — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:13:36 +0000

Authorities vowed greater efforts in fighting corruption while admitting that the problem is “still very serious” after releasing figures on Wednesday that showed a total of 113,000 officials were punished from January to November for corruption, up 6 percent year-on-year.

Officials on the frontline of the anti-corruption campaign pledged to work harder to crush the problem and win the public’s confidence after the State Council Information Office released the country’s first white paper on the fight against graft, a move that was welcomed by experts as a step toward openness.

Of the 113,000 officials that were punished, 4,332 had been handed over to judicial authorities for further investigation, Wu Yuliang, secretary-general of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC), told a news conference.

Disciplinary authorities across the country placed 119,000 graft-related cases under investigation in the first 11 months of the year, he said, an increase of 3 percent over the same period last year.

Wu also said that the CCDI has made, and will continue to make, efforts to reduce the number of cars bought and used by Party and governmental organs nationwide.

Compared to last year, Party and government departments across the country reduced spending on foreign trips, vehicle purchases and receptions by 5.7 billion yuan ($860 million). However, the exact amount actually spent was not disclosed.

Wu said that the CPC and the central government have a clear understanding of the anti-corruption issue, and have adopted resolute measures to curb graft.

The release of the white paper was to show the international community efforts being taken to tackle the problem, he said.

The white paper said China’s efforts to combat corruption and build a clean government have achieved notable results.

It quoted a National Bureau of Statistics survey as saying that 83.8 percent of Chinese thought corruption had been reduced in 2010, up from 68.1 percent in 2003.

But it acknowledged that the country is still faced with “long-haul, complicated and arduous anti-graft missions”, with social conflict increasing since the country has undergone dramatic change, and the ideas and concepts of the people have altered.

“Since the relevant mechanisms and systems are still incomplete, corruption persists, some cases even involving huge sums of money,” the report said. “Breaches of law and discipline tend to be more covert, intelligent and complicated.”

The latest high-ranking official investigated for alleged “severe violation of discipline” was Liu Zhuozhi, vice-chairman of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the CCDI announced on Dec 15.

Experts hailed the release of the white paper.

“The significance of the publication lies in the fact that people will know clearly the situation, measures and effects of the anti-corruption campaign,” said Zhu Lijia, a professor on anti-corruption research at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

The report will help eliminate bias and misunderstanding about China’s anti-graft battle as it details both achievements and problems, said He Zengke, a researcher at the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, a prominent research institute on Marxism and Chinese policies.

“It’ll help people develop a correct, objective and comprehensive understanding of China,” he said.

However, while addressing why the country continues to see such a high number of corrupt officials, Zhu said officials are still enjoying excessive power.

“Meanwhile, the public lacks effective means to supervise officials,” he said. “And I think the punishment given to most corrupt officials is still too light.”

Chinese language – Auto market to slow in 2011

manlearnoncn — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:12:47 +0000

China’s automobile market is expected to end its skyrocketing growth next year.

That’s after the government decided to cease incentive measures and began to curb the booming auto market in big cities in a bid to ease congestion.

“Don’t be optimistic for China’s automobile market next year,” said Jia Xinguang, an independent auto analyst based in Beijing. “At the expiry of the stimulus measures, especially the tax policy, there will be a restructuring in the auto market in terms of engine capacity.”

Jia said that the automakers, especially domestic carmakers with models with engine capacities of 1.6 liters or less, will face a challenge in 2011.

“They have to make great efforts to improve quality and strengthen the brand of their cars,” said Jia.

China’s total vehicle sales surged to 16.4 million in the 11 months through November, according to the China Automobile Industry Association.

Whole-year sales are expected to hit 18 million units in 2010, making the nation the world’s largest auto market for a second year.

The market increased by almost 30 percent this year, but analysts have predicted that it will slow to 10 to 15 percent or even lower in 2011, after Beijing recently launched a strict policy to curb car consumption.

The Ministry of Finance on Tuesday announced that China will stop the two-year consumption-tax cuts for smaller cars.

“Effective from January 1, 2011, a sales tax of 10 percent will be imposed on cars with engines of 1.6-liters or smaller, from 5 percent in 2009 and 7.5 percent currently,” said the ministry on its website.

The government launched stimulus policies for the auto industry in 2009, including tax cuts for buyers of cars with engines of 1.6 liters or smaller, subsidies for rural car-buyers and incentives for trade-in cars. That move helped China surpass the United States as the world’s largest auto market that year.

However, the ministry’s statement did not say whether the 3,000 yuan ($454) rebates for fuel-efficient cars would remain in place in 2011 along with subsidies for farmers’ trade-in vehicles.

Beijing municipal government last Thursday unveiled a plan to limit the number of cars sold in the city next year, to ease the traffic chaos.

China Travel – Foreign realty investors in govt lens

manlearnoncn — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:11:24 +0000

China will enhance the regulation of foreign institutions’ investment in the country’s property market and home purchases by non-Chinese citizens, as part of its efforts to curb the inflow of hot money and continue tightening of the real estate sector, a senior official said.

Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Jiang Weixin said at a national conference that China will crack down on speculative home purchases and curb excessive growth in property prices next year.

The government will also strengthen the implementation of tightening measures unveiled in 2010.

The country has rolled out a string of tightening measures to cool the market, including suspending mortgages for third-home purchases, speeding up trials of property taxes, raising down-payment requirements for first-time home buyers and only allowing foreign citizens living in China to buy one home for their own use, which have “helped contain speculative demand to some extent”, Jiang said.

An industry source said the housing ministry will regularly assess foreign capital’s entry into the property market with the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Foreign investment in China’s property sector rose 48 percent to $20.1 billion in the first 11 months, the Ministry of Commerce said on Dec 15. This is almost three times the 17.7 percent increase in the country’s total overseas capital inflows.

To curb the trend, the Ministry of Commerce ordered local authorities to halt the approval of some foreign property investments to stop speculative purchases, it said in a Nov 22 statement. Meanwhile, local authorities are also required to strengthen their reviews of foreign exchange inflows for real estate transactions and documentation for land rights.

John Wong, director of investment services at Colliers International, said it is still hard to determine the impact on foreign institutional investors as these rules are guidelines without detailed regulations.

“It also depends on the implementation. In fact, some local governments in second- and third-tier cities welcome foreign institutions as part of their efforts to boost foreign investment,” Wong said.

Colliers’ statistics show that among the public deals in Beijing’s property investment market this year, foreign capital accounted for around 40 percent, compared with last year’s 20 percent.

According to a managing director at a joint venture real estate fund, these rules will help to curb the entry of speculative investors seeking short term returns.

“But for foreign investors having a five to 10-year plan at China, their business is not likely to be affected unless the government directly prohibited foreign investment’s entry into the property sector,” he said, asking not to be named. “To some extent, strengthening regulations is a good thing for the market.”

China’s climbing interest rates and a stronger yuan are making the country a more attractive destination for foreign capital. Most economists estimated a 75 basis points interest rate hike and a 5 percent appreciation in the renminbi in 2011.

“The scale of hot money flooding into China will definitely increase next year, due to the interest rate gap between developed and developing economies and expectations of renminbi appreciation,” said Zhang Ming, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“The stock and property markets are still the two major fields for the inflow of speculative money. China thus faces more pressure in containing asset price growth next year,” he added.

China Business – China’s crude oil self-sufficiency 45% in 2010

manlearnoncn — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 04:10:25 +0000

China’s self-sufficiency in crude oil is expected to be 45 percent in 2010, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the nation’s top economic planner, said Tuesday.

The country imported 218 million tons of crude oil in the first 11 months, a rise of 19.8 percent from one year earlier, according to a statement from the NDRC.

The figure has surpassed China’s full-year import volume of 204 million tons in 2009, when the country’s self-sufficiency in crude oil was 47 percent.

A 34-percent vehicle sales growth in the first 11 months was attributed as a major reason for the strong oil demand, according to the NDRC.

The NDRC has twice hiked gasoline and diesel prices this year, with the first hike announced on Oct 25, and the latest on Dec 21, as oil prices continued to rise in the global market.

HSK – To boldly go where no big banks have gone

manlearnoncn — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 04:08:40 +0000

Li Yingui is passionate about cows. He can talk endlessly about bovines, and has the ability to gauge the age and weight-worthiness of the cow by merely looking into the eyes of the animal.

When the conversation turns to financing his business in trading cows, he has this to say: “I don’t have assets to mortgage. I don’t have guanxi (relationships or connections) at the governmental level or at the banks. I have tried to apply for loans at State-owned financial institutions but have gotten no answers, and not to mention the tedious amount of paperwork.”

But thanks to the combination of his own savings and two loans totaling 20,000 yuan ($3,019) from Yongji Fuping Microfinance Co Ltd, a micro-credit facility in Yongji, Shanxi province, he was able to buy 20 cows in a year to kick-start his business four years ago.

He sells his cows at a higher price to food manufacturing companies and hotels. Within a year, Li has managed to repay his loans plus a 21-percent fixed interest rate.

For 2011, he needs 30,000 yuan to expand his business but has decided not to try his luck again at State-owned financial institutions. Instead, he will go to Yongji Fuping Microcredit Company, a subsidiary of Fuping Social Investment Co Ltd.

“The staff at Fuping understands my needs and I can walk in and talk to them anytime. Their service is fast – my loan application was approved within seven days,” he said.

Li’s experience is a familiar story in a country where the large rural population has limited access to funding or no access to financial institutions.

Statistics from the China Banking Regulatory Commission in June showed that 2,945 townships in the country did not have local access to banks.

Efforts to improve the lives of farmers and the rural population have gained more prominence recently. The great economic reforms over the past 30 years have resulted in a glaring divide in wages between the rich and poor, urban and rural, which is one of the most pressing issues facing China at the moment.

By 2009, the richest 10 percent of Chinese controlled 45 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 10 percent had just 1.4 percent.

In order to control risk, banks approve loans on the basis of asset guarantees. This has resulted in farmers unable to meet the stringent requirements to obtain loans due to a lack of strong financial standing.

“This is the current bottleneck in China’s rural financial sector,” said Bai Chengyu, secretary-general of the China Association of Microfinance.

China Development Bank has forecast that the capital gap in rural areas will reach 5.4 trillion yuan in 2010 and 7.6 trillion yuan by 2015, if the bottleneck in rural financing remains unchanged.

Micro-credit companies, which lend to farmers, the self-employed, and small enterprises, are seen as an alternative source of financing for the rural population.

At the end of 2009, there were 1,334 registered micro-credit companies in China.

“Micro-credit agencies work better to meet the rural market demand. They are more flexible and market-oriented and they will play an important role,” said Gary Liu, deputy director of Lujiazui International Finance Research Center at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.

However, micro-credit companies, which were allowed to set up nationwide in 2008, face scrutiny from regulators and even the public due to their high interest rates, and they have been criticized and even labeled as exploitative by some.

“The fundamental reason for the high interest rate is the lack of capital for micro credit,” said Mao Yushi, founder of Fuping Social Investment Co Ltd.

Micro-credit services run at a cost of 15 percent to 20 percent, which poses a high benchmark for sustainable development, he said. In addition, the shortage of capital for the huge demand in rural areas has pushed the rates even higher.

“It may sound paradoxical but statistics have shown that a high interest rate will benefit the poor, due chiefly to the mobilization of more capital from the city to rural areas. When this happens, interest rates will gradually fall,” he said, citing a report by the World Bank.

The micro-credit sector has also seen innovation such as the establishment of CreditEase in 2006, the first social micro-credit enterprise that operates on an online peer-to-peer platform (P2P).

Farmers who need small loans can apply to local agencies. Upon approval, the farmers’ information will be uploaded online, through which the financiers can choose which farmers to help.

“Our P2P model has established a platform for people in the city to loan their money to those in need in rural areas. The minimum threshold is set at 100 yuan. With our website, more people are able to participate in rural micro credit,” said Tang Ning, chief executive officer of CreditEase.

“Once a loan is repaid, the money can be channeled to other farmers in need. Such a mechanism contributes to sustainable development,” he said. To date, the company’s website has enabled 2,592 lenders to loan a total of more than 1.5 million yuan, which flowed to 587 rural households and 5,171 farmers.

Different attitudes and policies from local governments will, to a large extent, determine how the micro-credit companies will develop.

To develop financial services in rural areas, the government should offer more support and guidance in establishing institutional financing channels, so that sources of constant capital flows can be secured, said Du Xiaoshan, vice-director of the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Du is also known as the “Father of Micro Credit” in China, due to his pioneering studies in the subject and for bringing international experience to the sector.

Government support for charitable micro-credit funds in the cultivation of business capacity for long-term development should be encouraged, according to Du.

“The government should strike a balance between commercial and charitable micro-credit companies. Only in this way can sustainable development of the micro-finance sector be achieved while preventing a financial crisis from breaking out,” he said.

As part of the policy to encourage the expansion of rural banks, the authorities in 2009 allowed micro-credit firms to upgrade to rural banks and take deposits if their non-performing loan ratio is under 2 percent, their loan-coverage ratio is above 130 percent, and they have recorded profits in the previous two years.

The policy is aimed at helping micro-credit firms operate on a bigger scale and provide stronger support to small-sized rural businesses and individual farmers.

The Chinese micro-credit industry has benefited from the entry of many large, international players such as Grameen Trust, BlueOrchard Finance, and ACCION International in 2009.

The partnerships between international and domestic micro-credit institutions, such as China Development Bank and Alibaba Group, contribute to the sector, as international practices and experience combine with local and cultural knowledge of their partners.

In the pipeline are another planned 573 micro-lending firms, including Kiva Microfunds, a San Francisco-based individual online micro-lending non-governmental organization, which is planning to set up branches in China.

learn mandarin – Commodity costs to make Rabbit a pricey year

manlearnoncn — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 04:07:14 +0000

As the Lunar New Year draws near, rabbit-shaped toys and gifts are popular sale items at markets in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, but buyers have to fork out more due to high commodity prices.

With the Year of the Rabbit due to begin on Feb 3, 2011, rabbit-shaped stuffed toys are lining up on the shelves at Our Shop, a toy outlet in Guangzhou. The French rabbit series Le Sucre is proving to be a hot item this year, said Lin Zhuopeng, the shop owner.

However, Lin paid 10 percent more for the stuffed toys, compared to those from the Year of the Tiger.

Although the market prices of his toys on offer are higher than what he paid two months ago, Lin said he will bear the extra costs and will not raise prices at the moment.

Dongguan Chashan Beileyuan Toys Co is selling eight models of stuffed rabbit toys at a wholesale price of between 9 yuan ($1.4) and 25 yuan an item, higher than previous years.

“The raw materials such as soft short floss, bright velvet and cotton are more expensive. If you look at workers’ pay and administrative costs, the sale prices are reasonable for the quality of the products,” said Huang Lixia, an executive, adding that the company is feeling the pressure from the fluctuation of raw material prices.

Guangdong Tongxin Toys Co in Foshan has seen a 50 percent jump in the price of bright velvet, which is used to make the Le Sucre rabbit series.

“The wholesalers are not happy with the price change but we are not the only one raising prices,” said Tan Xiaolong, an office manager for the company, adding that kimono-wearing rabbits and rabbit-shaped hanging ornaments are also popular.

The price of polypropylene (PP) fiber, which is used to stuff the toys, has risen by about 20 percent this year, according to a PP fiber supplier in Guangzhou.

According to statistics from the China National Cotton Exchange, the cotton price had climbed since Sept 1 from about 18,000 yuan to 28,500 yuan a ton by mid-November, reported Xinhua News Agency.

Zeng Yongxin, an office worker in Guangzhou, plans to purchase rabbit-themed ornaments but is only willing to buy at reasonable prices.

Yan Kedi, a college student in Guangzhou, who buys Chinese New Year zodiac toys annually, said she plans to buy stuffed toys, hanging ornaments and a purse.

The lunar new year season is expected to significantly boost sales of toys in China.