China Unicom to invest 1.8b yuan in Tibet

China Unicom to invest 1.8b yuan in Tibet

China Unicom, the nation’s leading telecommunications operator, announced Sunday it would invest 1.8 billion yuan ($265 million) in Tibet to upgrade the information infrastructure on the plateau.
The investment will be put into place in five years, said Lu Yimin, general manager of China Unicom, after the company signed a cooperation pact with the government of Tibet Autonomous region on Sunday.
The money will help improve telecommunications infrastructure, E-government, and the information infrastructure of small businesses and rural areas, according to the agreement.
Broadband Internet service is now available only to urban areas of 72 counties in Tibet, while 3,421 Tibetan villages are covered only by dialing service.
Broadband Internet service will be extended to cover 60 percent of 5,931 villages in the region by 2011 after China Telecom, also one of the world’s largest fixed telephone and broadband service provider, agreed to invest 2.5 billion yuan at the end of June.

Air China to launch Chengdu-Bangalore route

Air China to launch Chengdu-Bangalore route

Air China, the nation’s largest carrier, will launch direct flight linking the southwestern city of Chengdu and Bangalore, the “Silicon Valley in India” to promote mutual exchanges in the software industry.
Air service between the two cities is scheduled to start in late February next year.
Airbus A319 or Boeing 757 of Air China southwestern branch will depart from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8:30 pm (Beijing time), and will arrive in Bangalore on the same day at 11:10 pm(local time), company sources said.
Return flights will be on Thursdays and Sundays, leaving Bangalore at 0:20 am?and arriving in Chengdu at 7:20 am. One way flight lasts about five hours.
Located in south India, Bangalore produces a third of India’s IT industry value, or $62 billion expected for 2009. Software behemoth such as Microsoft and HP had set up subsidiaries there.
Chengdu is striving to make itself a regional base of software industry with its fast development in software outsourcing and hardware production. World heavyweights like Intel and Foxconn had opened factories in the city.

87 million Chinese shopping online

87 million Chinese shopping online

More than 87 million Chinese bought goods on the Internet this year, about 24 million more than last year and an increase of 38.9 percent year-on-year, the Beijing Times reported, citing a recent report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
Most online shoppers are students or white collar workers between the ages of 18 and 30, with a monthly income of 1,000 yuan ($146) to 3,000 yuan ($439). More women shop online than men, and clothing and home-use products are the most popular goods bought online.
According to the “Report on China’s Online Shopping 2009″, the total sum of national online consumption for the first half of the year was 119.5 billion yuan ($17.5 billion), 89 percent of which through consumer to consumer websites like Taobao.com.
CNNIC estimates the total sum of annual online shopping will reach 250 billion yuan ($36.6 billion) this year.

Air Chinas Fan Cheng named to run Shenzhen Airlines

Air China’s Fan Cheng named to run Shenzhen Airlines


Air China Vice-President Fan Cheng was named a senior official of Shenzhen Airlines on Tuesday, adding fuel to speculation that the world’s most valuable airline would take over the Shenzhen-based carrier.
Fan was appointed Party secretary of Shenzhen Airlines on Dec 1, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters yesterday.
He is now in charge of the daily operations of Shenzhen Airlines, the country’s fifth-largest air carrier, a source said.
“It suggests that Air China will lead Shenzhen Airlines and it will have a synergy effect on both airlines,” Alfred Chan, chief dealer at Cheer Pearl Investment.
Privately owned Shenzhen Airlines said earlier this week Li Zeyuan, a senior advisor who effectively controls the airline, was under police investigation, although the airline continued to operate normally.
Shares of Air China rose?one percent to HK$6.2 in Hong Kong trading yesterday.
An Air China spokesman declined to comment.
The stock jumped as much as 10 percent on Tuesday, on speculation that Air China would take over Shenzhen Airlines, allowing the country’s flag carrier to fend off competition from the merged China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.
“Air China is set to benefit from a bigger market share and operation scale. It is similar to the case of a bigger bank taking over a smaller rival. The bigger bank is always seen to have a bigger benefit than the one being taken over,” Chan said.
Air China holds a 25-percent stake in Shenzhen Airlines while Li owns about 65 percent through a company.

China sets goal for boosting tourism industry

China sets goal for boosting tourism industry

China’s State Council, or the Cabinet, posted guidelines promoting the development of tourism industry over the next five years on its website Thursday.
As of 2015, domestic tourists are projected to top 3.3 billion with an annual average growth of 10 percent in the next five years, and outbound tourists will reach 83 million with an annual increase of 9 percent, said the guidelines.
Tourism industry is expected to create around 500,000 new jobs annually, and its annual revenue will grow by 12 percent, the document said.
The industry is to account for 4.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015, it said.
Government departments are required to lower market threshold and simplify approval procedures for tourism enterprises, supporting the development of small and medium-sized ones.
The guidelines also encouraged local authorities to introduce overseas investment, opening the domestic tourism market to foreign companies.

SouFun plans overseas float next year

SouFun plans overseas float next year

Real estate website SouFun Holdings is planning to list its shares in the US capital markets in the first half of next year, sources close to the matter told China Daily yesterday.
“With the property market reviving and sector competition intensifying, a public listing is vital for SouFun. The company will strive to finish the listing process in the first six months of 2010,” the source said.
SouFun shareholders have already cleared the public float plan. The company had charted IPO plans in 2008, but deferred these due to dismal market conditions.
At that time the company had thought of floating its shares on the Hong Kong bourse. “The company will now float its shares in the US instead of Hong Kong.”
SouFun’s largest shareholder Australian telephone firm Telstra Corp Ltd said in a statement late on Tuesday that it intends to sell its stake in the company. Telstra had earlier paid $254 million for a 51 percent stake in the property portal.
“Telstra proposes to sell down its shareholding as part of SouFun’s IPO plan. Subject to regulatory requirements, further details will be provided as the process proceeds,” the statement said.
“China’s real estate sector is still quite attractive for overseas investors and that has been amply demonstrated by China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC) shares’ strong NASDAQ debut in October,” said Grant Ji, director of Savills (Beijing), a UK-based real estate service provider.
Shanghai-based CRIC raised nearly $216 million in its IPO after selling 18 million American depositary shares for $12 each. Its shares rose nearly 19.5 percent on the first day of trading, breaking a streak of poor debuts by newly US-listed Chinese stocks.

Telstra is betting on the IPO to provide high growth opportunities for its Sensis advertising business, which currently manages SouFun.
According to Sol Trujillo, Telstra’s CEO, SouFun provides an attractive entry point into China and helps Sensis to leverage core capabilities into a larger, faster growing and less mature market than Australia.
SouFun Holdings reported a 88 percent growth in full year profits last year and said it expects 50 percent growth this year. Given that online companies attract multiples of 20 times earnings, the company could achieve a valuation of $1 billion, industry experts said.
SouFun, established in 1999, provides information, advertising and listing services to China’s growing online real estate and home furnishings and improvement sectors. Online advertising currently generates about 60 percent of its total revenue.

China takes fast lane in growth

China takes fast lane in growth

China’s manufacturing sustained rapid growth in November, shored up by the country’s strengthened economy and improved profit margins among producers, according to a pair of definitive indexes released Tuesday.
An index produced for HSBC, based on a poll of purchasing executives in manufacturing, hit a record high of 55.7 in November, while a parallel official index was unchanged at an 18-month peak of 55.2.
Together, the surveys showed that China’s economy has largely recovered from the global downturn thanks to aggressive pro-growth measures adopted a year ago.
The official Purchasing Managers’ Index, measuring manufacturing activity, settled at 55.2 last month, the same as the figure in October and up from 54.3 in September, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said.

HK airport revenue down 4.7% April-Sept

HK airport revenue down 4.7% April-Sept

Hong Kong Airport Authority said Tuesday it gained a revenue of 4.316 billion HK dollars (557.48 million U.S. dollars) in the six months ending on September 30, down 4.7 percent on the same period last year.
Profit attributable to equity shareholders was 1.307 billion HK dollars in the same period, down 3.8 percent year-on-year, according to the statistics released by the authority.
Traffic at Hong Kong International Airport was affected by the global economic downturn which began in the second half of last year, said the Airport Authority.
Total passenger throughput fell 6.4 percent to 23 million, and cargo volume dropped 11.5 percent to 1.68 million tonnes.
However, signs of market stabilization and recovery have been seen in recent months, particularly in air cargo, said the authority.
In October, cargo volume recorded its first growth in 14 months and November figures have showed a strong rebound in cargo services demand so far.
The authority’s Chief Executive Officer Stanley Hui said that airline partners are responding to the early signs of recovery by reinstating capacity or routes which have been cut or suspended since the global financial tsunami last year.
Three passenger and 11 freighter airlines have joined the airport or resumed their services since April, adding 18 passenger and 30 all-cargo flights per week. About 90 airlines are now operating from the airport.
Hui said the authority is confident in the airport’s long-term prospects as it is well positioned to capitalize on the tremendous growth opportunities arising from the Mainland’s robust economy and the increasing economic integration between Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta.
The Airport Authority also said that two major facilities, the North Satellite Concourse and the permanent SkyPier, will have soft openings by year’s end. The authority is also working on a study on developing the midfield area to provide extra aircraft stands, apron facilities and a new passenger concourse to accommodate the rise in aviation demand when runway capacity grows to 68 aircraft movements per hour by 2015. (One U.S. dollar equals7.742 HK dollars)

Retail sales set to surge

Retail sales set to surge

Encouraged by the central government’s stimulus measures tailored for domestic consumption, China’s retail sales this year may surge by 16 percent from a year earlier, compared with that of 15 percent during the first 10 months, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said yesterday.
The growth will be sustained in the year ahead as relevant new preferential policies are expected to come into effect, the ministry said.
“Benefiting from the series of measures initiated by the Chinese government, retail sales have registered robust growth this year. It is predicted that the figure will increase by 15.6 percent to 12 trillion yuan in 2009,” said Wang Bingnan, director general of the Department of Market Operation Regulation under MOFCOM.
Amid the rapid double-digit decline in China’s exports late last year, the State Council released a guideline on invigorating domestic consumption to help the Chinese economy. Under the guideline, 32 cities and regions nationwide allocated funds worth 2.5 billion yuan ($366 million) to expand sales networks in rural areas, rebate programs for household appliances and automobiles, and launch credit subsidy policies for small and medium-sized enterprises.
“Ballooning consumption of household appliances, auto, property and agricultural goods is the major driving force behind the rising retail sales,” said Chang Xiaocun, director general of the Department of Market System Development.
By the end of October, the rebate program on household appliances has generated sales of 120 billion yuan, and the renewal programs for autos and household appliances have created consumption worth 10 billion yuan, MOFCOM said.
“There is great potential for the auto industry to expand, and there is a high possibility that the existing stimulus measures continue,” Chang said.
This year, China surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest auto manufacturer and consumer, with sales volume of autos expected to hit 1.3 million by year end.
The government’s efforts on stimulating domestic consumption began to take off in the second quarter and gained momentum in the third. “The rural areas outperformed the urban when speaking of growth,” said MOFCOM officials.
China’s total retail sales in the first 10 months of this year grew by 15.3 percent year-on-year, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
As the financial crisis continues and the global exports situation remains grim, China is betting more than ever on domestic consumption. During a recent meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, the government emphasized the significance of sustainable growth in domestic consumption, claiming to promote especially the residents’ consumption.
The rising domestic consumption is a key to getting rid of the problem of overcapacity that challenges China as a result of massive construction in the past year, said a recent report by the European Chamber of Commerce in China.

Renren.com launches mobile service

Renren.com launches mobile service

China’s biggest social networking site Renren.com today launched its mobile service, which enables users to access the site via WAP browsers or pre-installed mobile client software.
Applications are now available for mobile phones based on Symbian, iPhone, Android, and Java platforms.
Founded in 2005, Renren.com has over 120 million users and more than 1,000 third-party applications.