Economy/Resources - 230. page

China Review News (CRN) recently reviewed an article published by Economic Information Daily on the lessons learned about the international credit rating system. The article pointed out that, after the Greek Credit Crisis, China was truly worried about the destructive power that the international credit rating system, which is controlled by three major organizations has. The various parties throughout all levels of the Chinese government and media came to the conclusion that China should have its own credit rating capabilities. With this background, the Chinese rating company Dagong Global Credit Rating released ratings of 50 typical countries. The article suggested that the three major rating organizations are biased and discriminate against developing countries. An example is that the ratings for China and India are even lower than Spain. The article also suggested that the Chinese government should stand behind Dagong and push the Chinese rating business in the U.S. market.

Source: China Review News, July 15, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/8/2/0/101382055.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=101382055&mdate=0715030107

According to Xinhua on July 15, 2010, a report on statistics released by China’s State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters shows that 26 provinces suffered floods this year, with total of 97,500,000 people and 6,155 thousand hectares of crops affected. Up to now, the death toll is 594 people; 212 people are still missing, and 590,000 houses have collapsed. The direct economic losses are 120.2 billion Chinese Yuan by 9am on July 15.

Source: Xinhua, July 15, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-07/15/c_111958044.htm

China needs to follow a managed float of its exchange rate to aid restructuring, said Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, in an article published on the website of the Central Bank. “A managed floating exchange rate system, which is based on market supply and demand, with reference to a basket of currencies, is a correct decision in accordance with China’s own situation and development strategy. It is also an important part of the socialist market economic system. It is China’s established policy.” 

The Outlook Weekly of Xinhua published an article from an official, associated with the State Development Planning Commission who asked a question. Earlier some Chinese economists remarked that China might benefit from a moderate 5 to 6% inflation rate. The article disagrees. “Currently the Consumer Price Index is rising slowly, but the prices for consumer goods and monopolistic items are increasing at a rapid rate. If the target for an overall price increase is set at 5% to 6%, the so-called moderate increase, economic development and social stability would suffer  damaging consequences.

Source: Xinhua, July 5, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2010-07/05/c_12299505.htm

The director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), Li Rongrong, commented on June 25 that out of 125 national level state-owned companies, none has a world class brand. Despite the fact that China is the second largest industrial manufacturing country, Chinese companies have only become competitive on the low and mid-low end of manufacturing. National state-owned companies gained big improvements during the past several years. However, that was basically riding on the countrywide development wave. Li believes that these national companies are still weak on core competitiveness and lack independent innovations. Today, 70% of new industrial products are based on external technologies. Li announced that SASAC is establishing a new motivation system to help the state-owned companies improve, .

Source: China Review News, June 25, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/6/3/8/101363800.html?coluid=10&kindid=253&docid=101363800&mdate=0625105632

China has expanded the trial regions that may use the RMB to settle cross-border trade from Hong Kong, Macao, and ASEAN countries to all countries. The Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs, the State Taxation Administration, and the Banking Regulatory Commission jointly issued an order on June 22, 2010. The number of trial provinces increased to 20. For 8 bordering provinces, all enterprises with import or export permission are allowed to use the RMB for trade. For other provinces, only approved trial enterprises can use the RMB for settlement and the number of those trial enterprises are increasing.

Source: China News Service, June 22, 2010
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/cj-gncj/news/2010/06-22/2355716.shtml

With the approval of the Central Bank of Zambia, on June 14, Bank of China issued the first RMB debit card in all of Africa. The debit card is branded under UnionPay, which is the dominant credit card issuer in China. The theory behind this move is that typical international traveler’s checks only support seven western currencies, which are not accepted by most Chinese businesses. UnionPay is widely accepted in China. Thus the new debit card benefits the African customers visiting China. Bank of China in Zambia was approved to offer full RMB based services in 2009. Its RMB services include RMB accounts and RMB cash. Since the services were made available to the public this past March, the Bank has received total deposits of RMB 50 Million.

Source: Xinhua, June 15, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2010-06/15/c_12224377.htm