Economy/Resources - 245. page

The Guidance on the Financial Support of Revitalization, Development, and Prosperity of Cultural Industries was issued on March 26 by nine central party and government agencies including the People’s Bank of China, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Culture, State Administration of Radio Film and Television, the General Administration of Press and Publications, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. 

China is going to beef up its investment in promoting 3G mobile networks over the next two years. On April 8, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and seven more ministries jointly issued a “Notice on Promoting the Development of 3G Mobile Communication Network,” outlining the goal and implementation strategy for 3G-network development. The notice calls for 3G-network coverage in all cities at or above the prefecture level and the majority of counties, towns, major highways and tourist areas, by 2011. 400 billion Yuan will be invested in 3G-network construction and over four hundred thousand 3G base stations will be built to support one hundred fifty million 3G users.

According to MIIT, China had only 16 million 3G users as of February 2010.

Source: Shanghai Stock Information Service, April 9, 2010
http://paper.cnstock.com/html/2010-04/09/content_10460.htm

Outlook Magazine published an article, disclosing that many farmers in China have over-used antibiotics in raising animals, causing meat, eggs, and milk to contain antibiotic residues. Some farmers sell animal products after feeding antibiotics to sick animals. Some farmers routinely feed animals with low doses of antibiotics, though the animals are not sick. These practices produce more resistant bacteria among animals and also threaten human health.

The average Chinese consumes 138 gram of antibiotics per year, the highest in the world and ten times the amount used in the U.S. on an average basis. Among the antibiotics users, only 20% truly need them and 80% are abusers.

Source: Outlook Magazine, April 12, 2010
http://news.sohu.com/20100412/n271440936.shtml

From March 28 to April 1, Xinhua consecutively published five commentaries against local governments on selling land to increase income. The key points of the commentaries were: (1) land-selling based local finance policies are an overdraft that’s not sustainable; (2) local governments must change the mentality of real estate speculation; (3) the entire government real estate approval process should be transparent to avoid corruption; (4) land monopoly causes vicious competition and pushes land prices up; (5) the high profit and immediate contribution to GDP (which is a major measurement of a government’s performance) discourages local government’s willingness to control housing price.

Source: Xinhua, April 4, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/house/2010-04/04/content_13297657.htm

Xinhua republished an article by China Youth News concering frequent scandals divulging that news reporters in China had accepted bribes. The most recent such incident was that news reporters accepted 2.6 million yuan “acceptance fees” for not reporting over 30 deaths during a mine explosion in Wei County, Hebei Province on July 14, 2008. Nine reporters from eight news media (local media and central government media) were sentenced to prison terms, fined, and banned from reporting news.

China Youth News said the large number of scandals is a result of news reporters pursuing money for themselves and forgetting their social responsibility.

Source: Xinhua, April 2, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newmedia/2010-04/02/content_13287383.htm

Xinhua recently republished an article by China Youth Daily, discussing the quality of officially published data. The latest report by the Ministry of Land and Resources showed that the average housing cost rose 25.1% last year, while not so long ago the State Statistics Bureau claimed only 1.5% for the same period. Many people don’t even believe the 25% result. The article suggested that “number management” is an important measurement of a modern society. It can have a major impact on decision making. The latest example of a failure on this point is the government of Greece, which based activities on incorrect statistics. The article called for a “responsible attitude” in the Chinese official statistics institutes.

Source: Xinhua, April 2, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/zgjx/2010-04/02/content_13287120.htm

A Ministry of Land and Resources report issued on April 2 shows that the average housing price in over 100 cities had been rising since 2001, with the exception of 2008 when the average dropped 1.89%. In 2009, the residential housing price stayed as high as 4,474 yuan per square meter ($655), registering an annual growth of 25.1%, the highest rate since 2001. 

Wang Zhongyu, President of the China Enterprise Confederation, announced on March 27 that in 2009 China’s manufacturing accounted for 15.6% of the value of total global manufacturing. With the United States accounting for 19%, China has now replaced Japan (15.4%). Wang stated, however, that China’s manufacturing industry is large in size but not strong, and most enterprises are still at the bottom of the value-added chain. U.S. service oriented manufacturing is 58% of its entire manufacturing while that of China is 2.2%.

Source: China News Service, March 27, 2010
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/cj-gncj/news/2010/03-27/2193673.shtml