Economy/Resources - 247. page

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

Lack of professional translators has turned into a major bottleneck for China’s books to be published outside of China. China’s publishing industry officials acknowledged the problem at the Sixth Conference of the “Chinese Books Promotion Plan.” Jing Ruibin, a subject matter expert of the Working Group for the Chinese Books Promotion Plan, suggested that it’s urgent to bring translators who are familiar with social science, literature, arts, and language up to par. This effort should be under the auspice of the government. Furthermore, publishing companies that have long-term objectives should develop their own translation team.

Source: Xinhua, March 27, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/ent/2010-03/27/content_13257393.htm

Xinhua recently published an official report by China Renmin University that talked about risks after the rebalancing of the world economy. The report discussed three changes after the crisis: (1) The U.S. will hold onto the services market while Europe will be marginalized; (2) High end manufacturing, represented by Japan and Germany, will decrease while the low end will increase; (3) U.S. dominance of the global financial system will weaken while East Asia has an opportunity. The report also listed four Chinese risks: (1) Wrong international positioning; (2) The fight for profit; (3) Tightened liquidity; (4) Political risks – non-economic means of re-balancing. The report concluded with three recommendations: (1) Improve the Chinese financial market’s maturity; (2) Promote regional financial cooperation; (3) Improve Chinese export products structure towards the higher end.

Source: Xinhua, March 26, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2010-03/26/content_13249430.htm

In the recent Chinese Publications Export Promotion Planning Conference, the General Administration of Press and Publications was pushing for more copyrighted publications to be exported not only to the major markets of Britain, the U.S., Germany, France and Russia, but also to countries surrounding China as well as Arabic, African, and Latin American countries. The “Go Out” strategy promotes these models: direct publishing overseas; using foreign planning skills for out-going projects; key products bringing along weaker ones; and publishing/printing bundling. In the recent couple of years, the China Publishing Group has already established a network of publishing companies around the globe.

Source: Xinhua, March 26, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newmedia/2010-03/26/content_13249632.htm