Economy/Resources - 253. page

The International Herald Leader, under Xinhua News Agency, reported from Beijing and Manila that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has protested the loan that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) decided to provide to India. The Ministry criticized ADB’s involvement in a border dispute among member countries. The disputed area is between India and China, which India calls the Arunachal Pradesh and China calls the South Tibet area.

The report also criticized Indian media for declaring China was its enemy. However the report mentioned the leadership and military of India remained univolved, as the two countries are trying to improve cooperation. The ADB Board approved document is not yet final.

Source: International Herald Leader, June 22, 2009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-06/22/content_11580169.htm

Floods, draught and severe water pollution will be the three constraints for China, Study Times observes. “China’s water resources total 2.8 trillion cubic meters, ranking No. 6 in the world, but the per capita water resource is only 2,200 cubic meters, about 30% of the world average.” “The water shortage amounts to 40 billion cubic meters. Nearly two-thirds of the cities suffer from insufficient water resources. On average drought disasters hit 2.3 million mu of agriculture land [1 mu = 0.165 acre] every year.” The article concludes that China is highly eco-environmentally vulnerable.

Source: Study Times, June 22, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=0&id=2727&bid=1

Science and Technology Daily recently reported on severe desertification of land in China. With 2,636,200 square kilometers of desertified land, China is now one of the largest countries of desertification. Nearly 0.4 billion people are living in those areas. Human factors have been identified as the primary cause of the problem. Under the burden of high-speed economic development, the demand for water is above the bearing capacity. Stockbreeding [overgrazing] has overloaded the land as well. The article recommended four strategies to remedy the problem.

Source: Science and Technology Daily, June 18, 2009.
http://www.stdaily.com/special/content/2009-06/18/content_73248.htm

The biggest challenge that Chinese export businesses face next to currency is compliance with the “technical barriers to trade,” the international product standards issued by the WTO. According to the National Bureau of Quality Inspection, 36.1 percent of export businesses failed to comply with the WTO’s “Technical Barriers to Trade.” In 2008, they suffered financial losses of US$50.5 billion.

Research data suggests that the top five countries or regions that affect China’s export businesses are the EU, U.S., Japan, Russia and Latin American countries. The top five businesses that suffered the most are electric parameters, agricultural production, textiles/garments/shoes/hats, and wood/paper/non-metasl and chemicals/minerals/metals. 

Source: Xinhua, June 25, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2009-06/25/content_11602642.htm

Reports yet to be released by the Academy of Social Sciences suggest that 40 percent of small to mid size businesses were hit by the financial crisis and went bankrupt, while 40 percent of the remainins businesses are struggling for survival. Most of them lack the assets to secure business loans.

 Small to Mid size businesses account for 99 percent of the total businesses in China, contributing 60 percent of the GDP and 50 percent of the national tax income. They provide over 75 percent of the job opportunities for local regions.

Source: Huan Qiu, June 28, 2009
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-06/499644.html

For the first few months of 2009, China’s culture industry experienced double digit growth of 17 percent, while its book sales grew 20 percent and movie ticket sales were up 40 percent compared to the same period last year. In order to capitalize on this growth, China has instituted a series of plans to include the culture industry in its national “Eleventh Five Year Plan” and make it a new area to stimulate domestic demand.

Ministry of Cultural is speeding up formation of guidelines, organizing national conventions, and encouraging non-public enterprises to enter the culture industry. Below are a few examples:

• On April 24, the Ministry of Culture signed a cooperative agreement with the Bank of China to establish a long term strategic partnership to secure financial funding for new culture enterprises and projects.
• On May 18, during the 5th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair in Shenzheng, 3.5 million visitors were at the expo, 830,000 more than the previous time.
• On June 15, the Shanghai Cultural Equity Exchange, a platform for the trading of property rights, creditor’s rights and equity rights of culture products was formed. There were 500 active projects being traded including 50 from foreign countries.

Source: Xinhua, June 18, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/society/2009-06/18/content_11563116.htm

Wei Houkai, Deputy Director of the Urban Development and Environment Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated that the traditional urban development model in China has come to its end and China needs to transition to a new era. Wei listed the following concerns in China’s development model:
1. High growth.
2. High resource consumption – production is generated based on large scale consumption of energy, land, and raw materials.
3. High discharge – the energy cost per unit and waste discharge rate is the highest in the world.
4. Over-development and lack of planning.
5. Disaccord – the gap between the coast area and inland area, and the huge (4 to 6 times) income gap between the urban and the rural areas.

Source: China News Agency, June 15, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/cj-gncj/news/2009/06-15/1734339.shtml

The Chinese Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation announced that, effective June 1, 2009 export tax rebates will be raised for processed farm products, machinery, shoes, glassware, iron and steel products, covering more than 2,600 items. It is the seventh time since August 2008 that China has raised export tax rebates to shore up its exports.

Source: The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, June 8, 2009
http://big5.gov.cn/gate/big5/www.gov.cn/jrzg/2009-06/08/content_1334929.htm