Meeting with officials and business leaders from Shenyang – 25 November 2010 – Gent
Nov-29-2010 By : agxadmin
The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC) organized a meeting with a delegation of officials and business leaders from Shenyang, Liaoning province, on 25 November 2010 at the offices of the FCCC in Gent. Shenyang is the heavy industry base in China and is often called “the equipment department of China”. The aim of the delegation was to introduce the Shenyang Free Trade Zone, which is established on the basis of the integration of the former Shenyang bonded logistics center, Liaoning Shenyang and Zhangshi Export Processing Zones. The zone offers preferential policies which were explained by the zone officials.
The delegation was led by Mr Zhang Dongyang, Director of the Shenyang Free Trade Zone and was accompanied by entrepreneurs from Shenyang, in the fields of metallurgy, mining, construction materials, energy, environmental protection and chemistry.
A presentation of the Shenyang Free Trade Zone and the advantages of investing in the zone can be obtained at: info@flanders-china.be.
Big banks close to reaching lending quotas
By : agxadmin
China’s biggest banks are close to reaching annual lending quotas and plan to stop expanding their loan books to avoid exceeding the limits, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Bank of China (BOC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) are only extending new loans as existing ones get repaid. Lenders are also cutting holdings of discounted bills to make room for longer-term debt. Regulators are monitoring banks’ loan balances on a daily basis to ensure the official target of CNY7.5 trillion in new lending for 2010 is not exceeded. Domestic banks extended about CNY6.9 trillion of new loans this year through October and lenders have made close to CNT600 billion of new loans so far this month. The central bank last month raised interest rates for the first time since 2007, and told banks to set aside more deposits as reserves twice in November, limiting their capacity to lend.
Chinese banks becoming more active in the insurance market
By : agxadmin
Chinese banks are aggressively entering the country’s USD124 billion life insurance industry as they take advantage of recently relaxed rules. This could threaten smaller insurance companies such as Great Wall Life Insurance and Sino Life Insurance. Over time it could also seriously challenge the dominance of China Life Insurance and Ping An Insurance, which between them control 60% of the life insurance market. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said this month it would buy out the Chinese partner of AXA’s China joint venture. Other state lenders such as Bank of China (BOC) are taking similar measures. The takeovers are fueled by banks’ aspirations to become financial conglomerates like HSBC and may spark innovation and inject new life into the market. Entering the insurance sector offers banks an opportunity to tap into a market freer from government interference where premiums grew by a third in the first half of this year. Moreover, there is a big potential for development. The average Chinese person spends less than USD200 a year on insurance premiums, compared with more than USD4,500 in Britain.
China and Russia to use their own currencies for trading
By : agxadmin
Following talks between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in Moscow, Russia will start allowing trading in yuan on Moscow’s currency exchange next month, while China has allowed the yuan to start trading against the Russian ruble in its interbank market. Until now, the two nations have mostly traded in U.S. dollars. China has encouraged the yuan’s use for cross-border trade to reduce its reliance on the dollar. Traders can also buy and sell the yuan against the Malaysian ringgit, the U.S. dollar, the euro, the yen, the Hong Kong dollar and the British pound. The value of international trade transactions settled in the Chinese currency totaled CNY126.5 billion in the third quarter, 160% more than in the three months through June, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) reported. China first approved yuan use for trade settlement in July 2009. Following talks in St Petersburg, Russia’s state-controlled Atomstroiexport signed a contract to build another two reactors at China’s Tianwan nuclear power plant in Jiangsu province. During Wen’s visit, Russia and China signed a total of 11 agreements, ranging from oil supplies and refining to intellectual property and border issues. But Russia and China are unlikely to agree on the price of Russian gas supplies to China before the middle of next year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said. Under a deal signed between Russia’s Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) in September, Gazprom will sell 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year to China from 2015, the Shanghai Daily reports.
China’s leaders prepare for central economic work conference
By : agxadmin
Chinese leaders are scheduled to meet at the nation’s highest-level economic decision-making meeting in Beijing within two weeks. Economists are expecting inflation will rise to between 4% and 5% and economic growth will fall slightly to about 9% next year. Every December the leadership lays down the new theme or strategy for the country’s development the following year at the central economic work conference. With no one talking about government stimulus any more, and the banks tightening credit lines, investors of half-finished projects could only seek finance by issuing shares and bonds, Lu Zhengwei, Senior Economist at Industrial Bank, said. Zhu Jianfang, Chief Economist at Citic Securities, warned that slamming on the brakes abruptly was not desirable. “Too much and too fast a slowdown can be counterproductive,” he said. As for the size of next year’s credit supply, he said that contrary to the pessimistic forecasts – CNY6 trillion at the lowest – there would still be somewhere from CNY7.5 trillion to CNY8 trillion of new loans advanced to sustain GDP growth of about 8%.
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