Hong Kong moved up one place to register the world’s second most expensive shop rents, as tourist spending rose. With average rent at USD1,695 per square foot per year, the city ranks after New York’s Fifth Avenue in a report by property consultant CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) on global retail rents in the third quarter. Annual rents have risen 52.8% in the city this year. Retail rent rose 6.2% quarter on quarter in the third quarter from 2.2% in the previous quarter. Total retail sales grew 27.5% year on year in the third quarter, bringing the year-to-date growth to 25.4%. Visitor arrivals increased 19% year on year in the third quarter. Jones Lang LaSalle said in a recent report that luxury brands continue to expand. Sydney ranked third in the CBRE report, at USD1,224, followed by London and Zurich. Guangzhou was 10th, Beijing 14th and Shanghai 20th.

The Ministry of Education’s “Go Abroad” initiative aims to give greater overseas exposure to Chinese research, particularly in the social studies. Funding would be made available to translate and publish Chinese academic works and to create international think tanks. The initiative is expected to greatly expand the influence of Chinese academic research overseas in the next 10 years.

Shanghai-based Shenyin and Wanguo Securities aims to list in 2013. The path to the planned listing has been cleared after Central Huijin Investment Co, a unit of the USD400 billion China Investment Corp (CIC), completed a share swap deal with Shanghai International Group, making Huijin the controlling shareholder with 55.38% of Shenyin and Wanguo’s shares. After the swap, the Shanghai International Group, owned by the Shanghai municipal government, also became the controlling shareholder of Guotai Junan, another local brokerage, with 45.09% of its shares. The swap means both brokerages can be listed since China allows each listed firm to have only one controlling shareholder. Shenyin and Wanguo made a net profit of CNY1.34 billion in the first 10 months of 2011 and had a 3.83% market share in stock and fund trading, ranking seventh in the domestic market. Guotai Junan and Haitong Securities are also seeking to list in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong may lose its title as the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) market this year as fund-raising by Chinese firms drops. “Although the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing still came first in terms of the total amount of funds raised through IPOs in the first half of this year, we may slide to second place at the end of this year,” HKEx Chief Executive Charles Li said. HKEx data showed mainland-related companies raised nearly HKD71.37 billion through listings on the main and Growth Enterprise Market boards in the first 10 months of this year, lower than the same period last year. This represented more than 30% of the total amount raised through initial public offerings (IPOs), which reached HKD208.85 billion as of October 31. But the figure was down 43% from the HKD368 billion raised in the first 10 months of last year, although Hong Kong is still in the number one spot. Facing uncertainties in the global markets, Li predicted a difficult year 2012. HKEx signed an MOU with the Sichuan government to improve cooperation and help the province’s companies to list on the HKEx. “We have the Chinese market, which is still relatively more liquid than other economies. Even if the HKEx does not come first [in terms of the amount raised through IPOs], it will be ranked second,” Li said.

The central government will open bidding for multibillion-yuan railway projects through third-party platforms – such as the Beijing Construction Architectural Contracting Trade Center – to make the process more competitive and reduce corruption. Former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun had been linked to corruption in tendering for high-speed railway construction projects. Before his arrest and dismissal in February, 200 rail projects worth a total of CNY800 billion were launched every year. Previously, work on some rail projects would begin even before the tender was launched, Xinhua News Agency said. For example, a tender was announced for a Nanjing railway station in December 2008, but state-owned China Railway Group had already begun piling work at the site in January that year. For the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, at least CNY4.94 billion of questionable tendering was uncovered by the National Audit Office (NAO). “I’m not optimistic about such reforms of the Railways Ministry. I’m not saying there is no hope for the reforms, but it’ll be difficult to implement them,” Masterlink Securities Analyst James Chung said. In 2005 and 2010, the central government tried various reforms to attract private investment in railway projects but met little success, with private funds accounting for only 1% of the country’s rail funding last year, Chung said.