A new round of cooperation on intellectual property between China and the European Union was launched on January 16. The European side will provide a total investment of €7.5 million to fund a program called “IP: A Key to Sustainable Competitiveness”, or “IP Key” for short. Around €1.5 million will be offered by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), the largest IP agency in Europe. On the Chinese side, the Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) will coordinate the Chinese contribution to the partnership, with the participation of some 15 IP authorities. Zhang Xiangchen, Assistant Minister of Commerce, said at the launch ceremony that the partnership is a “model program” among those invested by the EU in China. The three-year new project is based on two prior EU-China IP cooperation projects－IPR1 from 1996 to 2004 and IPR2 from 2007 to 2011, which focused on the legal framework and IP enforcement. The new project will “move from purely technical assistance to partnership and cooperation activities”, said Antonio Campinos, President of OHIM.

Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization (CCG) urged the central government to upgrade its immigration office to a ministerial-level agency to tackle the “migration deficit” caused by a growing trend of people taking their skills and wealth abroad. The number of Chinese emigrants reached 9.34 million last year, compared with 848,900 immigrants, leaving a migration deficit – or an excess of emigrants over immigrants – of 8.5 million. The figures were contained in the Center’s Annual Report on Chinese International Migration 2014. The deficit has increased 129% since 1990, when it was 3.71 million. It makes China the fourth-largest source country for international emigrants after India, Mexico and Russia. The U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand are the top four destinations for Chinese. The number of emigrants resulted in a brain drain and money outflow, said the report. “Most of the Chinese emigrants are middle-class people aged 35 to 55,” it said. “Their leaving weakens middle-class support for China’s social transformation and causes a huge loss to society’s reforms and progress.” In 2012, 6,124 Chinese moved to the U.S. through the investment immigration scheme, causing an asset outflow of between USD3 billion and USD6 billion. Meanwhile, the outflow of wealth and talent was not offset by immigration, with relatively high barriers for entry. Wang Huiyao, Director of the CCG suggested the central government should upgrade the immigration office to a state-level bureau. The main body managing foreigners, the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau, is a department under the Ministry of Public Security, the South China Morning Post reports.

The value of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in China hit a record last year after recovering from a five-year low, driven by a surge of activities in the second half, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The value of M&A deals, including domestic, inbound and outbound, reached USD260 billion last year, up 28% from 2012 which was a five-year low. There were 4,448 M&A deals last year, with 59% in the second half. “Strong M&A activity shows a return of market confidence, and we expect these strong growth trends to continue into the first half of 2014,” said Roger Liu, PwC Partner. Domestic M&A deals powered the market recovery last year as the total value amounted to USD148.1 billion, up from USD89.6 billion in 2012. More M&A activities are expected across resources and industrial sectors because of the stepped-up efforts to reform state-owned companies, PwC said in the report. “The key drivers to fuel M&A growth will include further liberalization of markets, state-owned enterprise reforms, government support for outbound activities, and recovering equity capital markets,” Liu said. Outbound M&As slowed to USD51.5 billion from a record USD66.4 billion in 2012 when CNOOC made a USD15 billion acquisition. There were a record 119 deals in the second half of last year, the Shanghai Daily reports.

Russia has started delivering crude oil to China as of the beginning of the year. Rosneft announced that it had received an advanced payment from China for oil deliveries starting this month. Rosneft and China’s state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) signed long-term crude oil supply contracts during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2013. Rosneft plans to supply 360 million metric tons of crude oil to China for a period of 25 years, according to the contract, valued at USD270 billion in total. The advance payment totaled USD70 billion with a first subsequent payment of USD20 billion. CNPC’s Economics and Technology Research Institute estimated that China’s oil demand in 2014 will reach 518 million metric tons with an annual growth of 4%. Crude imports will reach 298 metric million tons, up 7.1% year-on-year. The two countries also reached a framework agreement in 2009 for Russia to deliver about 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually for 30 years starting from 2014. China has become the third-largest natural gas user in 2013 with a total consumption of 167.6 billion cubic meters, up 13.9% year-on-year. Duan Zhaofang, a natural gas expert at the Institute, estimated that the nation’s gas use in 2014 will reach 186 billion cu m, a rise of 11% year-on-year.

The value and volume of new home sales in China last year grew by double digits from 2012. The value jumped 26.6% to CNY6.77 trillion, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. The volume of new home purchases totaled 1.16 billion square meters nationwide, a year-on-year rise of 17.5%. The prices of new homes continued to rise in 65 of the 70 cities tracked in December from a month earlier. Year-on-year, the prices in 69 cities rose. The prices in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen gained 21.9%, 20.6%, 20.4% and 20.3%, respectively. The price momentum will likely extend for another year.