Alternative energy

• China Eastern Airlines has completed its first test flight using a new aviation biofuel developed by Sinopec. An Airbus 320 took 85 minutes to complete the test flight at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. As the test flight was successful, the airline said it would start using the biofuel on commercial flights. The biofuel, made with palm oil, can cut the carbon emissions of the aircraft, Sinopec said. China is now the fourth country in the world to have developed aviation biofuel, after the United States, France and Finland. Another kind of biofuel is made from recycled gutter oil.
• Renewable energy companies from the mainland and Hong Kong need to repay USD3.5 billion of debt this year, prompting global investors to fret that another issuer will follow Suntech Power into default. Bryan Collins, Fixed-income Portfolio Manager at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said: “For the solar companies, it’s a function of too much debt and poor market dynamics leading to an inability to refinance.”
• U.S.-based world leading solar module manufacturer and PV solution provider First Solar said it is “on track for final approval” in the second quarter for its 2 GW project in Erdos in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and plans to start construction in the third quarter. First Solar has a large manufacturing unit in Malaysia, but it is possible that it may commence manufacturing in China if there is sufficient demand. California-based low-cost solar module manufacturer Solaria Corp is also planning to open a high-volume manufacturing facility in China. It is working on several megawatt-size projects in Qinghai province and Inner Mongolia.

Pollution

• Shanghai’s People’s Congress plans to produce a new, detailed environmental protection law this year aimed primarily at curbing PM2.5 pollution. The law will include exhaust discharge standards for vehicles and local factories as well as measures to control flying dust at construction sites. Under the more-stringent Air Quality Index that took effect in November, air quality is “excellent” or “good” when the index is below 100, “lightly” or “moderately” polluted between 101 and 200, and “heavily” or “severely” polluted from 201 to 500. On January 16, the index surged to 254, a record high for the new index.
• Villagers in Lanxi city, Zhejiang province, are demanding nearby Zhejiang Huadong Aluminum Co cease polluting the environment after they said 127 people had suffered fluoride poisoning and 84 had caught cancers over the past 27 years. Local environment authorities, however, say waste discharges from the factory meet national environmental standards. Villagers said the prevalence of skeletal fluorosis was evidence of the factory’s culpability as workers in the factory had to use fluoride to produce aluminum ingots. The Zhejiang Huadong Aluminum Co was established in 1958 and has 1,800 employees.
• There are no official data on the numbers of expatriates leaving China because of pollution, but executive recruitment consultants say they are noticing that it is becoming harder to attract top talent to China – both expats and Chinese nationals educated abroad. The European Chamber of Commerce in China says foreign managers leave for many different reasons but pollution is almost always cited as one of the factors and is becoming a larger concern. If the polluted skies continue, companies may have to increase salaries or settle for less qualified candidates.
• Shanghai will launch a pilot program for the disposal of hazardous waste such as used light tubes and batteries by asking disposal firms to set up collection spots at big supermarkets. The program will begin soon in Changning and Baoshan districts. Companies involved in hazardous waste collection and treatment will receive subsidies. Shanghai had about 1,500 tons of used light tubes last year and only 10 tons were disposed of properly. Less than 10% of the city’s hazardous waste is recycled properly.
• Pudong New Area’s environment watchdog is investigating an industrial zone in Hangtou town after a 300-meter stretch of a river there turned blue. Though residents no longer drink from the river that was quite clear several years ago, some still use river water for cooking. Local residents believe that some factories at the nearby Dabai Bay Industrial Zone could be the culprits and complained to the township government.
• The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) will not issue data related to soil pollution for the time being but will discuss the situation after an in-depth investigation, the Ministry said. In January, Beijing lawyer Dong Zhengwei sent an application to the Ministry asking it to issue soil pollution data, but the Ministry said in February that the data is a state secret and refused to issue it. China is now facing a grave soil pollution situation. Heavy metals have severely polluted some areas, mines and factories have degraded soil in industrial areas, and the amount of arable land is decreasing due to the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
• The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) has revealed how the government has handled 13 cases of pollution in the first three months of 2013. Such information will be released on a quarterly basis in the future. The most recent major pollution scandal to provoke a public outcry was in March, when Deng Lianjun, then head of the local Environmental Protection Department in Cangxian county, Hebei province, said that just because a river had turned red didn’t mean the water was unsafe to drink, because “after boiling red beans the water has that color, too”. The river was later found to contain levels of aniline 73 times higher than the national standard. “The Ministry’s statement is a leap forward in official environmental information disclosure,” said Ma Jun, Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.
• Hundreds of protesters gathered in Shanghai on May 10 to oppose plans for a lithium battery factory, marching peacefully along a busy street in the Songjiang district. Residents are concerned about potential waste water and gas emissions from the plant, which would be built by Hefei Guoxuan High-Tech Power Energy. It was the third mass protest in recent weeks against the planned factory.
• The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) announced it had punished local governments and state-owned companies that failed to reach their 2012 emission reduction requirements, but environmental activists said fines were not high enough to deter further violations. The Ministry said that a special inspection of groundwater pollution in six provinces of North China resulted in fines for 88 companies out of the nearly 26,000 that were examined during the 40-day campaign. But the average fine was less than CNY70,000. The upper limit for fines under current regulations was CNY500,000.

Greenhouse gas emissions

• For the first time an entire chapter was devoted to environmental protection in the central government’s white paper on human rights progress. The government has worked hard to ensure that people can enjoy a good ecological environment, according to “Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2012”. Zhang Yonghe, Professor of human rights research at Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing, said that highlighting environmental protection guarantees the human rights of not only the current generation but also future generations.

The Prince Albert Fund is offering the possibility to implement an international business development project for a Belgian company at a substantially reduced cost. In the past couple of years several companies have availed themselves of this opportunity, including Barco, UCB, Sarens, Solvay, Vyncke, Electrawinds, 3E, …

The project must meet several criteria:

• Asian market: Hong Kong / Shanghai / Singapore?
• Sector: Energy (clean tech) / Chemicals / Pharma
• Small to middle-large company (max 5000 employees)

For more information, e-mail info@flanders-china.be

International mobility and flexibility have become key factors in today’s business climate. Immigration procedures remain very strict and compliance with local immigration and social law is controlled and severely sanctioned in case of non-compliance.
The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with Deloitte is therefore organizing an information session on aspects of immigration and social legislation which will focus on the posting of Chinese nationals to Belgium and vice versa. More specifically, the following topics will be discussed:

• Update on recent changes in Belgian and Chinese immigration law
• Recent and upcoming changes in European immigration issues: “What is Europe trying to achieve?”
• Update on recent changes in Belgian and Chinese law on personal taxation
• Highlights and preliminary results of Deloitte’s comparative study on the immigration of highly skilled non-EU employees to Europe: Benchmarking Belgium with 29 other countries.

The seminar will be held at KBC BANK and presented by Matthias Lommers, Senior Manager, Erwin Vandervelde, Partner (immigration aspects) and Boris Deraeve, Tax Director (tax aspects).

The aim of this event is to provide sound knowledge and understanding of the aforementioned issues, to enable companies to meet various requirements on a timely basis and avoid losing precious time or wasting resources.

The information session will take place at 3.30 p.m. on Wednesday 29 May at KBC Bank, Havenlaan 2 in Brussels and will be followed by a networking cocktail.

If you are interested to participate, please register online by Friday 24 May 2013 at the latest. Participation fee for FCCC members: €65, non-members: €95.

The fifth Lecture Café entitled: “EU emissions trading and international aviation and shipping: the position of China” will take place on May 16, 2013 at 18:00 h. – 20:00 h. in KANTL (Koningstraat 18, Gent). Speaker is Prof. Frank Maes, Faculty of Law, Department of International Public Law.

In this lecture, Prof. Frank Maes will explain some major legal issues as a result of the EU directive to impose a cap on CO2 emissions from all flights arriving at or departing from EU ports, regardless the country of origin or destination. Besides, international aviation will be incorporated in the EU emissions trading scheme. According to China and other non-EU countries, this unilateral action of the EU is contrary to international law and universal climate change law. China also fears that a comparable measure will be taken towards international shipping and that this EU action is a breach of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities with consequences towards the future legal climate change architecture.

Prof. Frank Maes holds a Master in Political Sciences: Diplomatic Sciences – Ghent University, a Master in Shipping Law, University of Antwerp (UFSIA) and is Doctor in Law, Ghent University. He is professor Public International Law at the Law Faculty of Ghent University (www.law.ugent.be/intpub), lecturing inter alia International and European Environmental Law.

A free sandwich meal will be provided. Subscribing is free of costs, but mandatory, via https://webapps.ugent.be/eventManager/events/LectureCafes The Lecture Cafés are a joint initiative of the UGent China Platform, the India Platform and the International Office of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering.

The Chinese government said it will unveil a plan this year to make the currency fully convertible under the capital account and establish a comprehensive system for individuals’ outbound investments, allowing mainlanders to directly buy Hong Kong stocks. While the yuan is already convertible under the current account – covering trade – the capital account, which covers portfolio investment and borrowing, is closely controlled. “The statement shows the leadership has attached great importance to the convertibility issue and the operational plan will give the all-clear for liberalization,” said Li Huiyong, Chief Economist with Shenyin Wanguo Securities. “Global and domestic economic conditions have pushed the leaders to accelerate the pace for reforms.” In 2007, Beijing first announced its ambition to internationalize the yuan and promote its use worldwide in step with China’s economic rise. Beijing opened the current account in 1996, allowing companies to exchange foreign currencies for trade deals. Meanwhile, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has stepped in to restrain corporate borrowing in U.S. dollars and crack down on hot money inflows under the guise of trade as the yuan’s appreciation gains momentum. After a 1% rise of the yuan against the dollar so far this year, many companies have borrowed in U.S. dollars, converted them into yuan and bought into yuan-denominated assets, waiting for the Chinese currency to strengthen further. China’s capital and financial account surplus ballooned from USD20 billion in the last quarter of 2012 to USD102 billion in the first quarter of this year, highlighting heavy capital inflows. In the first two months of this year China’s exports surged 23.6% year-on-year, much faster than the 11.7% economists expected. Many exporters inflated bills to help channel in foreign exchange to await the yuan’s appreciation, media claimed. About 80% of the capital-account items listed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are already convertible or partially convertible in China, according to Yi Gang, Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).