|
China, France
sign 16 agreements of mutual co-op
PARIS—China and France signed 16 cooperation agreements concerning
various sectors on the sideline of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s ongoing
visit to France. Both Wen and his French counterpart Dominique de
Villepin were present at the signing ceremony, here the other day.
The biggest deal was a framework agreement on the Chinese purchase of
150 aircraft from Airbus’s A320 family of single-aisle planes, signed by
the European aircraft maker Airbus’ chief executive, Gustav Humbertand
and the president of the China Aviation Supplies Import and Export
Group, Li Hai.
A financial protocol was signed by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing
and French Finance Minister Thierry Breton on the funding of SHITAI
railway linking Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan in central China.
An administrative agreement of bilateral cooperation was signed by
French Labor Minister Jean-Louis Borloo and Chinese Labor Minister Tian
Chengping.
Another administrative agreement was signed by vice-president of the
National Development and Reform Commission of China Zhang Xiaoqiang and
French Minister for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Trade,
Small-Scale Industry, the Professions, Renaud Dutreil.
Chinese Transport Minister Zhang Chunxian and French Minister Delegate
for Tourism Leon Bertrand signed a cooperation agreement in the fields
of sea protection and maritime assistance and another cooperation
agreement on highway.
Chinese vice Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou and French junior
Minister for Foreign Trade Christine Lagarde signed an administrative
agreement on access of French small and medium-sized enterprises to
Chinese market.
Chinese Ambassador to France Zhao Jinjun signed a cooperation agreement
with Francois Guinot, president of the National Academy of Technologies
of France.
An agreement of strategic partnership was signed between France Telecom
mobile phone operator and Chinese telecommunications equipment provider
ZTE Corporation, which also signed an entry agreement with the general
council of the French province of Vienne.
Chinese Agriculture University and French Academy of Agriculture signed
an agreement on establishment of a sino-French R&D center.
Other documents are: contract on 6-7 ton helicopter between China
Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC II), Harbin Aviation and Eurocopter;
contract for the supply of a telecommunication satellite Chinasat 6B
signed between a Chinasat company and Frenchgroup Alcatel; agreement
between Sinochem, one of the four Chinese national oil company, and
French oil giant Total on the establishment of a service station network
in the region of Shanghai; framework document signed by AVIC II and
French international high-technology Group SAFRAN concerning helicopter
motors and framework cooperation agreement between China National
Aviation Holding Company and SAFRAN regarding aircraft motor
maintenance. Following the signing ceremony, Wen and Villepin held a
joint press conference on the development of the Sino-French
cooperation.—Agencies
Blood sales banned in bid to halt HIV spread
BEIJING—China will make collection centres responsible for the safety of
blood and ban sales of donated blood to contain the spread of HIV and
other diseases amid a series of reported HIV infections from sold
plasma.
The new Health Ministry rules vow to “severely punish those responsible
in the blood stands for the serious blood transmitted diseases caused by
the unqualified blood”. They also ban the sale of blood products for
experimental stem cell treatments. The regulations issued by the
Ministry of Health are “to ensure the safety of blood and regulate the
operation of blood stations”, a statement posted on the ministry Web
site said.
The regulations take effect next March and are intended to put into
effect China’s Blood Donation Law, which took force in 1998. The move
follows a series of cases in which hospital patients were infected with
HIV in hospitals after receiving blood sold by HIV carriers.
A blood seller in northeastern Jilin province infected at least 23
people with HIV before being diagnosed with the disease, the Xinhua
reported on Saturday. In northeastern Heilongjiang province, 19 people
diagnosed with AIDS sued a hospital because they got AIDS using the
blood the hospital provided, which was provided by an HIV carrier,
Xinhua reported.
China said it had 135,630 confirmed HIV infections at the end of
September and warned that the spread of AIDS could affect the nation’s
economic development. During the 1990s, most of China’s AIDS sufferers
contracted the disease by selling plasma, especially in central Henan
province.
China’s increasingly mobile population now faces a broader risk as more
infections occur through drug injection and sexual contact. Jeffrey
Busch, the chairman of the Safe Blood International Foundation, a
Washington-based non-profit organisation that is advising China on blood
collection, said the country had improved blood hygiene but still lacked
many protections.
“China has built the buildings, equipped the buildings, and staffed
them, but not everyone has had proper training,” he said in an
interview. Busch said that blood transfusions still accounted for a
“significant number” of new HIV infections in China.
(The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item)
Chinese bank card first
accepted in US
Bureau Report
BEIJING—A swipe of a card at Macy’s in New York City by Liu Tinghuan,
chairman of China UnionPay, marked the first-ever acceptance of a
Chinese bank card in the United States, here the other day.
During a ceremony this morning at the famous Macy’s Herald Square in New
York City, Liu purchased a golden necktie with a China UnionPay (CUP)
bank card. The transaction marked the beginning of acceptance of China
UnionPay cards on the Discover’s PULSE network.
This was the first phase resulting from a strategic agreement between
China UnionPay, China’s only national bank card payment network, and
Discover Financial Services LLC, a business unit of Morgan Stanley and
the owner of the Discover Network and the PULSE ATM/debit network.
PULSE is one of the leading ATM/debit networks in the US. “The
acceptance of CUP cards in the US is a starting point from which both
parties will complement each other and develop together in concert to
raise the strategic cooperation to a new level,” said Wan Jianhua,
president and CEO of China UnionPay, at the ceremony.
David Nelms, Chairman and CEO of Discover Financial Services, said the
strategic alliance between CUP and Discover would expand the links
between the growing Chinese consumer economy and the US market. “It will
create new opportunities for merchants, financial institutions and other
ATM owners by enabling them to serve Chinese travelers ¨C the
fastest-growing segment of the US tourism market,” he said.
There are estimated 360,000 Chinese visitors to the US in 2005,
according to the US Department of Commerce, with an average amount spent
of 2,413 US dollars. The annual growth in Chinese travelers to the US is
estimated at around 11 percent for the next 3 years.
According to the long-term agreement signed by CUP and Discover in May
2005, after the acceptance of CUP cards on the PULSE network throughout
the US, the next step will be to complete arrangements for Discover
Network cards to be accepted at CUP’s network of more than 365,000
merchant locations and 80,000 ATMs in China.
David Nelms told Xinhua during an interview that he expected to go to
China in the middle of next year, and make a similar transaction at a
ceremony there, with Discover cards using in CUP networks to mark the
beginning of next phase of the cooperation between the two companies.
“We look forward to next year, when we expect Discover Network
cardholders will be able to use their cards at CUP locations throughout
China,” he said.
Discover Financial Services LLC operates the Discover Card with more
than 50 million card members, the Discover Network with more than 4
million merchant and cash access locations and the PULSE ATM/debit
network which serves more than 4,100 financial institutions and includes
more than 3.2 million merchant terminals and 250,000 ATMs.
China UnionPay Co. Ltd. is the only national bank card payment network
in China, with more than 800 million bank cards issued on the CUP
network. Both companies are continuing to work toward the acceptance of
CUP cards at Discover Network’s more than 4 million merchant and cash
access locations in North America.
Chinese software
firms ward off Indian threat
Beijing—Chinese software
companies are looking to speed up their development in a bid to grab a
larger slice of the global information technology (IT) market and to
fend off threats from their Indian counterparts. HiSoft Technology
International Ltd, a top Chinese software service company based in
Dalian, a centre of software outsourcing in China, announced yesterday
in Beijing that it had acquired two rivals; Beijing-based Ensemble
International and Hong Kong-headquartered Teksen Horizon Systems.
The companies declined to reveal the value of the deal, but said it was
the biggest merger so far in the software service industry. “Chinese
software companies are quite small and weak, but as more international
companies are getting into this market and bringing us challenges, we
must make ourselves stronger,” said Li Yuanming, chairman and chief
executive officer of HiSoft.
HiSoft received a US$20 million investment from the World Bank’s private
enterprise investment arm, International Financial Corp, and Intel
Capital, Jafco and Granite Global Ventures last year. It receives more
than 90 per cent of its revenue from overseas, mainly Japan and the
United States.
However, Li said his company must move fast to prepare for challenges,
with acquisitions being a reasonable step to take. Microsoft is pushing
the Indian software giant Wipro to form a joint venture with companies
in Beijing, a move supported by the Chinese Government and Beijing
Municipality. The aim is to expand the city’s software industry.
Another Indian software giant, Infosys, which has over 46,000 developers
worldwide, wants to have a 6,000-strong team in China. These Indian
companies, with their advanced expertise and huge development teams, are
formidable competitors for domestic firms, which usually have only
hundreds of people on staff.
With the acquisition of the two companies, HiSoft has taken the number
of its employees to 1,800, making it one of the top three such firms in
China. HiSoft will also get a strong software testing and consulting
team, which it lacked before.
Heng Choon Lim, vice-preident of strategic planning at HiSoft, said his
company wants to have 3,000 workers by next year. He revealed that
HiSoft is also working on some bigger acquisitions, which could be
finalized in the coming months. Dong Lu, associate with Granite Global
Ventures, said with the Indian giants building up their presence in
China, many Chinese companies are already increasing their expansion
pace.
This year, Microsoft and several partners invested US$70 million in
three Chinese software service companies, including two
outsourcing-oriented firms, Dalian’s Hi-Think and Beijing-based CS&S
International.
(The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item)
Malaysian minister due
to mend fences
BEIJING—Malaysia’s home
minister held three sets of talks with Chinese governmental officials as
soon as he touched down in Beijing yesterday, in an attempt to bolster
his country’s reputation after the recent outcry over alleged abuses of
Chinese women by local police.
Azmi Khalid, who was asked by Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi to make the urgent trip, began the weeklong visit two weeks ahead
of schedule. Khalid met with officials from the ministries of foreign
affairs, public security and Chinese National Tourism Administration,
but no details were immediately available, according to sources with the
Malaysian Embassy in Beijing. Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang
reiterated China’s stance on the recent mistreatment of Chinese
nationals, urging the Malaysian Government to take urgent measures to
investigate the cases and punish those involved. He said he hopes that
such incidents do not happen again. The delegation, composed of 16
people including immigration and tourism officials, will stay in Beijing
until tomorrow, and then go to Shanghai and Guangzhou to meet local
officials.
They are expected to discuss with embassy staff issues of immigration
and image promotion, among others. They are also planning to meet
Chinese travel writers, tour operators and advertisers. The move follows
the release of a video clip in which a naked woman, believed to be a
Chinese national, was forced to perform squats in front of a Malaysian
uniformed policewoman. In related news, Malaysian authorities have
arrested three air force members and another man on suspicion of raping
a 32-year-old businesswoman from South China’s Guangdong Province at a
hotel in Selangor.
(The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item)
Foreign banks to move
into RMB business in China
BEIJING—China granted foreign
banks more freedom to conduct the crucial local currency business
yesterday, moving ahead of its market-opening schedule as required by
World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments.
Starting yesterday, foreign banks like HSBC have been able to offer
renminbi business to Chinese and foreign businesses and foreign
individuals in seven more cities. Shantou and Ningbo were opened up in
accordance with the nation’s WTO commitments, while Harbin, Changchun,
Lanzhou, Yinchuan and Nanning, which were not on the schedule, were also
opened, bringing the total number of cities to 25.
Meanwhile, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) announced a
reduction in the highest tier of operating-capital requirement for
foreign bank branches’ renminbi business to 400 million yuan (US$49
million) from 500 million yuan (US$61 million). The operating-capital
requirement for renminbi business for branches of foreign-owned and
Sino-foreign banks was lowered to 200 million yuan (US$24 million) from
300 million yuan (US$37 million).
“These measures will certainly create an even better systemic
environment for the development of foreign financial institutions in
China,” said Liu Mingkang, chairman of CBRC. “Profound changes are
taking place in the opening-up and reform of China’s banking sector.”
Although the liberalization moves were bolder than many expected given
the limited time left for local banks to prepare for full foreign
competition, some analysts say they demonstrate the authorities’
determination to catalyze progress in the local banking sector through
competition
In a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers in September, the most
important driver of change in the Chinese banking industry was the pace
of regulatory change, foreign banks surveyed said. China is expected to
scrap all restrictions on foreign banks at the end of next year and
allow them into such key areas as local currency retail business.
“The authorities are trying to prod local banks by promoting broader
participation of foreign players in the market,” said Dong Chen, a
senior banking analyst at China Securities. After a few years of
restructuring and rescue plans, Chinese banks, particularly the
State-owned Big Four banks, are now able to stand on their own feet in
the marketplace, but need to improve risk management, corporate
governance and efficiency in a fully-competitive market environment, he
said.
The Chinese Government has pumped in a combined US$60 billion as capital
infusions for three of the Big Four banks in the past two years to clean
up their balance sheets, but analysts say significant progress in areas
such as corporate governance has yet to be seen. “We need to promote
competition, which will benefit the Chinese banking sector over the long
haul,” Dong said, noting domestic banks are not strong enough to compete
in the international market.
A total of 71 foreign banks had set up 238 operational entities in 23
Chinese cities by the end of October, according to the CBRC. Although
they still account for a small 2 per cent of total banking assets, they
have grabbed a 20 per cent share in foreign-currency loans.
Foreign banks now account for 12.4 per cent of total banking assets in
Shanghai, China’s financial centre. Since the local currency business
started opening up two years ago, foreign banks’ renminbi assets have
risen to 100 billion yuan (US$12.3 billion).
(The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item) |
