BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) on Thursday signed an agreement with Central Huijin Co., an investment arm of the government, for a 130-billion-yuan (19 billion U.S. dollars) capital injection in preparation for an eventual stock listing. Xiang Junbo, the state-owned bank's president, said the injection would boost the bank's capital base, improve its financial status and enhance its profitability. After the injection, Central Huijin and the Ministry of Finance each will have half of the bank's ownership. Lou Jiwei, head of Central Huijin's board of directors, said the company would help ABC improve its corporate governance to make it a modern commercial bank with global competitiveness. According to Xiang, ABC's profit grew 35 percent year-on-year to 98 billion yuan in the first three quarters. As of Sept. 30, deposits totaled 5.9 trillion yuan and loans 3.97 trillion yuan, rising by 690 billion yuan and 300 billion yuan, respectively, from a year earlier. The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) on Thursday signed an agreement with Central Huijin Co., an investment arm of the government, for a 130-billion-yuan (19 billion U.S. dollars) capital injection in preparation for an eventual stock listing Of the loans, 1.39 trillion yuan went to agriculture-related projects, up 120 billion yuan year-on-year. Xiang said one of the bank's major tasks after the capital injection would be to develop its rural network and increase agricultural lending. The State Council, or the Cabinet, approved ABC's shareholding reform plan on Oct. 21.
LONDON, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived here on Saturday for an official visit aimed at enhancing bilateral financial cooperation. "Recent years have seen enhanced China-Britain comprehensive strategic partnership and fruitful cooperation in all areas." Wen said in a statement upon arrival. "China successfully hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and Britain will host the 2012 London Olympic Games. This offers us a new platform to deepen mutual understanding, enhance friendship and expand cooperation," said Wen. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) shakes hands with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during the dinner Brown hosts for him at the British prime minister's official residence on the outskirts of London Jan. 31, 2009. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in London on Jan. 31 for a three-day visit to Britain "In the context of the current complex and volatile international situation, China and Britain, two countries with major influence in the world, have broad common interests and a noble common mission in maintaining world peace, promoting common development, tackling global financial crisis and other fields," Wen said. The premier said that he looked forward to having in-depth exchange of views with British leaders on regional and international issues of mutual interest, and extensive contact with the British people from all walks of life to explore ways to strengthen friendship and enhance mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L) shakes hands with John Prescott, special representative of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former British deputy prime minister, at an airport in London Jan. 31, 2009. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in London on Jan. 31 for a three-day visit to Britain"I am confident that with the joint efforts of both side, China-Britain comprehensive strategic partnership will continue to grow from strength to strength, bringing benefits to our peoples and contributing to world peace and development," said Wen. During his three-day visit, Wen will have broad contacts with people from political, business and financial circles of Britain. He will also deliver a speech at the University of Cambridge, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The trip is a return visit for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's China tour early last year. It is also aimed at implementing the annual meeting mechanism of the two leaders. Britain is the last leg of Wen's week-long European tour, which began Tuesday and has already taken him to Switzerland, Germany, the European Union (EU) headquarters in Brussels and Spain.
BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's rural areas have the biggest potential in boosting domestic demand, said Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan during visits to the countryside concluded on Tuesday. China should "especially place priority on tapping the rural market and developing the countryside" when spreading global financial crisis blunted the country's economic growth, said Wang. He made the remarks when visiting towns, rural stores and farmers in central China's Henan Province on Monday and Tuesday. More chain stores should be set up in the countryside to facilitate rural consumption, Wang said. He also urged local officials to well implement policies to subsidize farmers' purchase of home appliances. Financial institutions should develop more services targeting the need of farmers and rural enterprises, he said. In its latest effort to boost rural consumption, China has decided to roll out a 13-percent subsidy nationwide for farmers who buy home appliances, starting from Feb. 1. China has announced a 4 trillion-yuan (586 billion U.S. dollars) fiscal package to stimulate domestic demand.
BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee convened a meeting here on Friday, analyzing and studying the economic work of next year and setting out major tasks. The meeting said that this year has been eventful and the country has risen to many daunting challenges, including the global financial crisis and domestic natural disasters. The economy has maintained a stable and relatively fast growth and society has been stable, which are hard-won achievements, it said. The meeting, chaired by CPC Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao, warned that the worsening global financial crisis would have more impact on China's economic development, urging the country to take more precautionary measures to meet the challenges. The meeting said that next year, which marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China, the nation should boost domestic demand for a stable and relatively fast economic growth, accelerate the transformation of development patterns and structure adjustment for sustainable development, deepen the reform and opening-up drive and solve problems that concern the people's interests for a healthy and rapid economic and social development. Maintaining a stable and relatively fast economic development should be the foremost task for next year's economic work, it said, urging a better combination of ensuring growth, boosting domestic demand and adjusting structure. An "active" fiscal policy and "moderately loose" monetary policy should be continued, and measures including tax reduction and increasing central government investment should be taken to safeguard the people's livelihood, stimulate domestic demand and transform development patterns, it said. Consumption, rural consumption in particular, should be actively boosted and a set of major projects on livelihood, infrastructure and environment protection should be launched. The position of agriculture as the foundation of the economy should be strengthened and agriculture production be boosted, it said. The stable growth of foreign trade should also be maintained. Structural adjustment should be accelerated, including developing the high-tech industry, small and medium-sized enterprises, the service sector and coordinating regional development. More progress should be made on energy saving and emissions reduction and pollution treatment be stepped up, the meeting urged. Rural reform and financial reform should be deepened, and people's livelihood should be improved and more jobs be created, it said. The meeting also agreed in principle suggestions on judicial reform by the CPC Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. The reform should meet the judiciary needs of the people and aim at promoting social harmony, beef up measures to tighten the restraint on and supervision over the use of power, and remove barriers that hamper justice, it said.
BEIJING, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council Thursday approved a plan to deepen reform and opening up in the southern Pearl River Delta area, where the country's reform and opening up drive was initiated 30 years ago. The plan was unveiled on the day when the nation was commemorating the 30th anniversary of the 3rd plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which decided to open up the country and reform its struggling economy. The pioneer area of the country's reform and opening up scheme was urged to accelerate economic restructuring and take the lead in building a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society, according to the plan approved by an executive meeting of the State Council, or the Cabinet. The plan also pressed the area to promote technologies so as to excel in innovation, and coordinated development in both urban and rural areas was also stressed. The meeting, presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao, said the area was also to take the lead in deepening reforms and opening up, so that an improved socialist market economy system could be established and a more open economic system could be set up as the region enhances its cooperation with neighbors Hong Kong and Macau. The meeting said the Pearl River Delta is still maintaining stable and relatively fast development at present, but it also admitted that the area received powerful shocks from the current financial crisis, as there are many smaller and export-oriented enterprises in the region. To keep the pace of development would be the top priority of the region at the present stage, the meeting said.
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- China called on the international community here on Friday to honor its commitment of aid to Iraq so as to help speed up its process of reconstruction and development. La Yuefan, minister counselor from the Chinese mission to the United Nations, said at the Security Council meeting on the situation concerning Iraq that for progress in security and political fields to be effectively consolidated, economic and social reconstruction must also move ahead. In this regard, "we call upon the international community to truly honor its commitment of aid to Iraq by helping Iraq speed up its process of reconstruction and development," La said, adding that China supports the meeting of foreign ministers of neighboring countries and other mechanisms playing a bigger role. China also hopes that the Iraqi government will continue to lead all factions to agree on the common vision for the future of the country by placing national interests above everything else and strengthening dialogue and unity, La said. "We encourage UNAMI (the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq) to continue its positive role in this regard. We believe it is essential to promote political dialogue and national reconciliation of Iraq in order to consolidate the progress already achieved in various fields," the Chinese diplomat said. Noting that right now the process of peace and recovery in Iraqis at a critical juncture, La said China welcomes the continuous progress achieved by Iraq in the political, security and recovery fields. However, he pointed out that the overall security situation in Iraq remained fragile. "We are especially concerned about the large number of civilian casualties caused by military operations and violent attacks," La said. "We call once again upon the parties concerned to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties while carrying out military operations," he said.
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BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Vice President Xi Jinping expressed the hope to further boost exchanges between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the French Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) here Friday. "As ruling parties of respective countries, the CPC and UMP both face the challenges from domestic reform and economic globalization," Xi told Patrick Devedjian, UMP general secretary, during their meeting here. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Patrick Devedjian, general secretary of French Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), in Beijing, capital of China, on Oct. 17, 2008."We would like to further enhance exchanges and mutual trust to push forward the healthy and stable development of Sino-French ties," Xi noted. He said both China and France are influential countries and maintaining a good relationship complied with the fundamental interest of the two and was conducive to peace, stability and prosperity of the world. China valued the traditional friendship with France, and has always handled bilateral ties from a strategic height and a long-term perspective. Xi also expressed appreciation for France's support to improving the Sino-EU relations. Devedjian said China's development would benefit the world, and the UMP would strengthen relations with the CPC and the Chinese government to contribute to the development of China-France relations.
BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's decision to cut interest rates on Thursday is part of its flexible monetary policy to cope with the world financial crisis and boost domestic economy, a central bank spokesman said on Friday. Li Chao, spokesman of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) explained the government's cut in interest rates for the second time in one month. On Wednesday, the PBOC announced to cut interest rates by 0.27 percentage points as of Oct. 30 to spur economic growth. The benchmark one-year deposit rate dropped to 3.60 percent from 3.87percent, while the benchmark one-year lending rate fall from 6.93 percent to 6.66 percent. The previous cut was on Oct. 8, when the PBOC announced a lowering of deposit and lending rates by 0.27 percentage points and decided to cut the reserve-requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points from Oct. 15. Li said the move was in response to a spreading and worsening world financial crisis. "The severe crisis was beyond most people's expectations." He said: "China's economy relies highly on external markets. It is very necessary for the country to adjust economic policy, including monetary policy, in a timely and flexible manner to reduce the negative impact to a minimum." "Recently, China's exports have weakened as a result of weak world demand. Domestic export-oriented enterprises, especially those coastal based companies, face difficulties," he added. The country's export value in the first three quarters was 1.07trillion dollars -- up 22.3 percent -- the growth rate was 4.8 percentage points lower, official figure showed. "Meanwhile, the nation's inflation pressure has been eased," he said, adding the latest interest rate cut aims at maintaining the energy of China's economic growth. China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew to 20.16 trillion yuan (2.96 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters of this year, up 9.9 percent from the same period of last year. The growth rate was 2.3 percentage points lower than the same period last year. Consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 4.6 percent in September over the same period last year, off from the 12-year high of 8.7 percent in February. When asked the reason why the government only reduced interest rates and left the reserve-requirement ratio unchanged in the latest move, Li said this is because liquidity of the country's bank is adequate. Li said to cope with the international financial crisis and maintain sound and relatively fast national economic growth, the central bank has removed mandatory restriction on the commercial banks' loan plan. He said that China has confidence that it can resist the world financial crisis, as the country has great potential in expanding its domestic demand, and the financial system is stable. He called for cooperation between countries worldwide to cope with the crisis, and to carry out international financial system reform
BEIJING, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Thursday started to review a draft law on food safety, which sets stricter food quality standards and demands greater government responsibility. The draft, which was revised after the recent contaminated dairy products scandal, would ban all chemicals and materials other than authorized additives in food production. Health authorities are responsible for assessing and approving food additives and setting their usage. "Only those proved to be safe and necessary in food production are allowed to be listed as food additives," the draft says. Food producers must strictly stick to the food additives and their usage approved by authorities, according to the draft In the tainted dairy products scandal, melamine, often used in the manufacturing of plastics, was added to sub-standard or diluted milk to make protein levels appear higher. At least three infants died and more than 50,000 were sickened after drinking the contaminated milk. The draft also prohibits food safety supervision authorities from issuing inspection exemptions to food producers. China began exempting companies producing globally-competitive products from quality inspections in 2000 to help them avoid repeated examinations and reduce their burden. The practice encountered severe criticism when it was discovered that many of the companies producing and selling melamine-tainted dairy products had national inspection exemption qualifications. The draft was tabled to lawmakers at a bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC).
BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- China Dairy Industry Association (CDIA) on Thursday told Xinhua more information on setting up a medical compensation fund for victim babies in the tainted milk powder scandal. "The scandal caused great harm to infants and the society, so firms involved in the scandal feel very regretful for this. To be responsible for their wrongdoing and rebuild the dairy industry's reputation, these companies offer to shoulder social responsibilities," said the association. Sanlu, the dairy producer at the center of the tainted milk powder scandal, and other 21 firms blamed in the scandal had decided to set up a compensation fund for the victim infants. "The money from these companies for this fund has been in place now. The fund will cover the charge on acute disease medical treatment and the one-time cash payment for victims," said the Beijing-based association. But no specific amount of the fund or compensation for each victim baby was revealed. "The fund is big enough to cover all the medical care charge for the victim infants and the compensation work is now underway," according to the association. "After the acute disease medical treatment, if those infants develop related diseases before they are 18 years old, they can also get full reimbursement for their medical expenses from the fund," the CDIA added. The fund will be entrusted to China Life Insurance Co., Ltd., the country's leading life insurer, to manage. To make it easier for the victim families to get compensation, they can get the medical charge reimbursement through China Life's outlets nationwide. China's tainted dairy scandal was exposed in September after babies who had milk powder produced by the northern Hebei Province-based Sanlu Group developed kidney stones. Other leading dairy firms were also involved. The contamination killed six babies and more than 290,000 infants suffered from urinary problems such as kidney stones.