GREEN SUPERVISION

Chinese companies will give more priorities to local environment while planning their overseas investment, as several Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Commerce, are formulating environmental protection guidelines for Chinese companies investing overseas. The guidelines will require Chinese investors operating overseas to take steps to protect the environment and embrace their corporate and social responsibilities.

WORLD'S NO.3

China's ZTE Corp., a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, is ranked third in the global optical networking (ON) industry, according to industry analyst firm Ovum. Ovum's latest report, entitled Market Share: 1Q10 Optical Networks, Global and Regional, says many of the top 10 ON vendors posted double digit percentage revenue declines for the first quarter of 2010, compared to the same period last year. ZTE was the only vendor to post a sequential increase (33 percent) in overall revenues for the period.

STED UP

Data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange shows that at the end of the first quarter 2010, China's total external debt (TED) balance stood at $443.236 billion (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), up 3.4 percent year on year. Short-term external debt (STED) continued to rise for the fourth consecutive quarter. The STED balance reached $276.202 billion at the end of March, accounting for 62.31 percent of the TED, up 8.41 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2009.

FOREX RULES EASED

China is relaxing foreign exchange regulations to make it simpler for domestic banks to make direct investments overseas. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) says the new rules will come into effect in September. Domestic banks will no longer need to apply to the SAFE for currency to finance investments overseas, such as the establishment of new branches, mergers and acquisitions. However, banks expanding overseas will still have to obtain other approvals and provide SAFE with relevant information.

NEW SOLAR PROJECTS

The National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its website that the Chinese Government is tendering for bids to develop 13 solar power projects in the country's western region as part of a government aim to cut emissions and boost energy investment in the area. The projects, which will have a combined capacity of 280,000 kw, will help turn the western region into a base for energy production and processing of natural resources. It will also play a part in boosting the share of non-fossil-fuel energy in China's primary energy consumption to 15 percent by 2020.

RESOURCE TAX IMPOSED

China will impose a nationwide tax on oil and gas drilling and other resource industries to raise money for development in poor western regions, said an official from the National Development and Reform Commission. According to him, the tax is being levied on a trial basis in the oil-rich western region of Xinjiang and planed to be introduced gradually to the whole country. The level of the tax, imposed at 5 percent in Xinjiang since June, might vary once imposed nationwide, according to the source. A clear timetable for the tax's introduction has not been released yet.

ANTI-CORRUPTION RULING

Chinese officials at the deputy county level and above are required to submit yearly reports of all assets held in their family, according to a new regulation that took effect from July. The new rule, which raises the number of categories of items to be declared by officials from eight to 14, is considered a "new development of China's anti-corruption mechanism." According to the regulation, officials have to declare their salary and subsidies, income from other sources such as lecturing, housing owned by the family, including their spouses and children, the family's investments in unlisted companies, the family's investment in stocks, investment-oriented insurance and other financing products, and the employment of a spouse and children at home and abroad. 

RESERVES' GROWTH SLOWING

China's central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), announced that the country's foreign exchange reserves totaled $2.4543 trillion at the end of June, up 15.1 percent year on year. But growth of foreign exchange reserves is slowing down: reserves increased by $7.2 billion in the second quarter, much less than during the same period in 2009 when reserves grew by $177.9 billion. The PBOC said the declining euro was the major reason behind slower growth in foreign exchange reserves.

NUMBER CRUNCHING

$0.3

FOB price of a Chinese-made Vuvuzela

1%

Share of nuclear power within China's total power capacity

10 tons

Gold output in Cameroon within the next five years, predicted by the Framework of Support and Promotion of Artisan Mining

$141

Minimum legal monthly wage in Beijing

42.5%

Year-on-year decrease of China's trade surplus in the first six months of 2010