➲ Auto sales slows

J.D. Power and Associates, a global marketing information services provider based in the United States, predicts that auto sales growth in the Chinese market, which is expected to reach 30 percent in 2010, may slow to 10 percent in 2011, since the government has recognized troubles brought about by the rapid increase of automobiles on the street, including traffic congestion, pollution and unrestrained expansion of production capacities.

➲ Geely online

China's leading private-run carmaker, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, began selling cars online in December 2010 to tap into the purchasing power of the nation's hundreds of millions of netizens. Geely, which took over Volvo Car Corp. last year, opened its flagship store on Taobao Mall, a major e-commerce website with 300 million registered users, accounting for 71 percent of the country's total netizens.

➲ High-speed train

An experimental train, under development by China's CSR Corp. Ltd. for test but not operational purposes, will "try to break the 574.8-km/h record" set by France's TGV (Train Grande Vitesse, or high-speed train) in April 2007, CSR sources said at the Seventh World Congress on High Speed Rail in Beijing recently. On December 3, a high-speed passenger train manufactured by CSR set an operating speed record of 486.1 km/h on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai line. China now leads the world with a high-speed rail network of 7,531 km, and the country aims to expand the network to 13,000 km by 2012, and to 16,000 km by 2020.

➲ Hiring expanding

Based on a survey conducted among 3,891 companies on the Chinese mainland, Manpower Inc., a global employment service provider, said 44 percent of Chinese employers are planning to increase hiring in the first quarter of 2011, while 6 percent anticipate reducing payrolls and another 43 percent plan to keep their headcount unchanged. The finance, insurance, real estate, and wholesale and retail trade sectors reported the strongest job prospects, according to the survey.

➲ Lottery welfare

China's government-run welfare lottery has raised a total of 164.5 billion yuan ($24.8 billion) for public welfare funds over the last 23 years, announced the Welfare Lottery Distribution and Management Center (WLDMC). Total sales of welfare lottery tickets have amounted to 500 billion yuan ($75.4 billion) since the lottery started operation in 1987. Half of the funds were allocated to social welfare projects organized by local governments, and the rest to public welfare funds or projects administered by central authorities, including the Ministry of Civil Affairs, according to WLDMC.

➲ Third world FDI

A report launched by the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency says that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into developing countries are projected to increase by 17 percent in 2010. Investors from the extractive industries, as well as those based in developing countries, are particularly bullish in their investment intentions. The World Bank believes this finding represents the business world's confirmation of economists' projections: FDI is expected to recover over the next couple of years, having declined sharply by 40 percent in 2009.

➲ OA supervision

In a bid to avoid potential risks, China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) is considering to introduce an act to regulate central enterprises' overseas assets (OA). The new regulation will include setting up an investment qualification threshold and risk warning system, reforming investment approval procedures and regulating the property rights of overseas state assets. A total of 108 central enterprises had invested overseas with total assets more than 4 trillion yuan ($603.3 billion) by the end of 2009, according to SASAC statistics. In the same year, profits generated by overseas investments accounted for 37.7 percent of central enterprises' total profits.

➲ Sponsor tie

Athletic authorities in Zambia will soon sign a deal for a kit sponsorship with Pano Sports International Media Co. of China, according to a Zambia Daily Mail report. Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) had a sponsorship deal with Italian sport firm Puma, but the contract was terminated due to the global economic downturn in 2009. "Since we lost the Puma deal we haven't had nay kit sponsor. The coming of Pano will save us from embarrassment, especially at international competitions. It is a breakthrough for us," ZAAA President Elias Mpondela was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.

➲ Double-digit growth

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a top think tank, predicted in its annual blue book, "China's Economy," that the country's economy will expand by 10 percent in 2011, and inflation will remain moderate with the consumer price index (CPI) to rise 3.3 percent. However, some economists disputed the conclusions of the CASS report, predicting that the national economy may face a modest deceleration this year while inflation is likely to rise faster than expected.

66%

Percentage of cities confronting watershortage crisis in China

 $530 billion

BRIC-Africa trade value by 2015, accord-ing to Standard Bank forecast

2.9%

Year-on-year rise of China's grain output in 2010

$4 million

Bid offered by Chinese Football Association for a friendship football match withSpain national football team

36%

Percentage of Africa's total oil exports going to the European Union