➲ Boosting Green Cars

The State Council said recently that China will move faster to develop its energy saving and new-energy vehicle industry to ease pressure on resources and the environment. Prioritizing pure electricity-driven vehicles will be the major strategic route for China to transform the automobile industry. And the current focus is to promote the industrialization of pure electric cars and plug in hybrid electric vehicles.

➲ Nano Technology

China will further industrialize the use of a new material developed with the help of nanotechnology to ensure the safety of its power grids, according to a statement from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNT) in May. The NCNT said the material has undergone strict testing and technical evaluations and will be used to solve the problem of flashover. Other projects based on the use of the new material are in the research phase and will eventually be applied to China's power grids on a large scale, the NCNT said.

➲ Big Health Budget

China's Ministry of Health said recently that its 2012 budget would amount to 80 billion yuan ($12.69 billion), representing a year-on-year increase of 13.3 billion yuan ($2.1 billion). According to a statement released by the ministry, medical services will get the lion's share, 10.9 billion yuan ($1.73 billion), in order to improve the capacity of major clinical departments at public hospitals.

➲ Retailers' Sales Surging

China's top 100 retailers' sales revenues surged 20.9 percent year on year to 2 trillion yuan ($317 billion) in 2011, according to a report released by the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC) in May. The growth rate dipped by 0.9 percentage point compared to that registered in 2010, said the report. The leading retailing enterprises' sales accounted for 10.9 percent of the total retail sales.

➲ Slow Tax Growth

China's first-quarter tax revenues grew at the slowest pace in three years, as a result of the country's cooling economy. Tax revenues totaled 2.59 trillion yuan ($410.4 billion) in the first quarter, up 10.3 percent year on year, said the Ministry of Finance. The eased pace came as China's industrial value-added output and profits, key measures of industrial performances, both saw slower growth in the first two months.

➲ Buy Local Goods

A nationwide campaign was launched in May with the aim of encouraging South Africans to buy local goods. With a theme of "Be Proudly South African - Buy Local to Create Jobs," the year-long campaign will include road shows, business forums and mall activation, said the organizers. For each of the country's provinces, the road shows will kick off with a business forum, followed by mall promotions, expos and meetings with church bodies, community organizations and schools, said the organization.

➲ Loan Rates Liberalization

As China progressively introduces policies favoring a market-based currency exchange rate, it is also moving to accelerate the liberalization of interest rates, probably starting with lending rates, according to Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China. Zhou said the government needs to relax controls on lending rates first. He said the government should then liberalize deposit rates gradually by encouraging the development of alternative liability products and widening the fluctuation band for deposit rates.

➲ Double Textile Output

Chinese textile producers aim to more than double the country's textile output by 2020 from the 2010 level, according to a 10-year plan from the China National Textile and Apparel Council in May. The textile industry is planning to increase textile and clothing exports by an annual rate of about 7 percent and boost the export value of fiber products to $400 billion by 2020, said the plan.

➲ Boost Energy-Efficient Construction

The Chinese Government has established a goal of having energy-efficient buildings account for 30 percent of new construction projects by 2020, according to an official document jointly released by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. According to the document, the government will adopt a slew of measures including increasing policy incentives and improving industry standards, as well as promoting technological progress and the development of related industries in order to attain the goal.

➲ Better Infrastructure

The World Bank has provided $300 million to Kenya under a new program to improve Nairobi's competitiveness in terms of better infrastructure and other public service delivery. A statement from the bank said the Nairobi Metropolitan Services Improvement Project will benefit more than 1.5 million people working and living in Nairobi's metropolitan region.

20.2%

January-April fixed-asset investment up

8.66

Average daily hours worked by Chinese employees

$5.8 Billion

Air transport industry's profit in 2011

5.4%

Projection of Ugandan economic expansion by in 2012/13 fiscal year

25.2%

Rise in South Africa's unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2012