➲ Overseas Expansion

Chinese automaker FAW Group will broaden its market in South Africa through exporting technology and capital. FAW invested about 500 million yuan ($79.3 million) to establish a plant in South Africa in March this year, which will produce 5,000 trucks a year, according to FAW Group. The plant will be expanded as an overseas manufacturing base with an annual output of 50,000 passenger vehicles. Founded in 1953, FAW Group is now one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in China and ranks among the top 500 corporations worldwide.

➲ Prudent Monetary Policy

The People's Bank of China, or the central bank, reiterated recently that the country will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy in 2012. The statement was released after data showed that growth in the world's second-largest economy slowed for a sixth quarter, rising 7.6 percent year on year during the April-June period. China's economy is facing a complicated environment both at home and abroad and the government's macroeconomic regulations are challenged by increasing dilemmas, the central bank said, citing the downward pressure on economic growth and lower profits for some companies.

➲ Phone Internet Boom

The number of people accessing the Internet via cellphones will exceed the number doing so via personal computers in China in the coming two or three years, experts predicted. Experts at a conference organized by the Beijing Communication Industry Association in July said that mobile Internet will also popularize the Internet in the world's most populous nation. China's Internet users stood at 513 million at the end of last year, with 356 million logging in with cellphones, up 17.5 percent year on year, according to data from the China Internet Network Information Center.

➲ Anti-Piracy Campaign

The Chinese Government has launched a new campaign targeting rampant online piracy through enhanced supervision and inter-agency coordination, according to a statement from four ministry-level departments in July. The four-month campaign will highlight supervision over content providers, storage services, search engines and e-commerce platforms, said the statement. Local authorities are required to conduct special investigations and boost routine inspections over online publications.

➲ Online Booking

Qunar.com Inc., an online provider of travel bookings, said in July it will spend $30 million to build a travel-service platform in its latest attempt to win an ongoing price war among the nation's top online booking websites. The platform will provide infrastructure services to travel-service providers and help them offer efficient and standardized services to consumers, according to the company, adding that the money will be used to develop the platform and hire engineers. China's online booking websites are faced with cutthroat competition as they try to grab a larger market share as summer vacation draws near.

➲ Foreign Labor Rules

The Chinese Government issued new regulations for the management of foreign labor service enterprises to protect workers sent overseas and boost the development of foreign labor cooperation. The regulations will take effect on August 1. Foreign labor service enterprises will each be required to create a bank account containing no less than 3 million yuan ($47.6 million) to be deposited in banks designated by authorities in order to cover potential risks, according to the new rules. The funds will mainly be used to cover service fees, wages, compensation for losses and emergency expenses when labor service enterprises fail to pay.

➲ Publishing Funding Boost

China will continue to push private capital into the publishing industry to boost the cultural sector, said the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) in July. GAPP vowed further support for private investment in establishing printing and publishing enterprises, as well as in publication distribution businesses. GAPP will also support digital publishers, including online gaming, mobile reading, e-book and software industries. Under the condition that state-owned capital accounts for more than 51 percent of the total share, authorities will encourage private funds to go to marketing and advertising businesses of official newspapers and magazines.

➲ Investment Fair Bonanza

The 16th China International Fair for Investment and Trade will be held from September 8-11, in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province. As China's only international investment promotion event aimed at facilitating bilateral investment, the fair is the largest of its kind approved by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry. The fair will include investment and trade exhibitions, authoritative investment forums and seminars, and investment project matchmaking symposia. Over 70,000 business people from over 120 countries and regions are expected to come to this year's fair and over 1,000 investment institutions are expected to meet there.

12.2%

China's fiscal revenues for the first half of 2012 up year on year

$93 Billion

China's imports from Africa in 2011

$59.1 Billion

Foreign direct investment  in the first half of this year

$18 Million

African Development Bank supports economic reforms in Burundi 

$203 Billion

China's total tourism revenue in the first half of 2012