BizChina
- Details
- By Chinadaily.com.cn
- Hits: 1136
The government will send an investment and procurement delegation to Europe during the first half of this year, an official with the Ministry of Commerce said. The move follows a similar mission to four European Union nations in February.
"We are actively preparing for a second purchasing and investment delegation to Europe," said Wu Xilin, an official in charge of the ministry's outward investment department. The exact date has not been decided yet, but the team will leave before June, Wu said at a press briefing yesterday.
The government supports overseas investment by Chinese enterprises. "China's outward investment carries a lot of significance amid the financial crisis," Wu said. "It is good for the stability of our foreign trade and industry structure."
The countries that the delegation would visit have still not been decided, Wu said. But "France is not ruled out", he said in response to a question about whether the team would visit France, as it was not included in the previous trip.
Experts agreed that this was right time for Chinese firms to eye global investment opportunities as overseas assets are getting cheaper due the economic downturn.
"There are more opportunities for overseas mergers and acquisitions, and the investment cost is getting lower," Wu said. In addition, the less impacted emerging markets would invest more on infrastructure construction, and there were more opportunities for contract projects in these countries, Wu pointed out.
He, however, warned that overseas investments could be risky.
"The strength of Chinese enterprises, overall, is quite weak at this stage. They still lack the capital, market channel, and management necessary for international operation," he said.
"Many of the advanced sectors in developed countries are facing cash flow problems now," said Xing Houyuan, a senior researcher on outbound investment with the commerce ministry. "This is good news for Chinese firms that are keen to improve their own technologies," she said.
In addition, many firms from developed countries have either cut or cancelled their investments in developing countries, and Chinese firms could utilize this opportunity and fill the gap, said Xing.
To profit from such opportunities, the government has organized several such trips overseas. The commerce ministry sent a delegation to Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Britain in February. The trade mission, led by commerce minister Chen Deming, signed deals worth more than $13 billion.
A business team is currently in the United States, where it has signed trade and investment contracts worth $10.6 billion, according to a report in the Xinhua news agency.
China's overseas investment has been increasing rapidly in recent years. In 2008, the country's outbound investment in the non-financial sector soared by 63.5 percent to $40.65 billion. The contract value of projects in other countries and regions went up by 39.4 percent to $56.6 billion.
During the first quarter of this year, China set up 445 enterprises overseas, up 6.8 percent year-on-year.
The Ministry of Commerce earlier this month released guidelines for overseas investment and cooperation with 20 countries. The country-by-country guidelines provide basic information on setting up an overseas enterprise.
Liang Guining, a researcher with the ministry who specializes in investing in Africa, said many developing countries are not transparent in decision making and do not have proper laws and regulations to protect foreign investors.
- Details
- By David Cao
- Hits: 1051
The three-day Central China Expo ended in Hefei, capital of the Anhui province on Tuesday, with contracts worth more than 27 billion U.S. dollars signed.
At the expo, China's six central provinces - Henan, Shanxi, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui - got foreign investment of 6.37 billion U.S. dollars.
They also inked contracts with domestic companies from other parts of China, drawing an investment of 144.9 billion yuan (about 21.3 billion U.S. dollars).
The region, with six provinces and considered to be central China, covers 1.03 million square kilometers and its population accounts for 28 percent of China's total. Its provincial economies make up 20 percent of the national total. It is a major grain production base, an important transport hub and a leading energy and raw materials supplier.
The Central China Expo was co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce, the state administrations of taxation, for industry and commerce, tourism, and radio, film and television, as well as governments of the six provinces.
The Expo attracted 16,000 business people, including representatives from 300 of the "Fortune 500" multinational corporations such as Carrefour and IBM.
- Details
- By David Cao
- Hits: 1121
The building and testing of a machine that can create super X-rays capable of exposing the complicated structures of chemical compounds and proteins has been completed at Shanghai Zhangjiang High-tech Park in Pudong New Area.
The Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility is expected to significantly boost China's capability and competitiveness in scientific research, especially in life sciences, officials from the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the facility's key developer, were quoted as saying by Thursday's Shanghai Daily.
The 1.2 billion yuan (176 million U.S. dollars) particle accelerator, China's biggest light facility, will also help in the study of viruses and new drugs and the development of technology.
Next month the synchrotron will be opened to universities, scientific institutes and companies for approved research.
The trial operation of the facility in about 60 projects since last month has already yielded results.
"We have found seven new structures including one enzyme which can break down an environmental toxicant," said He Jianhua, head of the institute's synchrotron radiation experiment division.
The institute is cooperating with the Shanghai Institute of Material Medica on researching treatment of bird flu and is expected to work with Sinopec on petroleum catalyzers.
"The machine will be an effective tool in research on viruses as well as for swine flu medicines although we haven't received a request yet," He said.
The facility was jointly proposed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai government in 1995, with construction starting in December 2004.
The synchrotron's beamlines were adjusted from May last year to March. So far the facility has built seven beamlines and experimental stations for research and development in life sciences, new materials, physics and biochemical projects.
The particle accelerator can produce X-rays thousands of times stronger than normal X-ray machines capable of exposing the minute structure of human proteins.
"Thanks to the technology, we can know a protein structure within 20 minutes. Such a procedure usually took several months," said He.
The institute hopes to complete the facility's proposed 60 beamlines by 2020, and have 40 completed by 2015.
- Details
- By Chinaview.cn
- Hits: 1040
The 2008 net profit of 1,624 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges fell 17 percent from a year earlier to 820.82 billion yuan (120.18 billion U.S. dollars), the China Securities Journal Information Center reported Thursday.
Nearly 18.5 percent of the companies reported losses in 2008. The figure was 7 percent in 2007.
However, the 1,624 companies reported 203.76 billion yuan in net profit in the first quarter of 2009, or 4.5 times more than the fourth quarter of 2008.
- Details
- By Chinaview.cn
- Hits: 1456
Chinese equities rose for a second trading day in a row Thursday, led by cement and machinery shares, leaving April as the fourth month in a row in which shares have risen.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2,477.57 points, up 9.38 points, or 0.38 percent. The Shenzhen Component Index rose 1.27 percent to 9,502.52 points, up 119.31 points.
Gainers outnumbered losers by 614 to 220 in Shanghai and 526 to177 in Shenzhen.
Combined turnover climbed to 194.14 billion yuan (28.45 billion U.S. dollars) from 179.16 billion yuan on the previous trading day.
Cement and machinery shares led the gains after an executive meeting of the State Council, presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao Wednesday, decided to lower the threshold in terms of capital pooled into the projects for investment in city transportation, coal mining, airports, ports, commercial housing, railways, and roads.
It aimed to stimulate the investment enthusiasm from the public and companies and to better cope with the adverse effects of the global financial crisis.
Read more: Chinese shares end higher to make fourth monthly advance
More Articles …
Page 115 of 118