BizChina

China Mobile Ltd. said Wednesday its net profit for the January-September period rose 3.9% on growth in its third-generation mobile-services business, even as competition intensified.

The world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers reported net profit for the nine months ended Sept. 30 was 87.25 billion yuan ($13.13 billion), up from 83.94 billion yuan a year earlier.

That marked a slowdown from China Mobile's net profit growth for the first half, when net profit rose 4.2% from a year earlier to 57.64 billion yuan, underlining pressures on the company's bottom line including heavy spending on handset subsidies to promote its 3G services.

China Mobile and its two major rivals, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and China Telecom Corp., are competing for subscribers to their 3G services, whose faster data speeds and pricier service plans could boost the companies' average revenue per user—a key gauge to determine long-term growth for telecommunications operators.

China's annual production capacity of electric motor vehicles will reach 1 million units by 2020, a senior official forecast Saturday.

As the world's largest auto market, new energy vehicles are key to the development of China's auto industry, said Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang on Saturday.

Wan said automobile exhaust emissions accounted for 70 percent of air pollution in big cities of China.

While extolling new energy cars, Wan said promotion of public transportation would also help to ease the problems caused by expanding car ownership in China.

Public transport should also be the top priority for use of new energy automobiles in China, he said.

Global pharmaceutical sales may rise 5 to 7 percent next year to $880 billion on soaring demand in developing nations led by China as it becomes the world's third-largest drug market, according to IMS Health Inc.

The 2011 projection compares with this year's 4 to 5 percent growth in drug sales to $840 billion, the research company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, said in a report released on Oct 7. Emerging markets including China and India are expected to expand by as much as 17 percent to $180 billion while growth in the United States market slows.

The world's largest market, the US, is growing at a historically low rate of 3 to 4 percent as patents expire on top-selling medicines and cheaper generic versions become available to consumers, said Murray Aitken, senior vice-president of IMS, in a telephone interview on Oct 6.

Drugs with sales of more than $30 billion are expected to lose patent protection next year, according to IMS.

China's short-term foreign debt jumped 24 percent in the March-June quarter, possibly indicating speculative money inflows in anticipation of a stronger yuan.

The rise, to $343.8 billion, might also be a reflection of lower dollar borrowing costs, according to analysts.

Short-term foreign debt made up 66.9 percent of China's total debt, up from 62.3 percent at the end of March, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said on Saturday.

In April, the regulator cut the short-term foreign debt quota for 2010 to prevent "abnormal" capital inflows.