BizChina

South China's Guangdong Province is expected to achieve economic growth of 9 percent this year, higher than the target of 8.5 percent, governor Huang Huahua said Thursday.

The worst time was over and this year's economic situation was better than expected, Huang told Xinhua.

Guangdong's economy in the first quarter expanded 5.8 percent from a year earlier, lower than the 6.1 percent nationwide, as the global financial crisis took a heavy toll on China's "factory of the world."

The growth rate accelerated to 8.6 percent in the year to September, 0.9 percentage points higher than the national average rate.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange dropped 217.03 points, or 1.59 percent, to close Thursday's trading at 13,470.98.

The H-shares index, initiated in August 1994 and readjusted on Sept. 7, 2009, tracks the overall performance of 44 major Chinese mainland state-owned enterprises listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The Hang Seng China H-Financials Index fell 345.58 points, or 1. 81 percent, to close at 18,710.19.

The H-Financials Index, initiated on Nov. 27, 2006, readjusted on Sept. 10, 2007, tracks the performance of nine major banks and insurers of the Chinese mainland.

China's solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. said Monday it will set up its first U.S. factory in the Greater Phoenix, Arizona area.

In a press release, Suntech said it plans to make a final decision on the specific location of the plant in the coming weeks.

The plant will have an initial production capacity of 30 megawatts (MW) and is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2010, it said.

When President Barack Obama arrives in China for his first official visit next week, he will find a very different nation from the one President George W. Bush first went to almost a decade ago. No longer is China a net recipient of aid. On Sunday it promised $10 billion in loans to Africa and forgave the debts of several countries. Another hundred million Chinese have been pulled out of poverty, and the nation is now the world's second-largest market for luxury items. Consumers buy $6.5 billion worth every year.

The desperation that marked the lives of many Chinese over the last century is gone. The Pew Center recently found that 86% of Chinese are happy with the direction in which the government is taking the country. My firm, the China Market Research Group, has found that 80% of Chinese under the age of 32 are confident and optimistic about their futures, despite the financial crisis, and they say they expect to spend at least 10% more in the next six months than they did in the last half year.