BEIJING - China imported 139,900 sedans in 2007, up 25.13 percent over the previous year, with the largest share of 46 percent, or 63,800 units, coming from Germany, China Customs figures revealed.The sedan imports worth 5.01 billion US dollars, up 25.41 percent from the previous year, took up 45 percent of China's total automobile imports which has slightly overshot the previous year's total to stand around 310,889 units.China Trading Center for Automobile Import predicted late January that tariff reduction since July 1 had given a stimulus to China's consumption of overseas made automobiles, which could reach 300,000 in 2007.China customs figures showed about 79 percent of the imports were vehicles with an engine size of or larger than 2.5 liters.Japan exported 29,700 sedans to China, the second largest total, while the United States ranked third with 18,000 units.China's sedan exports, by contrast, more than doubled year-on-year to 188,600 units in 2007.Chery, the flag-bearer of Chinese brands, saw a 132-percent surge in exports in 2007, to 119,800 units. The carmaker, which has accelerated its expansion overseas in recent years, expected to export 180,000 units this year.Chang'an Automotive Group, China's fourth largest automaker, sold more than 40,000 cars overseas last year, against 21,700 in 2006.China, the world's third largest vehicle producer, after Japan and United States, found its auto output grow 22.9 percent to 9.04 million units last year, according to figures with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner.The NDRC deputy economic performance department director Zhu Hongren said, since quantity was not a problem anymore, auto producers should increase their focus on quality.In 2006, China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest car market after the United States, with sales of 7.2 million units, up 25.13 percent year-on-year.Compared with their international counterparts, China's auto makers are still small in terms of production scale and behind in technology. In addition, the country's auto boom has created growing problems, such as increasing traffic jams and pollution.
QINGDAO, Shandong: China is likely to replace the United States as the world's third most popular tourism destination next year, a United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) official said. At present, China ranks fourth, after France, Spain and the United States. Last year, China accounted for 5.8 percent of the global tourism market, a growth of 0.3 percent compared with two years ago. Twenty-nine percent of tourists who traveled to Asia and the Pacific last year also visited China. Xu Jing, regional representative for Asia and the Pacific of UNWTO, said the market share percentages of China and the US last year were very close. "I am confident China will overtake the US next year," he said at the 2007 China (Qingdao) International Olympics & Tourism Forum, which concluded on Friday. UNWTO forecast last year that China would become the most popular destination by the year 2020. At the beginning of this year, it revised its forecast to 2015. Xu said the forecast was revised because of the rapid development of the country's tourism industry. The number of overseas travelers to China has increased from 10.5 million in 1996 to 49 million in 2006. The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, will further boost China's tourism market. The Pacific and Asia Travel Association said inbound tourism to China will increase by 5 percent year-on-year between 2007 and 2009.
China has sent rescue ships to search for a cargo vessel missing in the East China Sea with 17 Russian crew on board.The China Maritime Search and Rescue Center said on Friday it launched a search and rescue emergency plan soon after a rescue center in Russia's far east informed it of the missing boat on Thursday.The Cambodia-registered ship went missing on its way from Japan to Hong Kong.The vessel failed to arrive in Hong Kong on Thursday as scheduled, and the last radio contact was made with the ship on Sunday, when it was 212 sea miles (391 km) east of Shanghai.Russian rescue officials then informed rescue centers in China, Japan and South Korea of the Captain Uskov's disappearance."Our rescue ships have started searching," Zhai Jiugang, a senior official with China's search and rescue center, said.Vessels sailing in the East China Sea have also been informed by the center's branches in Shandong and Shanghai of the disappearance of the ship, and were asked to assist in the search, he said.The center is also using maritime satellites to help search for the vessel. But by Friday afternoon, there was "no clue about the missing boat, and we will continue to search", he said.The boat, with a cargo capacity of 5,200 metric tons, was built in Japan in 1982. It flew a Soviet flag and was later sold to a private shipping company and registered in Cambodia.
Four people were sentenced to between 15 and 24 months' imprisonment Tuesday in Shanghai for money laundering in the first such case since the anti-money laundering law took effect in January.The Shanghai Hongkou District People's Court sentenced Pan Rumin to two years in jail and fined him 60,000 yuan (,000) for the crime. Accomplices Zhu Suzhen, Li Daming and Gong Yuan were sentenced to between 15 and 16 months in prison and fined 20,000 yuan each.The case was the first in the country to turn on the new anti-money laundering law. Before the law took effect, suspects in money-laundering cases were charged with operating illegal businesses or disordering financial markets.The four parties had collectively laundered more than 1 million yuan by withdrawing money and transferring funds over the Internet, through ATMs and over the counter at bank branches.The Shanghai branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China eventually grew suspicious, and police arrested the suspected launderers in Hongkou on July 24 last year.The authorities have been drawing up legislation to fight money laundering. The National People's Congress Standing Committee passed the new anti-money laundering law in October, last year.
The national urban and township unemployment rate was reduced to 4 percent last year, thanks to the creation of more than 12 million jobs and despite more people entering the workforce, a top labor official said yesterday.The number of jobs created exceeded the target of 9 million set at the beginning of last year, Zhai Yanli, vice-minister of Labor and Social Security, said at a press conference.Zhai said that by the end of the year, 99.9 percent of the country's 869,000 former "zero employment" families had succeeded in finding work for at least one member.Last year saw the total urban and township unemployment rate fall by 0.1 percentage points for the third year in a row.During the period of economic restructuring in the late 1990s, the rate rose to a high of 6 percent.Zhai attributed the decline to the country's economic growth and measures to stabilize employment. He said the rate will be held within 4.5 percent this year.Every year for the past decade, China has posted double-digit GDP growth. Between 1978 and 2006, the number of urban and township jobs rose from 95.14 million to 283.1 million.But the country continues to face employment pressure, with 10 million people entering the workforce every year between now and 2010, according to official figures.At the same time, the move away from labor-intensive industries in line with efforts to upgrade the economy and improve productivity will also mean fewer jobs being created in those industries, Chen Liangwen, an economics researcher at Peking University, said.Research by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has suggested the government look to create more jobs in the country's tertiary, or service, industries.While these already account for about 39 percent of the country's total jobs, the ratio in many developed countries is between 50 and 60 percent.Zhai also said the ministry is mulling over a new salary regulation, to guarantee steady pay rises."The regulation has been drafted and is now soliciting advice. It will be submitted to the State Council for deliberation after certain legislative procedures," he said.Labor experts have said the new regulation, together with the newly implemented Labor Contract Law, have helped China enter a new era of employer-employee relations by offering more protection for workers.Wen Yueran, an expert in labor relations from Beijing's Renmin University of China, said low salaries were a major factor in accelerating China's economic growth over the past two decades.The country's total wage payments fell to 41.4 percent of GDP in 2005, compared with 53.4 percent in 1990, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.Workers will need some hefty pay rises if China is to increase its wages-to-GDP ratio to the 55 percent level of most developed countries, Wen told the 21 Century Business Herald.Low wages and slow pay increases have had a negative impact on society and cooled consumption, Chen said.Steady and rational pay rises will help stimulate domestic consumption, which fell to a record low of 51.1 percent of GDP in 2006, Chen said.
SHANGHAI, March 5 (Xinhua) -- A traditional commodity fair in east China, conventionally regarded as a barometer of the nation's foreign trade, reported less demands from American businessmen than expected, indicating a possible slowdown of Sino-U.S. trade. The 18th East China Commodity Fair, an event held at the beginning of every year, reported around 1,600 American businessmen, far less than expected. "The number of the American businessmen to the fair was only two thirds of those from the European Union, showing the deficient domestic demands of the United States," said Wang Qingjiang, an official with the fair. "The subprime crisis in the United States has shown its influence on China's exports," he added. The 5-day fair registered total business deals worth 583 million U.S. dollars between Chinese companies and the U.S. businessmen, a 1.5 percent dip from last year. Deals worth more than 3.67 billion U.S. dollars were signed at the fair, a 3.52 percent growth from 2007. Deals between Chinese companies and the European Union businessmen added up to 879 million U.S. dollars, a 9.5 percent growth compared with the last fair. Chinese companies and the Japanese businessmen made deals worth906 million U.S. dollars, almost the same amount compared with last year. The fair attracted more than 19,000 businessmen from 145 countries and regions around the world, with more than 60 percent from Asia. According to experts, the fair could indicate the trend in China's foreign trade in 2008.
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The central finance department will continue increasing its support to the country's rural areas, sources from a meeting of the political bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee said.The Xinhua News Agency on Saturday cited a political bureau meeting as saying that the country should further muster up strength to solve the problem of its poor agricultural infrastructure and the sluggish development of rural areas by "increasing input in agricultural sectors and rural areas".The report, which comes just days before the Party's 17th National Congress on October 15, the most important political gathering in China which will set guidance for future development, suggests Party leaders are concerned about the urgency needed to improve farmers' lives, analysts said.An anonymous official from the Ministry of Finance said that the central government has made financial support for rural areas a major priority .The country has rolled out a series of preferential policies to boost the development of its vast countryside, home to its more than 700 million rural people, including agricultural taxation reform to alleviate farmers' burden and direct subsidies to ensure gains from growing crops.The State has also exempted farmers from some taxes such as those in the slaughtering and animal husban-dry industry.Statistics from the ministry shows that the central coffers plan to invest 391.7 billion yuan ( billion) in the development of its rural areas this year, an annual increase of 15.3 percent.To further encourage farmers to grow crops, billions of yuan have been allotted for agricultural subsidies for grain prices, seeds, and cultivation facilities.About 125 billion yuan of tax has been waived since the removal of a series of agricultural taxes in recent years, the official said.The results of these preferential policies were obvious, the official said, with statistics showing a fourth consecutive bumper grain harvest this summer.
SHENZHEN -- China on Wednesday laid out a primary plan for its second pipeline of the West-East natural gas transmission project.According to the plan, construction of the 8,794 kilometer gas pipeline, which consists of one major line and eight sub-lines, will involve an investment of approximately 143.5 billion yuan (US.8 billion).The major line will extend 4,945 km, running from Khorgos in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Guangzhou, capital of south Guangdong Province.Construction of the pipeline will begin this year and it will go into operation in 2010. The pipeline would pass through 13 Chinese regions.It would carry natural gas from central Asian countries and Xinjiang to the economically prosperous but energy thirsty eastern and southern China areas, including Shanghai and Guangdong Province.
China has sent rescue ships to search for a cargo vessel missing in the East China Sea with 17 Russian crew on board.The China Maritime Search and Rescue Center said on Friday it launched a search and rescue emergency plan soon after a rescue center in Russia's far east informed it of the missing boat on Thursday.The Cambodia-registered ship went missing on its way from Japan to Hong Kong.The vessel failed to arrive in Hong Kong on Thursday as scheduled, and the last radio contact was made with the ship on Sunday, when it was 212 sea miles (391 km) east of Shanghai.Russian rescue officials then informed rescue centers in China, Japan and South Korea of the Captain Uskov's disappearance."Our rescue ships have started searching," Zhai Jiugang, a senior official with China's search and rescue center, said.Vessels sailing in the East China Sea have also been informed by the center's branches in Shandong and Shanghai of the disappearance of the ship, and were asked to assist in the search, he said.The center is also using maritime satellites to help search for the vessel. But by Friday afternoon, there was "no clue about the missing boat, and we will continue to search", he said.The boat, with a cargo capacity of 5,200 metric tons, was built in Japan in 1982. It flew a Soviet flag and was later sold to a private shipping company and registered in Cambodia.
在全球的电子制造商中,联想电脑在最新的环保评选中居榜首。AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - One of China's electronic maker has been seen by some as the greenest business in the world. Computer maker Lenovo ranked in at the top spot of environmental group Greenpeace's latest quarterly ranking of global electronics manufacturers. Once at the bottom of the list, Lenovo now leads the way in recycling industrial waste and taking steps on controlling toxic content, Greenpeace said. "Given the growing mountains of e-waste in China -- both imported and domestically generated -- it is heartening to see a Chinese company taking the lead, and assuming responsibility at least for its own branded waste," said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace International's toxics campaigner, adding that "the challenge for the industry now is to see who will actually place greener products on the market." Lenovo bought out IBM's personal computer division in 2004. Apple, meanwhile, was placed at the bottom of the list of 14 companies