Construction on a major hydro project on a tributary of the Yangtze River started Wednesday in southwest China’s Sichuan province.
The Tingzikou Hydro Junction Project on the middle reaches of the Jialing River mainly aims at flood prevention, irrigation, water supply and power generation.
The project was listed among the 18 new key projects in 2009 in the strategy to develop western China, as announced by the National Development and Reform Commission in October.
The total investment volume for the project is 15.89 billion yuan ($2.3 billion). It is expected to be completed in six years and nine months.
The project will include 20 hydropower stations with a total installed capacity of 1.1 million kilowatts and will produce three billion kilowatt-hour electricity a year.
“The project is conducive to safeguarding the flood control and water supply, optimizing the power supply, improving the navigation capacity and prompting economy in the area,” said Liu Qibao, the Sichuan provincial Party secretary.
The project will affect or inundate 151 villages in 35 towns in the city of Guangyuan involving more than 20,000 people, said Luo Qiang, the Guangyuan municipal Party secretary.
A total of 255 families have been relocated so far, Luo said. ]]>
Construction of an airport near China’s last matriarchal society in southwestern Yunnan province has started, local authorities said Wednesday.
A 10.5-km road linking to the construction site of Lugu Lake Airport, in Ninglang Yi autonomous county of Lijiang, a famous tourist destination, has been built up, said a spokesman with the provincial civil aviation department.
The airport is located 65 km north of the county seat and 35 km from Lugu Lake. It will cover 1.77 sq km with a terminal building of 4,000 sq m, at a cost of 837 million yuan ($122.6), the spokesman said.
The airport will boost local tourism and promote the social and economic development of the area, the spokesman said.
With their wood-frame houses scattered around the 60-sq-km Lugu Lake separating Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, the Mosuo ethnic minority has a population of about 40,000.
Unlike the majority of China’s ethnic groups who follow a strong patrilineal tradition, they have preserved their ancient matriarchal system and the tradition of “walking marriage.”
After puberty, a Mosuo girl is free to receive men. But they can only visit at night and must go to their own homes in the morning. Any children born from these relationships are raised by the mother’s family.
If either member of such a couple tires of the relationship, they will move on to a new partner. ]]>
Chinese search engine Baidu Inc yesterday launched two services for mobile users, in an effort to gain an edge and market share in the world’s largest mobile market.
Baidu launched its client software that combines search and other functions it offers on the PC Internet. With this software, mobile users can access search services much faster than WAP browsers, Baidu said.
The company has also come out with a new mobile software input method. Baidu had earlier acquired Shanghai-based DayHand Networks Co Ltd, a mobile software company. DayHand is the developer of the input method.
“Input method may not be a profit-generator, but users tend to have high loyalty to software of this kind, and companies are able to segmentalise customers better,” said Fang Li, an analyst with research firm Analysys International.
Earlier this month, Baidu’s major rival Google launched a Chinese-language voice search service, which can help Chinese users use Google’s existing search services via mobile phones. Google said it expects its mobile search business to surpass the PC-based Internet search business.
“Google has two main mobile services, Web search and Google Maps. It is trying to improve its brand recognition among users by perfecting its main services,” said Fang.
“Baidu, as a home-grown company, has already made its mark and is now focusing on diversified mobile services,” Fang said. “That’s why it has come out with its own input method.”
Baidu said it was going to continue its cooperation with telecom carriers and other players.
Last month Baidu signed a partnership with China Unicom to provide wireless search for the carrier’s 3G mobile subscribers.
According to Analysys International, Google is still lagging market leader Baidu, which had 63.9 percent of the search market share during the third quarter of this year. But in China’s mobile search market, Google’s share reached 26.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, higher than Baidu’s 26 percent.
Mobile Internet users in the country reached 192 million by the end of September this year, an increase of 62.7 percent year-on-year, and the number of computer-based Internet users grew to 360 million during the same period, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. ]]>
Chinese steelmakers are developing projects to mine lower-grade ore, shunned by Rio and BHP. [Agencies]
CITIC Pacific Ltd, an arm of China’s biggest State-owned investment company, is leading record spending on low-grade iron ore mines in Australia to profit from surging demand as well as to diversify supply.
As much as A$18 billion ($16.6 billion) is being spent on so-called magnetite iron ore projects, 36 percent more than a year ago, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics. CITIC Pacific this month said it signed sales accords for its $4 billion project.
China is pumping cash into developing the mines as its steel mills are forecast by Rio Tinto Group to consume more iron ore during the next five years than Australia has shipped throughout history.
Bankrolling rival suppliers will help counter the market dominance of Rio and BHP Billiton Ltd who are forming a production joint venture in Australia.
“If this BHP-Rio joint venture goes ahead, the Chinese will feel even more under threat,” said Peter Chilton, who holds BHP and Rio shares at Constellation Capital Management Ltd in Sydney.
“There are a lot of small projects on the go. If China takes more direct control of these and promotes them with an Australian partner or on their own, at least it guarantees them extra supply.”
CITIC Pacific gained 0.47 percent to HK$21.5 yesterday in Hong Kong trading. The stock has more than doubled this year.
Rio declined 0.26 percent to A$71.7 on the Australian bourse. BHP gained 2.4 percent to A$41.19. London-based Rio is the world’s second-largest exporter of iron ore and Melbourne-based BHP is the third-largest.
China mills
Baosteel Group Corp and Anshan Iron and Steel Group are among steelmakers helping develop projects to mine the lower-grade ore, shunned by Rio and BHP, who ship higher-grade hematite from Australia, the world’s biggest exporter. Prices have more than tripled this decade as demand for steel used in construction, cars and washing machines surged.
“The Chinese are prepared to invest in longer-term projects that otherwise would never be built,” Evy Hambro, who helps manage BlackRock Investment Management Ltd’s flagship $11.6 billion World Mining Fund, said in an interview in Melbourne.
“Projects that would not necessarily get banking finance from Australian or European or US banks might now get project finance from Chinese customers or Chinese banks.”
Australia has two operating magnetite projects at Grange Resources Ltd’s Savage River in Tasmania and OneSteel Ltd’s Whyalla Steelworks in South Australia. They each produce less than 2 million tons a year, compared with CITIC Pacific’s 28 million-metric-ton Sino Iron project. That mine at Cape Preston, 100 km southwest of Karratha in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter next year.
“It’s only the Chinese who can make the magnetite make sense to them at the moment,” said Romano Sala Tenna, who helps manage A$35 million at Perth-based Katana Capital Ltd. “They do see the long-term need.”
Magnetite has higher production costs than hematite because it needs more processing. Hematite ore accounts for about 96 percent of Australia’s output, according to Gindalbie Metals Ltd.
To drive the processing plant at its project, CITIC is building a 450-mW power station. That capacity is equivalent to the current energy needs of the entire Pilbara region, which hosts 18 iron ore mines operated by Rio and BHP as well as other mines and towns.
The Sino Iron magnetite project “clearly must be seen as a test case for the whole of the industry and Australia,” Barry Fitzgerald, chief executive officer of CITIC Pacific’s Australian unit, said in an interview. “There’s a specific need for our product. China demand will continue.”
Ore imports reached a record in September and prices may rise 5 to 10 percent next year as suppliers have more pricing power, Nanjing Iron &Steel United Co said on Nov 19. ]]>
China’s State Council, the Cabinet, announced Wednesday plans to push forward the development of tourism industry and make it a strategic pillar industry in the national economy.
The government called for improved service and management in the tourism sector, which consumes less resources and generates more job opportunities, according to a statement released after a State Council executive meeting, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.
More efforts should be made to improve tourism infrastructure and enhance trainings of personnel in the industry, according to the statement.
The government would lower the market threshold to encourage social capital and enterprises of various ownership to invest in the sector on a fair basis, it said.
It called for collaborative development between tourism sector and the relative industries, including culture, sports, agriculture, industry, forestry, environmental protection and meteorological sector.
The statement also demand more efforts to protect eco-system, indigenous environment and historical and cultural heritage. ]]>
Beijing’s luxury car owners say exorbitant insurance fees that will come into effect from next year will not stop them driving their mega-million yuan sleek toys.
“Insurance fees will never stop me from driving,” said Xu Bo, a car dealer in his twenties, and who owns a 3 million yuan Ferrari 360, a 1.5 million yuan Porsche 911 and 1.6 million yuan Mercedes Benz in separate garages in Beijing.
Xu belongs to the “Supercar Club”, which consists of only a handful of millionaires, compared to nearly 5.7 million motorists in the capital. The cashed-up supercar drivers already pay up to 200,000 yuan each year to have their wheels insured, not to mention the maintenance costs.
The insurance fees are set to double under a new car insurance policy next January, which also stipulates that owners of cars with few crashes will enjoy up to a 40 percent discount on their insurance fees, while those with so-called “bad records” will pay up to three times more than the previous year.
“Unfortunately, supercars fall into that high-risk group along with some modified racing vehicles, because they are simply too costly to be insured,” said Li Feng, director of the commercial insurance department of the Beijing Insurance Association, who drafted the policy. “That’s why we call them ’special-need vehicles’ under the new policy.”
Liu Dongqing, a veteran insurance broker, said insurers have a more vivid name for the group.
“They are called ‘the junk vehicles’ in our business. We just hate granting them insurance contracts,” he told METRO.
It costs buyers millions of yuan to own a Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini because of China’s high import taxes on luxury goods. But after calculating the insurance fees and compensation for fixing the expensive cars after even minor accidents, insurance firms often find their deals out of balance.
But they cannot turn down the rich applicants, according to current Chinese insurance regulations.
One owner of a 3.4 million yuan Ferrari 430, who declined to give his name, told METRO that his ride suffered from a minor scratch on its aluminum-made outfit in 2008 and his insurance agency paid him about 150,000 yuan to replace the entire outfit.
The advertising agent pays about 100,000 yuan every year for insurance.
Earlier this month, local media reported that rescue workers refused to help the owner of a Ferrari remove a 3.2 million yuan vehicle from snow-covered Xidawang Road because they were concerned about scratching the vehicle.
Liu said companies could lose a lot of money insuring luxury cars.
“The insurance agents will immediately brand them as high-risk supercar racers,” said Liu. “No matter how much their owners pay for insurance, they are no different to low-end second-hand vehicles ready to break apart anytime when it comes to compensation.”
Li, the insurance analyst, said many supercar owners simply do not insure their vehicles at all, a move referred to as “streaking”.
“They see it as a waste of money. Even if they crash their toys, they can still cover the damage with their wallets,” she said.
Xu, the supercar collector, said he did not buy any insurance for his F360 because it is not worth it.
“I use my Ferrari only on Saturdays and Sundays. Many of my friends haven’t bought insurance for their supercars either in Beijing,” he said.
China Eastern Airlines, the country’s third biggest carrier, said yesterday that it would complete its merger transaction with Shanghai Airlines by the end of the year.
“All the legal procedures will be completed by the end of 2009,” said Ma Xulun, general manager of China Eastern.
The Shanghai-based carrier said in July it would buy smaller rival Shanghai Airlines via a 9-billion-yuan share swap that would give it a market share of over 50 percent in China’s financial hub.
Ma said China Eastern is expected to return to the black in 2010 after a huge reduction in losses this year. The airline made a net profit of 1.2 billion yuan in the first nine months of this year.
China Eastern yesterday also inked a partnership deal with Chinese e-commerce portal Alibaba Group to include more Web-based applications in its routine operations.
The airline has set up a ticket-selling platform on Taobao.com, China’s largest online shopping portal under Alibaba. Alipay, another subsidiary of Alibaba, will provide online payment services for customers who buy tickets from China Eastern’s website.
Earlier this month, China Eastern established a similar selling platform with Tenpay.com, the payment arm of China’s Internet giant Tencent, to promote its direct ticket sales.
“We hope direct sales can account for 20 percent of our total ticket sales in five years’ time,” said Ma, adding that direct sales accounted for less than 5 percent of the total ticket sales currently.
Around 80 percent of Chinese airlines’ ticket sales come through agents.
Direct sales can help save costs, including commissions for agents and fees for computer reservation systems (CRS), said Hu Yuanyuan, an analyst with research firm iResearch.
China Eastern spent about 1.6 billion yuan on commissions and CRS fees in 2008, which accounted for some 2.8 percent of its total operating expenses.
“Airlines can also have more control over their sales networks and better interact with customers if they bypass agents,” added Hu.
More than 10 domestic airlines have started direct sales businesses through Taobao.com, including Hainan Airlines Co Ltd, the fourth largest carrier in China. Air China and China Southern Airlines are also reportedly in talks with Taobao.com to join the platform.
Besides airlines, over 100 agents too have opened online stores on Taobao.com.
According to iResearch, online ticket sales touched 49.6 billion yuan in 2008, a year-on-year increase of 440.7 percent.
China would extend railways to more than 50,000 kilometers in its vast western regions by 2020, a senior railway official said on Monday.
More investment will be made in railway construction in the western regions in the coming several years to serve local economic and social development, said Yan Hexiang, deputy director of the development planning department of the Ministry of Railways.
The ministry will step up building of major railways currently under construction and push construction of more projects such as the Chengdu-Guiyang railway, Chongqing-Guiyang railway and Kunming-Nanning railway to start at an early date, Yan told a meeting on railway development in western China.
China launched the “West Development Strategy” in January 2000 to help underdeveloped western regions catch up with the more prosperous eastern regions.
The western regions comprise 12 provinces, autonomous regions and municipality, which have a combined population of about 370 million and account for 71.4 percent of the country’s total land area.
Since the implementation of the strategy, the operating mileage of railways in the western regions jumped 50 percent from 20,000 kilometers to nearly 30,000 kilometers at the end of 2008, accounting for 36 percent of China’s total operating mileage.
China’s total railway length will top 120,000 kilometers by 2020, Yan said. ]]>
The opening of the fourth Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE) on Wednesday is expected to attract a Taiwan delegation consisting of 73 exhibitors, the most in history.
It will be third time for the Taiwan exhibitors to come to the annual event. The exhibitors from the island harvested orders worth NT$80 million ($ 2.5 million) in last expo.
The themed pavilion, titled “Fine works of Taipei Cultural and Creative Industry,” will cover a total of 4,000 square meters. It will be divided into 12 parts, showcasing creative works of fashion design, derivatives of museums and works designed by students.
The island’s National Palace Museum debuted at last expo and will exhibit products inspired by antiques this year. Institutions including Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Taipei’s Museum of Contemporary Art will also bring works to the exhibition.
In addition, a trade fair will be held to promote Taiwan products and increase the cooperation between exhibitors on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The five-day event has been organized by the Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Beijing Municipal government. ]]>
Mobile phones will soon surpass personal computers as the preferred device for Internet users in China over the next three years, according to a top official of mobile Internet firm UCWeb.
Yu Yongfu, chief executive of the venture-funded UCWeb, said mobile Internet users in China would jump manifold as 3G services expand in the country.
“With China aggressively pushing 3G services, I think by 2011 most users would use mobile phone, rather than personal computer, to surf the Internet,” said Yu.
He reiterated that the company would look for an overseas listing of its shares, either in Hong Kong or the NASDAQ, to cash in on the burgeoning mobile Internet populace.
According to figures from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), mobile Internet users in the country reached 155 million by the end of June this year, an increase of 32.1 percent over last year’s figures of 117 million. The number of computer-based Internet users grew 13.4 percent to 338 million during the same period.
“Compared with computers, mobile phones have a lot of limitations like smaller display screens and keyboards. But the handsets also have unique advantages like personalization and mobility,” Yu said.
He said with the boom in 3G services like mobile search, location services and mobile video, handsets would score over other devices.
Since its establishment in 2004, UCWeb has been extremely popular with Chinese mobile phone users. Company officials said its free Internet browser optimized for use on cellphones can reduce data traffic by 80 percent, thereby offering huge cost savings.
The company has 80 million registered users and nearly 50 percent of them are active users.
Yu said UCWeb’s revenue comes mainly from value added services and online advertising shared by companies such as Baidu and Google. He said the company is also trying to copy the current Internet business model to mobile phones.
“Mobile Internet is an extension of the traditional Internet. So technically all the business models existing on the Internet could be transplanted to mobile phones,” said Yu.
He said the company made considerable revenue last year, but refused to disclose any figures.
Venture capital firms Ceyuan Ventures and Morningside Group invested about $10 million in UCWeb in 2007, while Alibaba Group, parent of Alibaba.com, also made an investment in May.
According to figures from domestic research firm Analysys International, independent mobile Internet browser users soared to 132 million in China during the third quarter of this year. UCWeb had a nearly 61.3 percent market share in this segment, much higher than its rival Opera Mini, which had only 25 percent market share.
Fang Li, analyst from Analysys International, said with the number of mobile Internet users growing, competition in the mobile browser market would also intensify. During the third quarter of this year, one of China’s largest mobile portal website 3G.cn and Internet company Tencent entered the market by launching their own mobile browser.
Yu said UCWeb runs on most major mobile platforms like Symbian, Windows Mobile, Java, Brew, MTK and iPhone.
He said the company would soon launch an English version of its product in the overseas markets. ]]>