During the visit, participating Israeli companies had held meetings with potential partners / agents / distributors, to explore opportunities for future cooperation. Workshop with telecom carriers in had enabled them better understand the current need and focus.

Its 2008 net rose to 112.8 billion yuan ($16.5 billion) as revenues grew 15.5% to 412.3 billion yuan.

The company added more than 7.3 million subscribers per month in 2008, taking its total to 457 million, accounting for 72% of all Chinese subs. ARPU dropped 6.7% to 83 yuan from 89 yuan a year earlier.
 
For more reading: http://www.tdscdma-forum.org/EN/news/see.asp?id=5625&uptime=2009-3-20

Meanwhile, China Unicom and Apple are in talks to officially bring the iPhone to China and could do so as early as May 17, when China Unicom launches a 3G network. The telecom carrier planned to build its 3G network in 55 cities in the first half of 2008 and to expand to 282 cities by the end of this year.

According to recent instruction from MIIT, though China Unicom is a fully-licensed operator for both fixed and mobile services, it is restricted to offer fixed lines only for 10 northern provinces (which used to be under China Netcom), with exceptions in only two southern provinces: Sichuan and Chongqing.

For more reading: http://www.cn-c114.net/576/a396056.html

      Lawmakers endorsed a government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao on March 5 that called on the nation to promote economic and social development and outlined an all-around stimulus plan to shore up economy amid global downturn.

      Wen said in the report that the country is "able to achieve" an economic growth at about 8 percent as long as right policies are implemented.

      The stimulus package plan in a whole include four major components, including large-scale government spending, industrial restructuring and rejuvenation, scientific research and social safety net.  1.18 trillion yuan will be used in projects for public welfare, technological innovation, environmental protection and infrastructure projects.

      Other projects, including the 600 billion-yuan tax cut, old-age pension increase for enterprise retirees, salary increase to 12 million teachers, subsidies to farmers as well as an 850 billion-yuan three-year investment in health care reform were not included in the 4 trillion-yuan stimulus package.

      The premier also said that China has prepared plans to cope with even bigger difficulties amid the financial crisis and is ready to put forward new stimulus package at any time.

      For more reading: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/13/content_11004830.htm, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/13/content_11003441.htm, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/05/content_10945972.htm

      Mu Hong, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told Xinhua that the commission would release information about the expenditures on its website (www.ndrc.gov.cn) and accept public enquiry.

      For more reading: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/02/content_10924661.htm

    Commodities prices were low and weak external demand could exacerbate domestic over-capacity, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in an assessment of fourth-quarter monetary policy.

    For more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/23/content_10880471.htm

In the unusual and extraordinary year of 2008, under the correct leadership of the Central Party Committee and the State Council, the people of the whole country carried on a tenacious fight with one heart and one mind against the impacts from grief natural disasters and the international financial crisis, and the overall national economy realized the good developing momentum of faster growth, stabilized prices, optimized structures and improved welfare.

According to preliminary estimation, the gross domestic product (GDP) for the year was 30,067.0 billion yuan, up by 9.0 percent. In terms of growth by quarters, it was up 10.6 percent for the first quarter, 10.1 percent growth for the second, 9.0 percent for the third and 6.8 percent for the fourth. In terms of growth by sectors, the value added of the primary industry was 3,400.0 billion yuan, up by 5.5 percent; that of the secondary industry was 14,618.3 billion yuan, up by 9.3 percent; and that of the tertiary industry was 12,048.7 billion yuan, up by 9.5 percent.

For more reading: http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/newsandcomingevents/t20090122_402534173.htm

    The plan was studied and passed at Wednesday's executive meeting of the State Council chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

    For more reading: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/21/content_10698501.htm

    The revised growth estimate for 2007 - from 11.9 percent to 13 percent, the fastest rate since 1994 - raised the country's GDP to 25.7 trillion yuan, ($3.5 trillion) at 2007 exchange rates, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Germany's 2007 GDP was 2.4 trillion euros ($3.3 trillion) at an exchange rate based on the average rates on the 15th of each month during that year.

    For more reading: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-01/15/content_7400438.htm

"Our technology assessment has been completed and the tender will be opened around a week from now," the source at China Unicom's network planning department, who wished not to be identified, said.

For more reading: http://www.cn-c114.net/583/a378047.html

    Under the plan, the government will lower the purchase tax on cars under 1.6 liters from 10 percent to 5 percent from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31 in a bid to stimulate sales.

    It will also allocate 5 billion yuan (730 million U.S. dollars) to provide one-off allowances to farmers to upgrade their three-wheeled vehicles and low-speed trucks to mini-trucks or purchase new mini-vans under 1.3 liters from March 1 to Dec. 31.

    For more reading: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/14/content_10657939.htm

    Construction of the park is expected to boost infrastructure construction and tourism in the city and could benefit adjacent cities.

    However, it is still too early to gauge the impact on property, analysts said.
 
    For more reading: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/13/content_10648654.htm

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said China's biggest mobile operator, China Mobile, was awarded a license for TD-SCDMA, the domestically-developed 3G standard.

The other two main carriers, China Telecom and China Unicom, received licenses for the U.S.-developed CDMA2000 and Europe's WCDMA, respectively.

For more reading: http://english.cri.cn/6826/2009/01/07/1601s440562.htm, http://english.cri.cn/6826/2009/01/07/1721s440583.htm

The People's Bank of China will expand financial cooperation with overseas economies and "properly deal with the global financial crisis," the central bank said.

For more reading: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200901/20090107/article_387229.htm

    According to the ministry's statement, licenses will be used to control imports of ozone layer depleting substance and major used mechanical and electrical products in 2009.

    Meanwhile, the ministry will use licenses to manage exports of 50 kinds of commodities including corn, wheat, cotton, coal and oil.

    For more reading: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/03/content_10595499.htm