In this Issue:
Coming Events
General News on Chinese Economy
Agriculture
Consumer Goods
Environment & Energy
Telecom & IT
Medical & Healthcare
Other Sectors
Stimulus Plans against Economic Crisis
Coming Events
Jun 3 – 5 (Shanghai): Aquatech China 2009
As part of the Israel NewTech, the national program for the promotion of Israeli Water Technologies, the Israel Trade Mission to China and the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute (IEICI) will jointly organize an Israeli National Pavilion (Booth No. 4.42) of Aquatech China 2009, an annual international exhibition on water supply and waste water treatment, which is held in 3-5 June at the Shanghai Exhibition Center in Shanghai. Leading Israeli companies in water sector will participate in the exhibition and display their advanced products and technologies. Besides, Israeli companies will present at a plenary session focusing on Israeli water technologies of the summit seminar parallel to the exhibition. Moreover, one-to-one business meetings will be organized for Israeli companies and their potential partners in China. Following the program in Shanghai, the Israeli companies will continue to participate in a seminar in Shenzhen in the areas of sludge and industrial waste water treatment. For more information, please contact Ms. Tian at the Israel Trade Mission to China via Tel: 010-85320518, Email: tian.hong@israeltrade.gov.il.
General news on Chinese economy
China's GDP up 6.1% in first quarter
China's economy expanded by 6.1 percent year on year in the first quarter, official data showed on Apr 16. Retail sales grew 15 percent to 2.94 trillion yuan. The consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, fell 1.2 percent year on year in March, compared with a decline of 1.6 percent in February, the first monthly fall since December 2002. During the first quarter, foreign trade dropped 24.9 percent to428.7 billion U.S. dollars. Exports were down 19.7 percent to 245.5 billion U.S. dollars. Imports slumped 30.9 percent to 183.2 billion U.S. dollars. Actually used foreign direct investment stood at 21.8 billion U.S. dollars, 5.6 billion U.S. dollars less than the same period of last year. (Apr 16, Xinhua)
China-Israel Bilateral Economic News
Agriculture
Consumer Goods
Environment & Energy
Yangtze hydro projects to get a boost
China will boost the use of the hydroelectric resources along the Yangtze River in the coming decades despite increasing oppositions, according to a strategic development plan of the river unveiled by the Ministry of Water Resources yesterday. By 2020, about 50 percent of the hydropower resources of China's longest river will be utilized. The ratio is expected to reach 60 percent by 2030. Hydro projects will be developed on the tributaries in upper reaches of the Yangtze, including Yalong, Dadu, and Wujiang rivers, which are abundant with the hydroelectric resources. (2009-4-21 China Daily)
China to start building 5 nuclear power plants
China will start constructing 5 nuclear power plants this year, part of an effort to dramatically expand its nuclear power capacity by 2020, officials said Monday.
The 5 plants will be located in Sanmen in Zhejiang Province, Haiyang and Rongcheng in Shandong Province, Taishan in Guangdong Province, and Changjiang in Hainan province, Vice-Minister of the National Energy Administration Sun Qin said without revealing the total costs.
The 5 plants will add to the 11 nuclear power units in operation, producing 2% of China's electricity and the 24 units under construction. (2009-04-21 China Daily)
Switzerland, China to enhance cooperation in water management
Switzerland and China will soon sign a formal agreement on enhancing their cooperation in the field of sustainable water management and hazard prevention, the Swiss government said on Tuesday. Federal Councilor and Environment Minister Moritz Leuenberger will make his first official visit to China on April 16 to sign this agreement. At the same time, both countries harness their hydropower and are faced with the question of river basin management, which is likely to become more pressing due to climate change. (2009-4-15Xinhua)
Local government requires green procurement
The State Council has asked local governments to buy more energy-efficient products, reflecting the country's determination to make its economic growth cleaner. China will exert tougher rules to enforce the compulsory procurement of energy-saving products and give priority to eco-friendly products in future public purchase, said a State Council order published on the central government's website yesterday. In addition, the State Council insists on the strict implementation of a compulsory green procurement list, instead of a "preferential" list under the Government Purchase Law, which allowed government bodies to shop around for other products if they could justify them on cost and energy-efficiency grounds. (2009-4-14 China Daily)
Suez Environment: Acquires Water Supply JV In Tianjin, China
Authorities in Tianjin, China, have agreed an equity transfer to France's Suez Environment from Earth Tech, concerning a water supply joint venture in Tianjin, Suez Environment said Tuesday. The equity transfer represents an investment of $17 millions, equivalent to CNY117 million. Tianjin Sino French Jieyuan Water Co. Ltd., is a 52%-48% JV between Suez Environment's local unit Sino French Water Development and Tianjin Water Works Group.
(2009-3-23 The Wall Street Journal)
Telecom & IT
Telecom
Telecom Carriers Unveils 3G Network Construction Plans
Top executives for China's three integrated telecom carriers disclosed their 3G network construction progress and plans for the near future. China Unicom Vice President Zhang Fan said that the company aims to achieve seamless switch between 3G and 2G networks. The 2G network will undertake the traditional voice business. As for the 3G network, all base stations will be deployed with high-speed downlink packages access (HSDPA) and high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), with down-link speeds up to 14.4Mbit/s and up-link speeds up to 5.76Mbit/s. Zheng Qibao, general manager for China Telecom strategy division, forecasted that the telecom operator's investment in base stations will leap 80% by the end of July 2009. China Mobile plans to build approximately 140,000 TD-SCDMA new base stations in 2009-2011. The TD-SCDMA network is expected to cover 70% of the country at the end of 2009 and cover all Chinese cities at 2011-end. Totally, the number of TD-SCDMA base stations will top 160,000 by then. (Apr 13, c114)
MIIT gives green light to WAPI handsets, Wi-Fi still excluded
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has allowed mobile phone manufacturers to integrate China's homegrown WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure) standard into their handsets, a source at a domestic handset manufacturer told Interfax on April 22. The source, who asked to not be identified, said that MIIT told a number of handset manufacturers on April 17 that both 2G and 3G handsets are now allowed to have integrated WAPI technology to allow users to access wireless broadband. However, the ministry has not changed its stance on Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), the globally recognized competitor to WAPI, and continues to bar its implementation in handsets. (Apr 24, Interfax)
Carriers
China Mobile: profits up, music downloads up, ARPU down
China Mobile has reported that its first quarter net profit rose by 5.2% compared to the year before, to reach USD3.69 billion. More China Mobile subscribers used their phones to download songs and send messages via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), which lets users transmit photos or videos. The carrier counted over 384 million users of its wireless music service, where paid downloads of songs by Chinese and Taiwanese pop stars are particularly popular. The company warned that its subscriber growth showed signs of slowing down, primarily as a result of the economic slowdown and the rising penetration rate within the country. Nevertheless, the company still added 19.91 million net new subscribers in the first quarter to reach 477.16 million at the end of March. ARPU for the quarter dropped to RMB73 (USD10.7) from RMB83 for the last quarter of 2008. (Apr 22, C114)
China Mobile 09 TD-SCDMA User Base to Exceed 7mn
China Mobile is expected to reach a TD-SCDMA user base of more than 7 million in 2009, Analysys International, an Internet-based provider of business information about technology, media, and telecommunications in China, said in a latest research report. For the goal, the telecommunications giant's strengths are TD-SCDMA netbooks and wireless phones. It has been the licensed TD-SCDMA carrier in China and the TD-SCDMA technology developed independently by the Chinese talents is one of the nation's three 3G telecoms standards. (Apr 13, c114)
China Telecom Offered First commercial 3G CDMA service in China
China Telecom has partnered Huawei Technologies for the commercial launch of their new 3G CDMA networks in 52 Chinese cities, including eight of the 10 largest cities in China, such as Beijing and Tianjin, and in the Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong and Shaanxi provinces. Huawei's innovative third-generation CDMA network solutions have enabled China Telecom to upgrade its existing CDMA2000 1X networks to third-generation EV-DO (evolution-data optimised) while lowering deployment costs and ensuring uninterrupted services. (Apr 21, c114)
China Unicom adds 1.85 mln mobile users in March
China Unicom announced a net addition of 1.848 million GSM users in March, which brought the total number to 137.692 million. Meanwhile, the carrier's fixed-line service subscribers climbed 223,000 and its broadband users grew 927,000 in March, bringing the user base to 109.167 million and 32.614 million. (Apr 21, c114)
Equipment Manufacturers
Huawei Profit Rises 20% in 2008
Chinese telecommunications-equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. said Wednesday its 2008 net profit rose 20% on a robust growth in sales. The profit rise in a year when earnings plunged at other big telecom-gear makers is offering more evidence of the strides made by the Chinese company and its growing global prominence. Huawei said its net profit was US$1.51 billion, up from US$956.9 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 43% to US$18.33 billion from US$12.84 billion. Huawei in January published unaudited revenue figures for 2008. (Apr 22, c114)
Cisco, Tsinghua University set up R&D lab
Cisco Systems on Apr. 17 launched a joint green technology R&D lab with Tsinghua University. The joint lab will be operated by the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University and the Cisco China Green Research and Development (R&D) Center. It will focus on intelligent urbanization to support China's long term energy-efficient and green GDP growth strategy through developing network-based technologies and solutions. (Apr 21, c114)
Six PC Makers Selected As 3G Netbook Partners For China Mobile
China Mobile has selected six PC makers, including Lenovo Group, Founder Technology, Tongfang, Haier, HP, and Dell, as its 3G netbook partners. China Mobile will reportedly implement in-depth marketing cooperation with these six companies in product promotion and activity planning. Similar with the sales of customized mobile phones, China Mobile will give certain subsidies to users who buy its 3G netbooks. (Apr 16, c114)
Software
Internet
China's Baidu eyes 3G wireless Internet technology
China's most popular Internet search engine Baidu "thinks highly of" the prospect of 3Gwireless Internet access technology and is now in talk with mobile network operators for cooperation, the company's CEO Robin Li said Friday at the Boao Forum for Asia in the southern island province of Hainan. "We have plans to develop the 3G wireless search engine project," he said. "We are now discussing cooperation with China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, the country's three major mobile network operators," he said after attending the Young Leaders Round Table Forum. (Apr 22, c114)
Medical & Healthcare
Sanofi to invest $90 mln in Lantus in China
Sanofi-Aventis, the world's fourth-biggest drug maker, will invest $90 million to boost output of the insulin Lantus in China, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Local production of Lantus will begin by 2012. The new investment follows a $94 million investment that Sanofi made in 2007 to build a manufacturing facility for products that prevent seasonal influenza. Taken together, the two investments make it the biggest investor in China's biological field. (2009-04-21 BioNews)
China Builds 1st Medical, Healthcare Equity Fund
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's macro-economy regulator, lately gave its nod to establishment of the first medical and healthcare equity fund, covering the pharmacy, medical equipment, medical institution, medical services, and rehabilitation fields.
CCB International (Holdings) Co., Ltd., the wholly-owned investment arm of Beijing-located state-owned commercial lender China Construction Bank creates this fund, and the Phase I is estimated not to exceed CNY 5 billion. (2009-04-16 BioNews)
China to set up essential medicine system to curb rising drug prices
The Chinese government Tuesday announced it will institute an essential medicine system within three years to drive down prescription costs and quell public complaints of limited accessibility of medicines. The system includes a list of essential medicines that would be produced and distributed under government control and supervision, according to an action plan (2009-2011) on
China's health-care reform. The list will be issued this year according to the plan.
(2009-04-09, BioNews)
China eyes completing health care reforms by 2020
The Chinese government aims to complete landmark health care reforms by 2020 to ensure safe and affordable coverage for its more than one billion citizens, state media said on Monday.
Beijing has already announced that it will spend about 850 billion yuan ($124.4 billion) on the initial stage of the program up to 2011, though it has yet to spell out how much of that would be new spending or disclose details of the reforms. (2009-04-07 BioNews)
GSK to invest more in new drug development
Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) expects to maintain its fast pace of growth in China with additional investments for development of new medicines and vaccines, according to GSK’s China director. GSK has more than 20 medical projects in China under or to be under clinical research, and the China R&D center has in two years become the largest laboratory in the Asia Pacific region. China sales growth could mainly come from the vaccine sector and prescription drugs. (2009-04-13 BioNews)
Other Sectors
Stimulus Plans against Economic Crisis
China announces funding for agriculture sector amid financial crisis
China's State Council, or Cabinet, Wednesday announced measures to support agriculture, given the negative impact of the global downturn. It said 3 billion yuan (439.2 million U.S. dollars) in central funding would be allocated to support building standard pig and dairy farms. Strong steps must be taken to boost rural employment by increasing training and financial support. It said 65 billion yuan in central investment this year would go to fund the construction and improvement of rural infrastructure, including education, health care and irrigation. (Apr 22, Xinhua)
Report: China's 3rd-batch stimulus investment to fall below previous ones
China's central government will arrange 10.3 billion U.S. dollars for its third batch of stimulus investment, according to a Beijing-based newspaper citing an unidentified economic planning official. The new investment would fall short of the amount for previous ones and market expectations of a larger amount of investments than the first two, said the Economic Observer. The central government has so far cashed in a combined 230 billion yuan (33.8 billion U.S. dollars) for its 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package announced last November to bolster the slowing economy, 100 billion yuan in the fourth quarter last year and 130 billion yuan in the first quarter this year. New investments would mainly go to projects that benefit people's livelihood and infrastructure projects. (Apr 26, Xinhua)
