| Diving Champion
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(XINHUA) |
Qiu Bo, a Chinese diver, won the gold medal in the men's 10m platform at the 18th FINA Diving World Cup at the Olympic Aquatics Center in London on February 25. Qiu won the gold medal with 574.90 points, helping China win back the title of world championship in the 10m event after six years.
Qiu, 19, won the championship at the 2011 FINA Diving World Series in Beijing. Then at the 2011 World Championships held in Shanghai, Qiu won two gold medals in the platforms.
China's purchasing managers index (PMI), a barometer of manufacturing activities, stood at 51 percent in February 2012, slightly rebounding from 50.5 percent in January, said the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP).
"The figure reflects the growing strength of the Chinese economy, with both industries and consumption picking up momentum," said Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council. "But uncertainties remain due to slowing exports and investment demands."
The new orders sub-index, an effective gauge of domestic demand, stood at 51 percent in February, compared with 50.4 percent last month.
In 2011, China recorded $3.1 billion of volatile cross-border capital outflows, or so-called "hot money", compared with an inflow of $35.5 billion in 2010, said the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).
China experienced massive cross-border capital inflows in the first half of 2011, driven by expectations for a stronger yuan and interest rate differences between China and other developed economies. But the trend was reversed since September 2011 amid the liquidity crunch in overseas markets and weakened expectations for yuan appreciation.
The SAFE said fundamental factors will continue to support a surplus of China's international balance of payment, but the country may experience fewer cross-border capital inflows and greater volatility due to a complicated international financial environment.
American companies remain optimistic about their China prospects and plan to increase investments in the booming market.
The American Chamber of Commerce in South China surveyed 461 member companies, and 57 percent of the respondents said they will bump up investments in China.
About 88 percent of the polled firms said they are already profitable or expect to make a profit in two years, and about 70 percent of the already profitable companies said they expect to meet or exceed their profit targets.
"Two major reasons for the expansion are the absence of a large number of investment opportunities in the rest of the world and the room for growth in the Chinese market," said Harley Seyedin, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in South China.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) on February 24 issued a circular, requiring commercial banks to facilitate loans to "green" enterprises.
The CBRC urged lenders to reduce loans to industries with high energy consumption, high pollution or excessive capacity, and to strengthen support for environment-friendly industries and projects. The growth rate of new loans that China's 19 major commercial banks extended to those restricted industries was 3.3 percentage points lower than their overall credit growth.
Meanwhile, the CBRC required commercial banks to control the clients' threats to the ecological system, including local environment, healthcare and social security.
China should strengthen efforts to deepen a series of reforms to achieve its goal of a new structure for economic growth, said the World Bank in its latest report.
"The case for reform is compelling because China has now reached a turning point in its development path. Managing the transition from a middle-income to a high-income country will prove challenging," said World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick.
The report lays out major strategic directions for China's future: completing the transition to a market economy; accelerating the pace of open innovation; going "green" to transform environmental stresses into green growth; expanding services such as health, education and access to jobs for all people; and modernizing and strengthening its domestic fiscal system.
CSR Corp. Ltd., China's largest train manufacturer, said it has signed an agreement with a local partner to build a new subway train assembly plant in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Zhang Jun, Vice President of CSR, said the plant involves an investment of 980 million yuan ($156 million).
The plant, which will initially have an annual production capacity of 200 subway trains, will roll out its first subway train early next year, said Zhang, adding that the subway trains will be supplied to Chengdu and its surrounding cities to cash in on the boom in constructing metro lines seen in many large cities.
China's telecom giant China Mobile recently unveiled a plan to deploy TD-LTE, a 4G mobile telecommunication technology, in the country.
China Mobile President Li Yu said that over 20,000 TD-LTE base stations would be put in operation by the end of this year, and that the number would increase 10 times by the end of 2013.
"We are ready for large-scale 4G deployment with commercial services becoming available in 2013. The first TD-LTE installations will start in the second half of this year and some of the existing TD-SCDMA sites will also be upgraded to TD-LTE," Li said. | 
