HELICOPTER SHOW: Spectators snap photographs of an air show at the Second China Helicopter Exposition, held in Tianjin from September 5 to 8 (YANG GUANG)

Cotton Trade Hub

Cotton processors in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are planning to build a trading center in the country's largest cotton planting area.

The center will be located in the Xinjiang Huijin Logistics Garden in south Xinjiang's Korla City. It will be jointly supported by 17 cotton purchase and processing enterprises with a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan ($242 million).

The first phase of the project, with an investment of nearly 300 million yuan ($49 million), will have a storage capacity of 600,000 tons, while the second-phase project will bring that capacity to 3.6 million tons.

The center will also cooperate with other cotton futures centers in the country to better facilitate cotton logistics, trade and transactions.

Xinjiang is China's most important cotton planting area, with its output accounting for more than half of the national total.

Tax Adjustment

China has increased the value-added tax from 4 percent to 5 percent on imports of planes with an empty weight of above 25 metric tons, the Central Government announced on September 2.

Meanwhile, for imported planes with an empty weight between 25 and 45 metric tons, the import tariff rate has been adjusted from the previous 1 percent to 5 percent.

The country has also scrapped its zero-tariff policy on imports of lignite, a form of low-rank coal. Instead, a 3-percent tax has been resumed.