BEST BUDDIES: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with recipients of this year's Friendship Award, as well as their relatives, in Beijing on September 30. The annual ceremony is held by the Chinese Government to commend outstanding foreign experts working in China (CNSPHOTO)

Service Purchasing

The Chinese Government has issued guidelines for government purchase of public services from social organizations and private companies on September 30.

The State Council, China's cabinet, announced in a statement that the country is to gradually purchase services at a local level between now and 2015, and it will establish a system by 2020 for the purchasing of private sector services by government organizations.

Public service sectors including education, employment, social security, medical health, housing security, culture and sports, as well as services for the disabled, will be opened up to more private sector investment, according to the statement.

Service providers may include social organizations, companies or institutions legally registered or approved, it said.

Services that should be offered directly by the state, those that have been deemed unsuitable for the private sector, or those that are otherwise not included in government responsibilities, should not be purchased, the statement added.

Local governments and other related departments should formulate detailed guidelines for purchasing public services, according the State Council.

Defaulter Blacklist

China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) is to compile and publish a blacklist of those who have defaulted on court-ordered payments. The list will be the first of its kind in China.

The regulation, which allows courts to publicize the names of defaulters, came into effect on October 1.

The SPC, with the cooperation of state-owned banks, will punish parties involved in lawsuits who fail to pay damages. Punishment may take the form of further investigation and the freezing or transferring of assets, according to a memorandum previously signed by state-owned banks in conjunction with the SPC.

According to the memorandum, an exclusive channel for sharing names of defaulters between courts and commercial banks will also be established.

Retail Giant

British retail giant Tesco PLC announced on October 2 that it signed an agreement to establish a joint venture in China with the China Resources Enterprise Ltd. (CRE).

Tesco, which entered the Chinese market in 2004, announced that the two companies "have entered into a definitive agreement to combine their Chinese retail operations and create the leading multi-format retailer in China."

The joint venture will create a business with estimated sales totaling 10 billion pounds ($16 billion) in which Tesco will hold 20 percent, and CRE the remaining 80.

The joint venture, aiming to create the leading retailer in seven of the most populous and economically advanced provinces in China, will combine Tesco's 134 existing stores as well as its shopping mall businesses with CRE's 2,986 stores.

Tesco will make cash contributions totaling 345 million pounds ($560 million) to the joint venture, and will hold two seats on the board of 10 members.