FULL SPEED AHEAD: Workers hang wires along a stretch of railroad track on the high-speed Shanghai-Ningbo Intercity Railway, which has reached its final stage of construction. It is scheduled to come into operation on July 1 this year (CHENG BINGHONG)

Moving Toward the Futures

Chinese investors began applying on February 22 to open accounts for stock index futures trading.

Individuals will be required to have a minimum of 500,000 yuan ($73,200) to open an account, while initial margins will be set at 15-18 percent.

China is launching stock index futures, along with margin trading and short selling of stocks and other reforms, to deepen its financial markets with hedging tools. Index futures will give investors a mechanism to profit from declines in stock prices, allow them to hedge risks and help ease market fluctuations.

Auditing Regulation

The State Council on February 20 issued a regulation on the implementation of the Audit Law, which requires close audits of government-funded projects to make sure the government funds were properly used and help combat corruption.

Under the regulation, which will take effect as of May 1 this year, auditors are entitled to launch a special investigation into government departments or organizations on budget management or utilization of state assets.

The current Audit Law was amended and passed in February 2006 by the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress.

Purchase Price Increase

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, recently announced it would raise the minimum state purchasing prices for rice in major rice-producing areas by up to 10.5 percent in 2010.

The move was aimed to encourage farmers to increase grain production and help grain prices rise in a stable manner, said the NDRC.

In 2004, China started buying grain from farmers at state-set minimum prices when market prices drop below a specified point in order to encourage grain production.

The NDRC already raised the minimum state purchasing prices for wheat in major production areas at the beginning of this year.

Handset Deal

Chinese communication giant ZTE Corp. and Spanish telecom operator Telefonica plan to launch a range of "Movistar"-branded handsets in 12 Latin American countries this year. ZTE is the world's sixth largest mobile phone manufacturer and the world's second largest supplier of data cards.

The two companies have signed an agreement for ZTE to manufacture the handsets exclusively available for Telefonica in Latin America.

"By customizing a complete range of handsets, ZTE will enable Telefonica to meet the requirements of its Latin American customers and further build the 'Movistar' brand," said Luis Miguel Gilperez, Director of Mobile Business, Telefonica.

Metal Profits Decline

Profits in China's non-ferrous metal industry declined in 2009 despite rising outputs due to low prices, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Output of 10 kinds of non-ferrous metals, including copper, alumina, zinc and lead, increased 5.8 percent in the country from a year earlier to 26.81 million tons last year.

However, the combined profits of 70 major enterprises in the sector totaled 17.6 billion yuan ($2.58 billion), down 1.46 percent year on year, the ministry said.

Although the industry maintained a positive development momentum in 2009, many challenges remained, including the problems of excess capacity and outdated production capacity.