BRIDGING NINGBO: The Ningbo Bund Bridge officially came into operation on December 29, 2010 after more than two years of construction. The nearly 1.4-km-long bridge is expected to relieve traffic pressures in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province (ZHANG PEIJIAN)

Freeway Extension

China built 33,000 km of new freeways over the past five years, bringing the country's total to 74,000 km, said Li Shenglin, China's Minister of Transport on December 28, 2010.

The total is still short of the 100,000 km of expressways in the United States, the longest in the world.

Meanwhile, 639,000 km of new roads were built over the past five years, with 527,000 km built in rural areas, bringing the country's road length to well over 3.98 million km.

Bank Blunders

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said that 16 banks have been found to have committed irregularities in their foreign exchange transactions since October 2010.

The regulator has handed out penalties to these banks, involving 79 of their branches, including fines, suspension of some foreign exchange business and punishment of some senior managers.

Further, SAFE released a list of cases involving companies and individuals who failed to comply with the nation's foreign exchange rules.

It was the latest move by the government to stem hot money inflows. SAFE said it would step up regulation of the foreign exchange business and continue to crack down on hot money to promote the healthy development of China's financial market.

Yuan's Value

After 10 consecutive days of gains, the Chinese currency, the yuan, strengthened to a new record high at 6.6229 per U.S. dollar on December 28, 2010.

The central parity rate of the yuan beat the previous record of 6.6239 on November 12, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.

Fund of Funds

China's first national private equity "fund of funds," which invests in other funds, started operating on December 28, and one of its primary aims is to support the overseas expansion of Chinese enterprises.

Set up by China Development Bank (CDB) and Suzhou Venture Group, the Suzhou-based Guochuang Fund of Funds has 60 billion yuan ($9 billion) under its management.

The first-phase investment of 15 billion yuan ($2.26 billion) will mainly be raised among big Chinese companies and funds, such as the Social Security Fund, China Life Insurance Co. Ltd., China Reinsurance (Group) Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

The initial investment consists of two parts: 10 billion yuan ($1.51 billion) for private equity and 5 billion yuan ($755 million) for venture capital investment.

Overall, the fund will focus on strategic emerging industries that have obtained key support from the government.

Oil Self-Sufficiency

Self-sufficiency in crude oil is expected to be 45 percent in 2010, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the top economic planner.

China imported 218 million tons of crude oil in the first 11 months, a rise of 19.8 percent from one year earlier, according to the NDRC.

The figure surpassed China's full-year import volume of 204 million tons in 2009, when the country's self-sufficiency in crude oil was 47 percent.

A 34-percent vehicle sales growth in the first 11 months was attributed as a major reason for the strong oil demand, according to the NDRC.