BANKING OVERSEAS: The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China launches a branch in Brussels on January 19. The Chinese bank has been accelerating its global expansion in recent years (WU WEI)

RMB Convertibility

China will progressively make its currency, the yuan or renminbi, convertible on the capital account under the balance of international payment in the next five years amid its push for deeper internationalization of the currency, said Yi Gang, Director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchanges (SAFE) on January 18.

"The overall strategy for the reform of China's foreign exchange management system is to achieve the convertibility of the yuan on the capital account progressively, since this will make trade and investment more convenient and boost the development of the foreign exchange market," said Yi.

Travel Boom

Chinese tourists made a total of 57.39 million outbound trips in 2010, up 20.4 percent over the previous year, said Shao Qiwei, Director of China's National Tourism Administration (NTA), at a national tourism work conference on January 18.

Inbound trips made by overseas tourists to the mainland hit 134 million last year, up 5.8 percent year on year.

Domestic trips made by Chinese tourists topped 2.1 billion, up 10.6 percent from 2009.

Revenue generated from tourism totaled 1.57 trillion yuan ($238.48 billion) in 2010, an increase of 21.7 percent from the previous year. Revenue generated from overseas tourists reached $45.8 billion, up 15.5 percent year on year, Shao said.

E-Commerce Surge

E-commerce turnover in China jumped 22 percent in 2010 from a year earlier to 4.5 trillion yuan ($681.8 billion), says a report released by the China E-Business Research Center.

Online retail sales almost doubled to 513.1 billion yuan ($77.9 billion).

The report estimated online retail sales would double to hit 1 trillion yuan ($151.9 billion) in the next two years, making up more than 5 percent of the nation's total retail sales.

Changan's American Dream

China's Changan Automobile Group announced on January 18 it will open a research and development (R&D) center in the U.S. city of Detroit, becoming the first Chinese automaker to have a research base in the United States.

Changan's U.S. R&D center will specialize in automotive chassis technology, including performance development, computer-aided engineering and manufacturing process research, said Changan Chairman Xu Liuping.

The center is expected to generate more than 100 hi-tech jobs for local communities within five years.

Based in China's southwestern economic hub of Chongqing Municipality, Changan already has overseas R&D centers in Italy's Turin, Japan's Yokohama and Britain's Nottingham.

HK Employment Rises

Hong Kong's seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell to 4 percent in the October-December period from 4.1 percent in September-November, helped by sustained economic growth, the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said on January 18.

The decreases in the unemployment rate were mainly observed in the construction, education, repair, laundry, domestic and other personal-service activities sectors, the department said.

The job situation remains broadly stable, said Matthew Cheung, Secretary for Labor and Welfare.

"With the seasonal upsurge in business activities in the run-up to the Lunar New Year, there will be continued demand for labor," Cheung said.