NEW BRIDGE: The Jiaxing-Shaoxing Bridge, the second to span Hangzhou Bay, has finished more than half its length. It is expected to halve the journey between Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai to 1.5 hours when it opens to traffic in 2012 (XU YU)

GDP Forecast

The World Bank, in its latest China Quarterly Update, projected China's real GDP growth at 9.3 percent in 2011 and 8.7 percent in 2012.

But risks on inflation and the property market call for full normalization of the macroeconomic stance to keep growth on track, said the China Quarterly Update released on April 28.

"Much of the impact of the higher oil and industrial commodity prices is still in the pipeline, inflation expectations are high and there is little spare capacity in the economy. Therefore, a full normalization of the macro policy stance is important," said Louis Kuijs, senior economist at the World Bank China's office and main author of the update.

Unemployment Rate

China's urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent at the end of March, with 9.09 million people registered unemployed, said Yin Chengji, spokesman of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, on April 26.

In urban areas, 3.03 million jobs were created in the first three months and 1.33 million laid-off workers were re-employed in the January-March period, said Yin.

The government aims to keep the urban registered unemployment rate below 4.6 percent and create more than 9 million jobs in 2011.

Train Exports

Hong Kong's metro system will receive its first train from a Chinese mainland manufacturer.

The eight-car train was designed and developed by Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of China CNR Corp. Ltd., and was shipped on April 23 from the Yingkou Port of Liaoning Province.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region signed a procurement agreement with the China CNR Corp. Ltd. in December 2008. In accordance with the agreement, Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. Ltd. is tasked to develop, manufacture and provide 10 trains to the MTR Corp. of Hong Kong before 2012.

Ambitious ZTE

China's second largest telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp. is set to boost its smart-terminal business by becoming one of the top five global makers of smart phones running on Google's Android operating system this year.

The company also aspires to become one of the top three tablet computer producers this year, competing in a market that is dominated by Apple and Samsung Electronics.

ZTE expects to ship 12 million smart terminals in 2011, almost 90 percent of which will be smart phones, said He Shiyou, Executive Vice President of ZTE on April 26.

ZTE became the world's fourth largest mobile phone maker last year, with a handset shipment of more than 60 million in 2010.