HYDRO-POWER BOOM: The first generating unit at the Three Gorges Dam's underground power station officially comes into operation on May 24. The station's six 700-megawatt hydro-generating units are scheduled to come into operation within two years (ZHENG JIAYU)

Absurd Statements

Some irregularities and disciplinary violations were found in the financial statements of 17 centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for the 2009 fiscal year, according to audit reports released by the National Audit Office (NAO) on May 20.

Assets worth about 1.9 billion yuan ($292.4 million) and profits of 2.63 billion yuan ($404.6 million) were overstated in the financial statements of those SOEs, while 3.43 billion yuan ($527.7 million) in liabilities were falsely included, according to the NAO reports.

Also, profits of 1.2 billion yuan ($184.7 million), assets worth 2.9 billion yuan ($446.2 million) and liabilities of 2.5 billion yuan ($384.6 million) were undercounted, according to the NAO.

Some of these SOEs, including CHALCO, Sinosteel, Sinochem, China Three Gorges Corp., China South Industries Group, COFCO, and China Southern Power Grid, confirmed the audit's findings and said they are taking measures to fix the problems.

Plane Export

AVIC Xi'an Aircraft Industry (Group) Co., the maker of the Modern Ark 60 (MA60) passenger plane, confirmed May 24 that it had signed a contract to sell four MA60s to a Peruvian airline express company.

The MA60, which was introduced in 2000, is China's only domestically developed regional passenger aircraft in service.

MA60 aircraft have been delivered to 14 countries in Asia, Africa and South America and are in use on more than 100 routes, according to company statistics.

UK Rating Down

China's first domestic rating agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd., on May 24 downgraded the local and foreign currency long-term sovereign credit rating of the United Kingdom by one level to A+ from previous AA- with a "negative" outlook.

The Chinese rating agency said the downgrade reflected the UK's deteriorating debt repayment capability.

The rating agency said the British Government's move to revive its economy would not substantially reverse the situation of the government's serious fiscal deficit and increasing debt burden in the long term.

More Futures

The Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) is expected to launch silver futures by the end of this year, said Yang Maijun, General Manager of the SHFE on May 21 on the sidelines of the Lujiazui Forum, an annual high-level financial forum held in Shanghai.

Yang also stressed the importance of introducing crude oil futures in China, noting that about 55 percent of China's crude oil has to be imported and that this percentage is likely to increase in the future.

"The SHFE hopes to step up its efforts to launch crude oil futures," he said. However, "this will be determined by the domestic spot market for crude oil and by how much of its production and logistics is market-based," Yang said.