New Tsinghua President

(CFP)

Chen Jining was appointed president of Tsinghua University, one of China's leading universities, taking over from Gu Binglin on February 20.

Chen, 48, has bachelor's and master's degrees from Tsinghua University. After completing his master's degree he went to Britain for further study and received his doctoral degree in Brunel University. After returning to China in 1998, he became an associate professor in the School of Environment at Tsinghua. In 2006, Chen was appointed vice president of Tsinghua.

Loosening Liquidity

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, on February 24 lowered the ratio of deposits that banks must set aside in reserves by 0.5 percentage points.

The cut, the second in three months, is part of the country's efforts to enhance market liquidity and shore up the slowing economy.

The move is expected to inject around 400 billion yuan ($63.54 billion) of capital into the markets.

Property Gloom

In January, 48 cities out of the 70 monitored major cities reported month-on-month decreases in prices of new commercial residences, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. Meanwhile, prices stayed unchanged in the rest of the 22 cities.

As for second-hand homes, prices in 54  cities dropped month on month in January, and only five cities saw their prices head north. Prices stayed unchanged in 11 cities.

Policymakers have pledged to continue with a stringent clampdown on the real estate market, despite acute woes of many property developers.

Yin Zhongli, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said housing prices might see steeper falls in the second half of this year if the government maintains tightening measures.

Currency Swap

The People's Bank of China signed a 10- billion-yuan ($1.59 billion) currency swap agreement with the Central Bank of Turkey on February 21.

The three-year agreement will be extendable by mutual consent, said the central bank.

The move is aimed at enhancing financial cooperation and promoting bilateral trade.

To promote the international use of the yuan, China has signed currency swap agreements with 15 countries and regions since the onset of the global financial crisis in late 2008.

Yiwu Shines

Yiwu of east China's Zhejiang Province, the country's largest petty commodity market, recorded combined exports of $1.03 billion to Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa in 2011, soaring 52 percent from the previous year.

Exports to Russia increased 8.5 times year on year. This was largely attributable to Russia's WTO entry last year.

The robust growth has, to some extent, offset the negative impact caused by the eurozone debt crisis and economic uncertainties in the Middle East.

The city's total export value stood at $9.87 billion last year, up 15 percent from a year ago.

iPhone Fever

China Telecom announced it will soon start selling Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S smart phones, making it the second mobile carrier to offer the product in the world's No. 1 mobile phone market.

Analysts believe a new carrier partner will help Apple increase distribution channels and further boost sales in the Chinese market. It will also help China Telecom, the No. 3 mobile carrier in the country, to catch up with bigger rivals China Mobile and China Unicom in the high-end market.

China Telecom will start by offering the iPhone 4S running on its code division multiple access (CDMA) network on March 9. It will start accepting online orders on March 2.

Small Lending Thrives

China's micro-credit sector is getting into full swing as the country lends a helping hand to smaller firms.

By the end of 2011, the country had 4,282 micro-credit companies, surging 63.81 percent from the previous year, according to data from the People's Bank of China.

The companies extended 193.5 billion yuan ($30.71 billion) of new loans last year, up from 120.2 billion yuan ($19.1 billion) one year earlier. Outstanding loans of China's micro-lenders stood at 391.5 billion yuan ($62.1 billion) by the end of 2011, up from 197.5 billion yuan ($31.3 billion) in 2010.

While commercial banks consider small and medium-sized enterprises larger risks, the micro-financing provides a viable solution to addressing the capital shortages. In China, the micro-lenders face many restrictions, such as a ban on deposit-taking. But at a recently meeting of the State Council, policymakers pledged to loosen those restrictions and transform qualified micro-credit firms into rural banks.