Experts said the government should reform the oil pricing mechanism to reflect international price levels and allow oil prices to float with market demand.

Numbers of the Week 10 billion yuan China's online advertising market will surpass 10 billion yuan, according to an A.C. Nielson report.

The draft energy law, probably to be adopted in 2009, stipulates that energy prices-including oil-be determined by the market instead of the government.

Cooling Price Hike Fever

Rising food prices helped push China's consumer price index to record highs this year. China will auction corn from the second week of December after several rounds of wheat auctions.

The country auctioned its national food reserves in order to prevent further food price hikes. The government auctioned wheat four times since the beginning of December totaling 6 million tons. The price of wheat went down gradually.

Following the wheat auction, corn reserves were also auctioned in the second week of December.

Corn prices have been on the rise mainly because of expanded ethanol demand as global crude oil prices continue to surge and the corn yield decreases both at home and abroad.

The NDRC stated that the corn reserve auction was aimed at preventing a price hike of animal feed materials.

"But it does not mean the price of related products will drop significantly," said Wu Bangyang, an agricultural expert. Wu believed the structural food price increase would continue.

ICBC Sailing to South Africa

South Africa's biggest commercial bank-Standard Bank-stated on December 3 that an overwhelming majority of shareholders had approved the acquisition of a 20-percent stake by China's biggest lender, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

ICBC plans to purchase 20 percent of Standard Bank's shares at $5.4 billion, making ICBC the biggest shareholder in the bank. If the sale is approved by supervisory departments, the deal will mark the largest ever overseas investment by a Chinese bank, and will also be South Africa's largest ever foreign direct investment.

Jiang Jianqing, Chairman of ICBC, said the bank maintained a stable and sound development strategy and hopes to become the most profitable and respected bank in the world.

Retiring from the Olympics

China's only worldwide Olympics partner Lenovo Group stated it will not renew a sponsorship contract with the International Olympic Committee after its three-year contract ends in December 2008.

The biggest personal computer manufacturer said it will focus on a "regional sports marketing strategy" after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, such as the NBA and Formula One.

Lenovo said it had achieved its marketing goals through supporting the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Summer Games. The company offered 5,000 computers, more than 600 laptops, 400 servers and 1,600 printers to the Turin games and will provide about 20,000 computing devices and more than 500 engineers to support the latter.

"In order to make Lenovo a brand known worldwide, the company will be more focused on event sponsorship for strategically targeted markets, which will better meet the needs of deepening the development of Lenovo in particular countries and regions," said Lenovo.

Managers of Lenovo believe it was a wise decision not to renew the contract.

Eight Major Economic Tasks for 2008 Chinese leaders concluded a high-profile annual economic conference on December 5, ushering in a slew of tasks for the country's economy in 2008. They are as follows: --The primary task of macroeconomic control is to prevent the economy from overheating and the current price rises led by foodstuffs from evolving into "evident inflation." The meeting decided to shift the country's monetary policy from "prudent," an approach China has followed for the last 10 years, to "tight." But the change of policy must be made to secure steady economic expansion. Monetary policy should play a greater role in the macro-control policy. Fiscal expenditures must be optimized to facilitate industrial restructuring and coordinate regional development. --Consolidate the fundamental role of agriculture in China's economic growth so as to secure grain crops, which supply and enrich rural China. --Technical innovation should be based on market demand and be centered upon core technologies that can break the bottlenecks of China's economic and social development. --Prices, taxation and financial policies should be used as incentives to stimulate energy conservation while environmentally friendly and compulsory market access criteria must be put into place. Environmental protection and emission reductions should serve as crucial criteria for the evaluation of local authorities. --Channel more financial aid to undeveloped regions, especially the interior revolutionary bases, habitats for people of ethnic groups, border regions and poverty-stricken areas. Urbanization must be advanced in a sustainable manner and not at the cost of land waste. --Deepen economic reforms, especially in fiscal and taxation systems as well as pricing and investment mechanisms so as to facilitate the transfer of economic growth mode from quantity to quality. --Advance the Free Trade Area strategy and strengthen bilateral and multi-lateral cooperation. Open up China wider to the outside world and improve the quality and added value of export products. --Double efforts in improving the livelihood of the people and facilitate social harmony, including expanding the social benefit and health care for urban and rural residents, increasing education capital input and boosting low-rent housing construction. Source: Xinhua News Agency