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Market Watch
Business> Market Watch
UPDATED: December 6, 2010 NO. 49 DECEMBER 9, 2010
MARKET WATCH NO. 49, 2010
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The return of the shipload of the corn is underway and all damages incurred should be shouldered by the U.S. supplier.

The corn was imported by COFCO Corp., China's largest state-owned diversified products and services supplier in agribusiness and food industry.

Some Chinese families pay special attention to GM food and believed they are not healthy since GM foods go against nature and no strong clinical evidence shows GM food is absolutely harmless. Edible oil made of GM corns or peanuts, though less expensive, is not as popular as organic oil. In old times, when poverty and hunger were haunting the country, imported GM food had huge market potential. But nowadays, the rising living standard and increasing concern of food safety have made the Chinese people more prudent over imported food.

The corn import quota in China is 7.2 million tons per year, while 40 percent of them go to private enterprises. The rest of the corn should be imported by state-owned companies.

Currently, there are more than 20 types of GM corn in the world, and 11 of them have passed Chinese safety standards and are allowed to be imported, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner.

Mapping the Future

China has invested 15 billion yuan ($2.25 billion) to build the first national-level Geographic Information Industrial Park, which covers a total area of about 66.7 hectares in Shunyi District of Beijing.

The venture will further develop the geographic information industry in the country.

The park, which has garnered investment from the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping and the Beijing Municipal Government, is scheduled to be operational by 2013. More than 100 companies in the geographic information industry will have a presence in the park by then.

The move came after the country launched its official online map service, called Map World, in late October this year, which put the government-backed map service in direct competition with international players, such as Google.

Currently, Baidu, DDMap and Google are major online map providers in China, and together they account for more than half of the market share, Beijing-based research firm, Analysys International said.

The State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping had given licenses to 31 companies, including Nokia, Baidu, Alibaba, Sina and Tencent, after it said companies operating online map services have to apply for a license to continue their operations, citing national security.

However, the bureau said Google and Microsoft have not yet applied for licenses.

Companies that don't possess a license by July 1, 2011 will be banned from their online map business.

Revenue from China's geographic information industry reached 75 billion yuan ($11.26 billion) in 2009, and this is expected to rise to between 90 billion yuan ($13.51 billion) and 100 billion yuan ($15.02 billion) in 2010, and then close to 300 billion yuan ($45.06 billion) in 2015.

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