Low-rent Housing Popularization

The Chinese Government is committed to extending the low-rent housing system to cover middle- and low-income families across the country this year, Minister of Construction Wang Guangtao said January 23.

All cities and counties should be covered by the system by the end of 2007, Wang said at the national construction work conference. His announcement comes amid government efforts to curb runaway housing prices.

Low-income families had limited access to affordable housing as local governments relied excessively on the highly lucrative property industry for fiscal revenue, he said. A report released by the China Society for Urban Studies showed China has 1.56 million urban families with no access to adequate affordable housing, most of whom still live in overcrowded and dilapidated homes.

Bullish Market, Bullish Tax

China's securities stamp tax revenue more than doubled in 2006, due to the huge transaction volume. Ending a five-year bearish period last year, the two mainland stock exchanges registered aggregate turnover of 9.05 trillion yuan in 2006, clocking an annual increase of 186.22 percent.

The government received 17.95 billion yuan in securities stamp duty last year, up 166 percent over 2005, according to the State Administration of Taxation (SAT). The announcement was made one day after the turnover on two mainland bourses hit a record high of 160 billion yuan.

Spurred by heavy capital inflows, revenue soared despite the tax rate cut, Xie Xuren, Director of the SAT, said on January 24. The government halved the stamp duty rate to 0.1 percent from January 24, 2005 in a bid to help boost the depressed equity market.

Here Comes Inflation

China's consumer price index (CPI), a major inflation indicator, could jump by 3 percent this year or double last year's CPI increase, said Wang Jian, a famous economist. The recent hikes in grain prices are sure to cause the CPI to rise, he said.

Despite bumper crops last year, the prices of wheat, corn and soybeans, have been on the rise since November 2006, due to increasing prices on international markets. The Chinese Government released some of its national stockpiles in an attempt to offset price jumps, but they have still risen beyond the government's target level.

In the first three quarters of 2006, China's CPI rose 1.3 percent over the same 2005 period, but in November it rose 1.9 percent year on year, the highest monthly gain of the year.

Lowering Threshold for Foreign Tour Agencies

The Chinese Government is to ease the registered capital requirement on foreign-funded travel agencies from July 1, according to the National Tourism Administration (NTA), four months ahead of the November 11 deadline set by the World Trade Organization for China's accession.

Under the interim provisions for the establishment of foreign investor-controlled and solely foreign-funded travel agencies issued by NTA and the Ministry of Commerce in 2003, their registered capital is to be cut from a minimum of 4 million yuan to 2.5 million yuan.

On the same occasion, NTA announced that China would cancel restrictions on foreign travel agencies that planned to open subsidiaries. China had approved 25 foreign-controlled and solely foreign-funded travel agencies by the end of last year.

Click to Donate

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN's refugee agency, launched an Internet-based campaign to raise funds for refugee children, partnering with Microsoft in Washington.

The computer software giant's "Click for Cause" initiative will support UNHCR's global ninemillion.org campaign, which was launched last World Refugee Day on June 20 under the arrangement that every Internet search performed at http://click4thecause. live.com using Microsoft's live search facility will result in a financial donation to ninemillion.org. The donation program will be coupled with a broad online awareness campaign for ninemillion.org to include advertising and editorial space on Microsoft online properties, such as MSN and microsoft.com, in 26 markets around the world.

The company will guarantee a minimum donation of $100,000 to UNHCR based on the number of queries that are generated from the search site.