Wider Door for Imports

China will soon allow domestic companies to freely import a wide range of materials and products, in a move to achieve trade balance.

From April 1, Chinese firms will no longer need to apply for an import license to import products in 338 categories, the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce said on its website on March 27.

Steel products, plastic materials, as well as some machinery and electronics products are included in the list.

"The move is aimed at promoting the balanced development of China's foreign trade by simplifying import administration and facilitating trade," the department said in a statement.

A Profitable Year

Urban Chinese workers earned an average of 21,001 yuan in 2006, up 14.1 percent over the previous year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The disposable per-capita income of urban Chinese rose 12.1 percent year on year to 11,759 yuan in 2006, an increase of 10.4 percent after deducting inflation, for a growth rate that was 0.8 percentage points higher than the previous year.

The increases were partly due to pay rises in some government departments and non-profit institutions, experts said.

Per-capita annual net income of rural households rose by 10.2 percent year on year to 3,587 yuan in 2006, up 7.4 percent after inflation and growing at a rate that was 1.2 percentage points higher than the previous year, it said.

Boosting Futures Market

Calyon Financial Group has agreed to form a joint-venture futures brokerage with China Citic Group to stake a claim in the Chinese mainland's potentially lucrative futures market.

Calyon Financial, owned by France's Credit Agricole, signed the agreement through its Hong Kong arm with Citic East China (Group) Corp., a Citic Group unit, according to a joint statement issued on March 27.

No financial terms were disclosed, but the statement said that Citic East China "will be the majority shareholder."

Chinese authorities are encouraging Hong Kong-based financial firms to set up futures ventures with mainland counterparts under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement as part of a bid to help the nascent market grow.

Bull Market Spurs Mutual Funds

China raised 390 billion yuan in 90 new mutual funds and registered 7.78 million new accounts in 2006 thanks to the country's bullish market, according to the Second Annual Conference of the Chinese Securities Investment Fund Industry, held on March 24.

According to the annual report for 2006, of 53 mutual funds under 10 fund management firms, their net incomes totaling 22.28 billion yuan were seven times greater than the 7 billion yuan earned in 2005 by all 206 mutual funds under 46 fund management companies in China.

The country experienced a fund investment frenzy last year as investors transferred their low-interest bank deposits to the bourses, which surged 130 percent after a four-year slump.

Highway Scandals

Chinese auditors have found 2.16 billion yuan misappropriated from 26 highway construction projects, said the National Audit Office (NAO) in a statement on March 26.

The national audit campaign covered the construction of 34 arterial highways, with a total length of 5,324 km and a total investment of 166.2 billion yuan.

Most of the highways were built during the 10th Five-Year Plan period from 2001 to 2005, when China invested 1.04 trillion yuan in the construction of 31,318 km of highways.

In 21 projects, local governments and relevant parties embezzled, withheld and deducted 1.64 billion yuan meant for farmers who had lost their lands to highways.