ECONOMY

Curbing Pork Inflation

The General Office of the State Council has urged local governments at all levels to ensure the continuity of pork supplies amid concerns over soaring pork prices.

"A proper price hike in pork could help increase farmers' incomes and encourage them to raise pigs, but excessive price rises will affect low-income residents," said a notice issued by the office.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, in April live pigs nationwide were priced 71.3 percent higher than a month earlier, and pork 29.3 percent higher.

The notice required city mayors to take charge of the pork price hike and enact better regional cooperation to ensure a steady supply of meat. Farmers who raise sows should be offered subsidies and low-income families be given relatively higher social insurance, said the notice.

Control of Gas Imports

The Chinese Government plans to introduce new measures on June 10 to regulate imports of natural gas in order to protect its three major gas importers from intense domestic competition.

Sources with the Ministry of Commerce said on May 29 that the move would end chaotic competition between China's three oil and gas giants, China National Petroleum Corp., Sinopec and China National Offshore Oil Corp., for the purchase of gas, which has helped overseas exporters raise prices. According to the National Development and Reform Commission, Indonesian exporters have adjusted the price of liquefied natural gas from $25 per barrel to $38 per barrel for Chinese buyers in Fujian Province.

The competition has been blamed on a lax import system for natural gas. Enterprises, at present, do not have to satisfy any conditions to obtain import permits for natural gas. After June 10, each application for an import permit will be examined before approval.

Bidding Invitation for Next-Generation Cellphones

China Mobile Communications Corp. is to invite bids for the supply of TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) cell phones worth 4 billion to 6 billion yuan in September, according to industry insiders.

TD-SCDMA is the third generation (3G) mobile telecommunications standard developed by the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology in collaboration with Datang and Siemens.

China Mobile will purchase about 2 million TD-SCDMA cell phones, putting the average cell phone price at an expected 2,000-3,000 yuan. Meanwhile, 2 million TD-SCDMA cell phone numbers will be formally issued from October through the first half of 2008, company sources were quoted as saying by the Shanghai Securities News.

Broadened Investment Channels

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) on May 29 launched a service to help investors buy stocks in Hong Kong with mainland currency, a first step in widening the overseas investment scope for domestic lenders.

Individual investors are able to buy stocks, bonds and other financial products by entrusting their yuan-denominated assets to the ICBC, said a management official with ICBC, the country's biggest lender.

The service provides a wider channel for mainland Chinese to invest overseas and they can expect higher yields from the H-share market, said insiders.

On May 11, the China Banking Regulatory Commission announced that mainland commercial banks offering overseas wealth-management services could invest in a wider range of asset classes, including equities and equity funds authorized by a supervisory authority with whom the commission has a memorandum of understanding.