China: a top business reformer

China is among the top 10 performers in regulatory reforms in the business environment this year, as it was last year, the International Finance Corp (IFC) of the World Bank Group said.

China was 9th among 178 economies because it introduced three out of the 10 sets of IFC indicator reforms, according to an IFC report titled Doing Business 2008 that was released on September 26.

China passed its new bankruptcy law in 2006, and the property law this spring. The former better protects creditors' interests by giving them priority to the proceeds from collateral, while the latter puts private property rights on an equal footing with State property rights.

More U.S.-China flights added

Several United States carriers have won permission from the U.S. Department of Transportation to start new flights to China after the two countries signed an agreement to open up the skies, the companies said on September 26.

Continental Airlines will fly between Newark, New Jersey, and Shanghai starting in March 2009. AMR Corp's American Airlines will fly between Chicago and Beijing, while Northwest will begin a service between Detroit and Shanghai at the same time.

Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines Inc. and U.S. Airways Group Inc. --- the only major U.S. carriers that operate globally without flights to China --- were also awarded flights to China by the department.

A bilateral aviation agreement reached by the two countries in May granted U.S. carriers more access to China, an aviation market that has expand by 15 percent in recent years.

U.S. soybean rejected

China's quality control administration said on September 28 that its Guangdong bureau had found live khapra beetles in soybeans imported from the United States.

A statement from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said the 460 tons of soybeans shipped by the U.S.-based Scoular Company contained the beetles and "other species of harmful insects," Ragweed seeds were also detected in the 21 containers.

However, the soybeans were approved by the U.S. quality control inspection authorities as they are carrying the official certificates, said the statement.

The administration has informed the U.S. side, demanding an investigation and concrete measures to strengthen the inspection and supervision over its soybean exports to China, said the statement.

Biggest logistics center under construction

Authorities in Tibet started building the region's biggest logistics center on September 28, in a bid to further exploit the potential of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway that opened a year ago and to boost the region's economic development.

The logistics center, covering 533 hectares, is located next to a railway station at an altitude of 4,500 meters in Nagqu Township of Nagqu County in north Tibet.

It is scheduled to be finished within 15 months, costing almost 1.5 billion yuan, according to Hao Peng, Executive Vice Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The center is expected to handle 2.23 million tons of cargo by 2015 and 3.1 million by 2020, including raw minerals, local herbs, construction materials and commodities.

Joint ownership railway launched

A railway linking Quzhou and Changshan in east China's Zhejiang Province, the first railway funded in part by private investment since 1949, began operating on Friday.

Costing 675.1 million yuan and two years to build, the 41 km-long feeder railway will be used mainly for cargo transport, said Wang Feng, Deputy Chief of the Shanghai Railways Administration.

The Quzhou-Changshan railway will be included as a section of another planned trunk railway linking Quzhou to Jingdezhen and Jiujiang, both in east China's Jiangxi Province.

The Quzhou-Jingdezhen-Jiujiang railway was an important link, joining major railways in China, including the Beijing-Kowloon line between the capital and Hong Kong.

Funding was provided by the Shanghai Railways Administration, Changshan County State Asset Operation and Management Co. Ltd., Zhejiang Provincial Railways Investment Group Co. and Changshan Cement Co., Ltd., a private business.