SPANNING THE FUTURE The new Tianluo Bridge in Ningde of Fujian Province has been
completed on August 26. It is the longest bridge along the Wenzhou-Fuzhou Railway,
which is currently under construction. The railway is expected to connect
Fujian with the Yangtze River Delta to facilitate the area's development

Help for Small Businesses

The government will stop charging administrative fees for sole proprietorships and individual market vendors as of September 1, according to a joint circular recently issued by the Ministry of Finance, National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

This move is designed to cut costs for individual business owners as part of the government’s efforts to aid the private economy and increase employment.

The administrative fees, which are almost double the amount of business taxes a firm must pay, have been blamed for the country’s shrinking number of sole proprietors from 31.6 million in 1999 to fewer than 26 million in 2006.

Mann Expands in Shanghai

MannHummel GmbH, the world’s leading industrial and automotive filter maker, is spending 40 million euros ($59 million) to build a new plant in Shanghai to meet growing market demand and push it into the top five auto suppliers in Asia, according to a report by Shanghai Daily.

The new 60,000-square-meter plant in Jiading District, Shanghai, which is known as the biggest auto components park in Asia, will be MannHummel’s fourth facility in China. It also will be the company’s headquarters in China and its Asian research and development center, said Manfred Wolf, Senior Executive Vice President of MannHummel in Shanghai, in the article.

The construction of the Shanghai complex will begin in January with production to start in 2010, Wolf said.

Chinalco Gets the Rio Nod

Aluminum Corp. of China (Chinalco), the country’s largest aluminum company, received approval from the Australian Government to raise its current 9-percent stake in Rio Tinto Group to 11 percent.

Chinalco had teamed up with Alcoa Inc. in February to buy the 9-percent stake. Analysts say Chinalco’s increased holding may pose a stumbling block to the all-stock offer of BHP Billiton Ltd. to take over Rio Tinto.