POWER ON The Laxiwa Hydropower Station in northwest Qinghai Province, a major construction project, will see its first unit come into operation in the first half of 2009. The entire project, to be completed in 2011, will have a total installed capacity of 4,200 megawatts(DING HAISHENG)

Outsourcing Spree

The Ministry of Commerce announced on February 2 several support measures to encourage the growth of the country's service outsourcing industries.

According to the announcement, 20 cities nationwide, including Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou, have been designated for pilot service outsourcing programs. Outsourcers in those cities could enjoy tax breaks, financial support, subsidies and intellectual property rights protection, effective as of January 1.

Service outsourcing companies with the latest technologies are eligible for flexible working hours for their workers if they get approval from local human resources departments, the ministry said.

The government will offer service outsourcing companies annual subsidies of up to 4,500 yuan ($662) for every college graduate they hire on a contract of at least one year.

Little Smart Out

China Telecom Corp. and China Unicom Ltd. will stop providing Little Smart services to about 70 million subscribers by 2011, and its frequency will be taken up by China Mobile's 3G network, according to a recent report in China Youth Daily.

The Little Smart service is a citywide wireless communication technology based on the fixed-line network. It features lower rates for subscribers.

It remains unclear how the two carriers will deal with their remaining Little Smart users. Their biggest challenge will be persuading users to shift to their new mobile networks, rather than the network of rival China Mobile Ltd., according to the report.

Airplane Venture

The Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC) recently reached a deal with European aircraft maker Airbus SA to build a factory in Harbin, capital of northeast Heilongjiang Province, to produce composite material parts and components for the new wide-body A350 aircraft.

AVIC would have an 80-percent stake in the new plant, which would be completed by the end of 2010, while Airbus would hold the remainder, AVIC said in a statement.

In 2007, Airbus had made a commitment to allocate 5 percent of the manufacturing work of the A350 airframe to the Chinese aviation industry. The joint venture is part of the 5-percent work package.

Chery Goes Argentine

China's Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. is set to join hands with its foreign partners to build a new plant in Argentina that would increase its production capacity five-fold within four years, according to a report in Shanghai Daily.

The plant is expected to cost up to $5 million by 2012 and will be managed by Chery Socma SA, a venture between Chery, Argentina's Socma Group and Oferol Co. Ltd. of Uruguay. The factory will be able to turn out 50,000 vehicles annually by 2011, and 100,000 by 2012, most of which will be exported to Brazil.

Chery has owned eight overseas plants in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

CIFIT Defies Crisis

The 13th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) will still open in September in Xiamen, a southeastern port city of Fujian Province, as it did in previous years, despite the sweeping effect of the global financial crisis.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, CIFIT is the world's largest international investment promotion event aiming at bilateral investment cooperation. It is held annually in Xiamen on September 8.

This year's CIFIT will focus on promoting Sino-African and Sino-Caribbean economic ties, trade ties between the mainland and Taiwan, and trade relations between China and the world at large.