介绍:
China, S.Korea start 10th FTA talks
China and South Korea have started the 10th round of negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement, or FTA, in Seoul.
According to the Chinese delegation, the new round of talks focuses on goods, services and investment trade, rules of origin, technical barriers to trade, intellectual property rights and other related issues.
The fresh round of negotiations is running through Friday.
South Korea and China completed the first stage in early September for the bilateral free trade pact, with a total of seven rounds of negotiations.
Seoul and Beijing tentatively agreed to abolish tariffs on 90 percent of all products during the first-stage talks and opened the door for raising the threshold during the second-phase negotiations.
China is South Korea's No. 1 trading partner, with Seoul's exports to Beijing accounting for a quarter of the total in 2012.
Yuan strengthens to 6.1321 against dollar
According to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System, the Chinese currency Renminbi went up 25 basis points to 6.1321 against the U.S. dollar on Monday.
In China's foreign exchange spot market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of prices before the opening of the market each business day.
China widened the yuan's daily trading band from the current 1 percent to 2 percent on Monday.
The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, in a statement says the move is aimed at enhancing the floating flexibility of the Renminbi exchange rate, making capital allocation more efficient, facilitating economic restructuring and beefing up the decisive role of the market in allocating resources.
China has gradually raised its currency's daily trading limit, from 0.3 percent in 1994 to 0.5 percent in 2007 and 1 percent in 2012.
Alibaba to kick off IPO in U.S.
Anchor:
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has begun its initial public offering process in the United States.
Alibaba's IPO is expected to be one of the largest ever in New York.
The announcement came on Sunday after Alibaba decided on New York after ruling out Hong Kong and London for the IPO.
Alibaba is expected to raise about 15-billion US dollars in what is being touted as the highest profile listing since Facebook's 16-billion dollar listing in 2012.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting Alibaba could launch its IPO as soon as April, which could allow trading to begin by the third quarter.
For more on the Alibaba listing, CRI's Paul James spoke earlier with Mike Bastin, Visiting Professor of China's University of Economics and Business.
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That was Mike Bastin, Visiting Professor of China's University of Economics and Business.
Vodafone agrees $10 billion deal to buy Spain's Ono
Vodafone Group Plc has agreed to buy Spain's largest cable operator Ono for 7.2 billion euros, or around 10 billion U.S. dollars, in the latest move by the British group to rebuild its European operations with a broadband offering.
Vodafone says the deal will enable it to offer a combination of mobile and fixed-line telephony, pay-TV, and broadband in one of its largest European markets, hit hard by fierce competition and the effects of a lengthy recession.
The deal for private equity-owned Ono is Vodafone's third purchase of a European fixed-broadband asset in two years, allowing it to offer an increasing range of services and offload some of its mobile traffic on to Ono's cable network.
The British group is rebuilding its core European networks with proceeds from the 130 billion U.S. dollars sale of its U.S. arm.
It says this will also save around 240 million euros, before integration costs, by the fourth full year after completion.
Toyota suspends India production as pay dispute drags
Toyota's Indian unit has temporarily closed its two plants.
Some workers in the plants have stopped production lines to protest a delay in salary hikes after 10 months of negotiations.
The factories near Bangalore are Toyota's only vehicle plants in the world's sixth-biggest auto market, where the Japanese manufacturer generates just a sliver of its global sales.
The closure raises the specter of labor unrest at Indian car plants in recent years, including a 2012 dispute at Suzuki Motor Corp unit Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MRTI.NS).
A riot left one person dead and over 100 injured, and resulted in a 250 million U.S. dollars month-long production loss.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), the world's biggest car maker's Indian unit, in a statement has said some workers over the past 25 days have disrupted business as management, the labor union and local government negotiate wages.
Toyota Motor spokesman Naoki Sumino in Tokyo said that closure will result in a daily production loss of 700 vehicles.
Sumino said TKM and the union will continue holding talks to resolve the issue.
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