介绍:
China, Singapore to upgrade FTA
Anchor:
Chinese authorities have revealed a new round of talks are underway in an attempt to update the current Free Trade Agreement between China and Singapore.
Shen Danyang with the Ministry of Commerce says the talks are focused on a number of key areas.
"We officially launched talks to upgrade the China -Singapore free trade agreement at the beginning of November, focusing on ways to support an increase bilateral trade, accelerate the opening up of the service sector, promote two-way investment and explore new fields of cooperation to increase economic and trade links between the two sides."
An updated FTA between China and Singapore is expected to be finished before the end of next year.
The current agreement came into effect at the start of 2009.
As part of it, all Chinese exports to Singapore are tariff-free, while 95-percent of what Singapore sends to China don't have tariffs.
For more on what a new FTA might look like, CRI's Shane Bigham spoke earlier with John Ross, senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University.
Back Anchor:
John Ross, senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University speaking with CRI's Shane Bigham.
China's property market sees weaker price increase
New figures are suggesting the real estate market in China is starting to sag again.
The National Bureau of Statistics is reporting new home prices have only increased in 23 of the 70 cities it monitors through October.
This is down from the 39 cities which saw new home-price growth in September.
At the same time, the NBS says new home prices have dropped in 33 cities in October.
This is up from the 21 cities which saw price drops in September.
Shenzhen saw the sharpest increase in new home price last month among China's major cities, with prices there going up over 40-percent on average.
Prices for existing homes also remained weak in October, with 23 cities reporting month-on-month price declines, up from 18 cities in September.
Foxconn Enters Financial Service Business
Taiwan-based Foxconn, which is best known as Apple's key manufacturer, is getting into the financial services business.
Foxconn says it's planning to start bundling the loan agreements it has with electronic component suppliers and begin selling them as derivatives.
Foxconn says it plans to start doing this in the next couple of years.
The company set up 6 financial-services operations in China last year, which provide loans and other financing services to its suppliers.
This follows on the heels of CITIC announcing a partnership with Baidu this week to set up an online bank.
Foxconn has been trying to expand into more higher-margin businesses, including component manufacturing, e-commerce, robotics and financial services.
The company is also setting up a 300-million yuan private-equity fund to invest in Chinese startups.
China Companies Vie for German Waste Management Firm: Report
It's being reported that at least 3 Chinese State-owned firms are interested in taking over a German waste management company.
Beijing Enterprises Water Group, China Everbright International and Beijing Capital Group are reportedly among a number of suitors who have submitted initial bids to purchase the company Energy from Waste.
The German firm is Europe's top firm when it comes to using garbage to generate power.
It's valued anywhere from 1.6 to 2.1 billion U.S. dollars.
Chinese authorities are spending billions of dollars to try to improve sewage disposal and garbage treatment across the country.
China cuts non-residential natural gas prices
China's top economic regulator has announced a deep cut to non-residential natural gas prices.
As of Friday, non-residential natural gas prices at city gate stations will be cut by 700 yuan, or about 110 U.S. dollars, per thousand cubic meters.
Industry players are allowed to raise gas prices by 20 percent based on supply and demand after the cut of non-residential natural gas prices.
China launches anti-dumping investigation into imported iron based alloy
China's Ministry of Commerce has launched an anti-dumping investigation over a type of iron based alloy imported from the U.S. and Japan, this Wednesday.
The ministry says it will try to determine whether the imports - an iron based amorphous alloy ribbon - which were allegedly imported at "lower than normal" prices, have damaged or affected domestic producers' interests.
Iron based amorphous alloy ribbon is widely used in manufacturing power distribution transformers, electric reactor, motors and voltage transformers.
China's trust assets post unusual decline
Latest stats show China's trust assets scale dropped quarter on quarter in the third quarter this year, the first quarterly decline in five years.
Trust assets totalled some 15.6 trillion yuan or around 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of the third quarter, falling nearly 1.6 percent compared with the second quarter.
The sector's business revenue also declined 24 percent quarter on quarter to close to 15.7 billion yuan in the period.
Analysts have attributed the drops to contracting financing demands due to downward economic pressure, increased market competition and risk control as well as recent stock market fluctuations.
China to enforce checks to fight low-quality goods bought online
China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce will ramp up inspections of goods bought online.
The move is seeking to root out low-quality goods that have plagued firms like Alibaba as well as the country's broader international image.
There will be random quality checks for goods bought online, and the authority will take into account consumer reports, and press for cooperation from e-commerce platforms.
Companies like Alibaba, rival JD.com have been called out by China's regulators for enabling the sale of low-quality goods as well as counterfeit products.
Authorities are also keen to shake off China's broader reputation as a market plagued by consumer safety scares and intellectual property infringement.
This is in line with what earlier this month China's Cabinet said that it planned to eradicate intellectual property rights infringement on the Internet within three years.
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