China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has picked up news that most provinces and regions in China reported first-half gross domestic product (GDP) growth exceeding the national level, with less-developed central and western regions generally outperforming the nation’s more economically advanced areas.

The People’s Daily report stated that however,  this was evidence that the country is still on the old investment-driven track and needs to make greater efforts to fulfill economic restructuring, citing experts.

As of July 25, more than 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions had published their GDP growth figures for the first half, all of which were above the national level of 11.1%.

Analysts suggested that government unify provincial and central GDP calculation methods as soon as possible and that local officials’ performance should no longer be judged by local GDP growth in order to resolve statistical inaccuracies.

Tianjin led the list with a GDP growth rate of 18% in the first half, and Chongqing ranked second. The booming southwestern metropolis was also the first among western regions, with a record-breaking economic growth of 17.6%.

Shaanxi province in northwestern China jumped to third place from the bottom of last year’s list with a growth rate of 17.5%.

Ningxia Hui autonomous region ranked fourth on the national list with GDP growing by 17.1%, and the figures for Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Sichuan province were expected to be above 16%. Hubei and Hunan provinces both reported economic growth rate of more than 15%, and Jiangxi achieved 14.4% growth, the highest in the same period since 1995.

The outstanding performance of less-developed central and western areas in the first half of 2010 contrasts sharply with the country’s more advanced regions, where there are signs of a slowdown

Guangdong province estimated a GDP growth rate of 12.7% while Zhejiang reported 13%, 2 percentage points lower than the first quarter. The growth rate in Jiangsu province slowed by 0.9 percentage points compared with the first quarter to 14.5%, and Beijing ranked at the bottom with 12% increase rate.

Sheng Laiyun, spokesman of National Bureau of Statistics, said earlier that the growth rate of fixed asset investment and industrial output in central and western areas in the first half was faster than in the east.

“The rapid growth in these regions reflected conflicts between economic recovery led by government-dominant investment and heavy industries, and necessary economic restructuring,” said Wang Jun, an analyst with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

China Watch Blog has picked up this news that the International Monetary Fund reported on July 27 that China’s economy is expected to maintain strong growth and its recovery has “significant positive spillovers” to the region and the world economy as a whole.

According to a People’s Daily report, the authorities’ quick, determined and effective policy responses helped mitigate the impact on the economy and ensured that China played a leading role in the global recovery.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Albert Keidel, a famous economist specializing in China, was quoted by People’s Daily as saying that China had “nothing to do with the global economic recession.”

Keidel, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a professor at the Public Policy Research Institute of Georgetown University,  has a long list of titles including former vice-director of the East-Asia Office of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the chief economist of the World Bank representative office in China.

Keidel said that China implemented effective economic stimulus policies to increase market demand, especially export demand. Compared to when the economic crisis broke out, China’s trade surplus has shrunk remarkably. Keidel said, “China has stimulated the world economy.”

In Keidel’s opinion, China stimulated the world economy in many ways. First, China has reformed the exchange rate formation mechanism since 2005. Based on market supply and demand, China adopted the floating exchange rate system to regulate and manage the exchange rate. Since the summer of 2008, China stabilized its RMB exchange rate against the U.S. dollar, making great contribution to the stability of international markets.

Hooray for China…

China Watch Blog has learnt that the value of Hong Kong’s total exports and imports of goods in June grew 26.7% and 31% year-on-year as the global economic recovery gathered momentum.

According to the Census & Statistics Department, the value of total exports, comprising re-exports and domestic exports, rose 26.7% to $267.6 billion, after a year-on-year increase of 24.4% in May. The value of re-exports rose 26.8% to $261.7 billion, while the value of domestic exports rose 25.3% to $5.9 billion.

The value of imports grew 31% to $298.2 billion, after a year-on-year increase of 29.7% in May. A visible trade deficit of $30.6 billion, equivalent to 10.3% of the value of imports of goods, was recorded.

For the first half the year the value of total exports rose 25.1% over the same period last year. The value of re-exports increased 25.1%, while that of domestic exports grew 22.7%. The value of imports of goods grew 31.9%. A visible trade deficit of $179.1 billion, equivalent to 11.3% of the value of imports of goods, was recorded.

Comparing the second quarter this year with the preceding quarter on a seasonally-adjusted basis, the value of total exports of goods rose 5.2%. Within this total the value of re-exports increased 5.5%, whereas the value of domestic exports fell 5.2%. The value of imports of goods rose 3.2%.

The department said the distinct expansion of merchandise exports expanded in June showing the robust growth of Asian markets and the gradual recovery in the advanced economies. However, the level of uncertainty in the external trading environment remains high, particularly in view of the austerity measures to be implemented in many European economies as well as the fading of the boosting effect from the earlier stimulus measures in the US economy.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Guangzhou and Brisbane have agreed to have a direct flight  service in October. This is the first direct flight between Guangdong and Queensland.

Both territories became Friendly Cooperative Provinces in 2004.

Ou Guangyuan, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Guangdong Province met with John Mickel, Speaker of Queensland’s parliamentary, in Guangzhou on July 18, 2010, according to NEWSGD.com.

The flight was suggested by Speaker John Mickel of Queensland’s parliamentary after his last mission to Guangdong a year ago. He visited Guangzhou on July 18 and met with Chairman Ou Guangyuan of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Guangdong Province. Chairman Ou pointed out that the flight will enhance cooperation and people-to-people connection between the two provinces.

John Mickel was impressed by the city improvement of Guangzhou brought by the preparatory projects for the 16th Asian Games that will fall on this November, saying “Guangzhou people should be proud of the changes.”

Today, John Mickel will continue his visit in Guangdong to see the province’s latest move in restructuring its economy and intangible cultural heritage protection.

A possible personnel reshuffle could be in store at the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) by the end of this month, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang said.

Hsieh told reporters he learned of the potential reshuffle after making several phone calls to verify an allegation made by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang. Hsieh did not specify his sources.

China Watch Blog has learnt that the Hong Kong business outlook in the third quarter, particularly in the real estate, manufacturing, financing and insurance, and transportation, storage and courier services sectors is favourable based on a Census & Statistics Department survey.

The Quarterly Business Tendency Survey released over the weekend showed 32% of respondents expect an improvement in the business situation in the nancing,insurance, and transportation, storage and last quarter, while only 6% expect it to be worse.

All surveyed sectors expect a rise in the volume of business or output, particularly in the real estate, transportation, storage and courier services, financing and insurance, manufacturing, and retail sectors.

Significantly more respondents in sectors like financing and insurance, professional and business services, and real estate expect employment to increase, than those expecting a fall.

Almost all sectors also expect their selling price and service charges to rise in the third quarter, particularly the real estate sector.

Yes, the headline is correct. China Watch Blog has picked up news that China will further reduce tariffs for agricultural products and industrial goods by around 30%.

A People’s Daily report reports that  according to some agreement already reached in the field of services trade, China has opened more than 100 of the 160 categories of the services sectors, and has promised to open 11 more.

Shanghai Securities News has reported Chen Deming, China’s Minister of Commerce,  who attended a meeting in Beijing on July 21 with visiting WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy on the Doha round of trade talks, as iterating  China’s firm support for the Doha round negotiation.

“To push forward negotiations, WTO members should seize the opportunity of the 2011 Doha round of talks, optimize the negotiation results and seek breakthroughs based on concrete proposals,” he said.

Lamy said the Doha round started nearly 9 years ago, and it will impact WTO’s credibility if the agreements cannot be reached in 2011. Therefore, every member is expected to make joint efforts, push negotiations to make substantive progress and send positive signals through the G20 Seoul Summit to win more political supports for the Doha round of talks.

Since its entry into the WTO in December 2001, China has seized opportunities and actively participated in the multilateral trading regime. For the past nine years, China has abided by WTO rules, lived up to the extensive commitments it has made and made comprehensive adjustment to its trade regime and trade policy, which has won admiration and approval of WTO members and the international community.

As of 2010, China has implemented all commitments it made upon entry into the WTO, established an economic and trade regime consistent with prevailing international rules and become one of the most open markets in the world.

China Watch Blog reports that Greater China Transport Logistics – GCTL8.com is now under going emergency maintenance – thanks to a massive upsurge of visitors activities at our website – causing our web host at ICDSoft.com to stop our services (basically we have outgrown our boots).

We have been told by ICDSoft.com that  GCTL8.com had an upsurge of hits on July 21 and 22 and they could not continue to support us and asked us to move to a new webhosting site.

According to ICDSoft.com, the top banner at our homepage – an ATE Advertisement which has been on display for almost two years – receive 2GB hits on July 21 & July 22. (tic). Yours truly is not an IT person and cannot understand why that Ad received so many hits on those two days. It remains a real mystery.

Anyhow, GCTL8.com has already found a new webhost and we are now migrating our service to the new server. China Watch Blog is being served by the new server already. Our new webhost is providing us five times more  bandwidth than that provided by ICDSoft, and our ability to send out bulk mail will also be increased tremendously. So the speed of downloading our GCTL Insights Magazine from our website will also be increased.

So, we will be able to provide all our readers better and more  efficient services in the next few days.

We realise that to be the world’s No. 1 Trilingual Transport Logistics website is very challenging, and we hope our readers worldwide will continue to give us the support we need. Alexa.com ranks our website at 344,185 todate, and that is no easy feat for a news web portal that started its services since 2005.

GCTL8.com apologises for any inconvenience caused, and we hope to return to FULL service in the next one or two days time.

For Transport Logistics professionals seeking new areas of business, perhaps they should seriously consider looking at the western regions of China where Xinhua has just reported that the gross domestic product (GDP) in these regions grew by 13.5% year on year in 2009. This growth rate is much higher than the country’s revised national GDP growth of 9.1%.

Xinhua reports that it is the eighth year in a row for these regions to score a double-digit GDP growth after the Chinese government launched a “West Development” campaign ten years ago.

The report on the economic development of China’s western regions issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences  attributed the GDP growth mainly to China’s policies to stimulate domestic demand and the increase in investment, despite the global financial crisis.

Five provinces, regions or municipalities saw an increase of more then ten percent in the disposable income of urban citizens in 2009, as the income gap between China’s western and eastern regions had begun to narrow, the report said.

The average yearly per capita disposable income of urban citizens in the western regions was 12,971 yuan (about 1,918 U.S. dollars) in 2008.

Noting that economic development in the western regions still heavily relied on natural resources, the report said efforts should be made to increase the regions’ capacity to ensure sustainable development, while establishing a low-carbon industrial system.