China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has learnt that about 200 local women have won through to the next round of a matchmaking contest with the prize of possible marriage to a billionaire, and perhaps, happiness, that is, if they win.

According to a Shanghai Daily report, the women, aged 19 to 43, were chosen from 600 applicants at a matchmaking contest in Jing’an District organized by the China Entrepreneur Club for Singles over the weekend.

The contest follows similar events in Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, and Chengdu, capital of southwest Sichuan Province.

Contest officials said the Shanghai contestants will join a total of 6,500 women from across the country in a second round of interviews after which 100 will go through to a final round.

Then just 28 women will be invited to a two-day party in a luxury hotel in Guangdong Province next month, a club official surnamed Cheng told Shanghai Daily.

There they will meet the billionaires who are looking for wives.

“We found the quality of Shanghai contestants higher than those in some other cities,” said Cheng.

“Many contestants are coming from top universities such as Fudan and Jiaotong, and some of them are even postgraduate students.”

The women were from all walks of life, Cheng said, and included students, office workers, models and airline cabin crew.

China Watch Blog has learnt that embezzlement involving a total of 365 million yuan (US$57.9 million) and other irregularities were found in 133 projects partly financed by foreign loans or donations, the National Audit Office said.

Of that, 128 million yuan had been taken or misappropriated in six environmental protection projects by September 2011, while the other 237 million came from six projects overseen by central government entities in 2010, the auditor said in separate statements, the Shanghai Daily reported.

Other irregularities in land use, bidding, accounting and equipment management also were found in the projects.

“The management and execution of foreign-funded projects are generally well regulated due to strict selection of projects, regulated procurement on equipment, and high-quality project management,” the auditor said. “But problems exist.”

The auditor said the problems mainly fell in three categories – misuse of fund, loopholes in project management and irregularities in bookkeeping.

It attributed the cause of problems to the complicated levels of oversight, the frequent changes of personnel, the large areas and the huge amount of construction work involved in the projects.

The auditor inspected 34 environmental protection projects involving 14.1 billion yuan in foreign funding. Their total funding amounted to 34 billion yuan.

It also inspected 99 projects supervised by the central government in agriculture, energy, transport, education and urban construction. Of those, 34.5 billion yuan of their total 424.6 billion yuan budget came from foreign sources.

Besides money embezzlement, six of the environmental projects misused 540 hectares of land, and 13 projects involved accounting irregularities totaling 235 million yuan.

Eighteen of the central government projects were found to have violated rules in bidding, sourcing, equipment handling and planning, involving misused funds of 650 million yuan.

Another 20 projects were found breaking accounting and payment regulations, resulting in 1.18 billion yuan in irregularities.

The auditor said great attention has been paid toward resolving the problem.

“Individuals violating the rules and laws will be charged with administrative or criminal penalties,” the auditor said.

All but 11 of the problematic projects had their problems resolved, officials said.

China Watch Blog has learnt that small- and medium-sized enterprises in the western region of China were more vulnerable than those on the east coast given the deteriorating external market and tightening internal environment last year.

Bank of Communications and Fudan University jointly announced today the growth index of SMEs in the second half of 2011, saying the companies expanded slower at 96.91. A figure above 100 means expansion and a reading below 100 indicates contraction, the China Daily reported.

The report noted different patterns of business development in different regions. Companies in the south, east and central regions expanded slightly in the second half of last year. The expansion was attributed to favorable financing, tax rate, and government support, as well as the regional economic advancement gained over the years.

The northeast region stayed level while western territories saw a significant contraction among small businesses, which registered a reading as low as 85.12.

“The western areas lag relatively in economic development. The SMEs there are less profitable than competitors in the coastal areas. They have been severely impacted by the sluggish economy in general,” the report said.

A sub-index suggested that SMEs were more adept at countering risk despite higher raw material and labor costs, a bigger tax burden, and environment constraints.

The report said the confidence index of 98.24, although below 100, was much better than other sub-indices, indicating entrepreneurs are not too pessimistic about market prospects.