State Department: to Increase Imports of Beef, Mutton and Marine Products Reasonably

On 29th September Premier Li Keqiang chaired a State Council executive meeting, at which leaders determined the import policy measures, strengthened and promoted the further opening; at which they decided to implement the coal resource tax reform, promoted the clearance fees and tax legislation and reduced the burden on enterprises; at which they deployed to strengthen the audit work, promoted policies and measures implementation and served for economic and social development.

The meeting noted that on ground of the current and long-term, we should be proactive to import promotion strategy to strengthen the technology, products and services imports, which can help to increase the effective supply, meet the demand of domestic production and life, improve product quality, promote entrepreneurship, innovation and economic structure optimization and upgrading.

The meeting decided, first, to encourage the expansion of advanced technology equipment and key components imports and adjust "the catalog of encouragement imports of technologies and products"; to support finance and financial leasing companies to carry on imported equipment financing and leasing business; to perfect import tax policy of science and tech development products, help innovation and promote industrial upgrading.

The second is to expand imports of high-end production services such as research and design, energy saving, environmental services.

Third, to stabilize imported resources domestic needs, to increase reasonably imports of beef, mutton, marine products and other general consumer goods closely related to people's life.

Four is to promote the management and facilitation of imports. To implement 24-hour and holiday booking clearance. To speed paperless customs clearance pilot of automatic import license administration commodity. To expand admissible third-party inspection, testing and certification results and shorten the time of inspection and quarantine.

　　

Fifth, to build import trading platform in the principle of fair competition, to increase imports through the new model of cross-border e-commerce. (www.chinainout.com)

Sources Says China Suspends the Approval of Genetically Modified Soybeans Import on Ground of Public Opinion

According to Reuters, a few days ago, sources said, China suspended the approval process of genetically modified soybeans import due to lower public acceptance of genetically modified foods.

Sources said that it was the first time Chinese Ministry of Agriculture postponed the approval of GM crops on grounds of people’s will. 

This decision may make the industry pay more attention to the difficult environment of genetically modified crops in China.

A trade association executive said, "Before, if the Ministry of Agriculture decided not to approve a new product, usually because of lack of sufficient scientific data." 

"But this year, the decision was made on the grounds that they took into account the degree of social acceptance."

The source declined to provide what soybean varieties were involved. China’s imports accounted for about 60 % of total global soybean trade volume. 

China currently allows imports of 8 kinds of genetically modified soybean products and 15 kinds of genetically modified maize products, which are mainly for animal feed.

Rockefeller Fond Says Goodbye to Fossil Fuel Investment

The heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune have decided to sell their investments in the coal industry and Canada’s oil sands, and review their remaining fossil fuel holdings for possible sale in one or two years.

Stephen Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, suggested that John D. Rockefeller, the oilman who established the family’s fortune, would approve of the decision and would be “leading the charge” into renewable energy if he were alive today.

However, Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of Total, one of the world’s largest oil companies, criticised the move, saying he had told the fund that “without energy, the Rockefeller Centre wouldn’t exist”.

The Rockefeller fund is one of hundreds of foundations, colleges and charities that have divested fossil fuel holdings over the past year in response to a grass-roots campaign modelled on the anti-apartheid campaigns that targeted investments in South Africa.
Campaigners say 800 funds responsible for $50 bn of investment have pledged to sell some or all of their holdings in fossil fuels.

The effort to make oil, gas and coal investments as unpopular as tobacco has been a prominent theme in advance of today’s New York climate summit organised by UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon.

“Stay away from this fossil fuel-based investment. Do much more on renewable energy,” he told a meeting of business and government leaders yesterday.

Mr Heintz acknowledged that the Rockefeller Fund’s holdings were not very large but said that selling them would send a “signal” about its views on the future of energy.
“The science is crystal clear” on climate change, he said. “We’ve just got to leave the bulk of the remaining fossil fuels in the ground.”

Several large energy companies have sent representatives to the New York summit, according to the UN, including China’s Sinopec, France’s Total, Norway’s Statoil and Royal Dutch Shell.

Meanwhile, the World Bank announced more than 1,000 companies and investors had expressed support for putting a price on the carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels that drive climate change. They include Shell, which has had an internal carbon price for some years, as well as Nokia, LG Electronics and Lego. (www.chinainout.com)
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Low-quality Coal Ban Fights against Global Miner

The world’s miners, already smarting from a steep dro in iron ore prices, are about to be hit by a Chinese ban on low-quality coal that comes into effect next year.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s state planner, has banned the burning of coal with ash content of more than 16 per cent or sulphur content of more than 1 per cent from 2015 in populous and prosperous eastern cities that are the focus of national efforts to fight air pollution.

That would in effect bar the import of lower-quality coal from Australia, southern Africa and elsewher, since the cities along the east coast are also the biggest consumers of imported coal.

The move comes as a glut of coal builds in China, placing pressure on prices and buffeting local economies in China’s coal heartlands.

“Eastern China coal demand is peaking this year, sooner than expected due to pollution curbs, long-distance transmission from inland power plants and a flood of new hydropower projects coming online,” said Alex Whitworth, of energy consultancy IHS in Beijing.

The new regulations ban the mining or import of low-grade coal with ash content above 40 per cent or sulphur content above 3 per cent. They restrict the transport of coal with ash content of more than 20 per cent or sulphur content of more than 1 per cent.

Daniel Morgan, analyst at UBS in Sydney, said many Australian exporters that did not meet the new specifications could respond by washing or blending coal. “This would require a massive sampling and compliance regime in China in order to be implemented,” he added. (www.chinainout.com)

Euro against RMB Options Trading Surges

Rising renminbi trade settlement and a sliding euro are fuelling a surge in hedging between the two currencies by both multinationals and investors.

Daily trading volume in euro-renminbi options has risen from about 100m at the start of the year to at least 300m, according to estimates from HSBC, as European corporate clients and fund managers increasingly look to manage their exposure to the Chinese currency. On busy days, that figure could rise as high as 600m, the bank said.

While estimates vary on the size of the market, those involved agree that it has grown significantly this year, driven largely by demand from European companies.

“As more and more corporates have trade settlement in renminbi, they don’t necessarily want to go through the dollar. They want the direct conversion,” said Andrew Sharkey, head of FX options trading in Asia for HSBC, one of the biggest participants in the market.

Growing turnover in renminbi options trading this year – particularly against the euro – had been “phenomenal”, he added.

FX options products allow companies to reduce risk by buying the right to buy or sell a currency during a fixed period and at an agreed price. These contracts typically run for six to 12 months in the offshore renminbi market.

The pick-up in hedging coincides with an increase in two-way volatility in the renminbi. This year the renminbi experienced a sharp slide, during which it lost as much as 3.8 per cent against the US dollar in a few weeks.

Though small compared with other emerging market currency drops, the move was the biggest for the renminbi in years, and caught many investors and companies off-guard after years of a slow but steady climb for the Chinese currency.

More recently the renminbi has been bouncing back, while the euro has been weakening significantly as the European Central Bank has taken steps to ease policy in the currency bloc.

The rise of euro-renminbi options trading follows a steady increase in the use of the currency to settle goods traded with China, especially within the eurozone.

European companies with large sales in China have been among the most active in hedging their exposure to the renminbi.

Charles Feng, head of FX, rates and credit trading for Greater China at Standard Chartered, said interest from European companies in using renminbi to settle trade was “growing rapidly”, fuelling activity in the options market.

“The weaker euro has attracted corporate clients to speed up their hedging,” he said. “As corporates become more aware of the depth and the liquidity in the offshore renminbi market, they are using it more frequently and in greater size.”

Options trading against the renminbi in other currencies – such as the Japanese yen and sterling – has also been rising, prompted in part by the steep sell-off in the Chinese currency this year but also by the strength of the US dollar. (www.chinainout.com)

American Big-data Market Brings Economic Growth?

Our business world stands today at the threshold of a new industry, as “big data” gains value on a very big scale. Vast quantities of information are evolving rapidly into an asset class in its own right, akin to software and hardware with their own ecosystems and competitive dynamics and innovation cycles. And of course, legal issues.

There are troves of data being collected and stored and used by governments and companies globally. Complex algorithms are being developed to extract value from all this data. Retailers, for example, have a more detailed account of our lives than we ourselves can access. With their massive number of customer touch points, they’re so data-rich that they know what products and services customers want before consumers even know it themselves.

Some of this might sound a bit creepy. While retailers are not breaking any laws, there is much debate about the need for policies to harmonize privacy, prudence, social acceptance, and ownership with an undeniably massive business opportunity. But setting aside the privacy issues, what sort of legal regime do we need to ensure this new industry grows, and provides maximum private and public value? Do we leave the growing big data asset class to the law of the jungle? Or do we need new rules to foster growth and make our country the world’s most attractive home for the business of big data? These aren’t just abstract legal questions; they’re questions going directly to our patent, trademark, and copyright — intellectual property — laws.

When software was in its nascent stages, it was given away for free to sell hardware. Over the course of a few short decades an industry emerged. And along with it our legal system adapted to foster growth through new and evolving copyright, patent, and trade secret regimes. Now, software is a multi-hundred-billion dollar industry enjoying rapid growth and innovation, delivering bright new consumer benefits and life-saving breakthroughs at warp speed. And the U.S. leads the software industry practically across the board.

Many would say our country’s leadership is attributable in no small measure to our supportive intellectual property laws that have struck just the right balance between providing incentives for investment in innovation and providing access to third parties.
So taking software as a guide, it is fair to say the stakes are high, and policy matters. But no existing policy device within our current intellectual property system is tailored to mediate big data. However, it may be possible to interpret or re-fashion our IP laws so that the best protections and incentives are afforded to the data industry and the maximum social good is realized. While we do not yet have a complete roadmap for the interplay between big data and IP, we do have a few viable starting points. For one, our patent and copyright systems can continue to play their current roles – protecting inventive ways to draw value from data (through patents) and the creative aspects of data (through copyrights). There is certainly no evidence that a much greater or lesser level of protection is called for in these areas, and there is wisdom in the old saw: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The trademark system (think brands like Coke and McDonalds) may have an especially important role to play in accelerating the development of data as an asset class. Certification marks in particular may prove quite useful. Businesses and consumers alike benefit greatly from the vetting and standards compliance testing performed by certification organizations, such as the widely recognized and trusted UL (Underwriters Laboratories).

once these organizations certify compliance by an applicable product or service, they permit the purveyor to affix a certification mark. When you purchase a lamp or a toaster, the “UL Certified” mark provides assurance that the appliance will plug into the socket in your wall and work with your home’s electrical system.

How would this work in the big data industry? A data certification mark would attest that the applicable data is accurate, properly formatted, and thoroughly covers the subject. In effect, the mark would certify that the data’s prongs will fit into the analytical software’s wall socket.

One can envision standards-setting organizations establishing norms and permitting use of applicable certification marks by those who collect, clean, organize, format, store, retain, curate, and provide data according to an agreed-upon level of quality and accuracy. Such standards in turn would enable just the kind of cross-use (between industries like retail and healthcare), follow-on use (beyond the purpose for which the data was originally collected, such as wher soil composition data is used to understand moisture levels), and study (such as by academic, government, or industry researchers) that promise to make big data a huge creator of value.

At present, there is no reason to believe radical changes are needed in the IP system to render it safe for the advent of the data era. New opportunities for the trademark regime along the lines described above should be considered. In the end, the nations and regions that maintain a policy focus on fostering the growth of the data industry will be well positioned to lead into another promising field spinning out from information and computer technology. ( more wonderful news plz into www.chinainout.com)

Chinese Women Driving the Global Diamond Sales

De Beers said, Chinese women, especially married women pulled up the global diamond and jewelry sales, so that 2013 sales rose 3% year-on-year and reached a record $79 billion.

According to De Beers reports, Chinese demand for diamonds in 2013 rose 14%, which is the fastest growing worldwide. Most of the demand is created by the married women, whose purchase volume accounted for about two thirds of the amount of the purchase and sale.

In China, the purchase amount of ladies engaged takes up about 20% of the total purchase amount and less than 25% of sales; the purchase amount of single women accounts for about 14% of the purchase amount, and 11% of sales.

Mellier recognized that China is still the largest contributor to global growth in demand for diamond and jewelry, but the growth rate begins to slow down. 

He also said that in the past 5-10 years, China was the motivation for that diamond business grows rapidly. Although the diamond business growth has declined, the diamond business in China still has much room for growth. 

In recent years, with the number of new diamond mines discovered reducing, the productivity of the diamond reduced. Diamond mines in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia also tends to dry up. The deeper the mine is, the smaller profit margins diamond business has.　　

Chinese demand for polished diamonds in the past 10 years has fully been demonstrated. The percent of China's demand for diamonds in total global demand increased from 2003 3% to 2013 13%. 

At the same time, sales of diamonds in India and Japan in 2013 (in dollar terms) respectively decreased by 10% and 6%. (more news about China pls visit www.chinainout.com)

Learn How to Make Money from Millionaires

The world economy is in downturn, however, the number of billionaires worldwide has reached its highest record levels. A new survey released on the 17th, new billionaires worldwide in 2014 reaches 155, the total number rose to a record of 2325, up 7% over 2013.

According to Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census released by Wealth-X and unio Bank of Switzerland (UBS) on 17th, men account for 88% in "millionaire club", on average, 63 years old, with two children, net worth of $3.1 billion. More than half (54%) of them relied on their own hard work to get rich, and the rest get rich either by inherit property or by combination of inheritance and their own efforts.

Billionaire refers to those whose net assets exceed $1 billion. Report shows that the financial sector, banking, investment and real estate is the most concentrated areas of tycoons.


With 571 billionaires, the United States is still at the top of the world's most billionaires countries until June 2014; China and the United Kingdom rank second and third, respectively, 190 and 130. Over the past year, the number of billionaires in India decreases 3% and India with 100 millionaires ranks sixth.

Simon Smiles, chief investment officer of wealth manage for high-net clients of UBS noted a trend rich people bet is the increase of potential spending power in the economy of the country like China. Such investments are usually through their private equity or direct investment, rather than the open market. (more wonderful news pls visit www.chinainout.com)

China's Ministry of Commerce: Commercial Performance in Domestic Market

In the first seven months of this year, the domestic consumer market remained steady. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, total retail sales of consumer goods in January-July reached RMB 14.4974 trillion, up 12.1% year on year, the same as that of the first half year, and 0.7 percentage points slower than that of the same period of last year. In July, the retail sales of consumer goods increased 12.2%, up 10.5% with price factors excluded. Following are the main characteristics of the consumer market in January-July.

1. Information consumption grew rapidly. Among 5,000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce, online shopping was up 35.2% in July, 5.3 percentage points higher than that of the first half year. The rapid development of 4G spurred the consumption of related products, and according to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, sales of communication equipments of enterprises above designated size in July was up 24.2% year on year. 

2. Consumer demands for services increased. Catering enterprises transformed to popularization, and middle-level catering consumption with brands and features was active. In July, catering revenue was up 9.4%, with that of catering enterprises under designated size up 12.7%. According to statistics, the film tickets revenue in July reached RMB 3.61 billion, up 102% year on year. 

3. Housing and automobile consumption was slow but steady. Among 5,000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce, sales of household appliances, furniture, building and decoration materials were respectively up 7.9%, 9.9% and 14.2% in July, 0.1, 4.8 and 3.4 percentage points higher than that of the previous month, slow but steady. Automobile consumption picked up after the falling of March, and in July, the sales of automobile enterprises above designated size was up 8.1%, 1.2 percentage points higher than that of the previous month. 

4. Rural consumption grew steadily. Driven by the rapid increase of rural residents’ income and the optimization of the rural social security system and commodity circulation system, rural consumption enjoyed a steady growth. In January-July, rural consumption increased 13.2%, exceeding that of towns, which was 12%. 

5. Sales of large and medium-sized circulation enterprises slowed down. In January-July, sales of 5,000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce was up 6.3% year on year, 2.5 percentage points slower than that of the same period of last year, among which, sales of department stores and supermarkets went up 4.1% and 5.2% respectively, 7.1 and 3 percentage points slower than that of the same period of last year. In January-July, retail sales of consumer goods of enterprises above designated size were up 9.8%, 2.3 percentage points slower than the total. 

6. Consumer prices remained steady. According to figures of the National Bureau of Statistics in January-July, CPI was up 2.3% year on year, the same as that of the previous month. According to the Ministry of Commerce, in 36 large and medium-sized cities, prices of agro-foodstuff went up 2.4% year on year in June, 0.2 percentage points slower than that of June. Among that, the prices of vegetables, eggs, milk and fruit went up 6.6%, 7.4%, 9.8% and 20.2% respectively, while prices of pork and soybean oil went down 5% and 3.3% respectively. (www.chinainout.com excerpts from Ministry of Commerce)