Australia will likely begin negotiating a free trade pact with China after a feasibility study is complete, Australia's prime minister, John Howard, said. The study will determine if a China-Australia trade accord would benefit both countries. Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile was in Beijing to discuss issues raised in the study and said that by […]
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Official data shows China's textile and apparel exports to the EU jumped 47% year-on-year to about US$1.5bn in January, and apparel exports to the US reached US$989m, up 80%, following the end of global quotas on textiles and apparel and affirming fears that China would flood the market with cheap goods. The surge in China's […]
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Bank hires CIC for IPO
China's biggest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, has hired China's largest investment bank, China International Capital, to launch an initial public offering expected to generate a record US$10bn, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plan. China International is to advise on a reorganization of the bank's US$640bn assets, positioning the investment […]
About US$1.3bn was injected by foreign venture capitalists to fund more than 250 high-tech start-ups in China, concerns about China's intellectual-property violations not withstanding, according to World Bank affiliate International Finance Corp. Investment increased 28% from the previous year, while the number of deals rose 43%, the IFC said.
Beijing aims to top last year's record grain production by redoubling efforts to protect farmland and spending billions to raise farmers' income and strengthening rural infrastructure, the agricultural minister said. Last year's grain production totaled 470m tons and farmers income rose 6.8%, the highest growth rate since 1997.