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Economics & Trade

Productivity gains could increase unemployment

Charles Wolf, a Rand Corp senior economic adviser, told the South China Morning Post that mainland unemployment was closer to 23%, not 4.5% as officially stated, and warned that pressure to raise productivity while maintaining high economic growth would compromise Beijing's efforts to reduce unemployment. Wolf said while sustaining high growth and generating more jobs […]

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Law & Regulation

COFCO merged with state-owned trading firm

China Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Import and Export Corp (COFCO) took over state-owned trading firm China National Native Produce and Animal By-Products Import and Export as part of China's World Trade Organization commitments. Changes to China's Foreign Trade Law, which abolished state monopolies on grain, petroleum, fertilizers, cotton, sugar and oils, took effect on July […]

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Commodities

CITIC in talks to invest in Australia iron project

CITIC is in talks with Australia mining company Fortescue Metals Group to invest as much as US$1.26 billion in an iron mining project in Western Australia. Steelmakers signed letters of intent to buy a total of 60 million metric tons of iron a year for 25 years through the project. The project would consist of […]

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Energy & Environment

Sinopec out of PetroChina gas project

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), which was to take a 5% stake in PetroChina's West-East natural gas pipeline, will not invest in the project after all. PetroChina Chairman Chen Geng revealed the news after announcing PetroChina's first half results, a 17.3% rise in net profit, to RMB 45.29 billion. The speculation is Sinopec decided […]

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Economics & Trade

China Pharmaceutical ups capacity to beat controls

China Pharmaceutical Group said it will expand capacity and reduce unit costs by 5-30% to offset the impact of stiffer state price controls. The antibiotics and vitamin C maker said it has budgeted US$100 million this year to double annual production of its vitamin C product � to 30,000 tonnes � and its intermediate antibiotic […]