Archive for February, 2015

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14/02/2015

Jack Ma Tells Alibaba Staffers: No Red Packets This Year – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Instead of handing out envelopes of cash to Alibaba’s employees this Lunar New Year, Jack Ma is distributing a huge reality check.

Chinese companies typically hand out red envelopes – known as hongbao – stuffed with money to employees on the eve of the big Lunar New Year holiday, which begins Wednesday. Alibaba Group would seem to be good for a similar reward, given its $25 billion initial public offering bonanza in September.

But in a post on his personal microblog site Friday, Mr. Ma said such rewards are reserved only for exceptional results.

“The reason for not distributing red envelopes is that in the past year, Alibaba Group has not had exceptional results and not had any special surprises,” said Mr. Ma, the company’s founder and executive chairman. “The success of becoming listed should not be a surprise as it was the result of all of Alibaba’s employees’ work over 15 years. But aside from going public, objectively speaking, we haven’t been that satisfied with our results in 2014 that we should distribute red envelopes.

“We must objectively and calmly see our own results, rationally regard external views and not let ourselves be lost in illusory fame,” he said.

Ouch.

via Jack Ma Tells Alibaba Staffers: No Red Packets This Year – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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14/02/2015

PM Modi sending top diplomat to Pakistan in thawing of ties | Reuters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sending his top diplomat to Pakistan as part of a regional tour, the first top-ranking visit since Modi broke off talks last year over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) talks to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif (R) during the closing session of 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Kathmandu November 27, 2014. REUTERS/Niranjan Shrestha/Pool/Files

The sign of a thaw in ties comes weeks after a visit to India by U.S. President Barack Obama.

The United States has long privately encouraged dialogue between India and Pakistan hoping that better ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours could lead to cooperation in other areas such as Afghanistan.

Modi called his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, early on Friday to wish his country luck in the World Cup cricket tournament beginning this weekend and to tell him that new Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyan Jaishankar will soon visit Islamabad as well as other regional capitals.

Sharif told Modi he welcomed the proposed visit of the Indian envoy to discuss all issues of common interest, the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department welcomed the move.

via PM Modi sending top diplomat to Pakistan in thawing of ties | Reuters.

Posted in History, India alert, Neighbour conflict, Politics, Territorial dispute | Leave a Comment »

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14/02/2015

China must cut pollution by half before environment improves: official | Reuters

China needs to slash emission levels by as much as half before any obvious improvements are made to its environment, a senior government official said on Friday, underscoring the challenges facing the country after three decades of breakneck growth.

A man wearing a mask walks on a street on a hazy day in Beijing in this file photo taken on October 24, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Zhai Qing, China’s deputy minister of environmental protection, told a briefing that pollutants had been cut by just “a few percentage points” since 2006 and had to drop much further if any progress is to be made.

“According to expert assessments, emissions will have to fall another 30-50 percent below current levels if we are to see noticeable changes in environmental quality,” he said.

China has vowed to close vast swathes of ageing heavy industrial capacity and slash coal consumption in heavily populated eastern coastal regions as part of its war on pollution.

Last November, it imposed draconian restrictions on industry throughout northern China in order to guarantee air quality during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in Beijing. Zhai said emissions in the region fell by more than 50 percent during the meeting.

He said China’s ability to control pollution was still “limited” and its policies still needed to be improved.

Only eight of the 74 cities monitored by the ministry met national pollution standards last year, according to official data published earlier this month.

via China must cut pollution by half before environment improves: official | Reuters.

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12/02/2015

High-speed trains steer to overseas destinations[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn

Chinese high-speed train companies are eyeing more contracts in overseas markets.

High-speed trains steer to overseas destinations

“The US will be the next strategic focus for us, after successfully winning the Boston contract,” Yu Weiping, vice-president of China CNR Corp, told China Daily on Wednesday.

CNR won a 4.12 billion yuan ($659 million) contract last year to supply metro cars to Boston’s subway system, the first US rolling stock order with a Chinese company.

“At least part of the metro cars will be assembled locally,” said Yu, who is in charge of the company’s overseas business. The company is exploring more opportunities in cities such as New York and Washington.

CNR also won a contract last year to supply 232 diesel locomotives to South Africa. Yu said the company will establish local manufacturing companies and create jobs for local employees.

Li Wen, deputy general manager of the corporate business department at the Export-Import Bank of China, said on Wednesday that the bank is involved in promoting a group of important railway projects, including a high-speed train project in California. Li said at the end of January that the bank had provided $13 billion in loans to 35 overseas railway equipment export and rail construction projects.

CNR and CSR, China’s major high-speed train manufacturer, have announced a plan to merge to become the world’s largest train manufacturer. Shareholders will vote on the move on March 9.

via High-speed trains steer to overseas destinations[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn.

Posted in China alert, Economics, exports, Manufacturing, railway | Leave a Comment »

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12/02/2015

Racing the elephant against the dragon | The Economist

IN 1991 India’s finance minister presented a budget to India’s parliament that would change the economic history of his country. His reforms dispensed with mounds of the red tape that reined in Indian growth, and opened up many industries to foreign capital. But India was a late-comer to the liberalisation game; China had been opening its economy since the 1970s and accelerated its efforts in the 1990s. China’s reforms have been the more successful; except for a brief period in 1999, the Chinese economy has consistently outperformed its smaller neighbour. But that picture may soon reverse.

Official statistics published on February 9th revealed that India’s GDP rose by 7.5% in 2014, a shade faster than China’s over the same period. Later this month Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is likely to push new reforms. India also enjoys a demographic advantage. Whereas China’s workforce began to shrink in 2012, more than half of India’s current population is younger than 25. India, rather than China, may henceforth be the symbol of rapid emerging-market growth.

via Daily chart: Racing the elephant against the dragon | The Economist.

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12/02/2015

India Passes China to Become World’s Fastest-Growing Economy – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Everyone from the World Bank to Goldman Sachs had predicted it wouldn’t happen for another two years but recent recalculations indicate that India has already dethroned China as the world’s fastest-growing big economy.

Late Monday, India’s statistics ministry surprised economists when it unveiled the new numbers for the growth of India’s gross domestic product. It ratcheted up India’s GDP growth figures using a new methodology that pegs expansion in Asia’s third-largest economy at 7.5% last quarter and 8.2% the quarter before that. Economists and the ministry, using the old methodology, had originally said growth was closer to 5.5% during those quarters.

While economists, investors and executives are still wondering how growth could have been so high during those quarters when other indicators suggested times were tough, the new official numbers mean that India outpaced China, taking the pole position as the fastest-growing major economy in the world.

India has been able to catch up because China’s growth has been slowing. The Middle Kingdom’s GDP expansion was 7.3% in both the third and fourth quarters of 2014. While there are smaller economies which may have had stronger growth, this puts India on top after decades driving in China’s slipstream.

Of course, China’s economy is still four times the size of India’s.

“There’s no comparison between these growth rates because of the size of the economy of China,” said Ashish Kumar, director general of the Central Statistics Office as he announced the new GDP growth numbers.  “If this kind of growth continues and China continues to perform at a lower level, then still it will take 20 to 30 years to catch up.”

Still, if it can keep up this pace at least India will be gaining some ground. More importantly, a return to high growth might mean India is following in China’s footsteps and entering a take-off phase.

The South Asian nation needs to revamp its economy to help create more manufacturing jobs and savings if it wants to become the next China, said Frederic Neumann, an economist at HSBC in a recent report.

“That’s a challenging transformation,” he said. “India may never quite match the rapid ascent of China, but even at a slightly slower speed it will start to make waves.”

via India Passes China to Become World’s Fastest-Growing Economy – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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11/02/2015

Chinese Companies Named and Shamed on List of Deforestation ‘Powerbrokers’ – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Foshan Saturday Shoes , headquartered in southern China, might not be a Fortune 500 company. But on Wednesday, it and 29 other Chinese companies landed on a different kind of powerhouse list.

Launched by research group the Global Canopy Programme, the so-called “Forest 500” list aims to chart out the 500 companies, countries and investors that play the biggest role in what they term the “global deforestation economy.” Together, the group said, those 500 control the global supply chains of commodities such as timber, palm oil and beef that together account for more than $100 billion in trade.

It’s not just appetite for exotic timbers or plain old plywood that’s landed China a particularly prominent role in that ranking, said the Global Canopy Programme’s Mario Rautner. From demand for soybeans to land-intensive cattle and their sundry byproducts, the country is one of the most important driving forces helping raze trees and clear land overseas, he said.

Foshan Saturday Shoes scored a 1 out of a 0-5 ranking measuring adherence to various sustainability initiatives and reporting and transparency, among other factors, with 0 being the lowest score possible. Chinese dairy giant Mengniu also scored a 1, as did food processing company COFCO.  Mengniu and COFCO didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative for Foshan Saturday Shoes said he didn’t see any connection the company had to deforestation and wasn’t in a position to comment on it.

The list aims to evaluate how well the ranked companies are doing in the fight against deforestation. Among countries that import heavily from tropical forest regions – accounting for 35% of global leather imports from such areas, for example – China scores conspicuously poorly, he said, behind neighbors such as Japan, India and Korea. The study examined public procurement policies, governance and commitment to reducing deforestation.

Inclusion on the list by itself isn’t necessarily indicative of their contribution to deforestation, Mr. Rautner said. “We’re not saying these 500 are causing deforestation directly,” he said. “They are powerbrokers.” For example, various multinationals’ performance was praised, depending on their participation in initiatives such as the Consumer Goods Forum, a corporate alliance that has resolved to try and achieve zero net deforestation by 2020.

via Chinese Companies Named and Shamed on List of Deforestation ‘Powerbrokers’ – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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10/02/2015

BBC News – Delhi election: Arvind Kejriwal’s party routs Modi’s BJP

An anti-corruption party has won a stunning victory in the Delhi state elections in a huge setback for India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man's Party, Arvind Kejriwal waves to the crowd as his party looks set for a landslide party in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015

The BJP admitted defeat after Arvind Kejriwal‘s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 67 of the 70 assembly seats.

Mr Modi congratulated the AAP leader, whose career seemed doomed a year ago when he quit as Delhi’s chief minister over a crucial anti-corruption bill.

It is the BJP’s first setback since it triumphed in the 2014 general election.

Correspondents say the win marks a remarkable comeback for Arvind Kejriwal, a former tax inspector.

His party was routed by the BJP in last May’s general elections, months after the AAP made a spectacular debut in the 2013 Delhi elections.

Mr Modi has enjoyed huge popularity since taking office last year, winning a string of local elections and wooing international investors and world leaders.

Final results gave Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just three seats. India’s main opposition Congress party failed to win even a single seat.

via BBC News – Delhi election: Arvind Kejriwal’s party routs Modi’s BJP.

Posted in Economics, India alert, Internal politics, Politics | 1 Comment »

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10/02/2015

Pollution: The cost of clean air | The Economist

A DESOLATE scene surrounds Little Zhang’s Tyre Repair in the dusty rock-mining township of Shijing, in the northern province of Hebei. Zhang Minsheng, the owner, still gets some business from passing traffic. But the recent closure of nearby rock quarries, because of air-pollution restrictions, has taken its toll. He reckons his monthly income has fallen by 30-40% to around 4,000 yuan ($640). Next door a wholesale coal business has closed. So too have a small family-owned barbecue restaurant and an alcohol, tobacco and grocery store. Red characters posted by their entrances still forlornly proclaim their “grand opening”.

Last year on a typically smoggy day in Beijing, Li Keqiang, the prime minister, declared “war” on air pollution—a problem that has become a national fixation. Smog remains a grave danger in most Chinese cities, but environmental measures are beginning to show teeth. Regulators in the most polluted provinces are ordering mass closures of offending enterprises. In some areas officials are being punished for failing to control pollution. Policymakers are placing less emphasis on GDP growth—long an obsession of officials at all levels of government—and talking up greenness.

The transformation will be painful. China’s new toughness on polluting quarries, mills and factories coincides with an economic slowdown that will make it harder to create new jobs for those laid off. Slower growth is in line with the government’s efforts to curb wasteful investment, and with it a dangerous build-up of debt. The slowdown also happens to be helpful in curtailing pollution: China’s consumption of coal, a huge contributor to smog as well as to climate-change emissions, fell slightly in 2014 after 14 years of growth.

Mr Li’s war is especially bloody in Hebei, which is blamed for much of the smog in Beijing. Keeping the air of the capital clean is a political priority. Chinese leaders have been embarrassed by the damage caused to China’s international image by the city’s relentlessly grey skies. They worry that the smog could fuel dissatisfaction with the government and undermine stability in the capital, as well as affect their own and their families’ health. Dutifully, Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, has been trying to clean up. Since the beginning of 2013 it has reported closing down 18,000 polluting factories. In January Hebei Daily, a state-run newspaper, said that in Mancheng county, to which Shijing township belongs, 37 rock quarries and rubble pits had been shut.

via Pollution: The cost of clean air | The Economist.

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10/02/2015

Derrière Diplomacy: Chinese Consumers Swamp Japanese Toilet Stores – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Call it backdoor diplomacy. In what might be called a sign of easing tensions between China and Japan, Chinese shoppers have been flocking to their island neighbor in droves to snap up toilet seats.

Lest one should be inclined to pooh-pooh, these are not commodes of your grandmother’s variety. They aren’t even the simple single-stream sprays, which are to the bidet world what Neanderthals are to human evolution.

These bidet toilet seats are masterpieces of Japanese creativity and consideration, featuring warm water options, heated seats and the ability to kill germs and unwanted odors. News segments on the shopping frenzy shown on Chinese state television showed a Japanese store manager bemused by herds of Chinese tour groups who take just one afternoon to clean out, so to speak, his entire store. Price per bidet? Just 2,000 yuan ($320) a pop.

The Japanese have long been among the world’s finest purveyors of bidet sprays. In Japan, bidets have, if anything, an excess of features. China Real Time stayed in a Tokyo hotel last year that included a remote control, as if the designer believed its user could have been located somewhere beyond the immediate vicinity of the spray.

This being a Sino-Japan matter, even toilet seats carry political meaning. Perhaps in keeping with warmer bilateral ties, some of the commentary took a friendly tone.

via Derrière Diplomacy: Chinese Consumers Swamp Japanese Toilet Stores – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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