April | 2015 | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

03/04/2015

IBM forges mobile app partnership with China Telecom | Reuters

International Business Machines (IBM) (IBM.N) has struck a deal with China Telecom Corp Ltd (0728.HK) to offer and manage corporate-grade mobile apps, the latest in a string of tie-ups with Chinese firms.

Under the agreement, state-owned China Telecom will host on its servers IBM’sMobileFirst service, which helps corporations manage apps for Apple Inc‘s (AAPL.O) iPhone and iPad devices.

The two companies have not yet disclosed any customers but will seek out everything from large, state-owned enterprises in sectors like banking and insurance to private startups, Nancy Thomas, a Beijing-based managing partner of global business services, said in a telephone interview.

IBM’s strategy has been to deepen its presence and win favor in China through partnerships with local firms despite political headwinds.

Citing cybersecurity concerns, the Chinese government recently announced regulations that encourage state-affiliated companies to procure more tech products from domestic suppliers and shun international vendors. Western business lobbies say this is an unfair tactic to protect Chinese companies or spur technology transfer.

IBM Chief Executive Virginia Rometty said in a speech before business and political elite in Beijing last week that the company would share its technology and help Chinese companies to continue doing business in the country.

Thomas, the Beijing-based executive, said IBM intended to collaborate closely with China Telecom, the largest cloud provider in China and the largest fixed-line carrier.

“When we think about technology sharing, that is the first foundation we’ll be working on when we’re bringing MobileFirst to China Telecom’s cloud,” Thomas said.

MobileFirst is the result of a collaboration between IBM and Apple. IBM has released dozens of iPhone and iPad apps that for instance help shipping companies manage freight or provide records on-the-go for medical doctors.

via IBM forges mobile app partnership with China Telecom | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Amazon Web Services, Apple Inc., China, China Telecom, China Telecom Corp Ltd, Cisco Systems, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Ginni Rometty, IBM, International Business Machines, iPad, IPhone, Nancy Thomas, Twitter

03/04/2015

Toyota to end expansion freeze, invest $1.3 billion in two new Mexico, China plants: sources | Reuters

Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) will spend about 150 billion yen ($1.3 billion) to build two new car plants in Mexico and China, two people familiar with plans said, ending a three-year freeze imposed after unchecked growth lumbered the world’s biggest auto maker with too many idle production lines.

A visitor walks under a logo of Toyota Motor Corp at the company's showroom in Tokyo February 4, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino

Reuters reported in January that plans were in place for new plants in the two countries, awaiting a green light from top management that has now been given. President Akio Toyoda had been cautious about expanding after Toyota was hit by a capacity glut following the global financial crisis.

The new plants will raise Toyota’s annual production capacity by nearly 300,000 cars, the two people said – 200,000 in Mexico and up to 100,000 in China. They declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media, and said the expansion may be announced formally as early as this month.

The renewed expansion drive by Toyota will put more pressure on rivals such as General Motors Co (GM.N) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE), in a global automotive industry still burdened by being able to make more cars than it can sell. The increase in global production capacity of up to 300,000 compares with sales of just over 10 million in 2014.

Immediately after the financial crisis, big carmakers were cautious about adding production capacity. Now, with demand in the United States back at pre-crisis levels and China’s auto market growing, albeit more slowly, expansion is back on the agenda.

via Toyota to end expansion freeze, invest $1.3 billion in two new Mexico, China plants: sources | Reuters.

Toyota aims to halve cost of retooling in sweeping efficiency drive

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

Tags: Aichi, Akio Toyoda, Association of Global Automakers, China, General Motors, Mexico, Nissan Motor Company, Toyota, Toyota Motor Corp, vice-president, Volkswagen, Volkswagen Group

02/04/2015

African phone sales soar, Chinese makers have 30% of market – Business – Chinadaily.com.cn

With a growing number of Chinese cell phone makers taking giant strides in overseas markets, Africa, with its huge population, is also in its sights.

OPPO, a Chinese producer, has unveiled two smartphones, OPPO N3 and OPPO N5, in Morocco, taking the number of Chinese cell phone makers in Africa above 10.

The first batch of manufactures entering the African market were copy makers based in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong province, China Business News cited Yan Zhanmeng, a senior analyst of IDC China, as saying. With a smartphone boom in 2013, more famous Chinese makers have been tapping into the market, Yan added.

IDC data showed that the market share of Chinese cell phone brands rose to 30 percent in 2014, from 15 percent two years earlier. Huawei, Tecno and Alcatel have entered the top five in the African market, which surged 108 percent last year.

Africa has a population of one billion, accounting for 15 percent of the world population. Most important is that the number of cell phone users has exceed 200 million, even during the 2009 financial crisis, the growth rate hit 14.8 percent.

Nigeria, with the biggest population in Africa, currently has the most cell phone users, accounting for 16 percent of total users on the continent, followed by Egypt and South Africa. In the next five years, the most obvious growth will focused in Central and East Africa, among which growth in Ethiopia, Congo, Eritrea and Madagascar is expected to exceed 100 percent.

via African phone sales soar, Chinese makers have 30% of market – Business – Chinadaily.com.cn.

Report: Ericsson, Huawei among leaders in small cell market, which will grow to $5B by 2019

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

Tags: Alcatel-Lucent, Apple Inc., Central processing unit, China, Huawei, London, Market share, Mobile World Congress, Smartphone

02/04/2015

Why China May Have the Most Factory Robots in the World by 2017 – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Having devoured many of the world’s factory jobs, China is now handing them over to robots.

China is already the world’s largest market for industrial robots—sales of the machines last year grew 54% from 2013. The nation is expected to have more factory robots than any other country on earth by 2017, according to the German-based International Federation of Robotics.

A perfect storm of economic forces is fueling the trend. Chinese labor costs have soared, undermining the calculus that brought all those jobs to China in the first place, and new robot technology is cheaper and easier to deploy than ever before.

Not to mention that many of China’s fastest-growing industries, such as autos, tend to rely on high levels of automation regardless of where the factories are built.

“We think of them producing cheap widgets,” but that’s not what they’re focused on, says Adams Nager, an economic research analyst at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation in Washington. Mr. Nager says China is letting low-cost production shift out of the country and is focusing instead on capital-intensive industries such as steel and electronics where automation is a driving force.

via Why China May Have the Most Factory Robots in the World by 2017 – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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

Tags: ABB Group, Asia, Baxter (robot), China, industrial robots, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, International Federation of Robotics, manufacturing, Rethink Robotics, Robot, South Korea, United States

02/04/2015

Why India’s Road Safety Campaigners Welcome Lower Penalties For Speeding, Drunk Driving – India Real Time – WSJ

India’s roads ministry has dialed back plans to toughen punishments for traffic offenses including causing the death of a child in an accident and driving while drunk.

It’s a u-turn you might expect road safety campaigners to denounce.

But activists fighting to reduce fatalities on the world’s most treacherous roads say softening the penalties in the latest draft of the Road Transport and Safety Bill could make the roads safer.

Rohit Baluja, president of the New Delhi-based Institute of Road Traffic Education, said lighter punishments for traffic violations are more likely to be enforced by authorities.

“There is a need for development of infrastructure like more accurate breathalyzers and better training of police,” before stiffer fines are introduced, he added.

India has the world’s deadliest roads: More than 130,000 people were killed on its byways last year. In 2006, the country overtook China as the single-largest contributor to the global number of road deaths.

via Why India’s Road Safety Campaigners Welcome Lower Penalties For Speeding, Drunk Driving – India Real Time – WSJ.

‘Official apathy’ blamed for spurt in accidents on NH5

Posted in car, Economics, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Abuja, China, India, Institute of Road Traffic Education, Narendra Modi, Ndola, New Delhi, Nigeria, road safety campaigners, Road traffic safety, Road transport, Territorial dispute, traffic offenses, treacherous roads

02/04/2015

India’s IT plans suffer from power cuts, congestion – and monkeys | Reuters

As India launches an $18 billion plan to spread the information revolution to its provinces, the problems it faces are a holdover from the past – electricity shortages, badly planned, jam-packed cities, and monkeys.

The clash between the old world and the new is sharply in focus in the crowded 3,000-year-old holy city of Varanasi, where many devout Hindus come to die in the belief that doing so will give them salvation. Varanasi is also home to hundreds of macaque monkeys that live in its temples and are fed and venerated by devotees.

But the monkeys also feast on the fibre-optic cables that are strung along the banks of the Ganges river.

“We cannot move the temples from here. We cannot modify anything here, everything is built up. The monkeys, they destroy all the wires and eat all the wires,” said communications engineer A.P. Srivastava.

Srivastava, who oversees the expansion of new connections in the local district, said his team had to replace the riverside cables when the monkeys chewed them up less than two months after they were installed.

He said his team is now looking for alternatives, but there are few to be found. The city of over 2 million people is impossibly crowded and laying underground cable is out of the question. Chasing away or trapping the monkeys will outrage residents and temple-goers.

Varanasi is part of the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist leader who came to power last May.

A shortage of electricity is further complicating efforts to set up stable Wi-Fi in public places – daily power cuts can last for hours during the sweltering summer in Varanasi and across much of India.

Modi’s government has pledged to lay 700,000 kms (434,960 miles) of broadband cable to connect India’s 250,000 village clusters within three years, build 100 new “Smart Cities” by 2020 and shift more public services like education and health to electronic platforms to improve access and accountability.

via India’s IT plans suffer from power cuts, congestion – and monkeys | Reuters.

Posted in Economics, India alert, IT | 1 Comment »

Tags: Cisco Systems, electricity shortages, Ganges, Hindu nationalism, IBM, India, macaque monkeys, McKinsey & Company, monkeys, Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi, Wi-Fi

02/04/2015

India says will shake up trade tariffs to compete globally | Reuters

India plans to pull its tariff regime closer in line with global norms to prepare for new regional trade pacts being negotiated by advanced economies, the government said on Wednesday.

A man walks past steel rims and parked cars at a dock yard at Mumbai Port Trust in Mumbai November 17, 2014. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files

India has not been invited to join pacts such as the U.S.-led 12 country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and is “not in a position to join,” partly because its tariffs are not competitive, a top official said at the unveiling of a new five year trade policy.

“If the country is to stand up to these agreements, it’s important that we start to address these issues,” Trade Secretary Rajeev Kher said, adding that India’s access to markets was likely to erode when such pacts take effect.

Kher said India needed lower tariffs for intermediate goods to help it further integrate with global supply chains, and that these industries would have to come more competitive. He did not give more details.

Regional trade pacts are being promoted by advanced economies after years of failure to negotiate a global agreement under the World Trade Organisation.

via India says will shake up trade tariffs to compete globally | Reuters.

New Trade policy to focus on ‘Make In India’

Posted in Economics, India alert | 1 Comment »

Tags: advanced economies, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Crikey, India, India plans, Innovation and Skills, Julian Assange, New Zealand, Secretary of State for Business, Secretary Rajeev Kher, Tariff, Trade pact, trade pacts, Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, World Trade Organization

02/04/2015

Pakistan close to buying eight Chinese submarines – FT | Reuters

Pakistan is close to agreeing a multi-billion dollar deal to buy eight submarines from China, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, in what would be one of China’s largest overseas weapons sales.

The decision had been agreed “in principle”, the newspaper said, citing a hearing in the Pakistani parliament‘s defence committee. Pakistani newspaper the Dawn said negotiations with China were at an advanced stage.

Pakistani defence officials could not immediately be reached for comment. China’s Ministry of Defence declined to comment.

A former senior Pakistan navy officer with knowledge of the negotiations told the Financial Times the contract could be worth $4 billion to $5 billion.

It was unclear what type of submarine Pakistan was looking to buy but China has poured resources into developing diesel- and nuclear-powered submarines in recent years.

China and Pakistan call each other “all-weather friends” and their close ties have been underpinned by long-standing wariness of their common neighbour, India, and a desire to hedge against U.S. influence across the region.

President Xi Jinping will travel to Pakistan this month, the government in Islamabad has said. China has said Xi would visit this year but given no timeframe.

China is Pakistan’s top supplier of weapons, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which tracks global arms sales, selling 51 percent of the weapons Islamabad imported in 2010-2014.

China has also surpassed Germany to become the world’s third largest arms exporter, SIPRI said in a report last month. Little is known about China’s arms exports because the country does not publish data on such sales.

via Pakistan close to buying eight Chinese submarines – FT | Reuters.

‘Xi Jinping arriving on April 9’

Posted in China alert, Defence, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad, Kim Jong-un, Nawaz Sharif, North Korea, Pakistan, President of the People's Republic of China, Xi JinPing

01/04/2015

China to phase out outdated regulations – Xinhua | English.news.cn

China has announced a new drive to phase out outdated rules.

The State Council, the country’s cabinet, said on Tuesday that it will put all government rules and regulations since the founding of the New China under scrutiny.

A statement from the State Council said the new undertaking, which will take approximately three years, is crucial to cutting red tape and devolving power while improving regulation, and to building a law-based government.

In particular, authorities will focus on removing obsolete government regulations that now run counter to the Constitution and laws, impede deepening reform and opening up, and those that infringe on citizens’ rights and interests.

The government should make sure that “anything the law does not authorize is not done, while all duties and functions assigned by law are performed”, the statement said, adding that details of rules to be abolished will be made public and that the campaign will be based on “scientific evaluation”, so as not to leave room for “regulation vacuums”.

via China to phase out outdated regulations – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

Posted in China alert, Politics, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Bruce Billson, Commonwealth of Nations, Death, Disease, European Union, Food, Law, Minister (government), Red tape

01/04/2015

High-tech sanitation: Race to the bottom | The Economist

JAPAN is often viewed with antipathy in China, but increasingly commerce is trumping contempt. During the lunar new-year holiday in February, Chinese tourists thronged to Japan in record numbers. Many came home lugging a high-end Japanese luxury: a heated toilet-seat complete with pulsating water jets, deodorisers and even music to drown out less melodious tinklings. In recent weeks the run on Japanese loos has been a topic of much debate among Chinese commentators, revealing deep insecurities.

Chinese visitors bought more high-tech lavatory seats than almost any other Japanese product during the week-long break, according to Hottolink, a Japanese consulting firm. Most popular was a new variety with hands-free lid opening, say staff at a branch in Tokyo of Bic Camera, a consumer electronics store where Chinese shoppers are so numerous that signs advertise wares in Chinese and assistants speak Mandarin. These cost around ¥65,000 ($540). Some bought several seats, including portable, battery-powered ones.

Relations between China and Japan have shown recent, tentative signs of warmth after a long chill. But only three years ago demonstrators in several Chinese cities called for a boycott of Japanese goods in protest against Japan’s stance in a still-festering dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. Some Japanese companies responded by minimising or hiding their branding on products sold in China.

via High-tech sanitation: Race to the bottom | The Economist.

imabonehead: Why Chinese Tourists Love Japan – Bloomberg View

Posted in China alert, Economics, Import | Leave a Comment »

Tags: 2005 anti-Japanese demonstrations, China, chinese new year, chinese tourists, Demographics of China, Government of Japan, High tech, Japan, Japanese rice, Media of China, United States

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

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Archive for April, 2015

IBM forges mobile app partnership with China Telecom | Reuters

Toyota to end expansion freeze, invest $1.3 billion in two new Mexico, China plants: sources | Reuters

Why China May Have the Most Factory Robots in the World by 2017 – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Why India’s Road Safety Campaigners Welcome Lower Penalties For Speeding, Drunk Driving – India Real Time – WSJ

India’s IT plans suffer from power cuts, congestion – and monkeys | Reuters

India says will shake up trade tariffs to compete globally | Reuters

Pakistan close to buying eight Chinese submarines – FT | Reuters

China to phase out outdated regulations – Xinhua | English.news.cn

High-tech sanitation: Race to the bottom | The Economist

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