FOREX

Conversion of the Chinese currency unit CNY (Yuan or RMB) against the USD:

CNY 1.00 is worth: USD 0.157678
USD 1.00 is worth: CNY 6.342000

 

ECONOMIC OVERVIEW

= CHINA CALLS FOR DEEPER SINO-DUTCH COOPERATION =

Beijing, Nov. 06, 2011; == China's top political advisor JIA Qing-Lin said China and The Netherlands should deepen cooperation in order to boost common prosperity. According to Jia, Holland has been China's second biggest trading partner in the European Union for eight consecutive years. Bilateral trade between the two countries reached a record high of USD 56.2bn in 2010, while investment from the Netherlands in China has so far amounted to USD 12bn.

= JP MORGAN CONFIDENT IN CHINA’s GROWTH =

Beijing, Oct. 31, 2011; == JP Morgan said its business in China will maintain robust growth, despite gloomy prospects for the global financial sector. Due to new banking regulations and financial turmoil in the Euro zone, banking profitability has been in decline over the past 12 months. Shao Zili, China head of JP Morgan, said the bank remains confident in its plan to double its revenue in China over the next three years. The rapid growth in China comes as JP Morgan reported this month that its global third-quarter earnings fell 4% overall.

= CHINESE BANKS HALT EUROPEAN FX DEALS =

Beijing, Sep. 23, 2011; == The Bank of China (BOC) stopped foreign exchange forwards and swaps trading with several European banks due to the unfolding debt crisis in Europe. Another Chinese bank also said it had halted interest rate swaps trading with some European banks, indicating that Chinese lenders had also joined the growing ranks of institutions cutting exposure to the crisis-hit euro zone. The European banks include French lenders Société Générale, Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas.

= AMERICAN FIRM SUES FOR CHINESE ESPIONAGE =

Washington DC, Sep.22, 2011; == American wind-turbine designer American Superconductor decided to sue its biggest customer — Chinese manufacturer Sinovel Wind Group Co — for corporate espionage. The US company accuses Sinovel of agreeing to pay more than USD1m to an American Superconductor employee in Austria to steal valuable software that controls turbines and gave it to the Chinese company. The individual now faces criminal charges for the alleged theft. The software was expected to account for 70% of American Superconductor's revenue this year.

= JP MORGAN RECRUITS MOST OF ITS BANKERS FROM CHINA =

New York, Feb.25,2011; == During 2010 JP Morgan hired the biggest number of bankers in China for its global corporate bank business and it is confident that expansion will not slow in 2011 as the bank taps on the higher outbound investments by Chinese companies. The New York-based bank hired about 100 bankers last year and several hundred supporting staff. The bank said earlier it would invest USD100mln annually to hire bankers for the business to aim for a market share of more than 10% over the short to medium period.

= CHINA RESTRICTS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES =

Beijing, Feb. 14, 2011; = International conferences held in the country will be subject to stricter government approval procedures and sterner budgetary oversight, according to a joint statement issued by the Ministry of Finance and Foreign Affairs Ministry in Beijing. Any bid to hold international conferences must be approved by the relevant authorities, the statement said, and events lacking substantial content will not be permitted, it added. The notice, in principle, also forbids conferences being held purely under reciprocal arrangements by domestic or foreign partners. Events held under this arrangement, where, for example, a meeting is held in China after being held in another country the year before, must be evaluated for their importance and sustainability. The new rules aim to tighten the management of international conferences held in China, and the scale of such events should be restricted, the ministries said. "The presumption that conferences with more participants are more important is wrong and should be corrected. Prudence should be exercised for events with more than 100 participants, or they face possible rejection” according to the statement. The notice also stipulates that local governments and departments should restrict the number of international conferences inviting Party or State leaders, and should not promise foreign participants the presence of Chinese leaders. Words such as "summit" or "international seminars" should not be used without approval, it said. The Ministry of Finance also ordered local governments and all government departments to cap expenditure for hosting international conferences. Hotel budgets should be strictly monitored, and items such as toothpaste, towels, toothbrushes, souvenirs, and gifts "should not be given", it said. Sightseeing trips and visits should be banned and only buffets, instead of banquets, should be served. In addition, foreign participants, except VIPs, will have to cover their own traveling costs and accommodation expenses, the ministries ordered.

= BOC TO INCREASE AIRCRAFT ASSETS =

Beijing, Jan. 28, 2011; = BOC Aviation, the aircraft-financing unit of Bank of China, said that it is looking to order more aircraft from manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing this year, as the airline industry rebounds strongly from the global economic downturn. BOC Aviation CEO Robert Martin said the company, which owns and manages around USD 6.6bn worth of aircraft assets, was aiming to increase the assets to between USD 7.5 and USD 8bn by the end of 2011. He said BOC Aviation has just started the research process for aircraft procurement, which could last six to nine months.

= NEW RULES FOR FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES =

Beijing, Nov. 27, 2010; = China published a new regulation effecting the registration of resident representative offices for foreign companies. The regulation, to become effective on March 01, 2011, includes rules on registration, establishment, information change, cancellation of registration and legal responsibilities of the representative offices of foreign companies in the People’s Republic. According to the regulation, such representative offices are not allowed to conduct business in China, but they can perform market surveys, product or service display and promotion, and liaise on behalf of their parent companies. Full text of the regulation is available on the Chinese government's website (www.gov.cn).

= INCREASED TAXES FOR FOREIGN COMPANIES =

Beijing, Oct. 25, 2010; == China's Ministry of Finance announced that, starting 1 December 2010, all foreign-invested companies operating in China will pay the same tax as Chinese firms. China will add two more taxes on foreign firms, namely the Urban Maintenance and Construction Tax and Extra Charges of Education Funds, which were launched in the country in 1985 and 1986, respectively. China has exempted the two taxes on foreign-owned and foreign-invested companies since 1994 in an effort to boost its Foreign Direct Investment.

= NO LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR FOREIGN COMPANIES IN CHINA =

Beijing, Sep.01,2010; == Foreign companies are losing important market share in China across a broad range of industries because of discriminatory treatment by the government and regulators, according to the European Chamber of Commerce in China. In its annual position paper, the organisation aired a host of complaints from its member companies and explicitly accused Beijing of violating its World Trade Organisation commitments through its heavy-handed certification requirements. China uses business licensing to restrict foreign access to some sectors and applies “vague and unprecedentedly broad definitions of public security and critical infrastructure” in its certification of a wide range of products, the EU Chamber said.

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