Although China is trying hard to shift to an economy powered by domestic consumption rather than exports, trade still weighs heavily in its economic blueprint for the next two decades. China aims to strengthen its position as a big trading nation in the next decade and to become a strong trader after 2021, Vice Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said at a forum organized by the Development Research Center under the State Council, China's Cabinet, according to a statement published yesterday ...

China's land sales may top 2 trillion yuan ($302 billion) this year as the nation tries to control rising home prices. Analysts said that surging land sales would be detrimental to the nation's economic health and the government must work to keep them low. The new prediction compares with 1.5 trillion yuan for last year, the People's Daily reported on Monday, without elaborating on the source of the information. China's land sales have been increasing rapidly in recent years. In 2001-20 ...

Sellers offering tickets for CCTV's annual Spring Festival Gala on online platform Taobao.com have been banned after the website found the free tickets being sold at prices up to 30,000 yuan (US$4,524) each. Taobao officials said that all the online shops offering the tickets had been shut down by yesterday afternoon and they would take measures to prevent the business from resurfacing. The Wuhan Evening News yesterday quoted China Central Television officials as saying that th ...

Friendly policies for overseas investors to invest in China's biofuel sector have influenced partnerships between domestic and foreign companies to develop the alternative to fossil fuel. Green Biologics (GBL), a British biotech company, has signed deals with two Chinese biochemical producers - Guangxi Jinyuan Biochemical and Lianyungang Union of Chemicals, the Financial Times reported. Under the agreements, which are expected to be worth $15 million over the next five years, Green Biologi ...

China will "actively" encourage automobile imports over the next five years through a series of favorable policies as the nation expands imports to better balance its economy, said an official with the Ministry of Commerce. The ministry is planning an automobile import promotion strategy with the Ministry of Finance and the General Administration of Customs to restructure and strengthen the nation's auto industry during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), said Qian Jingfen, an official with ...

A blizzard pummeled the northeastern United States yesterday, dumping up to 74 centimeters of snow, disrupting air and rail travel and making driving hazardous at the end of the busy Christmas weekend. New York City, eastern New Jersey and western Long Island were the hardest hit by the storm, which blew up the Atlantic Coast on Sunday night and continued up to the yesterday morning commute, unleashing powerful winds and grounding cities to a halt. New York's three major airpor ...

Christmas has just come and gone, but another holiday is on its way. The Chinese new year is approaching and, thus, so is the year of the rabbit and a new business opportunity. Symbols of the fluffy animal can be found on goods ranging from slippers to gold bars. Our reporter went to Shanghai to see how the lunar new year is boosting business. Here is Shanghai, one can find many of goods plastered with pictures of rabbits -- gloves, stationery, slippers and more. Customers are busy p ...

Following the interest rate hike, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced it would raise the Public Housing Fund mortgage rate for home buyers by a quarter of a percentage point. It will take effect this Wednesday. The rate for loans with a maturity of five years or less under the scheme would be raised to 3 and 3 quarters of a percent. Meanwhile the rate for loans with a maturity of over five years would be raised to 4.3 percent. Established in the 199 ...

After the hike, many residents are rushing to commercial banks to renew their deposits to get the higher rate on their money. But analysts say residents need to count the time, or their additional earning won't cover the lost. At an ICBC branch in Shanghai, many customers are lining up to renewal their deposits. One resident in Shanghai said "I deposited on the 25th. Now I want to renew it." But analysts warn the additional earnings may be less than the amount they lose ...

While the rate hike announcement came on a less than ideal day for bankers and analysts in the West - Christmas, that is, - it was an apparent attempt not to unsettle global and domestic markets. The hike of 25 basis points was the second hike in just over two months. So the announcement might have brought international investors into the office on a holiday, but let's see what the foreign media had to say. Reuters says the hike demonstrates that the top leaders have made fighting i ...