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CHANGSHA - The 7th Central China Expo, an important event for contract-signing and investment in China's central regions, started Friday in Changsha, capital of Hunan province.

More than 30,000 businessmen from 73 countries and regions, including business executives of Carrefour, Citibank, Messer, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, are attending the three-day event.

The expo aims to boost foreign and domestic investment in the central regions, which China has planned to build into favorable destinations for industrial transfers from coastal regions, at a time of economic slowdown.

Vice Premier Wang Qishan, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming, and Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico were present at the expo's opening ceremony.

China revealed "The rise of central China" strategy in 2004, following similar strategies for the west and northwest of the country, amid efforts to achieve more balanced development in different regions.

The six central provinces of Shanxi, Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei are home to one-fourth of China's population and account for one-fifth of the country's economic output.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong stocks fell 249.08 points, or 1.3 percent, to close at 18,951.85 on Friday.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 18,985.43 and 18,622.31. Turnover totaled HK$65.76 billion ($8.47 billion), compared with Thursday's HK$60.26 billion.

The 2012 Spring Auction Sales will be held at Christie's Hong Kong on May 26 to 30. Featuring over 3000 auction items with a total valuation of more than HK$2 billion.

The auction covers six categories, including Chinese paintings, ceramics and works of art, Asian 20th century and contemporary art, as well as luxury collectibles such as jewelry, watches and wine.

A Christie's employee showcases a Qianlong six-character seal marked, rare and magnificently carved celadon-glazed vase, valued at HK$25 million to 35 million, at a media preview in Hong Kong on May 17. [Photo/Xinhua] 

A Christie's employee shows a pair of Qing Dynasty cloisonné enamel caparisoned elephants, valued at HK$4 million to HK$6 million, at the media preview in Hong Kong on May 17. [Photo/Xinhua]

A visitor looks at a painting, valued at about HK$50 million, by Chinese artist Zhang Daqian at the media preview in Hong Kong on May 17. [Photo/Xinhua]

A Christie's employee presents the highest valued single product, valued at HK$32 million to HK$42 million, which is a piece of art by Changyu, at the media preview in Hong Kong on May 17. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday that the US's preliminary ruling on China-made solar cells sends "negative signals of trade protectionism" to the world.

The comment came after the US Commerce Department announced Thursday that Chinese makers had dumped solar cells and panels in the United States at margins ranging from 31.14 percent to 249.96 percent.

"The result is unjustified..., and underscores the US' tendency towards trade protectionism," said MOC spokesman Shen Danyang.

He said the US has refused to listen to defense and evidence presented by Chinese manufacturers when computing and assessing the dumping margins despite their active cooperation with the investigation.

"The practice is not objective and is unjustified," he said, urging the US Commerce Department to right the wrongs in the upcoming probes so to avoid unfair rulings.

The preliminary result will be finally adjudged by the Commerce Department in October and the International Trade Commission in November.

State-owned enterprises should absorb private capital in their restructuring, said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) in an article published on Qiushi magazine.

The article said large state-owned enterprises should lead the development of both state-owned and private firms, actively introduce strategic investors and get their core businesses listed.

According to the article over 72.1 percent of centrally-administered state-owned enterprises and their affiliated enterprises have carried out restructuring by now, compared with 30.4 percent in 2002. Currently, more than 90 percent of state-owned enterprises have restructured.

As of the end of June 2011, 359 firms controlled by central enterprises have gone public, either in the A-share market or overseas markets. And 54.07 percent of central enterprises' total assets, 68.67 percent of net assets, and 60.4 percent of operating income are in their listed arms, the article said.

BEIJING - The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, dropped 9.95 points, or 1.39 percent, to close at 706.22 points on Friday.

The index, together with the Shenzhen Component Index and the Shenzhen SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) Board Index, makes up the three core indices reflecting the performance of China's stocks listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.  

The ChiNext Board, which started trading on October 30, 2009, mainly lists high-tech companies and those with high growth potential.

BEIJING - China's stock index futures closed lower Friday, with the contract for May, the most actively traded, down 1.17 percent from the previous trading day to 2,576 points.

The June contract dropped 1.68 percent to 2,568.2 points. The September contract lost 1.75 percent to 2,590 points, while the December contract retreated 1.67 percent to 2,618.4 points.

The stock-index contracts, agreements to buy or sell the Hushen 300 Index at a preset value on an agreed date, are designed to allow investors to bet on and profit from both gains and declines in the market.

The index futures was launched at the China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX) and started trading from April 16, 2010. The CFFEX has set the base value for all the four contracts at 3,399 points.

Swatch Group, the world's biggest watchmaker, is expecting high single or double-digit sales growth this year as demand from China "explodes", and its middle and lower-price products holds up in the face of global economic uncertainty.

"We are trying to beat the 8 billion Swiss franc ($8.51 billion) mark this year, which would translate into another record year", Swatch Chief Executive Nick Hayek told reporters on the sidelines of the company's annual general meeting on Wednesday.

The company had sales of 7.14 billion francs last year.

The luxury industry has performed well in the current uncertain economic environment, and strong demand from Asian shoppers has helped lift luxury goods companies' results. Richemont, the world's second-largest luxury goods group, beat expectations with a 43 percent rise in full-year profit on Wednesday.

Hayek said growth for Swatch was mainly coming from the middle and lower-price segments, which has helped to offset slowing demand for high-end watches that has hurt some of its competitors.

"China is exploding," Hayek said referring to strong growth for modestly priced watch brands such as Tissot, Certina and CK but also Swatch's colorful trademark plastic watch.

In mainland China the company is currently experiencing growth in the range of 50 to 70 percent, he said.

Hayek cautioned that current growth rates may not continue indefinitely, however.

"You cannot make a projection that an industry is growing year by year by 20 or 30 percent. That's an unhealthy situation," he said.

To defend its position, Swatch has so far resisted hiking its sales prices despite rising prices for important raw materials such as gold and diamonds, said Nayla Hayek, Swatch president and sister of the CEO.

The company will continue to invest in Switzerland despite the current strong value of the Franc, she said, and she also foreshadowed a higher dividend payment for 2012.

For 2011 Swatch had announced a 15 percent dividend hike earlier this year.

BEIJING - Chinese shares closed lower Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 1.44 percent to 2,344.52.

The Shenzhen Component Index edged down 1.75 percent to 9,903.09.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's composite interest rate dropped by three basis points from 0.42 percent at the end of March to 0.39 percent at the end of April, the city's Monetary Authority announced Thursday.

The composite interest rate is a measure of the average cost of funds of banks. The decline mainly reflected a decrease in the weighted funding cost for deposits, the authority said.

BEIJING - Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday called for members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to make greater efforts to coordinate their macroeconomic policies.

Li made the remark during a meeting with delegates representing SCO finance ministers, central bankers and secretariat general-secretaries.

Li said the SCO has played an important role in safeguarding regional peace and stability, as well as promoting common development, since its establishment.

"The SCO has demonstrated promising prospects in terms of increasing mutual trust among member states and boosting cooperation in multiple fields. In light of the upcoming SCO summit in Beijing, China expects all parties to work together to further promote security and pragmatic cooperation," Li added.

Li said regional economic and financial cooperation under the SCO framework will play an important role in boosting market confidence, as well as preserving regional financial stability and economic sustainability.

"Regions covered by the SCO have the potential to become a highlight of global economic development, considering SCO members' respective advantages and broad prospects for cooperation. SCO members should strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination, share experience in development and reform, expand agreements and advance the liberation of trade and investment," Li said.

Li said China has great potential for economic development and its economy will continue to develop in a sustainable way.

"China will further improve its macroeconomic regulations and enhance the specificity and flexibility of its policies, as well as promote an economic transition while maintaining steady growth," he said.

SCO members expressed their hope to work with China to deepen regional economic and trade ties, as well as strengthen financial cooperation, for the purpose of consolidating the group's position in the global economy.

BEIJING - The general office of the State Council, or China's cabinet, on Thursday issued a document calling for greater transparency regarding governmental information disclosures to the public.

Information concerning the fiscal budget, affordable housing, food safety, environmental protection, land requisitions and housing demolition should be disclosed in a more transparent manner, according to the document.

Central and provincial government departments should expedite the disclosure of fiscal budgets to the public and add more detail to the mentioned information, the document said.

The document specifically calls for more detailed information regarding spending on overseas travel, official receptions and government-procured vehicles, also known as the "three public expenditures," adding that local governments should disclose information on the expenditures within two years of the original purchase.

Local governments should also disclose more information on affordable housing projects to ensure fairness in the construction and rental of such projects, the document said.

Information regarding food safety standards and violations should also be publicized, the document said.

The document also calls for more extensive information disclosures related to pollution monitoring, water and air quality and compensation for people who have been relocated following land requisitions.

BEIJING - A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official on Thursday said the country will create a more "business- and innovation-friendly environment" for the purpose of attracting Chinese nationals with overseas experience to establish businesses in China.

Li Yuanchao, head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remark at an international recruitment seminar hosted by the committee's Party School.

Li said those who return to China to start businesses have a "Chinese dream" of rejuvenating the nation, adding that "today's China" offers them opportunities to realize their goals.

Li encouraged attendees to engage in scientific research, start high-tech companies and educate world-class scientists and entrepreneurs.

The seminar was held as part of "Plan 1,000," a recruitment program created by the central government in 2008 for the purpose of attracting overseas Chinese to start their own businesses in China.

Overseas Chinese who wish to participate in the program are eligible for a tax-free signing bonus of 1 million yuan ($158,098) to be used for starting their businesses, as well as favorable policies concerning public services and social welfare.

Over 2,200 qualified overseas Chinese experts were recruited as of the end of 2011.

BEIJING - Latest data from China's Banking Regulatory Commission showed that the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio for the country's commercial banks stood at 0.9 percent as of the end of the first quarter, down from 1 percent at the end of last year.

As of the end of the first quarter, the outstanding non-performing loans of the commercial banks stood at 438.2 billion yuan ($69.6 billion), the data showed.

The commercial banks include large banks, joint-stock banks, city banks, as well as rural commercial banks and foreign-funded banks.

Foreign-funded banks registered the lowest NPL ratio, at 0.5 percent; the NPL ratios for large commercial banks and joint-stock commercial banks stood at 1 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the capital adequacy ratio of the country's commercial banks hit 12.7 percent as of the end of the first quarter, which remained unchanged from the end of the last year, the data showed.

BEIJING - The Chinese government plans to allocate 500 billion yuan ($79 billion) for the prevention and control of water pollution in major drainage areas from 2011 to 2015, up from 300 billion yuan for the previous five-year period.

The move was revealed in a 2011-2015 guideline on fighting water pollution that was jointly released Thursday by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Water Resources.

According to Zhao Hualin, a MEP official, the guideline includes 5,998 projects focusing on a variety of issues, including pollution in areas with drinking water sources, industrial pollution, urban sewage treatment, pollution from livestock-raising and nearshore water pollution.

"With increasing pressure from economic and social development, our country's water environment will suffer more obvious and persistent pollution and other long-overdue issues as of 2015," Zhao said.

The document sets a goal of cutting chemical oxygen demand (COD), a measure of organic pollutants in water, by 9.7 percent and ammonia nitrogen content by 11.3 percent by 2015 in comparison to 2010 levels.

"The guideline indicates that the government's focus has shifted to more elaborate methods of water management, as well as coordinated prevention and control efforts," Zhao said.

"Local governments are ultimately responsible for the quality of water resources within their jurisdiction. Governments at various levels should adopt a market mechanism to encourage more investment in the fight against river pollution," NDRC official Huang Weibo said.

According to Xia Xiquan, an official from the Ministry of Finance, the central government plans to earmark more than 30 billion yuan annually from now until 2015 to treat water pollution.

China met its 10-percent COD-reduction goal for the 2006-2010 period after reducing COD levels by 12.45 percent from 2005. Ammonia nitrogen is a new addition to China's major pollutant monitoring list.

BEIJING - Premier Wen Jiabao said Thursday that China will cooperate more closely with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Wen made the remark during a meeting with UNDP Administrator Helen Clark.

Wen reviewed the cooperation China has conducted with the UNDP, stating that their joint efforts have promoted China's economic and social development.

China is ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the UNDP and make unremitting efforts for the common development of all the world's countries and regions, Wen said.

Wen said that China, as the world's biggest developing country, still has a long way to go in realizing modernization. China will continue to open up to the world, conduct reforms and promote comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development, Wen said.

Clark hailed the achievements China has scored in economic growth and poverty elimination, as well as the positive role it has played in international development cooperation.

Clark said the UNDP attaches great importance to China's experience and is ready to work with China to promote the realization of the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

The financial disclosures of public officials have made the headlines in both China and the United States this week.

On Tuesday, the White House released US President Barack Obama's financial disclosure documents, which revealed the first family holds assets worth somewhere between $2.6 million and $8.3 million.

On the same day, an article in Beijing-based Study Times declared that "an asset disclosure system for public officials on the Chinese mainland will take at least 10 years".

The author was quite right in pointing out some of the major challenges facing the introduction of an effective disclosure system: "gray income", bribes in kind whose real values are hard to measure, the tax system, loopholes in the banking registration system and lax enforcement of the many income and asset disclosure rules announced since 1994 by the Party and the central government.

While giving several recommendations for closing major loopholes in the current disclosure system, the article concluded that the implementation of a financial disclosure system for public officials would take time - at least 10 years.

Although the author did add a last sentence that a much shorter process could be expected if the central authorities are determined, the public's response to the article in the last two days reflects their dissatisfaction at the prospect of waiting another 10 years for a sound financial disclosure system for public officials, given the frequent reports of official corruption in the country.

But even if it does take 10 years to implement such a system, we should not tolerate any inaction in the coming years as we have in the past. As the author noted, China simply cannot afford to let corrupt officials run wild for another decade.

Yes, corrupt officials are getting smarter as the author argued. But we must simply outsmart them by closing as many loopholes as we can and by getting tough on violators. The government must demonstrate its resolve to fight corruption.

A study released a month ago by the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that disclosure by public officials of their income, assets and interests should be mandatory if the fight against corruption is to succeed.

The first global study of financial disclosure laws and practices, "Public Office, Private Interests: Accountability Through Income and Asset Disclosure" calls for a stronger commitment to income and asset disclosure to curb the use of public office for private gain and to help manage conflicts of interest in the public sector. The study also finds that asset disclosure systems become more effective when there is a credible threat that violations will be detected and punished.

In fact, the document cites the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, which was ratified by 159 countries including China. The convention says countries must endeavor to ensure that their public services are subject to safeguards that promote efficiency and transparency, and public servants should be subject to requirements for financial and other disclosures, and appropriate disciplinary measures.

Many countries, in Europe, Asia and Africa, both the rich and poor, have successfully implemented such a system and China can also have an effective disclosure system installed in the coming years once the leadership shows its determination.

While it may be naive to believe that such a system will put an end to corruption, it will surely deter officials from abusing their power for personal gain.

The Study Times article has sounded a deafening wake-up call. The increasingly impatient public has waited long enough, they want to see tough action, not flowery words.

The author, based in New York, is deputy editor of China Daily USA. E-mail: chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn

With the world's second largest economy bidding farewell to its decades of roaring double-digit growth, it is only natural that Chinese banks will find it increasingly difficult to make big profits just by lending more.

Chinese policymakers should keep a close eye on the possible effects of sluggish loan growth on both commercial lenders and the national economy.

And, rather than rushing to turn on the liquidity tap, policymakers should urge domestic banks to face up to this test and adapt themselves to the ongoing transformation of the country's growth pattern.

Latest figures from the People's Bank of China show the country's new yuan-denominated loans totaled 681.8 billion yuan ($108.2 billion) in April, down 61.2 billion yuan compared with a year earlier.

Such a surprising drop in new loans has understandably sparked worries among international investors that China's economic slowdown might be more serious than expected.

With the fragile global recovery still deeply uncertain due to the ongoing eurozone crisis and growing US political paralysis, the latest sign of cooling in China, a key growth engine for the world economy, does make a case for more caution.

In response to the economic deceleration, China's central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks last Saturday, the third such reduction in six months.

Clearly, Chinese policymakers have recognized the urgency of fine-tuning monetary policy to accommodate slower economic growth, a price that the country has to pay while shifting the economy away from excessive reliance on exports and investment toward domestic consumption.

But Chinese banks have found that the shrinking appetite for loans has not only threatened their profit margins but also raised questions about the quality of their assets.

Just a few months ago, Chinese banks were widely criticized for the huge profits they made from a lending binge last year, though their less-mentioned overall return on assets remained razor-thin.

Now, the drop in bank lending has forced many of them into such a tight corner that some people have even suggested interest rate cuts to spur borrowing.

Should Chinese banks expect business as usual and another lending boom to stimulate growth of the real economy, which would prolong their days of easy profits?

The answer is definitely no because the country cannot afford to postpone its economic transformation and Chinese banks cannot continue to drag feet over their own reforms.

Chinese banks must improve their risk assessment capabilities and adjust their service structure to serve the country's economic transformation and justify the profit they make.

This is the test they have to take.

Resolute measures should be adopted to make nation's income distribution more transparent and equitable

The hope of transforming the economic development model in the 12th Five-Year Plan Period (2011-15) lies in increasing urban and rural residents' incomes to release their consumption potential and so form an endogenous impetus for economic growth and a new pattern of equitable and sustainable development.

Income distribution remains systematically and institutionally unbalanced, with the distribution of the nation's wealth tilted toward the government and the enterprise sector.

There is a continuous widening of the income gap across regions, between urban and rural residents and between different social groups, chaos in income distribution in some sectors, and the expansion of vested interests. This has led to weak domestic consumption that fails to stimulate economic growth, which has made the imbalance between investment and consumption more and more serious.

Instead of enriching people first, the current growth pattern enriches the State first, and the improvement of the productivity of the whole country is faster than the strengthening of the consumption capacity of the general public.

This can be seen from the following: the growth of GDP has been much more rapid than the growth of urban and rural residents' incomes, the growth of State revenues has been twice as fast as the growth of GDP, and the expansion of State-owned capital has been accelerating. It can be said that the growth model based on enriching the national coffers first as a transitional model has made historical contributions to the expansion of the total economic size and to ending the shortage economy.

In the next 5-10 years, the prerequisite for China's consumption-led economic transformation to succeed is the improvement of urban and rural residents' consumption capacity. This calls for speeding up income distribution reform.

In the first place, more efforts have to be made to readjust the national income distribution structure in order to enlarge the share of the labor remuneration in primary distribution. Second, incorporation of migrant rural workers into cities should be accelerated. Third, the process of equalizing access to urban and rural basic public services should be strengthened so as to ensure people's well-being.

Changing the national income distribution pattern needs to increase the number of middle-income earners. These earners now comprise only about 20 percent of the population. There needs to be relevant policies and institutional arrangements to increase the number of middle-income earners to support China's consumption-led economic transformation. Therefore, efforts should be made to increase the number of middle-income earners by 2 percentage points a year to 40 percent of the total population by 2020. With the ongoing fast urbanization and development of the tertiary sector, this goal is realistic. Some studies have shown that there will be 520 million middle-income earners by 2025.

In my view, we have to reform the taxation structure that has been constraining the expansion of middle-income earners, implement structural tax reduction and tilt income distribution in favor of ordinary people. Protection of residents' property rights in general and rural residents' land property rights in particular should be further strengthened. Mechanisms to enable rural residents to fairly share the added value of land should be established. In this way, rural residents can accumulate their wealth from the added value of their land.

Changing the national income distribution pattern needs to be open and transparent. The current unbalanced distribution reflects the institutional arrangements of vested interests. Due to the lack of basic institutions for making income distribution open and transparent, departmental and sectoral interests, corruption and the sources of grey income are increasing rather than decreasing.

Take the governance of sangong for an example. The term refers to the management of government spending on overseas visits, the purchase and maintenance of government vehicles, and official receptions, the monitoring of which has been very difficult over the past years. This is because they are not put in the "sunlight". In the face of the serious imbalance of interest relations, it is high time to make the budgets of all levels of government open and transparent. And in the next 2-3 years, mechanisms for all government officials to disclose their property should be in place.

It is also imperative to establish institutions for registering people's incomes and reporting tax payments with more determination. Efforts should be made for these institutions to cover all urban residents by the end of the 2015 and all rural residents by 2020.

Straightening out income distribution relations so they are open and transparent is not really a technical issue but one of determination and courage.

The author is president of the China Institute for Reform and Development.

Total global revenue from art sales hit $11.57 billion in 2011, a rise of $2 billion from 2010, the best performance of the decade, according to Art Market Trends 2011, published by the market-information provider Artprice.

For the second consecutive year, China has established itself as the world's leading art marketplace. The country accounted for 41.4 percent (i.e. $4.79 billion) of the revenue from global fine art auctions, closely followed by the United States (23.5 percent, $2.72 billion) and the United Kingdom (19.4 percent, $2.24 billion), according to the report.

China also accounted for the highest auction results (with 774 higher than $1 million recorded in 2011, compared with 426 in the US and 377 in the UK), mostly generated at auctions in Beijing and Hong Kong. Beijing has become the place where the market pulse beats strongest, generating more than $3.17 billion, representing more than 27 percent of global revenue from art auctions. Behind Beijing comes New York ($2.59 billion), London ($2.21 billion) and Hong Kong ($796 million).

While Christie's and Sotheby's still represent the lion's share, generating almost half of the total volume of the global art business, Chinese auction houses have been catching up since the country's thirst for collecting began in the 1990s.

Today, China Guardian is the world's third-biggest auctioneer, generating $901.8 million from art sales and 7.79 percent of global art auction revenues in 2011. The Beijing-based company competes against a number of rivals, including Poly International, ranked fourth globally with $901.6 million, Beijing Council is fifth ($298 million), and Beijing Hanhai is ranked seventh.

As the leader of the global art market, China also boasted six of the world's top 10 best-selling artists in 2011. Among all of them, the contemporary painter Qi Baishi scored the year's best result with Eagle Standing on Pine Tree; Four-Character Couplet in Seal Script, which sold for $57.2 million in Beijing on May 22 last year.

jiangxueqing@chinadaily.com.cn