British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne (left) and Huawei CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei talk at Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen on Oct 16. Osborne said Britain will remain open to investment from the Chinese networking giant. Provided to China Daily

Construction

Chinese firm joins UK airport enterprise

Manchester Airports Group has announced an 800-million-pound ($1.28 billion) real estate development deal with Beijing Construction Engineering Group International Co Ltd and two other companies.

The Airport City Project will see the construction of offices, hotels, warehouses and sites for advanced manufacturing and logistics in the Enterprise Zone close to the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom.

Government sources say international business attracted to the site will create 16,000 jobs in the northwest of England.

"The inclusion of BCEG is significant because we have been keen to forge greater links with the Far East and this gives us an opportunity to strengthen vital business links with China," said Charlie Cornish, chief executive of MAG.

Communications

Beidou to have 60% share of home market

China's satellite navigation system, Beidou, plans to have a 60 percent share of the domestic market and 80 percent of all markets related to social and economic growth by 2020.

The plans, released by the central government on Oct 10, are to increase the navigation-related industry to 400 billion yuan ($65.4 billion; 48.3 billion euros), popularize Beidou in both the national economy and the consumer market, and improve the international effectiveness of the system.

Major projects include creating a system of more than 30 satellites by 2020, creating core technologies in navigation chip production, and spreading the use of Beidou products in key fields such as power, communications, banking and public security.

Trade

Q3 growth may help boost foreign trade

Thanks to a recovery in both exports and imports in the third quarter, China's foreign trade is likely to rise by as much as 8 percent this year, achieving full-year trade growth target set by the government, analysts say.

Total foreign trade expanded 7.7 percent to 19.07 trillion yuan ($3.06 trillion; 2.30 trillion euros) for the first three quarters, the General Administration of Customs said on Oct 12.

"China's foreign trade showed a slight recovery for the first three quarters, with the growth of imports and exports in the third quarter, rebounding to 6 percent from the 4.3 percent in the second quarter," Zheng Yuesheng, a customs spokesman, said.

"The performance of China's foreign trade in the third quarter is better than that in the second. We think the main reasons are the stable development of the domestic economy, the improved foreign environment and more stimulus for the increase of foreign trade."

Insurance

Former premier's daughter denies report

The daughter of former premier Li Peng has denied foreign media reports that she helped broker Zurich Insurance's entry into the Chinese market.

Accusations against Li Xiaolin, chairwoman of China Power International Development, which is listed in Hong Kong, were rejected in a statement on the company's micro blog on Oct 13.

The statement said "rumors circulated on the Internet about Li's involvement in insurance (company) transactions are merely malevolent defamation".

It said Li never had personal contact with any insurance company and knows no one from such companies, adding that she reserves the right to take legal action against anyone who made or transmitted the "rumors".

The denial was issued after The Daily Telegraph in London published a story on Oct 10 saying the 52-year-old businesswoman played a leading role in a business deal in which Zurich Insurance, one of the biggest insurers in the world, bought nearly a quarter of the shares of New China Life, a large insurance company in China.

Taiwan

Forum discusses political issues

Scholars and former government officials from the mainland and Taiwan gathered in Shanghai on Oct 11 to discuss political and security issues, a move seen as the first test for an official political dialogue across the Straits.

The first Cross-Straits Peace Forum came a few days after President Xi Jinping called for a resolution to political disagreements across the Straits based on equal consultations during his meeting with Taiwan politician Vincent Siew before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering.

Analysts said the forum could provide some clues to tackle the political impasse.

"Some political disputes can be shelved, but it is impossible to avoid them totally and for long," Zhang Zhijun, minister of the Taiwan affairs office of the state council, said in his speech at the forum, adding "Cross-Straits relationships cannot depend only on economic dialogue."

By tackling easy things first and difficult things later, both sides should make breakthroughs in issues hampering cross-Straits relationship, Zhang said.

Employment

Workforce needs more training, says think tank

China will have difficulty upgrading its economy because the quality of its labor force falls short compared with those of many developed countries, a think tank warned.

Only about 7 percent of China's working-age population went to college last year, according to the Annual Report on the Development of China's Human Resources, published by the Social Sciences Academic Press in Beijing.

That pales in comparison to the United States, where 60 percent of its work force received higher education; Japan, where 40 percent went to college; and the United Kingdom, where 32 percent are graduates.

Industry

Capital to smoke out faulty kitchens

The Chinese capital, which endured possibly the worst smog in months earlier this week, has launched a three-month campaign against restaurant kitchen exhausts, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau announced on Oct 11.

The campaign mainly targets restaurants in downtown Beijing's densely inhabited neighborhoods. The campaign comes after authorities said they will impose stricter curbs on car use.

Indoor restaurants with excessive exhausts will face a fine of up to 3,000 yuan ($490; 360 euros), the bureau said.

Restaurants without proper outdoor exhaust purification equipment will be banned from barbecuing. Violators will face a maximum penalty of 20,000 yuan.

In summer, kitchen exhausts can contribute to 15 to 20 percent of the PM2.5 pollutants in downtown Beijing, according to research last year by Wang Yuesi of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Tourism

100m overseas trips by Chinese in 2014

Chinese tourists will make more than 90 million trips by the end of this year, the country's top tourism official said in Chicago on Oct 9, estimating 100 million trips next year.

China has become the third-biggest recipient of tourists in the world and the biggest contributor to global tourism revenue, Shao Qiwei, head of China's National Tourism Administration, told a conference promoting cooperation between tourism authorities in China and the United States.

Chinese tourists spent more than $102 billion last year on overseas trips, Shao said, with those to the US each spending an average of $5,948 there. He also quoted research from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis that found Chinese tourists had helped the US generate at least 10,000 jobs in 2012.

China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 10/18/2013 page3)