China:Top companies should adapt to slower growth: experts

Experts believe large Chinese enterprises must adapt to slower economic growth after new data revealed that the country's top 500 companies saw shrinking revenue growth last year.The 2013 edition of the Top 500 Chinese Enterprises list was unveiled at a press conference on Saturday, with China's oil giant Sinopec Group topping the list for a ninth year.

Sinopec Group took the lead for a ninth year with total revenues of 2.83 trillion yuan (458.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012, according to a press release.

China National Petroleum Corporation, the parent company of China's top oil and gas producer, PetroChina, followed closely in second place with revenues reaching 2.68 trillion yuan last year.

The two were joined by eight other state-owned companies to dominate the top 10: State Grid, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Mobile, China State Construction and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

A total of 123 companies, including 16 private enterprises, reported revenues of more than 100 billion yuan last year, up from 107 companies a year earlier.

The top 500 companies had a combined revenue of 50.02 trillion yuan in 2012, up 11.41 percent from a year earlier.

However, the growth rate was 12.22 percentage points lower than that of the previous year amid a faltering world economic recovery, the release said.

Total profits of the 500 companies edged up 3.58 percent from the previous year to 2.17 trillion yuan last year, while the profit-revenue ratio dropped for the second year by 0.33 percentage points to 4.34 percent.

Among the 500 companies, 216 saw declines in net profits in 2012, while 43 others suffered losses, up from 13 companies in the previous year,according to the press release.

Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute, said large Chinese companies must adapt to a transition period in which China's economy gears down to moderate growth after the surging growth of the past three decades.

Shrinking economic growth will force large Chinese companies to consider strategic transformations, shifting from an emphasis on growth pace to growth quality and from an input-driven growth pattern to an innovation-driven one.

Source: Xinhua

China's PMI rose to 51.0 in August

China's purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector rose to 51.0 percent in August from 50.3 percent in July, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said on Sunday.

Skype festeggia i suoi primi 10 anni

Circa 300 milioni di utenti per un totale di 2 miliardi di minuti di chiamate al giorno. Questo è il bilancio dei primi dieci anni di vita di Skype, il sistema di video-chat impostosi come alternativa (gratuita nella versione base) alle tradizionali chiamate telefoniche. Il servizio, lanciato in versione sperimentale il 29 agosto 2003, ha accumulato dal suo avvio ad oggi 1,4 trilioni di minuti di traffico voce e chiamate video – come spiega Skype con un post sul blog dell’azienda, equivale a 2,6 milioni di anni di conversazione.
  La società ha già annunciato quale sarà il suo prossimo obiettivo: inaugurare le videochiamate in 3D.
 Ha spiegato Mark Gillet, corporate vice-president per Skype di Microsoft in un’intervista alla BBC- e abbiamo visto molti progressi, ma i dispositivi per catturare immagini 3D non ci sono ancora.
 In dieci anni, Skype è già passato di mano diverse volte: creato da due ingegneri delle telco nel 2002 (Niklas Zennstrom e Janus Friis) è stato prima acquistato da eBay nel 2005 e poi acquisito da Microsoft nel 2011. Se eBay nel 2005 aveva messo sul piatto 2,6 miliardi di dollari, Microsoft ha dovuto sborsare più del triplo, cioè 8,5 miliardi. Un affare che faceva gola anche ad altri big del tech: pare che due anni fa anche Google e Facebook si siano mossi per cercare di comprare il servizio. Che, comunque, non sono rimasti con le mani in mano: Mountain View sta testando servizi analoghi (e ha già lanciato Hangout, il sistema per le videochiamate integrato al social Google+), mentre a Palo Alto la funzione di video chat è stata lanciata subito dopo la notizia del passaggio di Skype nelle mani di Microsoft (ed è stata realizzata grazie ad una partnership tra i due colossi).

Corriere della Sera

Alibaba corsa alla quotazione.Ma dove?

Hong Kong o New York? Il gruppo cinese Alibaba si starebbe preparando alla quotazione, ma ancora non è chiaro se sceglierà il mercato asiatico o quello statunitense. Di certo, però, l’IPO segnerà un passaggio-chiave nel panorama tech: secondo le previsioni degli analisti potrebbe raggiungere i 70 miliardi di dollari, uno dei più alti per le società del settore internet.
Per il gruppo cinese Hong Kong potrebbe essere la scelta più ovvia, dato che la sua piattaforma di e-commerce Alibaba.com era presente nel listino asiatico dal 2007 all’anno scorso. Il problema, però, riguarda le modalità di gestione conseguenti alla quotazione: le regole dei listini americani infatti consentono al fondatore Jack Ma di mantenere una quota di controllo nel gruppo, quelle di Hong Kong invece no. Ma il listino asiatico starebbe studiando, secondo quanto riporta il Wall Street Journal,  soluzioni “creative” per venire incontro alle esigenze dei cinesi.

Correio della Sera

Crise azeda parceria entre Eike e André Esteves, do BTG Pactual

A relação entre o empresário Eike Batista e o banqueiro André Esteves está estremecida. Com a crise no grupo EBX cada vez pior, a parceria não está rendendo bons frutos para ninguém.

Desde março, quando o BTG firmou um acordo com a EBX para reestruturar as empresas e buscar sócios, as ações da petroleira OGX (carro chefe do grupo) caíram 83%, e os papeis do banco perderam 22%.

Segundo a Folha apurou, Eike tem confidenciado a interlocutores seu receio de que a equipe do BTG esteja mais interessada em prospectar negócios para seus fundos do que empenhada em encontrar as melhores oportunidades para a EBX.

Esteves e sua equipe, por outro lado, se sentiram frustrados com a lentidão inicial de Eike para se desfazer das empresas e avaliam que o empresário pode fazer maus negócios sem a sua assessoria.

  Ontem, executivos próximos de Eike davam com certa o fim da parceria, mas fontes ligadas ao BTG afirmaram que o "banco não é de abandonar cliente". Por isso, por enquanto, o acordo entre os dois está mantido.

O clima piorou de vez, quando o BTG ficou de fora das negociações da LLX, empresa que constrói o porto do Açu e está para ser vendida para o grupo americano EIG.

Eike conduziu o negócio sem consultar o BTG. Ele assinou o acordo em Nova York, acompanhado apenas de Berto, eleito seu novo "braço direito" nos negócios.
proposta fracassada

O BTG também tentou fazer uma oferta pela LLX com outros sócios, mas Eike não aceitou a proposta por considerá-la baixa.

Mas esse está longe de ser o único problema entre Eike e Esteves.

Seis meses atrás, quando foi anunciada, a parceira tinha três pontos: uma linha de crédito de US$ 1 bilhão, assessoria na gestão das empresas e uma bonificação para o banco à medida que as ações da OGX subissem.

O BTG traçou um plano de liquidação de ativos e trabalha na venda de fatias de MPX e MMX, mas ficou de fora do negócio da LLX. Já a linha de crédito foi cancelada em julho, sem qualquer desembolso. Esteves percebeu que o montante não resolveria o problema e que Eike acabaria pagando outros credores.

Com as ações da OGX a R$ 0,50, o BTG também acabou não embolsando nenhum bônus. Até agora o acordo gerou poucos ganhos para Esteves, que viu sua imagem ser arranhada e as ações de seu banco caírem.

Folha de Sao Paulo

Projeto para estudar energia escura inicia varredura dos céus

Começa hoje à noite no observatório de Cerro Tololo, no Chile, o levantamento astronômico mais abrangente feito até agora para jogar luz sobre o maior enigma da cosmologia: a energia escura.

O projeto Dark Energy Survey (DES), que levou uma década inteira de planejamento e construção, colocará o telescópio Blanco, de quatro metros de largura, para varrer uma área de um oitavo do céu, cem noites por ano.

Um dos principais objetivos é descobrir galáxias distantes onde estejam ocorrendo supernovas --explosões estelares que podem ser usadas para medir distâncias no Cosmo. Sabendo as distâncias das galáxias até nós, astrônomos podem analisar seu espectro luminoso de cores para saber com que velocidade elas se afastam.

Foi com essas duas informações que cientistas descobriram em 1998 que, hoje, 13,8 bilhões de anos após o Big Bang, o Universo está se expandindo aceleradamente, e não o contrário, tal qual se esperava em razão da gravidade. Esse fenômeno ganhou o nome de energia escura e ainda não tem explicação, apesar de várias teorias competirem para tal.

"Os dados ainda não são suficientes para discriminar, entre as possíveis candidatas, qual seria a melhor", diz Márcio Maia, astrônomo do Observatório Nacional, do Rio de Janeiro, que participa do DES. "Uma das coisas que o projeto vai fazer é produzir melhores resultados, e isso vai permitir descartar os modelos teóricos que não se encaixam nas observações."

A expectativa é que o projeto consiga captar pelo menos 3.000 supernovas do tipo Ia --as mais úteis nesse tipo de pesquisa-- durante cinco anos de monitoramento.

O DES é uma colaboração internacional de US$ 40 milhões capitaneada pelo Fermilab, de Illinois (EUA). O Brasil entra no projeto com apenas US$ 300 mil, mas oferece mão de obra com valor estimado em US$ 1,2 milhão. O país montou para tal um consórcio que reúne Observatório Nacional, CBPF (Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas), USP, LNCC (Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica) e outros centros.

A economia brasileira teve um crescimento de 1.5% no segundo trimestre do ano.

A economia brasileira teve um crescimento surpreendente no segundo trimestre do ano, impulsionada pela indústria, pelos investimentos e pela agricultura. O Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) avançou 1,5% de abril a junho em relação a janeiro a março, conforme divulgou hoje o IBGE. O ritmo é muito superior a alta de 0,6% registrada no primeiro trimestre.

O resultado é música para os ouvidos do governo, que não tem tido muitos motivos para sorrir ultimamente. "O pior já passou. O fundo do poço foi superado, não só no Brasil, mas no mundo como um todo. Daqui para frente, é expansão", comemorou Guido Mantega, ministro da Fazenda.

Infelizmente, o ministro pode estar sendo, mais uma vez, otimista demais. Para Sérgio Vale, economista-chefe da MB Associados, o PIB do segundo trimestre pode ter sido a última boa notícia do ano, porque a economia sofreu uma "parada súbita" a partir de junho, que derrubou a confiança de empresários e consumidores.

Alguns fatores contribuíram para o pessimismo. No Brasil, as manifestações de rua explodiram em junho, mostrando um forte descontentamento da população, e a inflação subiu forte, correndo a renda dos trabalhadores, desacelerando o consumo e levando o Banco Central a elevar a taxa de juros.

No exterior, o Federal Reserve (BC dos Estados Unidos) deu sinais de que vai reverter em breve a política de estímulo monetário, o que pode significar juros mais altos nos EUA no médio prazo. O mercado reagiu e o capital fugiu dos países emergentes, desvalorizando moedas ao redor do mundo, inclusive o real.

É claro que nem tudo é desgraça na economia brasileira. A agricultura está, literalmente, "salvando a lavoura". O PIB do setor cresceu 3,9% no segundo trimestre em relação ao primeiro, graças à super safra que os produtores brasileiros estão colhendo.

Depois da boa surpresa divulgada pelo IBGE hoje, é provável que boa parte dos analistas comece a projetar um crescimento de 2% ou um pouco acima para o país este ano. Mas ainda é muito pouco. O governo já vinha se convencendo de que é preciso mudar de rumo e prova disso é a disposição do BC para subir os juros e o empenho nas concessões de rodovias, portos e ferrovias.
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo

Istat: a luglio disoccupazione ferma al 12%

Disoccupazione ai massimi anche nel mese di luglio. La disoccupazione nel mese scorso si è fermata al 12%, invariata rispetto a giugno (-0,033 punti percentuali), anche se resta in aumento su base annua, con un rialzo di 1,3 punti. Lo rileva l'Istat (dati provvisori). Con luglio la disoccupazione tocca la soglia del 12% per la quarta volta consecutiva.
Se poi allarghiamo lo sguardo al secondo trimestre dell'anno vediamo che il tasso di disoccupazione è pari anche in questo caso al 12%, in crescita in questo caso di 1,5 punti percentuali rispetto a un ann
o prima. Per gli uomini l'indicatore passa dal 9,8% all'attuale 11,5% e per le donne dall'11,4% al 12,8%. 
Torna a salire anche la disoccupazione giovanile. Tra i 15-24enni, rileva l'Istat, le persone in cerca di lavoro sono 635 mila e rappresentano il 10,6% della popolazione in questa fascia d'etá. Il tasso di disoccupazione dei 15-24enni, ovvero l'incidenza dei disoccupati sul totale di quelli occupati o in cerca, è pari al 39,5%, in aumento di 0,4 punti percentuali rispetto al mese precedente e di 4,3 punti nel confronto tendenziale con l'anno scorso. 

Germania:«Vietato disturbare fuori orario» la rivoluzione di Ursula von der Leyen

"E’ lei ad aver fortemente voluto questa svolta, che potrebbe riguardare in un prossimo futuro anche le altri centrali dell’amministrazione pubblica. Ursula von der Leyen, 54 anni, sette figli, ministra del Lavoro e degli Affari sociali nel governo Merkel, ha deciso che i dirigenti potranno disturbare gli impiegati , conclusa la normale giornata di lavoro, “solo in circostanze eccezionali”. Niente telefonate sul cellulare, niente mail. Chi non risponde, non sarà perseguibile.Una piccola rivoluzione, che nel settore privato era stata messa in pratica per prima, due anni fa, dalla Volkswagen. Con precisione tutta tedesca, la casa automobilistica produttrice della Golf aveva addirittura stabilito in trenta minuti dopo la fine del lavoro il tempo limite per poter essere chiamati dai superiori.
Quando Ursula von der Leyen vuole raggiungere un obiettivo, è difficile che molli la presa. Ha confessato che il processo per introdurre nuove regole che proteggano la vita privata dei dipendenti non è stato semplice. «Ma alla fine ce l’abbiamo fatta», ha aggiunto. Era accaduto così anche per le quote femminili nelle aziende. Su questo problema la ministra ha dato battaglia, entrando in contrasto con la cancelliera Angela Merkel e con la collega che dirige il dicastero per la Famiglia, la giovane Kristina Schröder, cristiano-democratiche come lei. Non ha vinto, perché le resistenze erano insuperabili, ma ha ottenuto che l’introduzione graduale di una ripartizione pilotata della presenza femminile nelle compagnie quotate in borsa facesse parte del programma elettorale del partito. In questo caso, invece, la vittoria è stata completa".

Corriere Della Sera

Emergents : l'Inde veut mener une intervention sur le marché des devises

L'Inde est en contact avec d'autres pays émergents pour un projet d'intervention concertée sur les marchés des changes extraterritoriaux, accusés d'avoiraccentué la chute de leurs devises depuis trois mois, a déclaré vendredi 30 août un haut responsable du ministère indien des finances.

"Ce sera une question de jours plutôt que de semaines", a assuré Dipak Dasgupta, principal conseiller économique du ministère indien des finances. 

 IL a précisé que les discussions ne se limitaient pas aux BRICS (Brésil, Russie, Inde, Chine, Afrique du Sud), sans que l'on sache clairement dans l'immédiat quels autres pays émergents sont intéressés en dehors du club des plus grands d'entre eux. La Banque centrale brésilienne a toutefois dit ne pas être partie prenante actuellement à un tel projet. "Il n'y a aucune initiative de ce type", a déclaré un porte-parole de la Banque centrale brésilienne.

Le projet d'une action commune des principales économies émergentes pourcontrer l'impact de la hausse du dollar liée à la perspective d'un durcissement de la politique monétaire de la Réserve fédérale américaine avait été évoqué en juin par la présidente brésilienne, Dilma Roussef, au cours d'un échange téléphonique avec son homologue chinois.

De nombreux émergents ont été confrontés à des sorties massives de capitaux depuis la fin de mai et les premières indications par la Fed d'un ralentissement de ses rachats d'actifs. La chute de leur monnaie a été accentuée par les attaques de vendeurs à découvert sur les marchés à terme non livrables (NDF).

Les marchés NDF se sont développés ces dernières années pour permettre aux investisseurs étrangers de spéculer sur les devises de pays qui n'ont pas de marché au comptant suffisamment accessible. Selon Dipak Dasgupta, ces marchés sur lesquels il n'y a pas de livraison de la monnaie achetée ont exercé des pressions sur douze des principales devises émergentes, parmi lesquelles les monnaies du Brésil, de la Chine, de l'Inde, de la Russie, de l'Afrique du Sud, de la Turquie et de la Malaisie.

Les principaux pays émergents – réunis sous l'acronyme de BRICS et qui incluent le Brésil, la Russie, l'Inde, la Chine et l'Afrique du Sud - s'étaient inquiétés des turbulences sur les marchés financiers internationaux à l'occasion du sommet du G20 à Moscou en juillet, mais aucune initiative ne s'était matérialisée depuis. Un nouveau sommet du G20 doit se tenir la semaine prochaine à Saint-Pétersbourg.

Les BRICS travaillent depuis un an à la constitution d'un fonds de réserve de 100 milliards de dollars et d'une banque de développement commune destinés à rééquilibrer un système financier international qu'ils jugent dominé par les pays riches.

Source: Le Monde

Precious Metals Prices 12.51 p.m. Eastern Time

Gold Price Futures       3 months   US$ 1,396.11

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François Hollande:En Syrie "le massacre chimique ne peut rester impuni"

Dans un entretien au Monde, le président de la République, François Hollande, estime qu'une action internationale en Syrie doit "porter un coup d'arrêt" au régime de Bachar Al-Assad. 

• En Syrie, "le massacre chimique ne peut rester impuni"

"Le massacre chimique de Damas ne peut ni ne doit rester impuni. Sinon, ce serait prendre le risque d'une escalade qui banaliserait l'usage de ces armes et menacerait d'autres pays. Je ne suis pas favorable à une intervention internationale qui viserait à 'libérer' la Syrie ou à renverser le dictateur, mais j'estime qu'un coup d'arrêt doit être porté à un régime qui commet l'irréparable sur sa population", estime le président de la République.

Pour François Hollande, "si le Conseil de sécurité est empêché d'agir, une coalition se formera. Elle devra être la plus large possible. Elle s'appuiera sur laLigue arabe qui a condamné le crime et a alerté la communauté internationale. Elle aura le soutien des Européens. Mais il y a peu de pays qui ont les capacités d'infliger une sanction par des moyens appropriés. La France en fait partie. Elle y est prête. Elle décidera de sa position en étroite liaison avec ses alliés".

Syrie : "Il est dangereux que les menaces d'un président sonnent creux"

Depuis plusieurs jours, les spéculations sur une intervention occidentale en Syrievont bon train. Washington, qui cherche à constituer une coalition, serait prêt àmener des frappes aériennes contre le régime syrien. Une "attaque limitée", selon le président américain, Barack Obama, destinée à "punir" Damas pour l'utilisation présumée massive d'armes chimiques le 21 août dans la banlieue de Damas. Dans l'hypothèse de frappes, les médias américains ont déjà commencé àimaginer les différents scenarios d'une future intervention. Une question, essentielle, mais pour l'heure éludée par l'administration américaine, revient cependant : quels seraient les buts de guerre d'une telle action et avec quels objectifs sur le terrain et pour Washington ?

Une chose apparaît certaine pour les commentateurs de la presse américaine : l'enjeu ne serait pas ici de défendre un quelconque intérêt américain. FrapperDamas "en assumant la plus grande part de responsabilité, et soutenir n'importe quel gouvernement qui remplacerait le régime de Bachar Al-Assad ne correspond  ni à une valeur américaine cruciale, ni à un intérêt national vital, résume dans ForeignPolicy   Aaron David Miller, spécialiste du Moyen-Orient. Obama le sait, tout comme la majorité du peuple américain".

Une porte-parole du département d'Etat avait déjà répondu, en assurant le 26 août que l'opération n'aurait pas pour but de faire tomber le régime, ni de forcer Bachar Al-Assad à négocier. Mais alors quoi ? "Deux grandes raisons", selon le magazine Time, pousseraient en fait Barack Obama à agir. Il y a un peu plus d'un an, le président américain avait mis en garde le régime de Damas : l'utilisation d'armes chimiques constituerait une "ligne rouge" à ne pas franchir. La crédibilité de M. Obama serait donc en jeu. "Il est dangereux que les menaces d'un président sonnent creux", prévient le journaliste Michael Crowley.

Source: Le Monde

Consumer Spending Rose 0.1% in July short of Economists Expectations

U.S. consumer spending barely rose and inflation was tame in July, offering a cautionary note on the economy as the Federal Reserve weighs cutting back its massive bond-buying program.

Spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, will likely struggle to regain momentum as other data on Friday showed consumer sentiment fell this month.

The reports added to a raft of data that have suggested a loss of steam in the economy early in the third quarter.

Consumer spending ticked up 0.1 percent, restrained by weak outlays on utilities, the Commerce Department said. Spending, which had increased 0.6 percent in June, was also held back last month by tepid income growth.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected consumer spending to gain 0.3 percent last month.

Separately, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment slipped to 82.1 in August from 85.1 in July as households worried about higher interest rates and slower economic growth.

Long-term interest rates have risen by more than a full percentage point over the last three months on the view that the Fed will start scaling back as soon as next month its hefty support for the economy.

The unchanged reading in the so-called real consumer spending, which goes into the calculation of gross domestic product, added to data on residential construction, durable goods orders, industrial production and new home sales that have suggested the economy got off to a slow start this quarter.

RBS cut its GDP growth forecast to 1.5 percent from 2.0 percent in the Q3, Barclays now sees growth at 1.6 percent instead of 1.9 percent .

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Japan:Saturday classes could be restarted

Aiming to restart Saturday classes at all public primary, middle and high schools nationwide, the education ministry has decided to establish a subsidy program to encourage schools to invite instructors from local communities.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry is aiming to reintroduce Saturday classes starting on a monthly basis by the 2017 academic year in an effort to improve students' scholastic ability.

The subsidy program, which is also intended to strengthen ties between schools and their communities, is scheduled to begin next academic year. Under the program, the state will partially cover the costs of Saturday classes, including payment for instructors and fees for educational materials.

Also from next academic year, the ministry plans to provide subsidies or other forms of assistance to 6,700 schools, or about 20 percent of all public schools. The ministry plans to include ¥2 billion for this purpose in its initial budget request for fiscal 2014.

Source: Xinhua

Wary of Abenomics, wives cut husbands' pocket money

Japanese men hoping to reap the benefits of the economic upturn with an increase in their monthly spending cash will be disappointed to find this won't be happening anytime soon. It seems their wives, who typically control family purse strings in Japan, have yet to buy into Abenomics.

According to an online survey of 3,300 individuals carried out by Orix Bank Corp. in July, the average monthly spending allowance of men fell by 11% compared with last year's survey, falling to Y30,468 ($310).

In some ways, the survey result released Tuesday is not a big surprise since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies to bolster the economy have yet to translate into a rise in wages for the average Japanese worker.

Many economists say it will take longer for the policies - known as Abenomics - to boost the base salaries of company employees and seep into the spending patterns of average Japanese homes. Spending so far has mainly been driven by those profiting from a rise in share prices from late last year, leading to a splurging on luxury items by the wealthy.

While the reasons are unclear, the survey also indicates that most men didn't even attempt to have their pocket money increased. Only 5.1% of respondents said they negotiated to have their allowances raised. And of those who did bargain with their partners, 70% didn't actually succeed in getting a raise.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japan no longer sees U.N. chief's remarks as questionable

The government said Thursday it no longer sees U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's remarks that were taken as criticizing Japanese political leaders' perception of wartime history as questionable.

Ban's "true intent has become clear," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference, a day after a senior Japanese official met with Ban in the Netherlands and asked what he meant by his comments.

Ban was quoted by Suga as telling Japan's Senior Vice Foreign Minister Masaji Matsuyama that he "is well aware" of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's position on the perception of history and Japan's longtime efforts as a peaceful nation.

Speaking to journalists Monday in Seoul, Ban said Japanese leaders should have "deep reflection and vision to look toward the international future in an effort to foster friendly ties with a correct view of past history."

Source: NewsOnJapan

Volkswagen pioneers westward movement in China

China's far west Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is set to become a new industrial powerhouse, as the first car rolled off the production line of Shanghai Volkswagen, a joint venture with the German car maker, here on Thursday.

The plant in the regional capital of Urumqi expects an annual production of 50,000 units of the new Santana, with the first phase of investment close to 2 billion yuan (325 million U.S. dollars).

It is a big step for Volkswagen, becoming a pioneer of the auto industry in western China, said Jochem Heizmann, CEO of Volkswagen Group China, as the first Xinjiang sedan production line started operations.

In 2012, Volkswagen produced 2.6 million cars in China. Sales in China accounted for nearly one third of the company's global total.

Heizmann earlier told Chinese media that by 2018, Volkswagen's annual capacity in China will reach at least four million vehicles.

"The Urumqi plant will help Volkswagen maintain a 20 percent market share in passenger vehicle sales in China," said Meng Yongsheng, associate professor of finance and economics at Xinjiang University .

Meng said the Xinjiang plant is only step one in the Volkswagen's plan to move out of the Yangtze River Delta and settle in the booming west.

Xinjiang covers an area of 1.6 million square kilometers, making it China's largest provincial-level administrative region. The auto market is flourishing as the roads linking Xinjiang to neighboring central Asian countries and inland provinces have been completed in recent years.

In Urumqi, the number of cars doubled from 200,000 in 2009 to 400,000 in 2011.

The German company is not the only auto maker with designs on the west. Hyundai, from Republic of Korea, has set up a passenger vehicle base in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Between April 2012 and May 2013, at least six automobile manufacturing projects have chosen west China, with total investment exceeding 36 billion yuan.

Experts say auto industry's westward movement is the epitome of a new round of Chinese manufacturing growth, with a transfer from east to central and west China.

Bordering on eight countries, resource-rich Xinjiang is especially alluring for manufacturing enterprises.

Chinese manufacturing giants, including SANY, Shaanxi Automobile Group, Dongfeng Motor and XCMG, have already set up their plants in the region, planning expansion into Central Asia and Europe.

According to the regional statistics bureau, growth of 12 of 31 sectors in the manufacturing industry exceeded 50 percent in 2012 in Xinjiang. Total industry investment increased by 36 percent year on year.

"Low costs, rich resources and favorable policies are the reasons why enterprises are going west in a steady flow," said Meng.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, encourages auto makers to build plants in central and western provinces and regions by offering favorable conditions, including tax breaks.

Land prices in central and western areas are half or one third of those in east China. In addition, "infrastructure in the area is better than some southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia and Vietnam, which also have a cheap labor force," said Zheng Yongnian, head of the East Asia Institute, National University of Singapore.

Enterprises also value the consumption potential of western cities.

Cities with a population of one to three million people are considered small, but they are big cites compared to those in Europe. In these "small cities," there are only 20 cars for every 1,000 residents, which means the consumer market will be huge for a long time into the future, said Heizmann.

Source: Xinhua

Iran likely to intervene if Western powers attack Syria

Iran will intervene if the West pushes for regime change in Syria amid mounting calls for military intervention after alleged use of chemical weapons in the battered Arab country, analysts here say.

Iran's new government does not want direct confrontations with the West over Syria, with President Hassan Rouhani having said " the world's people, particularly the people in the Middle East, are not prepared for a new war."

But Tehran may well be forced into the conflict, Sadeq Zibakalam, a professor on politics from Tehran University, told Xinhua on Thursday.

Iran will become involved directly in Syria when it finds that world and regional powers like the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia are already there attacking Bashar al-Assad. "In such a scenario, Iran will do whatever it takes to keep Assad in power, " said the expert.

In light of possible attack by the West, Iranian officials have warned of its regional plight in which the Islamic republic cannot stay aloof as a disinterested spectator.In his latest comment on Syria, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of "disastrous" consequences of a possible U.S. attack on Syria, saying that the military intervention will be a " catastrophe" for the region.

The Middle East is like a "powder keg" and its future will be unpredictable if something happens, he said.

Iranians are warning the West: "Don't think that if you attack Syria, it will remain limited to Syria. It's just like fire. You cannot control it. It will engulf other areas as well," said Zibakalam.

Iran will consider "U.S. military bases wherever in the region as a legitimate target," he said.

In addition to indirect involvement in the Syrian crisis with actions targeting Western interest in the Middle East, Iran may have to confront the West in battlefield as well. "If it comes to the question of survival of Assad, it is possible that Iran will send troops to keep him in power. That would mean direct confrontation between Iran and the West," he said.

Iran will definitely offer support, as it has done in the past, to the Syrian government since the Arab state is Iran's "strategic ally" in the region, said Zibakalam.

Earlier in August, Rouhani reiterated Iran's loyalty to the amicable ties with Syria, saying that nothing will change the two countries' close alliance and no power could shake the strategic ties of the two countries.

Iran's close relations with Syria dated back to the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 and have been steady since then. During the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), Syria was the only Arab state that provided Iran with political, moral and military support.

Other than historical ties, Iran also relies heavily on Syria to carry out its strategies in the region.

Syria is a key logistic route bridging Iran's support with anti- American and anti-Western forces in the region, such as Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian groups, Zibakalam said. "If the Syrian regime is no longer there, it would be tantamount to the collapse of Iranian strategic policies in the middle east."

Source: Xinhua

China, ASEAN vow to consolidate strategic partnership

 China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday agreed to consolidate and deepen their strategic partnership.

The pledge came out of a meeting between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and foreign ministers of ten ASEAN members as well as ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh, on the sidelines of the special China-ASEAN foreign ministers meeting to mark the 10th anniversary of the formation of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership.

Li lauded the development of China-ASEAN relations as promoting regional stability and prosperity. He said China steadily pursued the way of peaceful development, took the relationship with ASEAN as a priority in its regional diplomacy, and pursued the policy of good

Li said China will continue to consolidate the strategic partnership with ASEAN, support ASEAN's integration, and be glad to see ASEAN play a leading role in regional cooperation.

He noted that through friendly consultation, China and ASEAN countries will respect each other, increase mutual trust and handle disputes with to promote long-term friendship and win-win situations.

Source: Xinhua

China's Chamaleon Shadow Banking

   In an article published in the Wall Street Journal about the Shadow banking in China, it describes
how Chinese banks managed to make loans off balance sheet, each time that regulators limited
several ways of shadow banking, banks worked out a way to get around the last one as well.
"The China Banking Regulatory Commission’s headaches started at the end of 2009, when it tried to rein in bank credit after a year of massive lending growth Beijing initiated to stimulate the economy in the face of the global financial crisis. While the headline figure for new lending in 2010 was lower than the 2009 figure, banks managed to keep total new credit ticking upward by using trust companies  at the time minor players in China’s financial system , to move loans off-balance-sheet. But the loans only departed temporarily, with the banks promising to buy them back after a short period.
Soon after, the sale of wealth-management products at Chinese banks started to go mainstream. Wealth-management products are typically short-term funds that banks raise from clients to invest in assets — such as bonds, interbank loans, shares and index futures — that generate a higher return than the anemic deposit rates they are required to offer. While banks had been selling such products to wealthy customers for years, in 2011 the market started to rapidly expand, with banks aggressively marketing them and savers attracted by the promise of seemingly risk-free investments (after all, the banks were backing them).
The banks arranged for a trust company to package a loan for a corporate borrower, and the bank then used wealth-management funds to buy the loan.    

In mid-2011, the CBRC intervened again, clamping down on the use of wealth-management-product funds to buy trust products backed by loans.
But soon the banks worked out a way to get around that as well.
Instead of buying the trust product directly from a trust company, the wealth-management product would buy the trust beneficiary rights — the right to the income stream from the trust product — from a third-party firm.
    The business really took off in mid-2012, when the securities regulator vastly expanded the range of businesses that securities firms and fund-management companies could get involved with. Securities brokerages and fund companies readily stepped into the third-party role, positioned between the trust and the wealth-management product.
In March of this year, the banking regulator stepped in yet again.This time it put a cap on the amount of ‘non-standard credit assets’ – a catch-all to cover trust loans, trust beneficiary rights and hopefully anything else the banks could dream up – that could be repackaged as investments for customers.

   Some banks have turned to private equity as a way to continue offering high returns on their wealth-management products without running afoul of limits on non-standard credit assets. 
Still, some of the private-equity offerings look surprisingly like debt, with the companies the funds are nominally buying equity in promising to repurchase the equity at a pre-agreed upon point in the future—at a higher price—ensuring the investor a healthy return.
According to Simon Ho, a bank analyst at Citigroup in Hong Kong, the off-balance-sheet exposure of China’s major banks  is equivalent to only 10% of their total assets. For smaller banks it’s as high as 30% or 40%, for some.
  If those loans go sour it won't be a crippling crises for major banks".

Chinese Xiaomi Hires One of Google Inc's top android executives

One of Google Inc.'s top Android executives has left the company for a little-known Chinese phone maker, furthering a change in leadership at the company's mobile-software division.

Hugo Barra will help with a new push by Xiaomi—pronounced sheow-mee—to develop its international business and be responsible for its strategic cooperation with Google, Xiaomi said Thursday. Xiaomi, based in Beijing, has grown quickly in the world's largest smartphone market by offering inexpensive Android devices with top hardware specs.

Xiaomi's business model doesn't revolve around the hardware it sells, but rather software, service offerings and accessories.

The company, which uses its website as its primary sales platform, offers an array of accessories as diverse as multicolored batteries, casings, hats and even dolls of Xiaomi's rabbit mascot.

It also now offers a set-top box that streams licensed Internet content for television sets and is integrated with the software the company runs on its phones, which are based on Google's Android operating system.

The hiring of Mr. Barra shows Xiaomi has ambitions to grow beyond China. In April, the company made its first foray into markets outside of the Chinese mainland, selling its phones in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Source: WSJ

Japan: Abe, big data, bad dreams.

Although Prime Minister Shinzo Abe target is to get Japan's Economy out of deflation and stagnation
through monetary easing,buying time and afterwads making a fiscal reform , to reach a fiscal consolidation.
 All governments have limited capacity to make significant change, so - as in business and indeed life in general  it is essential to choose and focus.
Much of the Japanese elite want to transform the country into a national version of "industrial Internet" General Electric, and are moving to implement those aims. But Abe could derail these efforts with his divisive and dangerous constitutional and historical obsessions. 
As we know from markets for mobile devices and the incredible resurrection of Apple,Information and Computer Technology (ICT) is an area where it pays to be competitive through innovation. Moreover, ICT competitiveness appears likely to pay off very well indeed over the coming years and decades. One crucial reason is that ICT sensors and data processing are becoming increasingly cheap, as described in a concise June 2013 overview by McKinsey and Company. 
For energy, this reduction in the costs of gathering, transmitting, and processing information on such system parameters as temperature, vibration, and the like have led to significant efficiency and reliability gains in jet engines, wind turbines, locomotives and other systems. Those results mean large savings by customers, and a great deal of money earned by vendors who innovate disruptive business models. Setting aside the good news for sustainability,  that bottom-line fact is one reason General Electric (GE) announced, very publicly on June 18, that it was going to be an "industrial Internet" firm as much as a maker of things. 

ICT is a huge opportunity, but despite its technological strengths, Japan has to run hard to catch up to the leaders. Perhaps the most astute observer of Japan's ICT policy and its political economy aspects is Steven Vogel, Professor of Political Science at the University of California Berkeley.
Vogel also lists a number of factors that hinder Japanese firms in the ICT sector. These can perhaps be best summed up as an institutionalized lack of flexibility in the face of an economic environment that is increasingly interactive (indeed, "user-driven") and global. But at the same time, he notes that Japan still possesses core strengths in its "capable bureaucracy, strong government-industry ties, and close collaboration among firms, suppliers, banks, and workers".
ICT is very realistically depicted as a means for reducing a range of costs while at the same time opening up opportunities. For example, the LDP Commission's ICT report very sensibly calls for putting "ICT in concrete" as well as diffusing the renewable and smart model being developed in the devastated Tohoku (Northeast) region across the nation.
 Japan's ICT industry in 2010 was worth 85.4 trillion yen worth of a total 928.9 trillion yen in nominal market size. In other words, the ICT industry represented 9.2% of the economy, making it much larger than construction, iron and steel, and other sectors. Yet the ICT sector as a whole has not increased markedly from its 1995 level of just over 78 trillion yen, in step with an economy that has not grown significantly since the mid-1990s. 
Japanese manufacturing as a whole as well as in several core business sectors is notably behind that of the Germans and the Americans. 
Japan is gifted with very fast and cheap broadband, but has not diffused it to the extent that the Americans and the Germans have. It therefore has an opportunity to undertake very productive investment and at the same time innovate new technologies and business models. 
The Ministry of Interior and Communications (MIC), in cooperation with other agencies that have significant presence in local areas,  is eagerly supportive of an ICT-centered growth strategy. 
Japan is, in short, undertaking promising investment in smart and green sectors against a backdrop of accelerating opportunity. Japan is also guided by many of the "resilience" concerns that are emerging as concerns in virtually every country. 
Abe is certainly not going to interfere in the MIC and other ministries' ICT budgets and their allied smart city, smart grid, distributed generation and other projects. He in fact sits on committees related to these initiatives. Abe is perhaps unlikely to spearhead these ICT endeavors.

By Andrew Dewitt
Asian Times

U.S. real GDP growth in Q2 increased to 2.5% better than estimate.

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property
located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the second quarter of 2013
(that is, from the first quarter to the second quarter), according to the "second" estimate released by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the first quarter, real GDP increased 1.1 percent.

      The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for
the "advance" estimate issued last month.  In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 1.7
percent.  With this second estimate for the second quarter, the increase in exports was larger than
previously estimated, and the increase in imports was smaller than previously estimated.

      The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from
personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment, nonresidential fixed
investment, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a negative contribution from
federal government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The acceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected upturns in exports and in
nonresidential fixed investment and a smaller decrease in federal government spending that were partly
offset by an acceleration in imports and decelerations in private inventory investment and in PCE.

__Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

          Department of Commerce___

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Japan, GCC to launch strategic ministerial dialogue

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his counterpart of Bahrain, Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, agreed Saturday to hold a strategic ministerial dialogue between Japan and the Gulf Cooperation Council at an early date.

The strategic dialogue will bring together the Japanese foreign ministers and ministerial officials of the GCC countries. Bahrain currently dispatches an official to serve as the secretary-general of the six-nation GCC.At his meeting in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, Khalifa informed Abe of his country's decision to lift the restrictions on food imports from Japan that have been in place since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Abe visits gas-rich Qatar

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed strengthening cooperation with gas-rich Qatar as he met emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani in Doha on Wednesday as part of a regional tour.

The two leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation in the political and security fields, they said in a joint statement.

Abe's tour of the Gulf is seen as his latest push to promote nuclear technology exports.

And the Japanese government says Qatar and Kuwait have shown an interest in nuclear safety, out of concerns that neighbouring countries plan to build nuclear plants.

In May, Japan signed a nuclear cooperation deal with another Gulf state, the United Arab Emirates, during a similar visit by Abe.

A day later, he visited Turkey and signed a long-awaited deal to build a sprawling nuclear power plant on the country's Black Sea coast, in a milestone for the Japanese nuclear industry.

Opinions mixed over Japan sales tax hike

Opinions were mixed on the second day of a government hearing on Japan's two-stage sales tax hike plan as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration ask experts for their views on how to balance economic growth and fiscal rehabilitation.

Nine experts took part in the second session on Tuesday, including Yale University Prof. Koichi Hamada, a special adviser to Mr. Abe, as well as Tokyo University Prof. Takatoshi Ito, Credit Suisse Chief Japan Economist Hiromichi Shirakawa and Mitsumaru Kumagai, chief economist at the Daiwa Research Institute.

Economy minister Akira Amari, who briefed reporters after the meeting, said five participants indicated that the government should go ahead with the current plan, while four others suggested alternatives to avoid the negative impact the tax hike might have on the economy.

"Those who were in favor of the current plan cited the importance of maintaining confidence in the nation's finances, the necessity of avoiding market risks from not implementing the tax hikes, securing social security resources and investing in the future," he said.

Mr. Hamada suggested Tokyo should delay the two-stage tax hike by one year, or possibly take an incremental approach of an annual 1 percentage point increase starting next year. But Mr. Amari also said Mr. Hamada voiced support in the idea of cutting the corporate tax rate to cover the negative impact a sales tax hike may have on the economy. Mr. Amari added that he himself believed tax breaks had the effect of improving corporations' growth potential in the face of a slumping economy.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japan's population drops for 4th straight year

Japan's population under its resident registry network system fell 266,004, or 0.21 pct, from a year before to 126,393,679, excluding foreign residents, as of the end of March 2013, down for the fourth straight year, the internal affairs ministry said Wednesday.

The drop renewed the previous year's record decline of 263,727.

The natural population decline, or the number of deaths over that of births, stood at a record high of 226,118.

The country's total population came to 128,373,879, including 1,980,200 foreign residents who became newly subject to the registration system following a reform of the system in July 2012.

Source: JiJi Press

Nissan plans to sell self-driving cars by 2020

Officials at Japanese automaker Nissan have announced plans to put self-driving cars on the market by 2020.

The firm became the first manufacturer in Japan to announce such a timeframe.

Nissan officials unveiled the prototype of a self-driving car at an event in California on Tuesday.

The firm's engineers equipped an electric vehicle with 5 cameras that can recognize information such as road signs.

They also added devices that measure the distance between the car and obstacles near it using lasers and ultrasonic technologies.

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China joins global combat tax evasion efforts

China on Tuesday signed the multilateral convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters to boost its participation in global efforts to combat tax avoidance and evasion by cooperating with other states in the assessment and collection of taxes.

Wang Jun, Administrator of the State Administration of Taxation of China, signed the convention on behalf of the Chinese government, in the presence of Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD, at the headquarters of the OECD in Paris.

By signing the Convention, China became the 56th signatory to the multilateral agreement designed to facilitate international cooperation among tax authorities to improve their ability to tackle tax evasion and avoidance and ensure full implementation of their national tax laws, while respecting the fundamental rights of taxpayers.

"This is the first multilateral tax instrument that has ever been signed by China," Chinese Administer Wang Jun told the audience at the signing ceremony.

He said the signing of the convention is of significance as it comes at a time when China has begun economic transition, marking a new step in opening-up and reform in tax matters.

Hailing China's participation in the convention, OECD chief Gurria said: "Today's signing is both timely and important. The G20 has endorsed automatic exchange of information as the new global standard. This also represents another significant step in the strengthening of collaboration between China and the OECD."

He added the convention provided the ideal instrument "to swiftly implement automatic exchange, and to do so with a wide range of partners."

Developed by the OECD and the Council of Europe in 1988, the convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters is the most comprehensive multilateral instrument available for tax cooperation and exchange of information.