Chinese vice premier discusses trade with U.S. officials by phone

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang discussed trade issues on Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Trade Representative Michael Froman over the phone.

The two sides exchanged opinions on preparations for the 24th Session of China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) and other economic and trade issues of common concern.

The JCCT was launched in 1983 as a platform for China and the United States to promote trade relations and address issues of mutual concern.

During the 23rd session on Dec. 19 last year in Washington, the two sides reached consensus on promoting bilateral trade and business ties, and signed two documents -- a memorandum of understanding in support of 

China-U.S. trade cooperation and the second phase report on the statistical discrepancy of merchandise trade.

Source:  Xinhua

Pentagon Officials: Flight over East China Sea training exercise that had been planned for a long time

China's defense ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng on Wednesday said the country has observed U.S. B-52 bombers flying in the newly established air defense identification zone over East China Sea.

Geng said the U.S. aircraft flew south and north along the eastern border of the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone from 11:00 a.m. to 1:22 p.m. Tuesday, about 200 km to the east of the Diaoyu Islands.

The Chinese army monitored the entire process, carried out identification in a timely manner, and ascertained the type of aircraft.

"We need to stress that China will identify every aircraft flying in the air defense identification zone according to the country's announcement of aircraft identification rules for the air defense identification zone," Geng said.

"China is capable of exercising effective control over this airspace," Geng added.

China announced the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone on Saturday. The U.S. State Department and certain officials expressed concern after the announcement.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said Tuesday that the U.S. conducted a China's defense ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng on Wednesday said the country has observed U.S. B-52 bombers flying in the newly established air defense identification zone over East China Sea.

Geng said the U.S. aircraft flew south and north along the eastern border of the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone from 11:00 a.m. to 1:22 p.m. Tuesday, about 200 km to the east of the Diaoyu Islands.

The Chinese army monitored the entire process, carried out identification in a timely manner, and ascertained the type of aircraft.

"We need to stress that China will identify every aircraft flying in the air defense identification zone according to the country's announcement of aircraft identification rules for the air defense identification zone," Geng said.

"China is capable of exercising effective control over this airspace," Geng added.

China announced the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone on Saturday. The U.S. State Department and certain officials expressed concern after the announcement.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said Tuesday that the U.S. conducted a training exercise that had been planned for a long time. It involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning to Guam. It involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning to Guam.

China: Aircraft carrier's voyage normal training arrangement

A Chinese mainland spokeswoman on Wednesday reiterated that the Liaoning aircraft carrier's South China Sea trial is a normal arrangement in its scheduled training.

"We will continue to initiate new prospects in the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations," said Fan Liqing, of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, at a press conference.

Fan made the remarks when responding to a question about Taiwan authority's concern about the carrier's possible passage through the Taiwan Strait.

The Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier, left its homeport of Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province for the South China Sea on Tuesday on a scientific and training mission.

Source: Xinhua

China welcomes Geneva II conference on Syria

China welcomes the second Geneva conference on the Syrian crisis slated for Jan. 22 and hopes it can achieve results, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Tuesday.

The conference should be aimed to search for a political solution to the crisis and define the way of political transition, said Wang, who is accompanying Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on an official visit to Romania.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced Monday the date for the Geneva II meeting that will bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiating table for the first time since the outbreak of the country's internal conflict.

All sides in Syria should enhance communication, remove existing obstacles, build mutual trust and seek consensus, while the international community needs to keep showing their constructive support, said the Chinese top diplomat.

For the meeting to bear fruit, China is willing to continue making its contribution, Wang noted.

Beijing has been maintaining contact with all sides in Syria, encouraging them to commit themselves to a political solution to the protracted crisis and joining the Geneva II talks with a positive and constructive attitude, Wang said.

Given the complexity of the crisis, Wang said, the Geneva meeting will be a process, and the priority now is offering a negotiating platform for all sides involved.

China pays close attention to the humanitarian situation in Syria, and has provided Syrians in and outside the country with aid via different channels, Wang said, pledging Beijing's continuous effort in that regard.

China supports the UN's coordination of international efforts in offering humanitarian aid to Syrians. But such measures merely ease temporary pains, while the humanitarian situation in Syria improves at root only after a comprehensive and complete settlement of the crisis is reached, Wang said.

China, France vow new-type economic partnership

China and France on Tuesday pledged to develop a new type of comprehensive, mutually beneficial and sustainable economic and financial partnership.

The agreement came after the first China-France high-level economic and financial Dialogue, which was co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai and French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici in Beijing.

Calling the dialogue mechanism "an important new platform for bilateral economic and financial cooperation," Ma said the two nations should fully implement the consensus reached previously by their two presidents.

He called on the two sides to strengthen macro-economic policy coordination and enhance cooperation under the framework of the G20.

Both sides should continue to deepen cooperation in traditional areas such as nuclear energy and aviation, and promote cooperation in new areas like modern agriculture, urbanization, new energy and the oceans, according to Ma.

The vice premier also urged China and France to attach high importance to International Monetary Fund governance and quota reform to enhance its credibility, legitimacy and effectiveness.

For his part, Moscovici said the dialogue mechanism showed the leaders' willingness to develop bilateral ties.

Calling China one of the most important partners of France, he said France welcomes Chinese companies' investment in France, adding that both sides should refrain from reacting to trade imbalances with protectionism.

The one-day dialogue covered issues of the macro economy and policy, global governance, fiscal and financial cooperation, as well as bilateral trade and investment.

China and France signed an agreement to avoid double taxation and prevent tax evasion and issued a joint statement after the dialogue.

Source: Xinhua

Latin America’s duty-free market evolves

With travelers from North America on the decline, duty-free retailers and suppliers in Latin America are vying for their attention, even as they ride a local wave of increased spending power among consumers who live within the region. To negotiate this tricky situation, businesses are introducing larger retail spaces, new marketing techniques and a wider array of products.

From one angle, sales trends are positive, according to Manuel Montico, the general manager for the Montevideo office of Grupo Wisa, the Panama-based travel retailer. “The global travel retail market in Latin America has been growing almost continuously over the past 10 years, except for a slight contraction experienced in the year 2008 due to, among other factors, the crisis created after the fall of Lehman in the United States ,” he said. “It shows signs of strength to continue growing for at least the next five years.”

Source: Latin Trade

China: "re-education through labour"

For 50-year-old Liu Hua, the horrors of the labour camp are still fresh. In the last seven years, she has been sent to the "re-education through labour" camps a total of three times for protesting against what she says was a government land grab in her home village.

But during her last stint, Ms Liu did something truly extraordinary: she wrote a secret diary documenting her experiences.

The mother of one worked 11-hour days making coats for the Chinese military. When the guards weren't looking, she stole pieces of coat lining to write the diary.

In her small Beijing apartment, she laid out what appeared to be a patchwork quilt on a small table in front me. But if you looked closely at the sections, which had been taped together, they were actually diary entries from a two-year period.

The extraordinary document reads like a roll call of abuse. One entry from 13 September 2011 talks about a fellow inmate being tortured by guards who used electric batons. "Her face was all purple after she was beaten," it said.

Earlier this month, Beijing announced that it would abolish its much hated re-education through labour camps - the country's equivalent of the Russian gulags. In the past, petty criminals, and often dissidents or people who protested, could be locked up for four years without a trial.

Following her experiences, Ms Liu is trying to return to normal life as best .

Sinopec, Apache in Talks to Invest in Canada LNG Project

     According to a report from the Wall Street Journal:

China's largest refiner is in early talks with U.S.-based oil-and-gas producer Apache Corp.  to buy a minority stake in a liquefied natural-gas project on Canada's Pacific coast, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The LNG project, known as Kitimat, is one of several LNG projects that China Petrochemical Corp. is looking at in the region, one of the people said. The management team of the Chinese company, known as Sinopec, has yet to authorize the investment, and it could select another Canadian LNG project to invest in, the person said.

Although the size and value of the stake hasn't been determined, Sinopec's investment would go toward paying for the cost of the project, one of the people said. Apache last year pegged the cost at $15 billion.

Apache Corp. in February upped its stake in Kitimat from 40% to 50%, which valued the project at $4.05 billion. The assets in Kitimat, a coastal town in British Columbia, include an LNG processing plant, pipelines and 644,000 acres of undeveloped shale resources. Apache will operate the upstream assets, while its partner--U.S.-based Chevron Corp., which own the other 50%--will operate the downstream assets.

The move comes as China looks to double the share of natural gas in its energy mix to 10% by 2020 from less than 5% now. Although China has ambitious plans for unconventional fuels such as shale gas, large-scale production is at least a decade away, creating opportunities for importers of LNG--the chilled and exportable form of natural gas. Sinopec is China's largest refiner by output.

Sinopec could also be a buyer of LNG produced by the project.

Canada Oil Sands: Some operations are actually not net energy generating—i.e., the energy injected via steam exceeds the recovered chemical energy in the retrieved bitumen.

U. Calgary analysis of energy balances and emissions of SAGD oil sands production finds need for improved processes; some operations not thermally efficient or net generators of energy

A team at the University of Calgary has assessed the thermal efficiencies, energy balances, and emissions of Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)—both theoretically and as deployed at scale, using field data from the ERCB—for the production of bitumen from Athabasca oil sands reservoirs. In a paper in the journal Fuel, they report that current SAGD projects in Alberta show a very wide range of field performance.

Although optimized SAGD can yield “reasonably high” recovery factors, they found, the economic and environmental costs can be large given the amount of steam required. The data suggests that at the extreme, some operations are actually not net energy generating—i.e., the energy injected via steam exceeds the recovered chemical energy in the retrieved bitumen. The results suggest that in situ bitumen recovery processes need to advance well beyond current capabilities “if practical and sustainable energy balance and emissions scenarios are to be achieved,” they said.

For a successful in situ oil sands bitumen recovery process, two requirements must be met: first, it is necessary to raise the oil mobility (often done by lowering its viscosity which results from raising its temperature) until it can be moved by natural forces such as gravity, and secondly, it is necessary to move the mobilized oil to a production wellbore so it can be produced to the surface.

Currently, commercial steam-based in situ processess used to recover bitumen from oil sands reservoirs are either one of Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS), or Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD).

   The geology of the reservoir is a key factor, the two researchers explain. Production reservoirs are “completely different” from the homogeneous sandstones with uniform fluids envisaged by the engineers that developed SAGD.

 After accounting for the energy required (and the bitumen lost) during the upgrading process to convert the bitumen to synthetic oil, and then refining into transportation fuels, they found that the overall breakeven point was equal to a cSOR of about 6.5 m³/m³.

Based on the cSOR field data...many operations exceed this value and thus are not net energy generation processes yet may be “economic”! With disconnected price markets for natural gas and bitumen, it is possible for bitumen recovery under these conditions to be economically viable today even though it makes no sense to pursue such an energy inefficient process when cSOR values are high.

—Gates and Larter

Source:Green Car Congress 

China: TB Prize Selection Gets Caught in Politics

    According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"there are few  awards in the field of tuberculosis treatment, where doctors can spend years trying to cure patients, only to watch many die. Tsetan Sadutshang appeared to be one of the chosen few when he was told in October by the organization that oversees the Kochon Prize, a prestigious honor for major contributions to the fight against TB, that the TB program he leads tentatively had been selected a winner".

"Based at a hospital in Dharamsala, India, at the foot of the Himalayas, the Tibetan Tuberculosis Control Program treats Tibetans in exile as well as Indian patients. Despite high rates of TB and drug-resistant TB in the community, the program says 93% of its patients in 2012 were either confirmed cured or were well after their treatment ended.

"We have one of the highest rates of TB in the world," said Dr. Sadutshang, chief medical officer of the Tibetan Delek Hospital and personal physician to the Dalai Lama. "One of the biggest health problems in the Tibetan community is TB."

Yet Dr. Sadutshang's program wasn't given the award, in a turn of events illustrating a collision of politics and public health.

While the Kochon Prize selection committee of TB experts chose the Tibetan program, according to people close to the selection process, the winner must be approved by the director-general of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan. A WHO spokesman confirmed this and said the WHO administration, which advises the director-general, didn't approve the choice because the hospital has ties to the Tibetan government-in-exile. The Central Tibetan Administration, as that entity is known, isn't recognized by the United Nations. The WHO is the U.N.'s public-health agency."The WHO is not able to recognize any entity that is not in turn recognized as a legal authority by the UN," said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl in response to a question. He said the prize committee's selection was reviewed by the WHO administration's legal department.

China also objected to the choice of winner, according to people familiar with the selection process, calling the TB program a political organization because it was linked to the government in exile, an entity China asserts threatens its sovereignty over Tibet". 

The $65,000 prize, which would have been shared with another winner, would have helped the Tibetan TB program fund treatment for patients and possibly apply for grants from larger funding agencies, said Kunchok Dorjee, who directed the program through September and now advises it while in graduate school. "It would have really helped us run our program and save a number of lives," he said.

New analysis shows growing fossil reserves with a shrinking carbon budget

New analysis by Oil Change International shows that global fossil fuel reserves continue to expand while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other scientific and industry analysts repeatedly show that our remaining budget for burning fossil fuels has shrunk to less than one third of existing reserves.

The Oil Change analysis shows that fossil fuel companies gained access to more than twice as much in fossil fuels as they produced between 2007 and 2011. They replaced the 377 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) consumed and added another 415 billion BOE on top of that.

“The first rule of holes is simple: when you’re in one, stop digging. We are in a huge hole when it comes to the climate and yet we continue digging our way to climate catastrophe,” said Stephen Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International. “There is no logical reason to continue expanding our fossil fuel reserves; doing so only continues to line the pockets of Big Oil, Gas and Coal executives while putting our communities and planet in peril.”

Oil and gas companies in particular continue to spend billions to explore for new reserves, bolstered by massive subsidies from governments. Recent estimates of subsidies for fossil fuel production range from the hundreds of millions to many billions per year.

“Our governments continue to use massive amounts of taxpayer dollars to incentivize exploration for new oil and gas at a time when science is telling us we already have far too much to burn,” said Kretzmann. “It’s time our leaders put an end to fossil fuel subsidies, starting immediately by ending subsidies that encourage the expansion of fossil fuel reserves.”

Source: PriceofOilOrganization

New Wave Energy wants to put power plants in the sky

Harvesting power from the wind and the sun is nothing new. We've seen flying winds turbines and solar power plants that aim to provide clean renewable energy. UK-based New Wave Energy has a bolder idea in the works. The company plans to build the first high altitude aerial power plant, using networks of unmanned drones that can harvest energy from multiple sources and transmit it wirelessly to receiving stations on the ground.

The patent-pending technology aims to have drone networks hover in the sky harvesting both solar and wind power, while moving about at low speeds to keep track of the sun. The drones will operate at high altitudes where the winds are more stable and there's minimal chance of weather patterns or aircraft interfering with them.

"At 50,000 ft (15,000 m) there is very little air traffic and biodiversity, unless you go over the Himalayas," company director Michael Burdett tells Gizmag. "Implementing a system in these conditions will not obstruct any existing systems."

Each 20 x 20 m (65 x 65 ft) drone will have four rotors, multiple wind turbines and a flat base for generating solar power. It'll be able to power itself with the harvested energy and generate an additional 50 kW that can be transmitted wirelessly to the ground. Rectenna arrays installed inland or on offshore installations would receive the electromagnetic waves and convert them into usable power.

Burdett estimates that an aerial power plant containing thousands of drones could produce around 400 MW of power, enough to power over 205,000 homes annually. Designed to be easy to update, the drone networks can be outfitted with more efficient generators as they become available. A drone power plant capable of delivering so much power, the company says, would be pretty large, around twice the size of an offshore wind farm such as the Robin Rigg farm in the Solway Firth, Scotland.

The company states that it will be able to handle energy output within a drone network as efficiently as managing data in an information network. An aerial power plant also makes it easier to provide power to remote locations with long range transmissions, or help out immediately in the event of an emergency or a natural disaster.

Aside of the obvious advantage of requiring little or no land space, the drone networks would be invisible to the naked eye making it realistic for them to be installed anywhere. The company aims to make use of the unpopulated airspace over the Atlantic, Indian or Pacific Ocean first. Burdett states that New Wave Energy will be able to deliver energy around the clock to many different parts of the world using solar, wind, thermoelectrics, infrared and visible spectrum rectennas.

It took around two years for New Wave Energy UK to develop the technology. The company plans to start a Kickstarter campaign to raise around £300,000 (US$500,000) and expects to have a working prototype within 6 months of receiving funding.

Source: New Wave Energy UK,Gizmag.

Transforming shipping containers into studio apartments

Shipping containers from China are getting a high-tech transformation to become en-suite studio apartments. A youth organization in London has won permission to create two small communities of converted shipping containers. Our reporter Catherine Drew took a look at these new converted homes. 

It doesn’t look much for the outside, painted shipping containers stacked on top of each other. But these are the product of three years of research and testing, a simple but high-tech home for 1 person. They are the brainchild of one man. 

"The price of accommodation in this part of London means you can’t afford it if you’re on minimum wage. And there isn’t anything between. And so it was trying to find something that would bridge that gap, that would be a stepping stone between living in a hostel and getting into the private rented sector. " said Christopher Pain, Ymca Walthamstow Forest. 

550 young people come through the doors of the YMCA in Walthamstow each year, needing help, support and accommodation. But once ready to start work, their experience finding accommodation to rent can be a shock. 

Private rentals in the capital are soaring, up almost 5% year on year -and now stand at an average 1800 dollars a month. 

The mYpads have been designed with low energy costs and are to be rented out at around 100 US dollars a week. Young people being helped by the YMCA are impressed with the mYpads. 

"I think it’s amazing, it’s got everything you needing here, it’s warm, its comfortable, you’ve got a TV, you’ve got a cooker you’ve got a fridge, you’ve got your shower room, you’ve got everything really. So I think they’re amazing. Maybe from the outside you may think yeah, it’s a shipping container but when you’re inside you just feel like you’re in a nice hotel room. there’s a TV, a shower room, fridge, it’s amazing. When inside you feel like it’s a nice hotel room, or a nice living quarters, you wouldn’t think it was a shipping container." said Louise Stephenson, Former Ymca Resident. 

But not everyone is so welcoming. The council which has approved plans for two developments consisting of 10 and 20 mYpads is wary of the scheme. 

The council says it will watch the progress of the mypad developments with interest but has expressed caution. 1 official told me the council did not see the use of shipping crates as the answer for the 21 thousand people needing accommodation in this London borough. 

"I fully accept that shipping containers like these are not the long-term solution, but we face a crisis at the moment that’s on a parallel with after the Second World War." said Christopher Pain, Ymca Walthamstow Forest. 

And it’s a solution that is prompting great interest not only from London’s other boroughs which face similar housing needs, but internationally, raising the prospect that this experiment in east London, could one day be seen further afield.

Source: Xinhua

China, Europe boost cooperation amid economic globalization

 Relations between China and European countries are becoming closer in face of economic globalization, with exchange of high-level visits increasing, economic and trade cooperation broadening, and people-to-people exchanges continually making headway.

Last Thursday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and leaders of the European Union (EU) kicked off the 16th China-EU summit in Beijing to work out a blueprint for bilateral ties in the coming years.

Five days later, Li will attend a China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) leaders' meeting in the Romanian capital of Bucharest to enhance mutual understanding and cooperation.

The two summits, held within a week, showed that China and European countries continue to broaden and deepen their relations.

During a meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso prior to the summit in Beijing, President Xi Jinping said China and the EU are two major forces in maintaining world peace, two important markets to promote common development, and two civilizations to advance the cause of human progress.

China and the EU need to bear in mind the trend of changes in the global situation, grasp opportunities, accurately position the comprehensive strategic partnership amid a multipolar world and economic globalization, and blaze new trails for the development of China-EU cooperation amid global changes in industry so as to benefit the peoples of both sides and the world, said the Chinese president.

Europe, especially developed nations in the west of the continent, is an important partner of economic cooperation for China due to high economic complementarity between them and China. Moreover, China could also learn from Europe's experiences during its course of comprehensively deepening reforms.

Statistics showed that two-way trade between China and the EU exceeded 546 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, with the EU becoming the largest trade partner of China and China the second largest of the 28-member bloc.

Despite the debt crisis in some so-called "peripheral countries" in Europe, European nations are still an important export market and source of investment and technology for China.

While establishing the comprehensive strategic partnership with Western European nations, China is also promoting cooperation with CEE countries, which are called "New Europe" by Western media and analysts.

CEE countries, mainly emerging economies that have similar GDP per capita with China, are also at a crucial stage of transition to market economy, and their social and economic development is in urgent need for advanced technology and funds.

As China and those countries share broad interests, they have enjoyed good prospects for mutually-beneficial and win-win cooperation in such fields as infrastructure, finance and green economy.

Out of concerns about geopolitical and security issues and a possible impact on European integration, Western European countries, or the so-called "Old Europe," may be worried about cooperation between China and "New Europe."

However, it should be noted that pragmatic cooperation between China and CEE nations in the economic field is not only transparent, but also inclusive.

China and Western European countries have given play to their respective advantages and coordinated with each other in pushing forward CEE nations's development.

Just as international analysts put it, broadening cooperation between China and CEE nations will help boost cooperation between the Asian country and the whole continent and accelerate all-around, balanced development of China-Europe ties.

China has always supported European integration, and a powerful, united Europe is in the interests of not only the continent, but also the Asian nation.
Source: Xinhua

Defying China, U.S. bombers fly into East China Sea zone

Two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers on a training mission flew over disputed islands in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday, defying China's declaration of a new airspace defence zone in the region.

The Pentagon said the flight on Monday night did not prompt a response from China, and the White House urged Beijing to resolve its dispute with Japan over the islands diplomatically, without resorting to "threats or inflammatory language."

"These are the kinds of differences that should not be addressed with threats or inflammatory language, but rather can and should be resolved diplomatically," he said.

Two U.S. B-52 bombers carried out the flight, part of a long-planned exercise, on Monday night EST, a U.S. military official said.

The lumbering bombers appeared to send a message that the United States was not trying to hide its intentions and showed that China, so far at least, was unable or unwilling to defend the zone.

The B-52s, which have been part of the Air Force fleet for more than half a century, are relatively slow compared with today's more advanced fighter jets and far easier to spot than stealth aircraft.

The Pentagon said the training exercise "involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning to Guam." Warren said the U.S. military aircraft were neither observed nor contacted by Chinese aircraft.

China's Defense Ministry said on Monday it had lodged protests with the U.S. and Japanese embassies in Beijing over the criticism from Washington and Tokyo of the zone.

Source: Reuters

New FX Leader in Asia

Singapore has overtaken Japan as Asia's biggest Fx centre for the first time, and risen to the third place
globally(behind London and New York) in the latest survey by the Bank for International Settlements.
Average daily FX turnover volume in Singapore grew 44% to US$383 billion in April 2013, compared
with US$266 billion in April 2010.
Global turnover growth in the same period was 35%.
Average daily interest rate derivatives turnover volume in Singapore also grew 6% to US$ 37 billion
in April 2013,the second largest in Asia,behind Japan.
  Jaquelin Loh deputy managing director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore,said the ranking positions Singapore's financial centre to better serve the investment and risk management needs of financial institutions and corporates throughout Asia.

Source ABCHINA Edition

Now valued at $1.6 billion, Flipkart finally launches its iPhone app

Leading Indian e-store Flipkart has been around for years, but only this week did it get round to launching an iOS app. Yes, e-shoppers in the country can finally browse and buy products on their iPhones without having to fiddle with the browser.

This new release comes two months after Flipkart rolled out an Android app.

Interestingly, the Flipkart iPhone app supports a host of non-Indian languages such as Chinese, Spanish, and Russian.

Flipkart’s last funding round was worth $360 million,the biggest ever for an Indian website business, so the company definitely has the funds to devote to some new apps.

In other Flipkart news today, a new financial report from South Africa’s Naspers reveals that the major Flipkart investor’s 8.1 percent stake in the firm (diluted from 10 percent by newer investments) effectively values Flipkart at $1.6 billion. Earlier this year a similar calculation valued the e-store at $1 billion.

The chat app battle is no battle, it’s just more toys for adults

Today there are over a dozen messaging apps on app stores across the world. Many of them have more than a million registered users and are consistently reporting strong growth numbers. It’s a battle that is closely watched by us at Tech In Asia and tech-interested folks across Asia.

But is it really anything to huff and puff about? I don’t think chat apps are the battle that we think they are.

Tech In Asia has plenty of articles on the chat app battle. From KakaoTalk entering the Phillipines

to the peculiarities of the walled gardens that chat apps create, to the potentials of m-commerce we’ve covered the gamut.

The underlying thesis of these articles and what is perpetuated by press releases by companies like Line, KakaoTalk, WeChat, and their competitors is that this a battle with a winner. We assume that this battle will be like Facebook trouncing Friendster and MySpace in the social media battle or Google thumping Yahoo and Altavista in search. But the nature of chat apps is profoundly different from search and social media.

Most kids born in the 90s probably don’t even remember a day when Google was not the dominant platform. Back then the field was littered with competitors, including Yahoo, AskJeeves, and Altavista. Google came at just the right time, the number of websites on the internet was becoming increasingly overwhelming for users, and internet users in the mid–90’s were desperate for a way to organize all the content exploding on the internet. In 1998, Google blindsided everyone with a user interface that was simple, neat, and super fast. In 2000, it launched AdWords, becoming the cash cow that continues to power the search giant’s investments in self-driving cars, Google Glass, and Android.Google won the battle for the most efficient reorganization of the internet and the quickest avenue to relevant information. 

 In other words, it was a race to who could get the results fastest and best. This battle had a clear winner.

Facebook had to build a place that was easy enough for new users to get into and friends to connect with each other. There had to be a clear winner since multiples of friends had to be in one central place to start groups and connect with each other. It’s the basic principle of network effects at work – Facebook is more relevant and more useful with more users together. That’s an imperative for them to survive.

Chat apps do not work that way and should not be treated like Facebook nor Google. Chat apps do not depend on multiple groups of users to know each other to work. In fact, two users is enough. With chat apps, there won’t be a clear winner.

Google and Facebook, both came out of an era that was dominated by the web browser.This is exactly why these two companies focused on dominating the browser.

Apps are totally different. The key reason for this is the nature of mobile. With mobile you’ve got badge app icons, notifications, notification center, the ability to have multiple apps, and mobility. Browser tabs just do not have this level of influence over the overall user experience of your computer. Ironically, with notifications, this allows users to have multiple apps running on one mobile.

In other words, these aren’t winners. They can co-exist. Users have multiple apps on their mobiles. Granted, there are going to be some dominant platforms across nations

Sourece: TECHINASIA

US Consumer Confidence before Black Friday

The temporary agreement to end the standoff in Washington did nothing to boost consumer confidence which fell further in November, to 70.4 vs October's revised 72.4. Confidence took a big hit in October, falling from September's 80.2 amid the government shutdown and budget standoff.

The weakness continues to be centered in the expectations component where wide swings are common. Expectations fell to 69.3 vs 72.2 in October and against 84.7 in September before all the Washington trouble started. Consumers are showing less confidence in their income prospects and especially on the outlook for the jobs market.

 Steady readings for this component point to steady rates of monthly change for the economy as a whole. As for the jobs market specifically, today's report points to a little bit of improvement this month as fewer consumers, at 34.0 percent, describe jobs as currently hard to get which is down from 34.9 percent in October.

Other readings include a drop in inflation expectations, down 3 tenths to 5.2 percent and reflecting the decline in pump prices.
The economic shock from the government shutdown proved very limited, not affecting jobs or manufacturing but badly shaking up consumer confidence. Shaky confidence going into Black Friday won't be much to celebrate for the nation's retailers.

Source: Bloomberg

More chinese cities have taken measures to cool surging prices

More Chinese cities have rolled out measures to cool surging home prices, joining growing efforts nationwide as authorities come under pressure to rein in a red-hot housing market.

The eastern city of Nanjing, the southern city of Xiamen, Nanchang in central China and Shenyang in the northeast unveiled a number of measures on Monday, according to city government websites, including raising minimum down payments for second home purchases and making more land available.

Wuhan, the capital city of central Hubei province, announced similar rules last Friday.

Source: Reuters

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne asks BoE to consider extra powers to curb banks

Chancellor George Osborne has asked the Bank of England to decide whether it needs more powers to control banks' risk-taking.

His intervention is the latest sign that Britain is going beyond international banking rules to curb its financial sector after taxpayers paid billions of pounds to rescue several banks during the 2007-09 financial crisis.

The Bank's Financial Policy Committee can already shape the regulation of Britain's financial system. It has powers to force banks to hold more capital but has no direct say over a separate tool for reining in big banks' balance sheets, a so-called leverage ratio.

Global regulators, keen to make banks safer after the financial crisis, are focussing on this leverage ratio as a way to curb risk.

Osborne's action accelerates a review of possible FPC leverage ratio powers that had been anticipated at a later date.

The review would also have to show that implementing the leverage ratio faster or higher than the Basel accord would help UK financial stability, Osborne said.

Source:  Reuters

NEW RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION IN OCTOBER 2013

NEW RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION IN OCTOBER 2013
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential
construction statistics for October 2013:
BUILDING PERMITS
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,034,000. This
is 6.2 percent (±0.8%) above the September rate of 974,000 and is 13.9 percent (±1.1%) above the October 2012 estimate of 908,000.
Single-family authorizations in October were at a rate of 620,000; this is 0.8 percent (±0.9%)* above the September figure of 615,000.
Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 387,000 in October.
HOUSING STARTS and HOUSING COMPLETIONS
The lapse in federal funding affected the data collection schedule for the Survey of Construction, the source of data on new housing
units started and completed. Accurate data collection for September and October could not be completed in time for this release. Data
on housing units started and completed in September, October, and November 2013 will be released on December 18, 2013.

Amazon sees new pillar in video market in Japan

With the nation's major TV stations and movie industry on board, U.S. online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. is seeking to be a major player in the video distribution market in Japan, as it prepares to begin offering content as early as this week, according to sources.

Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK), Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc. (TBS), TV Asahi Corp. and all other major commercial TV stations in Tokyo, as well as film makers, are expected to provide Amazon.com with programs and movies.Amazon.com is currently expected to begin service by offering several tens of thousands of programs, including TV Asahi's drama "Doctor-X," TBS's drama "Zutto Anataga Sukidatta" (I've always loved you), a love story featuring a mama's boy, and "Thermae Romae," a film made by Fuji Television Network Inc. and others.

Source: NewsOnJapan

China, Hungary, Serbia reach agreement on railway project

 Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here Monday that his country has reached an agreement with Hungary and Serbia to jointly build a railway between the latter two countries.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Hungarian and Serbian counterparts, Viktor Orban and Ivica Dacic, Li hailed the project as a landmark in cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

The three sides, added the Chinese premier, will set up working groups immediately and advance the project with high quality as rapidly as possible for the benefit of passengers and cargo transporters.

"China has made rapid progress in railway construction since its reform and opening-up," said Li, noting that the country now has the world's second-largest railway network with the longest mileage of high-speed railway.

The needs of CEE countries for modern transportation and the technological, equipment, financial and other advantages of China in the area indicate that the project will surely benefit all parties involved, Li said.

The Chinese premier highlighted Chinese equipment as a new global trend due to its high quality with low prices.

In its cooperation with emerging markets in particular, the Chinese premier said, Chinese equipment will not only improve their infrastructure, but also reduce its own over-capacity and improve product and services quality.

Such win-win cooperation will benefit the concerned sides as well as the European Union and the world, Li said.

Li arrived here Monday for an official visit to Romania and a summit with leaders of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

Source:Xinhua

Nissan tests automatic car on public road

Nissan tests automatic car on public road in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo.

The car is capable of running automatically without steering or braking by a driver. The company is aiming to have the vehicle on the market by 2020.

The test run was conducted along a 3-kilometer stretch of a highway called Sagami Jukan Road on Monday. Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa was a passenger in the car, and representatives of the media were there to watch.

After passing through a toll booth, the vehicle used cameras and laser sensors to determine its surroundings.

It then automatically entered a freeway.

The car detected a slow-moving vehicle ahead, activated on a turn signal, changed lanes and passed the vehicle -- all done without human intervention.

Source:NewsOnJapan