Information

1 Online promotions to face more scrutiny in China

Mar. 12, 2015 (China Daily) -- Online advertising will be subject to more scrutiny in China, after a top regulator said that the government would come out with more rules to supervise the sector. Zhang Guohua, head of the advertisement supervision department at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said his department will take more steps to curb illegal and fake online advertisements. "Those who break the rules will face strengthened supervision and higher fi nes," said Zhang during the launch ceremony of China's fi rst national mobile advertising regulation in Beijing. The newly introduced regulation focuses on the technical side of the mobile adverting industry, but Zhang said that more rules and regulations targeting the content of online advertisements are expected to be rolled out soon.

2 State Council nods for nuclear merger soon

Mar. 20, 2015 (China Daily) -- The State Council is likely to give its green light for the merger of China's two nuclear giants soon, a move that could lead to sector consolidation and spur more overseas ventures, industry sources said. The long-standing proposal for the merger of China Power Investment Corp and State Nuclear Power Technology Corp, which was first raised in April 2014, got clearance from both companies earlier this year. Wang Binghua, chairman of SNPTC, said during a nuclear power forum in South Africa that the merged entity would be called State Power Investment Group, with assets exceeding 700 billion yuan ($113 billion) and annual sales of more than 200 billion yuan.

3 NDRC head sees pivotal role for investment

Mar. 6, 2015 (China Daily) -- Investment will continue to play a crucial role in driving China's slowing economy this year to offset domestic and global downturn pressures, but policymakers won't enact bold stimulus measures, the head of China's top economic planning agency said. Xu Shaoshi, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that attracting social and private capital is crucial to China's economy this year. The country will initiate major new projects in the year ahead, focused particularly on railway and highway projects in the middle and western regions of China, waterway transport projects, major telecommunication networks, oil and gas pipelines, clean energy and environmental protection, Xu said at a news conference held on the sidelines of the two sessions.

4 China to tighten supervision of cosmetics industry

Mar. 18, 2015 (Xinhua) -- China's drug watchdog is soliciting public opinion on tighter supervision rules for the production of cosmetics. According to the temporary rules on production and inspection released by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), cosmetics manufacturers must establish a mechanism to ensure their products are traceable from warehouse to sales. The CFDA will also require manufacturers to monitor and report adverse reactions related to their products and set up a product recall system. The rules mandate that manufacturers deal with adverse reaction cases that may be linked to their products after investigation and assessment. The recall process should also be documented, the CFDA said.

5 China takes further action on vehicle emissions

Mar. 6, 2015 (China Daily) -- Chinese auto manufacturers will need to reduce their vehicles' emissions to meet the new emission standards in the country. Guangdong province has upgraded their emission standards for light vehicles to the National V, which requires sulfur content in fuel to be no more than 10 parts per million (ppm), one-fifth of the National IV's 50ppm. The new standard is applied in the capital city Guangzhou and other eight cities in the province. It makes Guangdong the third place to apply the top emission standard in the country after Beijing and Shanghai. In order to control pollution from car exhausts, the Chinese government is taking action to reduce auto-related emissions and plans to implement the National V standards in the whole country by Jan 1, 2018.

6 China urges banks to speed up agriculture sector loans

Mar. 4, 2015 (China Daily) -- China urged its banks to speed up lending to agriculture, the country's banking regulator said, in an eff ort to bolster a sector that employs almost one third of its 1.4 billion people, but remains in desperate need of funding. Policymakers have cut interest rates, increased lending targets and freed up banks' reserves to lend more, but this has done little for farming, which produces some 9 percent of China's GDP, though with low productivity. Current farming techniques have been blamed for causing major soil and water pollution and food scandals, and economists say the sector needs investment from banks that have so far been reluctant to lend, despite repeated demands from Beijing.

7 China approves pilot cross-border e-commerce zone

Mar. 13, 2015 (Xinhua) -- The State Council has approved the setup of the China (Hangzhou) cross-border e-commerce pilot zone in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province. The application was put forward by the Zhejiang provincial government and the Ministry of Commerce, according to a statement on the Chinese government's website. The zone will take the lead in setting standards on crossborder e-commerce transactions, payment, logistics, customs clearance, tax refund and exchange settlement, said the statement. It will work to settle deep problems in cross-border e-commerce, build complete industrial chains and provide experience that can be used by the sector across the country, according to the statement.

8 Securities sector may open wider to foreign partners

Mar. 20, 2015 (China Daily) -- China is considering sweeping changes to its securities industry that would allow foreign banks to control their local joint ventures and broaden their off erings, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Overseas firms could be allowed to own majority stakes in local ventures as soon as this year, and they may ultimately be able to take full control, said the people. Regulators also plan to give foreign-owned joint ventures permission to expand into areas beyond stock and bond underwriting, sources said, asking not to be named. Loosening restrictions that currently limit overseas banks to 49 percent ownership will let them more eff ectively compete with incumbents such as CITIC Securities Co. in Asia's largest equities market.

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