UPS and Shanghai Airport Authority have conducted a formal groundbreaking ceremony for the UPS International Air Hub at Pudong International Airport. The new hub will link all of China via Shanghai to UPS' international network with direct service to the Americas, Europe and Asia...   more »

Foreign investment in China shows few signs of cooling. It reached $5bn in July, a rise of 18% over July 2006, while total foreign investment in the first seven months of 2007 reached almost $37bn, a rise of 13% over the year-earlier period.

The number of new foreign-financed companies approved in July fell 1% from the same month last year to 2,993, the Commerce Ministry said on its Web site.

Technorati : china, economy, government, investment

There has been a flood of coverage in western media about China's cavalier attitude to food safety and the recent scares about contaminated toothpaste and pet food exported from China. Why is it so hard for the government to crack down on exporters of dangerously tainted food or counterfeit products?..   more »

2007 is the "Year of Spain in China" and Spain is pulling out all the stops to promote its culture, language and institutions -- and, of course, Spanish business. While trade links between the two countries have been pretty limited to date, around 300 Spanish companies have now established a presence in China and the Spanish-Chinese business summit, held this week in Beijing, sought to project a more modern image of both countries' economies...   more »

Looking for a Chinese partner? Subscribers to QIN, a new electronic database service from Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing (BvDEP), will be spoilt for choice. It covers over 300,000 mainly private Chinese companies , providing financial data and detailed information on ownership and corporate structure...    more »

At an international product safety conference, being held appropriately enough in Beijing, western experts urged China to improve its act and reduce the number of product recalls. Alarm bells are ringing following a growing number of incidents involving counterfeit drugs and sub-standard agricultural goods imported from China...   more »

Investors are still gung-ho on China despite repeated warnings of overheating in local stock markets. Goldman Sachs yesterday joined the sky-is-falling-in crowd, while another sign of the times is the Chinese Initial Public Offering Indicator hitting an historic high. Jim Rogers, legendary invesment guru is very bullish on China, but advises against buying Chinese equities during the bubble periods...   more »

A wonderfully perceptive article from Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in economics, should be required reading for anyone interested in China's new economy. In a few broad brush strokes, Stiglitz summarised the challenges facing China as it evolves from the traditional economic model that has served it so well in the recent past but is now being questioned -- and not just by hawkish politicians in the west...   more »

China has delayed indefinitely its national "action plan" on climate change, which was due to be released earlier this week. The delay comes at a time of growing international concern at China's apparent desire to back-pedal on earlier commitments to adopt a "green" agenda for economic growth...   more »

Western companies have long pushed for greater access to service industries, but Beijing remains concerned about the ability of domestic service companies to compete. Nevertheless, China is now pushing for a more services-oriented economy and so we can expect a gradual opening to foreign rivals, just as has happened with the country's banking sector...   more »