CHINA’S F REIGN TRADE The Export-Import Bank of China: Want to Be the Best in A Better World ? SPECIAL REPORT Cost List of Logistics Industry INDUSTRY SURVEY “Created in China” Takes off at Canton Fair Mr. John Gong, Chairman of American ICP Inc. and President of To Pacific Inc. 国内邮发代号：80-799 国际邮发代号：SM1581 国内刊号：CN11-1020/F 国际刊号：ISSN0009-4498 WHAT’S ON? E-commerce injects vitality into rural development commerce development in China’s rural areas. in China Official statistics show that in 2009 rural In- ternet users numbered more than 100 million Yiwu in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province has not only won world fame as an throughout the country, an increase of 26.25 international distribution hub for small commodities, but has also brought business percent year on year. Between 2007 and 2009, opportunities to local farmers through development of e-commerce. the annual growth rate for rural Internet users Yiwu’s Qingyanliu Village, which is praised as China’s No. 1 “e-commerce averaged 71.6 percent, much higher than the village”, is home to over 1,000 permanent residents and nearly 2,000 online shops. 34.6 percent rate for urban Internet users. It recorded more than 800 million yuan ($121.2 million) in online sales in 2009. Apart from population growth, rural online The online shops, which are engaged in selling such daily-used merchandise shop operators have expanded their business as scarves, toys and lamps, have also attracted some 20 express delivery companies scope from farm produce to industrial products, and more than 7,000 workers and business people from other parts of the country. which they committed local workshops to pro- “Starting up a business on the Internet has helped change livelihoods and life- cess. (Xinhua) styles of local farmers. They have gotten used to computer keyboard and mouse,” Liu Wengao, deputy head of the e-commerce association of Jiangdong community in Yuan to be used more in Yiwu, told Xinhua. foreign trade In order to ensure that small online businesses can find sources for commodi- ties inside the village, a special supermarket tailored to the online shops was estab- Use of the yuan in China’s foreign trade lished at Qingyanliu. Online business people are able to shop for thousands of real may go up from 2.5 percent last year to around items at the market, instead of going outside the village. They may log in descrip- 8 percent in 2011, estimated a Chinese banking tions and pictures of the commodities official on May 11. However, foreign trading they are going to sell onto the Internet partners may be less inclined to trade in the and go to the supermarket to pick up the currency due to capital controls, making it dif- products after having received clients’ ficult for the yuan to flow back to the Chinese orders. mainland, economists said. Business people from other areas In the first quarter, 6.84 percent of for- of Zhejiang, and even from Chongqing eign trade was settled in the yuan, said Zhang Municipality in southwest China, Anhui Guangping, vice head of the Shanghai branch in the eastern part of the country and of the China Banking Regulatory Commission. Liaoning in the northeast, have flocked Cross-border trade settled in the currency to Qingyanliu. Any of them may rent a totaled about 500 billion yuan ($77 billion), house in the village and start an online accounting for about 2.5 percent of China’s for- business with a computer. All parts of eign trade last year. the business process, from online shop The yuan is expected to be one of the three registration to goods purchases and de- major currencies used in global trade after the livery, can be done inside the village. dollar and euro this year, according to a recent Qingyanliu is a showcase of e- HSBC survey of 21 major global markets. FIGURES 181m May 20 by the city’s Statistics and Census in April, down 0.5 percentage points from Service (DSEC). (Xinhua) March. (Globaltimes.cn) Charitable donations from 67 central- ly administered State-owned enterprises 5.3%, 6.8% $82b (SOEs) totaled 181 million yuan ($27.83 million) in the first quarter of 2011, of- China’s consumer price index (CPI), a China’s yuan settlement in cross-border ficial data showed on May 20. (Xinhua) major gauge of inflation, grew 5.3 percent trade topped 530 billion yuan ($81.54 billion) year-on-year in April, according to figures in the first four months of 2011, said an official 4.88% released by the National Bureau of Statistics with the central bank on May 19. (Xinhua) (NBS) on May 11. The CPI figure is 0.1 Macao’s Composite Consumer Price percent lower than that of March. 24.2% Index (CPI) for April this year went up by China’s producer price index (PPI), a 4.88 percent over the same period of last major measurement of inflation of whole- China’s State-owned enterprises (SOEs) year, according to the figures released on sale prices, grew 6.8 percent year-on-year continued to expand in the first four months 2 QUOTES Since July 2009, China has been promoting the yuan in cross-border trade to reduce its reliance on the less- “Latest China-EU trade valued dollar and to internationalize its frictions not trade war” currency. The latest trade frictions between “Many trading companies in China China and the European Union (EU) do hope to settle trade in yuan to avoid ex- not amount to a trade war, said Ministry change losses caused by the appreciating of Commerce (MOC) spokesman Yao yuan against the USdollar when trading Jian on May 17. with ASEAN partners,” Xu Ningning, It’s not surprising for China and the EU to have trade disputes as the two sides have secretary-general of the China-ASEAN maintained large trade volumes over the past years, said Yao at a routine press release. Business Council Chinese Secretariat, “For some products, there might be a lasting legal disputes. But the total dis- told the Global Times. pute ratio will be very low between 1 to 3 percent,” he said. (Xinhua) By the end of last year, 67,724 im- port and export companies in 20 areas, “US-China’s mutual understanding never more including Beijing, Tianjin, Sichuan and important” Xinjiang, were allowed to conduct trade in the yuan. Beijing-Washington relationship was the single most important bilateral rela- Trade settlement in the yuan ac- tionship in the world Friday, “mutual understanding has never been more impor- counts for a very small part of the total tant”, said Citigroup’s CEO to a leading Chinese-American organization in New $292.78 billion in trade from the China- York on May 12. ASEAN free trade area, Xu said. Vikram S. Pandit, also participated in the China-US Strategic and Economic Foreign exporters are more willing Dialogue two days ago, said at the 20th Annual Conference of Committee of 100 to accept yuan for trade settlements than that despite the differences, US and China, the world’s two leading powers were importers in China, said Lu Ting, China partners across a range of globally important issues, so they should work more economist with the Bank of America closely together. (Xinhua) Merrill Lynch. With the yuan’s continuing appre- “Int’l firms need to better understand Chinese ciation against the dollar, foreign export- consumers” ers can enjoy exchange gains. However, International companies need to better understand Chinese consumers and foreign importers can bear higher ex- implement effective strategies before they could tap the tremendous potential of the change costs for yuan payments to Chi- Chinese market, US experts told a business forum here recently. nese trading partners. “China is a very fast developing country with 1.3 billion consumers. We sim- As of May 11, the yuan had appreci- ply cannot treat this population like one segment,” Leon Bian, director of Global ated by about 5 percent against the US Enterprise Mobile Solutions at LG Electronics, told the forum titled “Marketing dollar since mid 2010. (Global Times) strategies for one billion Chinese consumers.” (Xinhua) FIGURES of this year, but at a slower pace, the 28% 26% Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on May 19. (Xinhua) US investment in China dropped sharp- Foreign direct investment (FDI) in ly by 28 percent, while foreign direct invest- China grew 26.03 percent year-on-year 7.2% ment (FDI) maintained double-digit growth to reach $38.8 billion during the first four from January to April, the Ministry of Com- months of this year, the Ministry of Com- Hong Kong’s economy expanded merce said on May 17. (China Daily) merce (MOC) said on May 17. (Xinhua) robustly in the first quarter this year, with its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 27% $11b up 7.2 percent from a year ago, said the Hong Kong government on May 13, China’s Ministry of Finance said on China saw a trade surplus of $11.43 who forecast an GDP increase of about May 11 that the country’s fiscal revenue billion in April this year, according to fig- five to six percent for the whole year of rose 27.2 percent year-on-year to 1 trillion ures released on May 10 by the General 2011. (Xinhua) yuan ($154 billion) in April. (Xinhua) Administration of Customs. (Xinhua) 3 WHAT’S ON? The 7th Northeast Asia Expo to be held in September platform for investing cooperation and strengthen- ing the actual effects of the Expo.