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Technology

Watch for childrenan intelligent idea

Sogou Inc, a Chinese search engine company, officially launched its first intelligent hardware, a children's smart watch, in Beijing, declaring its entrance into the intelligent hardware market.

The product is especially designed for children aged from three to nine, with a voice intercom, position location, motion sensing games and other functions, putting strong emphasis on parent-child companionship.

"It is an important step for Sogou to upgrade its business map, and our intelligence service will be enjoyed by more users through our hardware," said Sogou's CEO Wang Xiaochuan.

Energy

Parent drafts plan foroil company cost cuts

Offshore oil and gas producer China National Offshore Oil Corporation says it has completed research on the oil and gas output plan for 2016-20 for its subsidiary CNOOC Ltd. CNOOC can now go ahead with the exploration and development plan for 2016-20, the company said, as it needed a proper assessment of the risks and potential of its gas and oil fields and effective measures for reducing production costs.

Medicine

Longer approval timefor drugs expected

Foreign pharmaceutical companies in China say recent regulatory delays could push back plans to introduce their newest medicines into the country by as long as two years.

At least 34 applications from foreign multinationals have been or are set to be delayed after Chinese regulators began requiring an added procedure, according to the R&D-Based Pharmaceutical Association Committee, an industry group. The resulting delays highlight the uncertainties that international drug manufacturers face in China, where government scrutiny of sales practices has intensified. It is estimated that the top 15 pharmaceutical multinationals have annual sales of about 100 billion yuan ($16 billion; 13 billion euros) in the country.

Transport

Largest containervessel sets sail

The world's largest container vessel, the CSCL Globe, set off on Dec 8 on its maiden voyage to Europe from Shanghai, owner China Shipping Container Lines said. The 400-meter long, 60-meter wide vessel sailed from the eastern Chinese city's Yangshan port, the company said in a statement.

The vessel is the first of five 19,100-TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container ships that CSCL ordered from Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea. It was delivered in November, CSCL said. It is said to be the world's "biggest and most advanced" container ship, outstripping international shipping firm Maersk Line's 18,000-TEU ship in terms of capacity.

Finance

MasterCard set tooffer cloud services

Chinese consumers will soon be able to make purchases around the world from various connected devices safely and conveniently, as MasterCard announced on Dec 5 the launch of its cloud-based payment services for cross-border payments.

To secure payments across all kinds of devices, the cloud-based payment services will use a unique number, or a token, delivered by MasterCard Digital Enablement Service to every connected device. The device will store the token instead of the real credit card number, thus reducing the risk of bank account information being stolen, MasterCard said.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily European Weekly 12/12/2014 page18)