IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Ministry concludes 1,408 monopoly cases

China has made great efforts to facilitate fair market competition through implementing anti-monopoly regulations and a faster review process during the past five years, according to the Ministry of Commerce. From 2013 to the end of August this year, the ministry received 1,483 anti-monopoly declarations on the concentration of undertakings and concluded 1,408 cases, it said on its website. In 2016, the cases concluded by the ministry involved a transaction value of 6.1 trillion yuan ($926 billion; 780 billion euros; ￡698 billion), accounting for about 25 percent of the total transaction volume of China's global mergers and acquisitions. The ministry has also been improving the efficiency of antitrust investigations, cutting the average review time by about 11.6 percent in the first half of 2017.

XCCC to modernize Ukraine roads

Xinjiang Communications Construction Group Co has signed two agreements with Ukraine's state road agency, Ukravtodor, on the modernization of state highways in western and central Ukraine. The deals worth $95 million (80 million euros; ￡71.7 million) were signed in Ukraine's Infrastructure Ministry by Shen Jinsheng, chairman of XCCC, and Slavomir Novak, acting head of Ukravtodor. The first agreement envisions that the Chinese company will conduct the reconstruction and the road safety improvement work on the Striy-Ternopil-Kirovograd-Znamenka highway, which stretches from western to central Ukraine. The other deal stipulates that the company will carry out a major overhaul and a pothole repair on several sections of the Kiev-Kharkov-Dovzhansky highway, which links the Ukrainian capital with the Russian border.

IMF revises outlook for Cyprus economy

The International Monetary Fund revised upward its projections for the Cyprus economy for this year and next in a statement issued on Oct 10. The statement said GDP growth this year will reach 3.4 percent compared with its original estimate of 2.5 percent, and to 2.6 percent in 2018 from an original estimate of 2.3 percent. The IMF also said it expects Cyprus' current account deficit to shrink to 3.8 percent this year, compared with 5.3 percent last year and to 2.7 percent in 2018 percent. The IMF said in a statement on Oct 6 that the Cypriot economy has achieved an impressive turnaround since the 2012-13 economic and banking crisis, but it also urged Cyprus to get rid of important legacies from its earlier boom-bust cycle to avoid a new crisis.

Huawei wins partial victory in patent dispute

Huawei Technologies Co has scored a point in its patent dispute in China with its rival Samsung Electronics Co, which may weigh down on the South Korean company's business in the world's largest smartphone market, experts say. The Patent Reexamination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office said on its website that some of the patents involved in Samsung's lawsuit against Huawei are invalid. Among the eight patents, five are not valid, one is partially valid and two are valid, the office said on Sept 30. The decision came amid mounting competition between two of the world's largest smartphone vendors. Huawei and Samsung are involved in a slate of patent disputes in China, accusing each other of violating patents related to mobile technology and design.

Russia company plans China cargo boost

PJCS TransContainer, Russia's biggest container operator, has announced a plan to expand its China business in response to the soaring cargo transit demand between China and Europe under the Belt and Road Initiative. The TransContainer Freight Forwarding (Shanghai) Co, a wholly owned subsidiary established on Oct 10 in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, will serve as the Russian company's headquarters in China and focus on port transportation. Beijing-based Chinese-Russian Rail-Container International Freight Forwarding Co, a joint venture set up by TransContainer and China Railway International Multimodal Transport in 2010, is tasked with handling railway transportation, according to Petr Baskakov, CEO of PJCS TransContainer.

Tujia raises $300m to expand globally

Airbnb's biggest rival in China, Tujia.com, has raised $300 million (253 million euros; ￡226 million) to fund a rapid expansion and ride a surge in Chinese families taking holidays globally. Online travel giant Ctrip.com International and All-Stars Investment led a round that valued the company at more than $1.5 billion, it said in a statement confirming an earlier Bloomberg report. That's up sharply from a valuation of over $1 billion when it last tapped financing in 2015. China's largest vacation rental platform now handles more than 650,000 listings globally, focusing on serving the world's largest population of domestic and international travelers. Tujia's latest fundraising comes as Airbnb quadruples its Chinese tech team to grow its domestic market share. It now has around 100,000 listings iin China and is fighting to convince the same group of middle-class consumers to use its services instead of domestic rivals.

Lithuanian startup begins China operations

TransferGo, a Lithuanian money transfer services startup, has started operations in China, the company announced on Oct 5. The company, one of Lithuania's biggest startups, says the move is based on intensifying economic cooperation between Lithuanian and Chinese companies. Daumanats Dvilinskas, chief executive of TransferGo, sees demand for money transfer services coming from companies purchasing commodities and goods directly from Chinese manufacturers. The company says money transfers from businesses and individuals will reach a recipient in China within a day. Until now, the company's users in Asia were able to transfer money to Hong Kong, India and the Philippines. TransferGo currently operates in 46 countries, with monthly transfers averaging around $19.9 million (16.7 million euros; ￡15 million). The company aims to expand beyond Europe.

BMW eyes venture with Great Wall Motor

German luxury automaker BMW is looking to form a joint venture with Great Wall Motor, a source familiar with the matter said, sending shares in the Chinese automaker up by nearly 20 percent on Oct 11. The automakers are considering the possibility of opening an assembly plant in the eastern Chinese city of Changshu, a BMW executive said, while declining to say what type of vehicles would be assembled there. A venture with Great Wall would be BMW's second in China, the world's largest auto market. It has a joint venture with local carmaker Brilliance China Automotive Holdings. Foreign carmakers have to operate in the market with local partners.

Wal-Mart to open more hypermarkets

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, said on Oct 11 in Beijing that it plans to open 30 to 40 hypermarkets in China each year and to increase the proportion of compact hypermarkets among the total. Those stores are nearly 40 percent smaller than usual. Currently, Wal-Mart has more than 400 hypermarkets in China, including three compact hypermarkets. Those compact stores have more restaurants and service-oriented shops and more automatic facilities such as self-service weighing machines and checkout counters. "As one of the fastest-growing markets, China has significant room for growth, and we plan to do more innovations in the forms of operation," says Wern-Yuen Tan, president of Wal-Mart Stores China.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/13/2017 page24)