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The Agricultural Bank of China faces a major challenge in attracting strategic investors, a key engine in driving the shareholding reform in China's banking sector the past few years, especially in the overseas listing of Chinese banks. Page 2

Paul Schinkler, president of US-based Pioneer Hi-Bred, says that China's massive agricultural sector will help him to harvest healthy returns in 2009, with the nation's farmers snapping up his company's hybrid corn seeds. Page 3

China's worst drought since 1951, which is taking its toll on agricultural production in eight grain-producing provinces, is raising awareness across the nation of the long-terms risks posed by climate change. Page 4

Chinese banks issued 1.62 trillion yuan in new loans in January, up 101 percent year-on-year. The massive jump in lending is equal to about one-third of the loans issued in the whole of 2008.

Foreign trade plummeted 29 percent in January. China's exports dropped 17.5 percent year-on-year, while imports fell 43.1 percent year-on-year.

"Buy Chinese products" is not a policy of the Chinese government to stimulate the national economy because that would be protectionist behavior, Vice-Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei said last week.

The government aims to build 510,000 "countryside' stores" by 2010 to increase rural spending and create jobs, and plans to encourage consolidation in the retail sector to increase domestic consumption, according to Jiang Zengwei, vice-minister of commerce.

China's steel exports dropped 40 percent year-on-year to 1.91 million tons in January, according to the General Administration of Customs. In contrast, domestic steel prices have increased for 12 consecutive weeks since mid-November 2008, according to statistics from steel consultancy website mysteel.com.

The consumer price index in January rose only 1 percent year-on-year, the lowest in 30 months, and the other measure of inflation, the producer price index dropped 3.3 percent, indicating that the national economy may have bottomed out and could start growing again within a few months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

China signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia for a $1.7-billion monorail project that will link the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The project will be implemented in two years.

(China Daily 02/16/2009 page1)