IN BRIEF (Page 5)

Photoelectric fair

The Photoelectric Industry Fair for Investment and Trade will be held in Nan'an city on April 9 and 10. The fair was announced at a press conference held by the Fujian province's Information Office on March 26. The fair will be jointly hosted by the China Renewable Energy Society, several of Fujian's provincial government departments (including the Committee of Economy and Trade, the Office of Technology and the Information Office), the Organizing Committee of the 6.18 Channel Technical Achievements Fair and the governments of Quanzhou city and Nan'an city.

Fewer Macao visits

Macao had 1.65 million visitors in February, a 17.3 percent drop from the same period last year, according to figures released by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

The DSEC figures showed the number of visitor and non-resident arrivals totaled 2.25 million for the month. Some 827,804 (50.1 percent) of the February visitors were from the mainland, a 22 percent year-on-year decrease. Visitors from Hong Kong (540,668) and Taiwan (91,218) decreased by 12.3 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively, while those from Thailand (21,480) and Japan (35,265) surged by 76.1 percent and 36.9 percent.

Jilin-Indonesia meeting

China's Jilin province held a Jilin-Indonesia Economic and Trade Seminar in Jakarta recently, aimed at expanding cooperation between entrepreneurs from the two places.

Chen Weizhen, deputy governor of the Northeast China province, said he will encourage Jilin's firms to invest in or build business relationship with Indonesia. The seminar introduced Jilin to Indonesian entrepreneurs and provided a platform for building contacts, he said. Trade value between the two grew 12.4 percent to $87.6 million dollars last year, despite the global financial crisis.

Trade volume down

Beijing saw exports and imports dive 37.2 percent year-on-year to $24.8 billion during the first two months this year due to the global economic recession, according to statistics recently released by Beijing Customs.

Beijing's exports declined 6.9 percent to $7.3 billion in the first two months of 2009, while its imports plunged 44.6 percent to $17.57 billion. There is a trade deficit of $10.2 billion. However, trade volume in February was up 8.5 percent from January to $12.3 billion, ending a downward trend over the four previous months.

More coal mine closures

Shanxi province, which produces one-fourth of China's coal, vowed to speed up the overhaul of its coalmines and said it would cut the number of mines by more than half by the end of 2010.

"We plan to shut down the unsafe and low-productive coalmines, narrowing down the number from 2,598 (at the end of last year) to 1,000 in two years," said Wang Shouzhen, chief of Shanxi coal bureau, in the Shanxi Evening.

Guangxi buys aluminum

The government of China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region will begin buying 50,000 tons of aluminum ingot, a local media reported.

The stockpile would be bought through the Guangxi Investment Group Corp, the report said, citing an unidentified Guangxi government official.

Yinhai Aluminum Corp of Guangxi will sell the aluminum at 12,500 yuan a ton.

(China Daily 04/06/2009 page5)