IN BRIEF (Page 10)

BEIJING

Qianmen project

More than 10 merchants signed a deal with SOHO China to be tenants for the company's Qianmen project, a retail development near Tiananmen Square.

SOHO China Ltd, a leading Chinese commercial property developer, acquired 54,691 sq m of retail properties south of the bustling tourist attraction for a total of 1.77 billion yuan, or a unit price of 32,328 yuan per sq m.

MACAO

Gaming revenues

Macao's gross gaming revenues for the first half of this year dropped by 12 percent year-on-year to 51.5 billion patacas ($6.52 billion), the Macao Post Daily reported, quoting unnamed government sources.

In the second quarter of this year, Macao's gaming revenues amounted to 25.5 billion patacas, dropping by 2 percent compared with the first quarter of this year.

In the first half of last year, the local gaming sector raked in a total of 58.7 billion patacas, according to the figures previously released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region.

GUANGDONG

Shenzhen property

The average price of new apartments in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, reached 14,823 yuan per sq m in June, a year-on-year increase of 32.83 percent or a month-on-month increase of 18 percent, according to statistics released by the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Land Resources and Housing Management.

For the first six months of 2009, the average price of new apartments in Shenzhen was 12,129 yuan per sq m, a year-on-year decline of 5 percent.

JIANGSU

Port construction

Lianyungang, a northern port city in Jiangsu province, is building an international port.

The city received approval from the State Council to construct a 300,000-deadweight ton (DWT) deepwater channel.

Upon its completion in 2013, the 300,000-DWT channel will become China's deepest channel and will be able to handle the world's largest container ships.

SHANXI

Coal chemical

CNOOC Ltd, China's biggest offshore oil and gas producer by output, is moving forward with a major coal-to-natural gas project in Shanxi province.

CNOOC Chairman Fu Chengyu said the project is a venture with Datong Coal Mine Group in Shanxi province.

The company is planning another coal-to-natural gas project in Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The two projects would have a combined annual output capacity of 10 billion cu m of gas within five years.

GUANGXI

Overseas partner

Indonesia will seek trade and investment partnerships with China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region through its participation in the sixth China-ASEAN Expo,

Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said.

"Guangxi is strong in agriculture and has a similar climate to Indonesia. We want to seek cooperation in various fields of investment and trade," he said.

(China Daily 07/13/2009 page10)