Biz Scene: Grapevine

Auto venture

French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen and Harbin Hafei Automobile Industry Group Co are considering investing at least 2 billion yuan in a planned vehicle manufacturing venture, Reuters reported yesterday, citing a source.

Peugeot and Hafei in June signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the possibility of jointly making commercial vehicles for fewer than 10 passengers.

The final agreement for the venture could be signed at the end of this year or in early 2008, the report said.

High-speed mobile

China will not reorganize telephone carriers or issue licenses for high-speed mobile services before the Beijing Olympics next summer, the Shanghai Securities News reported yesterday.

Regulators won't reorganize or issue licenses to give China Mobile Communications Corp and China Network Communications Group Corp time to finish building trial networks using Chinese technology in cities that will host Olympic events, the report said, citing an unnamed official with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission's research center.

The networks will provide 3G services during the Olympics using China's time division synchronous code division multiple access, or TD-SCDMA, technology, the report said.

(China Daily 09/13/2007 page15)