IN BRIEF (Page 13)

CIC sees return of around 11%

China Investment Corp (CIC) made a return of more than 11 percent on its overseas investments in 2010, a senior executive at the sovereign wealth fund said on Sunday.

"Our return on overseas investments last year roughly matched that in 2009, and it was over 11 percent," said Jesse Wang, an executive vice president at CIC.

Outstanding loan sizes cut

China is cutting the size of outstanding bank loans to local government financing vehicles, Liu Mingkang, the head of China's bank regulatory body, said on Monday.

Liu, the chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), was quoted by the China Securities Journal as saying that banks were ordered not to extend new loans to these vehicles unless they were for affordable-housing development.

Biotech crops up by 10%

The growing area of biotech crops jumped worldwide by 10 percent in 2010 to more than one billion hectares, the second-highest annual increase in history, according to a report released by International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application (ISAAA).

China ranked sixth globally in terms of growing area, with about 3.5 million hectares of genetically modified cotton, said Clive James, chairman and founder of ISAAA.

Microsoft, FESCO host forum

Microsoft and Beijing Foreign Enterprise Human Resources Service Co Ltd (FESCO) joined together to host the Women's Leadership in High-Tech Industry Forum at the weekend in Beijing, which focused on topics such as leadership development for women.

FESCO is currently providing human resources services for more than 10,000 enterprises with more than 500,000 employees, nearly half of whom are women.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily 03/08/2011 page13)