IN BRIEF (Page 13)

Payment licenses granted

The People's Bank of China offered third-party payment licenses to 27 companies including Alipay, Unionpay and a unit of Tencent Holdings Ltd, the central bank said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.

Alipay, China's largest e-payment platform, said the license would allow the company to handle foreign exchange transactions, Internet and mobile payments, and debit card services.

Baidu to bulk up search engine

Baidu Inc said on Thursday that it may expand its search-engine agreement with Microsoft Corp in China. Shen Haoyu, senior vice-president of Baidu, said the Chinese search engine already has a partnership with Microsoft's Bing search engine in China, without elaborating.

Chinese media reported on Thursday that Baidu will take over the paid ads on Bing China, and Bing will provide English language results for Baidu.

Coface business may double

Coface, one of the world's largest credit insurance companies, expects its business to double in China this year, after witnessing a 78 percent increase in 2010, the company's top management said on Thursday.

Together with Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance Co of China Ltd, Coface has provided domestic trade credit insurance since 2003.

$954b for infrastructure

China plans to spend 6.2 trillion yuan ($954 billion) to upgrade its transportation infrastructure during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), an official said Thursday.

The money will pay for the construction of road and waterway transportation facilities, with road construction accounting for a large part of the budget.

CNOOC aims for cooperation

China National Offshore Oil Corp, the parent of offshore oil and gas specialist CNOOC Ltd, has offered 19 offshore blocks in the South China Sea for foreign cooperation, the company said on Thursday.

The blocks, in depths between 15 and 3,500 meters, cover an area of 52,006 square kilometers.

2011 auto sales could drop 10%

China's auto sales may fall 10 percent this year, when government stimulus policies expire and restrictions on car licenses continue, said the China Automotive Technology & Research Center.

Industry-wide vehicle deliveries fell for the first time in 27 months in April, which saw total sales decline 0.25 percent to 1.55 million units.

The decline was attributed to rises in fuel prices. It is also because cities implemented controls to curb traffic, and because Japan's recent earthquake had slowed deliveries.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 05/27/2011 page13)