IN BRIEF (Page 13)

China climbs industrial table

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's top industry regulator, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences jointly released the country's Industrial Development and Policy Report (2011) on Monday. According to the report, China was the world's No 2 in terms of industry output in 2010 with 16 trillion yuan ($2.48 trillion). The nation was ranked No 4 at the beginning of the 11th Five-Year Plan in 2006.

VW raises FAW holding

Volkswagen AG has reached agreement with its Chinese partner FAW Group to increase its holding in their car venture to 49 percent from 40 percent, the China Business News said on Monday.

FAW's holding in the venture has now been cut down to 51 percent from 60 percent, the newspaper said without citing any specific source.

Volkswagen's spokesman in China could not be reached immediately for comment.

Regional bank for Tibet

China's banking regulator has approved the establishment of a regional bank in the Tibet autonomous region to strengthen financial support and speed up economic development.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said on its website on Sunday that the regional bank will have an initial capital of about 1.5 billion yuan and will be the first regional corporate and commercial lender to operate in the region.

The bank, which will be registered in Lhasa, is funded by 15 institutions, including the regional government, local banking institutions and several Chinese enterprises, with Bank of Communications Ltd acting as a strategic investor, according to the CBRC.

Coal production rises

China produced 1.77 billion tons of raw coal in the first half of this year, 12.2 percent more than a year earlier, data from the China Coal Industry Association showed.

In June, coal output totaled 315 million tons, 10.5 percent higher than a year earlier, the association said in a report on its website.

Putting its best foot forward

Since the European Union's (EU) removal of anti-dumping duties on China, shoemakers in the nation's major footwear exporting base of Wenzhou have cautiously returned with a strategy of mainly targeting the EU's high-end markets.

The latest statistics from Wenzhou customs showed that between April and June, the city's shoe exports to the EU have grown by 10.16 percent year-on-year to 56.96 million pairs, with the aggregate turnover rising by 35.26 percent year-on-year to $356 million.

Compared with the first quarter, the export volume declined by 4.83 percent while turnover surged by 21.87 percent.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily 07/26/2011 page13)