IN BRIEF (Page 18)

Tmall to boost supermarket sales

Tmall.com, the business-to-customer online marketplace of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, is aggressively boosting its supermarket offerings with a massive national discount campaign, starting in Beijing.

Hangzhou-based Alibaba is offering cash incentives of as much as 1 billion yuan ($161 million) for Beijing consumers who order on Tmall Supermarket between July 23 and 31.

The announcement came as US retail giant Wal-Mart confirmed it had taken full control of China's leading online supermarket, the Shanghai-based yhd.com.

Overseas projects must focus on job creation

The nation's top political adviser, Yu Zhengsheng, has urged Chinese enterprises investing overseas to prioritize the creation of more employment opportunities for people in the invested country. Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks while visiting the Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Zone, in east Thailand's Rayong province. It is of paramount importance to create opportunities for local communities, Yu said.

Roaming fees dropped in Beijing area

Roaming fees will be ditched for long-distance mobile calls in the Beijing region. According to a July 27 report from China National Radio, starting Aug 1, telecom carriers in China will cancel roaming fees between Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province for cross-district phone calls. The plan is part of efforts to promote the integration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

New rules regulate online insurance trade

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission issued guidelines on July 27 to regulate the rapidly growing online insurance business. The guidelines encourage traditional and online insurers to use the Internet to broaden their client reach. It also removed geographic restrictions on sales of certain life and property insurance, allowing insurers to sell such products through their own Internet sales channels or third-party websites.

Guangdong FTZ to boost currency trade

Guangdong Free Trade Zone will promote development of institutes that are allowed to operate individual currency exchange businesses, foreign currency exchange agencies and the use of bank cards, according to a July 26 statement by Yu Kunming, chief economist of the Guangdong Office of Financial Work. It will also facilitate the exchange of Hong Kong and Macao currencies in the FTZ.

Shenhua to list wind farm assets in HK

Shenhua Group, China's biggest coal producer, plans to list its wind farm assets in an initial public offering in Hong Kong valued at up to $1 billion, IFR reported on July 27, citing sources familiar with the plans. The IPO is expected in the first half of 2016, according to the Thomson Reuters publication. The company has invited banks to pitch for the deal, though no mandates have yet been assigned, it reported.

Cross-border trades see robust growth

The average growth rate of China's main cross-border e-commerce business is around 40 percent, and the retail trade business growth rate reached 40 to 50 percent, Zhang Li, deputy director of the Institute of Credit and E-commerce at Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation said during the Summit Seminar on Cross-border Consumption on July 28. In 2014, cross-border e-commerce business accounted for 15 percent of China's foreign trade.

19,470 firms sign up for new FTZs

Nearly 19,500 companies have been attracted to China's three new pilot free trade zones, many involved in the country's fast-growing services and financial sectors.

A total of 19,470 enterprises started operations in the zones by the end of June, said Tang Wenhong, director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's department of foreign investment administration.

Tianjin, Guangdong and Fujian were added to the pilot free trade zone list in April, after the first FTZ, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, was unveiled nearly two years ago. The sites are being created to simplify the often-cumbersome trade approval system and encourage innovation and internationalization.

Fees, commissions double CICC's Q1 profit

First-quarter profit at China International Capital Corp has doubled thanks to a jump in fees and commissions, as stock trading in China's mainland markets soared ahead of its planned Hong Kong listing.

CICC's net profit rose to 356.8 million yuan ($57.46 million) on revenue of 1.7 billion yuan in the three months through March, compared with profit of 178.4 million yuan and revenue of 1.1 billion yuan in the same period last year, its preliminary IPO prospectus said. The bank plans to raise up to $1 billion with the listing, Thomson Reuters publication IFR previously reported.

More refiners get nod for direct oil imports

More refiners will be allowed to apply for licenses to directly import crude oil, the country's commerce ministry said, as Beijing continues to loosen its grip on a sector long dominated by state-owned enterprises. Companies that meet certain environmental and capacity requirements can now apply for import licenses, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Hanergy removed from Stock Connect list

Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd has been removed from Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect pending an investigation by Hong Kong regulators.

The move followed the decision by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission to suspend trading in the Chinese solar panel company on July 15.

Hanergy had earlier asked for its shares to be suspended from trading in Hong Kong on May 20 after its stock price plunged by 50 percent, wiping out almost half of the company's $21 billion value within just half an hour.

Electric car purchases accelerate in capital

A growing number of electric cars are running on the streets of Beijing as the Chinese capital battles air pollution that is partly caused by vehicle emissions. BAIC BJEV, which has 66 percent of the electric vehicle market in Beijing, sold 6,223 electric cars in the first half of 2015. The company sold 5,510 electric cars during the whole year last year.

Solar power capacity expanded further in H1

China increased its total solar power capacity by 7.73 gigawatts in the first half of 2015, according to the country's top energy regulator. The National Energy Administration said that total solar power capacity now amounts to 35.78 gW.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/31/2015 page18)