IN BRIEF (Page: 7)

Trade fair features exhibits, forums

The East China Fair, the largest regional trade fair held annually in China, kicked off its five-day exhibition on March 1 in Shanghai, and more deals were expected to be reached on the platform featuring innovative activities and interesting exhibitions. This year, ECF set up an exhibition area of 120,900 sq m and 5,670 standard booths with more than 3,900 enterprise exhibitors, including 449 from abroad, participating in the event.

New credit plan for SMEs unveiled

A credit guarantee financing plan with total credit loans exceeding 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) is expected to benefit more than 1,000 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the coming five years, reported Shanghai Observer. The new plan, to be launched by the end of March, is part of a 2011 project by Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information to aid the development of SMEs in the city. The project has over the past five years helped 1,591 enterprises become more competitive.

University rankings released

Nine universities and colleges in Shanghai were rated as among the nation's top 100, the Xinmin Evening News reported. Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Fudan University were ranked fourth and fifth respectively. The rest are: Tongji University (11), East China University of Science and Technology (32), East China Normal University (32 also), Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (38), Donghua University (47), Shanghai University (50), and Shanghai International Studies University (62). The top institutes are Tsinghua University, Peking University and Zhejiang University.

IMAX expands footprint in China

IMAX China reported that it currently has 407 screens across 149 Chinese cities, with another 334 theaters in backlog. The Hong Kong-listed company introduced 238 new theaters to the country in 2016, more than the previous two years combined, and installed 117 new theater systems, a 56 percent increase from 2015. IMAX is a motion picture film format and has the capacity to record and display images in greater size and resolution than conventional film systems. IMAX China is a subsidiary of New York, Toronto and Los Angeles headquartered IMAX Corp.

(China Daily USA 03/03/2017 page7)