Broader access to
investment 'key' in EU talks
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2013-11/15/content_17106806.htm
The European Union
sees broader access for investment in China
as a key issue in negotiations on an agreement that will consolidate 27
bilateral pacts, the head of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China said.
"The more open
the market is, the more European investors enter. European companies are very
interested in entering the telecommunications, energy, construction, railway
and financial service industries in China, if access can be further eased
through a bilateral investment treaty," Davide Cucino, president of the
chamber, told China Daily.
In mid-October, the
European Commission authorized the EU to launch long-awaited negotiations on
the investment agreement with China.
Two weeks later, Shen
Danyang, spokesman at the Ministry of Commerce, called for adequate
preparations for the negotiations, which are expected to begin during the
China-EU Summit
later this month.
Currently, 27 out of
28 EU members have signed bilateral investment pacts with China, all of which will be consolidated into a
comprehensive agreement between China
and the EU.
EU Ambassador to China Markus Ederer said on Thursday that the
two sides will discuss topics including regional cooperation, China's
urbanization drive, market access, government procurement and export credit.
"The agreement
needs to secure existing openness and deliver new liberalization of the
conditions for accessing each other's investment market. Crucially, it should
also improve the treatment of investors and their assets — including key
technologies and intellectual property rights," EU Trade Commissioner
Karel De Gucht said.
John Ross, former
director of Economic and Business Policy (London),
said that European companies see China as one of the most important
markets in the world.
EU statistics show
that EU companies' investment in China accounted for only 2 percent
of the bloc's total overseas direct investment in 2012.
China's investment in the EU accounts for 2.2
percent of its total foreign investment.
"A
comprehensive, high-quality bilateral investment treaty is crucial to boost
investment between the two large economies," Cucino said.
"Although
capital outflow back to developed economies did occur during the financial
crisis, China
has maintained a business environment that is still very attractive to European
investors."
According to a
business confidence survey for 2013 conducted by the chamber and Roland Berger
Strategy Consultants, of 550 European companies surveyed — all with a presence
in the Chinese market for more than five years — 86 percent are considering
further investment to expand operations, while 41 percent are planning merger
and acquisition deals this year.
As to boosting China's
investment in the EU, the chamber said that the bloc welcomes the entry of
Chinese investors into diverse sectors in the region, and it will take more
steps to facilitate investment.
For the first three
quarters, China's
investment in the EU surged 108 percent.
Chinese corporate
investment in Europe soared in recent years.
Prior to 2008, the nation's annual investment in Europe
was less than $1 billion, but by 2011 it had increased to $10 billion.
By 2020, China's total
investment in the EU is expected to reach $250 billion to $500 billion.
"Promoting
investment facilitation is a first step between China and the EU. The government's
support in providing services and taking measures to improve the investment
environment is essential for leading companies' investment decisions,"
said Ma She, deputy director-general of the department of European affairs at
the Ministry of Commerce.
Chinese companies
investing in Europe face tough problems and
obstacles. There are technical barriers in many areas, and there is no unified
foreign investment approval procedure.
The enthusiasm and
motivation of Chinese investors have been seriously affected by the abuse of
antitrust investigations, harsh visa conditions and inflexible labor laws,
according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Protectionism
has been rising in Europe in recent years. We
hope the EU will pay full attention to these issues, create a good atmosphere
and environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and provide the necessary facilities,"
said Qi Mei, counselor from the department of European affairs at the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs.
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EU-China summit to
set out plan for next decade
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-11/14/content_17106703.htm
Looking for life
after glory of victory
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-02/13/content_17280409.htm
China's first Winter
Olympics champion helps athletes in retirement find new directions, reports
Zhao Xu in Beijing.
Chinese consume too
much food from animals
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-02/13/content_17279987.htm
Chinese people appear
to be eating more food from animals than they actually need, and this
"compensatory consumption of food" may not change until the 2020s.
Wang Dongyang, deputy
director of the Institute of Food and Nutrition Development under the Ministry
of Agriculture, made the remarks at a media workshop on Wednesday. The workshop
examined the new government guideline to develop China's food supply and nutrition.
The guideline was
jointly issued on Monday by several government departments, including the
Ministry of Agriculture and the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
"The guideline
aims to help guarantee the supply of quality food and improve people's
nutrition," Wang said.
The guideline sets
goals for the food industry and nutritional health. By 2020, China's annual
grain output will be 550 million metric tons or above, and the food industry's
annual growth rate will stay at 10 percent or above, the guideline says.
The annual
consumption per capita of meat by 2020 will be 29 kg, while eggs will be 16 kg
and dairy products will be 36 kg, it said.
"Various
factors, including foreign experiences, food consumption habits, public health,
food supply capacity, and the trend of industrialization and urbanization, were
considered while setting those figures," he said.
Wang conceded that
it's possible the numbers will be higher.
China couldn't ensure an abundant supply of food
until the late 1990s, and after that, people tended to experience a period of
"compensatory consumption", which might last more than 20 years, Wang
said.
In 2010, nearly 28
percent of Chinese ate more than 100 grams of meat daily, a survey of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention showed.
For health reasons,
men should limit daily consumption of meat under 75 grams and women under 50
grams, according to a food consumption guideline from the CDC.
Ma Guansheng, deputy
director of the National Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety, said that the
consumption of animal food in China
might keep increasing for a while.
Yang Yuexin, a
veteran researcher of the institute, agreed. "That has been in line with
the country's economic growth," she said.
Usually, with
economic development, animal food consumption tends to increase, she added.
For instance, while
US residents consume more than 100 kg of meat per capita a year, meat
consumption there has been on the decline for years.
"We Chinese
should try avoiding that kind of overconsumption, which poses public health
challenges as well," she said.
In 2010, more than 30
percent of Chinese 18 and older were overweight, and the obesity rate was 12
percent, surveys by the health authorities showed.
Meanwhile, about 260
million people were suffering some sort of chronic diseases such as
hypertension and diabetes.
"These major
public health risk factors are closely associated with food consumption,"
she said.
In response, the
government vowed in the latest guideline to establish mechanisms to monitor
people's diets, strengthen supervision and information analysis, promote
healthy food consumption, and intervene in areas or among groups where people
are suffering from bad nutrition.
Also, for a balanced
and healthy food consumption, the average daily energy intake of people should
be between 2,200 to 2,300 calories, with at least 50 percent of energy provided
by grain, and energy provided by fat comprising no more than 30 percent, it specified.
Ma, of the National
Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety, said public nutritional health
education is important to achieve the target.
On a positive note,
recent surveys showed that in large cities, meat consumption stabilized or even
declined thanks to rising nutritional health awareness, he said.
Beijing ranks low on green list of cities
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-02/13/content_17279961.htm
The Chinese capital
is on the verge of being "unfavorable for human living", a report
claims.
Beijing fared poorly
in the report that ranked the environmental conditions and general living
suitability of 40 global cities, with conditions in the capital, especially,
being severely criticized.
The city came second
to last, while China's other
major city in the study, Shanghai,
was fifth from last in the environment category of the report, which was
released on Wednesday.
Beijing was
"almost unfavorable for human living", according to the report by the
Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, while Shanghai could barely meet average
standards of an environmentally friendly city.
Stockholm, Vienna and
Zurich were the top three cities in terms of their environment, and Moscow was at the bottom.
The report found that
Beijing and Shanghai were in the top 10 for social
tolerance, and both were in the top 20 in the business rankings as well as
market stability and attraction.
Environmental
conditions were one of the six indexes used to evaluate the 40 cities. Other
indexes included economics, governance and cultural innovation. Overall, Shanghai came 21st and Beijing 31st.
Geographic conditions
and unique weather patterns played a factor in the environment, said Su Ning,
associate research fellow of the academy's Institute of World Economy.
Air pollution has
been a major problem for big cities in China. In 2013, more than 100
cities had an average of 29.9 smoggy days, a 52-year high.
Of the 10 worst
cities for monthly air pollution, cited by the Ministry of Environmental
Protection last year, more than a quarter were located in Hebei
province, which surrounds Beijing.
Soaring levels of
pollution are driving expatriates out of Chinese cities, and dissuading others
from coming. The Associated Press reported that the number of overseas visitors
to China
had declined from early last year due to air pollution.
"Air pollution
is a fact, along with the ever-increasing length of the traffic jams,"
said Markus Wenger, who works in an e-commerce company in Shanghai.
"My firm has
just offered to buy us all home air filters as long as the cost is under 10,000
yuan ($1,650)."
A recent analysis led
by the Boston-based Health Effects Institute estimated that outdoor particulate
matter in China was
responsible for roughly 1.2 million premature deaths in China in 2010,
ranking just behind smoking.
Both the central and
municipal governments have prioritized tackling air pollution.
Under a plan released
by the central government on Tuesday, the density of inhalable particulate
matter is expected to be reduced by at least 10 percent in major cities by
2017. PM2.5, particles that are 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter, should
also drop by 25 percent from 2012 levels in the capital by that year.
Toward solutions
Commenting on the
report, Ni Pengfei, researcher of the Urban
Competitiveness Research
Center of the Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences, said, "The next step after the release of this report
is for the government to take action based on the research."
"Without
promoting change, such rankings, either good or bad, make no sense," Ni
said.
Nuo Opera staged in E
China's Jiangxi
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/2013-11/12/content_17097553.htm
Optical illusion art
show in Shanghai
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/2013-11/19/content_17115774.htm