China :: Business & Economy

Australian federal government is seeking 486 million U.S. dollars in savings in the May 10 budget by increasing the efficiency dividend for two years, Finance Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday. Under this measure, the efficiency dividend will rise from 1.25 percent to 1.5 percent in 2011/12 and 2012/13, before returning to 1.25 percent for 2013/14 and 2014/15, resulting in a saving of 1.15 billion U.S. dollars over the forward estimates. "The efficiency dividend is a mechanism to drive greater efficiencies in how government does its business," Senator Wong told Australia Associated Press in Adelaide on Thursday. Under the efficiency dividend, public service departments are asked to produce the same output with 1.25 percent less resources each year as part of a government measure to drive productivity. The move had been expected to lead to public service job cuts, but Senator Wong said the government believed the public service had the capacity to adapt to t...

The Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB), or the yuan, on Thursday gained 66 basis points from Wednesday to 6.5228 per U.S. dollar. On China's foreign exchange spot market, the yuan can rise or fall 0.5 percent from the central parity rate each trading day. The central parity rate of the RMB against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of prices before the opening of the market each business day. Source: Xinhua Weekly review April 14 BRICS nations can be anchor of global economy, politics April 13 China launches assault on child kidnapping April 12 China's coastal seas unaffected by Japan's radioactive water April 11 US has se...

A Bosch booth at a show in Shanghai. The company's automotive business in China achieved sales of $3.6 billion in 2010. [ China Daily ] The Bosch Group, a leading global supplier of automotive technologies and services, plans to invest 3.4 billion yuan ($520 million) to capture more businesses in the Chinese market this year. "Over the past four years, we have achieved an average annual sales growth of 30 percent in China," said Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the Bosch board of management. "The growth has been accompanied by a continued investment in expanded business presence, research and development of facilities and local talents. Thus we will invest some 3.4 billion yuan this year to strengthen our leading position here in China," said Fehrenbach, who came to Shanghai on Wednesday to inaugurate Bosch's new China headquarters. He also said his company intends to almost double its personnel in China from the current 26,000 people to 50,000 by 2015. In 2010...

More than 185 million Chinese went online to shop last year, and the turnover of China's online shopping market reached 498 billion yuan, according to the "Survey on China's Online Consumers for 2011," released by China IntelliConsulting Corp. The report shows that the turnover of China's online shopping market was up 87 percent in 2010 to 498 billion yuan, accounting for more than 3 percent of China's total retail sales value. In 2010, 185 million people made at least one online shopping transaction, which accounts for about 41 percent of total Internet users. China's online shopping market size is expected to reach 890 billion yuan in 2011. The online shopping market size stood at 41 billion yuan in Shanghai and at 37 billion yuan in Beijing, far higher than that of other cities. The online shopping market size of Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Suzhou all exceeded 10 billion yuan, reaching 15.2 billion yuan, 15 billion yuan, 11.2 billi...

Hainan, China's southernmost island province, launched a tax rebate program Wednesday as part of its efforts to build the island into a tourist and shopping attraction. Starting April 20, both tourists visiting the island and local residents will be able to purchase tax-free commodities from designated shops before flying to other destinations in China. Before the tax-free pilot store opened at 10:10 a.m., thousands of shoppers had already lined up outside the shop in Sanya. Zhu Yan, a tourist from eastern China's Zhejiang Province, is one of the shoppers who swarmed into the store. Almost all the members of her tour group, except a few elderly tourists, came to the tax-free shop, Zhu said. "I used to buy tax-free commodities like cosmetics and perfume in Hong Kong. Now I have another choice here in Hainan, which made my trip more exciting," Zhu said. Taxes eligible for rebates include customs duties, import value added taxes and consumer taxes. When combined, these r...

Watch Video Play Video China is pulling out all the stops against rising inflation, and it has defended its controversial talks with the nation's largest consumer companies over stabilizing prices. The government says the discussions are NOT a form of intervention. Since March, the National Development and Reform Commission and other ministries have brought in representatives from companies that produce everyday consumer products to discuss their planned price hikes. It's a move that has spurred criticism of market intervention and disruption. However, the NDRC says the purpose of the talks are to remind firms to abide by the country's laws and regulations, and prevent collusive price increases and follow-suit practices. Related stories NDRC strengthens pricing measures 2011-04-15 NDRC aims to rein in sprawling mega-cities 2011-04-11 NDRC: China build defense to guard against imported inflation 2011-04-08 NDRC: Oil refiners face losses as costs surging 2011-04-07 ...

Chinese legislators are discussing a draft amendment to tax law, which aims to offer tax relief for low-income households. Lawmakers began to deliberate the draft amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law for the first time on Wednesday. The draft increases the minimum threshold for personal income tax from 2,000 yuan(306 U.S. dollars) a month to 3,000 yuan a month and cut the number of income tax brackets from nine to seven.