U.S. Commercial Service - American Embassy, Beijing
Vol. 2 No. 132
The China Commercial Brief is a biweekly publication including summaries about developments in China's various commercial sectors, tips on doing business in China, and U.S. Embassy news. This publication is free of charge: please forward it to your colleagues and friends who are interested in China.
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Editor: David Snodgrass
Contributing Specialists: CS Chengdu, Michael Mei, Bai Yin, Sherry Cai, Michael Wang, Xu Ye
News Briefs
In the interests of providing news from all over China, our four China branch offices - Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang - submit summaries of commercial articles from their local press to the CCB on a rotating schedule, in addition to the five article summaries provided by CS Beijing.
1. USD266 Million to Construct the Largest Thermal Power Plant in Sichuan
2. China Aims to Speed Up Development of Southern Power Grid
3. Beijing Invests USD850 Million in Museums
4. 2008 Olympic Games Seeks Theme Songs From World
5. U.S. Government and Industry Discuss CCC Mark with CNCA
6. Guangdong Province to Release the Diesel Oil Import Quota
1. USD 266 Million to Construct the Largest Thermal Power Plant in Sichuan
(Source: Sichuan Economic Daily and Southwest Power News, 04/03/2003 - Translated by Chengdu Post)
On April 2, Guangan Power Co. Ltd. Phase II 2X300MW Project (Sichuan Tenth Five-Year Plan Key Project) started its construction. When the project is completed, Guangan not only will be the key component of "West Power to East Policy," but also will have the greatest ability to adjust the Sichuan power structure. Guangan Power Co. Ltd. is an enterprise of China Huadian Group in Sichuan Province. Its Phase I Project constructed 2X300MW generators. In order to solve the power shortage in Sichuan Province, China Huadian Group (supported by Sichuan Government) decided to expedite the construction of Phase II and Phase III projects. The installed capacity of Phase II will be 2X300MW with an investment is USD266 million. The first 300MW unit will be put into operation in August 2004, and the second in December 2004. Three billion KWH will be generated by Guangan Power Co. Ltd. when the Phase II is constructed, and the total installed capacity of the plant will be 1,200MW. Phase III 2X600MW passed the pre-feasibility study, and will be reported to the central government. Vice Governor Wang Huanchen and other local officials attended the approval ceremony.
2. China Aims to Speed Up Development of Southern Power Grid
(Source: China Electric Power News, 03/25/2003 - Translated by Michael Mei )
China Southern Power Grid Co. Ltd was formed last December from the former power groups of Guangdong, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Hainan as well as the former southern power grid subordinate to the former State Power Corporation. This power grid covers four provinces and one autonomous region in south China - Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan and Guizhou. The total GDP of the five areas is expected to exceed 723 billion US dollars by 2020.
According to China Southern Power Grid Co. Ltd’s estimates, the provinces and autonomous region will consume 360 billion KWH of electric power by 2005, which will increase to 520 billion kWh by 2010, or about 20 percent of the country's total electric power consumption. A three-phase power grid development plan will be implemented between 2003 and 2020. As a result, the installed electric power capacity and electric power consumption in the region covered by Southern Power Grid will reach 116 million kW and 520 billion kWh, respectively, by 2010.
Between 2011 and 2020, Southern Power Grid will give priority to the development of a series of hydro-electric power projects in the rivers of Lancangjiang, Wujiang, Jinshajiang and Nujiang in southwest China. In addition, the power grid company will make efforts to expand connections with the surrounding power grids and those in Southeast Asian nations.
3. Beijing Invests USD850 Million in Museums
(Source: Beijing Construction News, 03/10/2003 - Translated by Bai Ying)
Beijing will invest an amount of USD850 million in constructing, expanding and renovating a number of museums and memorial halls. Currently museums in Beijing has an average 200 all-year-round exhibitions, and 30 millions annual visitors. Beijing plans to increase the number of its museums from current 118 to 130 by 2008. The major projects include: the construction of Capital Museum, National Museum and National Art Museum; the expansion of Beijing Astronomical Observatory, National Agricultural Museum and China Geological Museum. Beijing government requires the design and construction of projects to meet international standards, and urges the museums to improve their programs and services.
4. 2008 Olympic Games Seek Theme Songs From World
(Source: Beijing Morning News, 04/08/2003 – Translated by Sherry Cai)
On April 8th, BOCOG held a press conference announcing their need for theme songs from around the world.
This campaign will start on April 15, 2003 and is to last five years. Each year, 10 songs will be selected as Olympic songs. In 2008, the theme song will be picked from the 50 Olympic song finalists. The campaign is jointly organized by BOCOG, the Chinese Musicians Association and Radio Beijing. Beijing Music Radio under Radio Beijing is entrusted with the operation of the project. All professional and amatuer musicians are welcome to participate in this campaign.
According to BOCOG, this year's deadline for submission is August 31st. Selection starts in September. Details for the campaign are available on http://www.beijing-olympic.org or http://www.fm974.tom.cn
5. U.S. Government and Industry Discuss CCC Mark with CNCA
(Source: CS Beijing, Michael Wang, 04/10/2003)
On April 2nd, the Trade Facilitation Office (TFO), U.S. Commercial Service - Beijing (CS Beijing) and U.S. hi-tech industry representatives from Dell, IBM, HP, Sun Microsystems, Intel and Motorola had a roundtable discussion with officials from China’s Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA) on issues regarding the implementation of the China Compulsory Certification (CCC) mark, a unified safety and quality license certification system, which will officially be enforced on May 1st 2002.
Redundant testing and certification for imported products into China have posed one of the major trade barriers for export to China. In order to fulfill its WTO commitments, China incorporated the previous CCIB mark and the Great Wall mark into a unified CCC mark and the first batch of products that need CCC mark was published in November 2001. Foreign governments and industries welcomed this progress. However, during the transition period, misunderstandings, confusions and lack of coordination among the Chinese government agencies have had a negative impact on trade. TFO and CS Beijing organized this discussion in an attempt to have CNCA clarify and address the U.S. industry concerns before the official implementation of the CCC mark on May 1st.
Issues discussed included industry comment period on any new regulations, CNCA Announcement No. 8 and No. 60, the availability of the English version of critical CNCA regulations and announcement, standards, application for an exemption of CCC mark, possible incorporation of Radio Type of Approval (RTA) and Network Access License (NAL) requirements into the CCC mark. During the discussion, U.S. industry representatives put forward constructive proposals to CNCA officials on effective implementation of the CCC mark. Both sides found this discussion beneficial and agreed to continue the dialogue on CCC mark as necessary.
A complete report on this discussion and CCC mark related issues will be released soon by TFO and CS Beijing.
6. Guangdong Province to Release the Diesel Oil Import Quota
(Source: China Petrochemical News, 04/03/2003 -Translated by Xu Ye)
The diesel oil import quota of Guangdong area (including Shenzhen) has been released to the Guangdong Economic and Trade Commission and will be released to individual companies by mid April.
The growth in diesel oil import quota this year will be assigned to two major state-owned trading companies, the quota for non-state-owned trading companies and foreign-invested companies will remain the same as last year. Therefore, business insiders estimate that the total diesel oil import quota this year for Guangdong area will reach 520,000 - 550,000 tons.
It is estimated that Shenzhen’s import quota will be the same as last year reaching 420,000 tons. The entire 420,000 tons quota will be given to category A and category C enterprises. A refers to processing trading enterprises with foreign investment and C refers to equipment import companies. Last year, 190,000 tons were assigned to A enterprises and 230,000 tons to C enterprises.
The total import quota for Guangdong province (excluding Shenzhen) will reach 100,000 to 110,000 tons. Last year, of the total 108,000 tons of quota, A enterprises obtained 55,000 tons and C enterprises obtained 53,000 tons.
Embassy News
Severe Acute Respitory Syndrome (SARS) has been the story in Beijing, causing postponements and cancellations with respect to planned trips and events over the next two months. Under Secretary of Commerce Grant Aldonas has postponed his May trip to an undetermined time. The postponed ACE Trade Mission is looking at July 2003 dates pending lifting of travel concerns on China. U.S. businesses in Beijing are closely monitoring the situation and some companies in southern China are allowing dependants to repatriate voluntarily. This has generally not been the case in Beijing, although a very few small companies have done so.
Despite the many cancellations, we remain open for your business. Please see our website for a list of services, including information on our video teleconferencing programs.
http://www.buyusa.gov/china/en/services.html
For the latest updates including travel advisories for China, check out the US Embassy website: http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/
Consulate News: Chengdu
In keeping with our goal of making the CCB a more integrated publication, our four China branch offices - Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang - submit consulate news to the CCB on a rotating schedule. This week, we are pleased to feature a contribution from CS Chengdu:
WTO Roundtable Held In Chengdu Consulate: On April 2, America Consulate General Chengdu held its first quarterly roundtable discussion on WTO: Sichuan One Year After Accession. The major subjects discussed at the roundtable were the WTO effect in different industrial sectors, WTO compliance at the government levels and IPR enforcement-related issues in Southwest China. The invited participants included John Malin, General Manager of Holiday Inn; Richard Rang, Chief Rep of Chengdu Office CitiBank; Katherine Xu and Aileen Ma, General Manager Southwest China and Administrative Assistant of Microsoft; Brian Campbell, Assistant to the Director of Webster University; Bill Kang, Chief Rep of American International Group; Jonathan Carr, President of West China International Consultants; and Aki Nakano, General Manager of Chengdu Aerotech Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Participants from the Consulate were CG David Bleyle, Econ Officers John Fogarty and Constance Taube and CR Rose Nickel.
For more information on CS Chengdu and the Chengdu consular region, visit our website at http://www.buyusa.gov/china/en/chengdu.html
DISCLAIMER: CS China does not guarantee the veracity of the original sources of our news summaries. While we do our best to report accurate and timely articles and news sources, you should always check the source for further information.
The China Commercial Brief is a free newsletter published by the U.S. Embassy- Beijing.
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INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT, U.S. COMMERCIAL SERVICE AND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES.
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