one night is definitely not enough. I LOVED BEIJING. it was awesome, other than the grey polluted skies. and oh, it seems I bring the dust storms with me. dust storm in sydney, dust storm in beijing. not good for health.
so… I climbed the great wall, walked the tiananmen square, toured the forbidden city, ate street food. it was so interesting. if it wasn’t for my back pain troubles that bothered me on the last 2 days I would probably have seen more.
and yeah, I can speak terrific chinese I never knew I could. but it just came out, china accent and all. awesome.
it was a wonderful week and time spent with my rents, goodness knows I miss them so much now. in many ways I’m all alone.
thanks for a much needed much appreciated break. thanks for everything God.
ISLAMABAD (APP) – Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on Sunday employed air-to-air refuelling skill successfully thus attaining another milestone to prove itself ‘second to none’ as envisioned by Father of the Nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The attainment of the capability was a part of the on-going High-Mark-10 exercises kicked off a week ago. The first Air-to-Air Re-Fuller aircraft of Pakistan Air Force which had joined PAF in the mid of December-2009, today took active part in the exercises and ably re-fuelled two fighter aircraft in the PAF’s inventory, a senior officer of PAF said while talking to APP here.
The PAF is expecting delivery of three similar re-fuelling aircrafts by June this year. By virtue of its ability to refuel Air Defence aircraft in air, PAF’s overall capability in terms of its effectiveness to defend the airspace of the motherland has significantly enhanced, he said.
The area of exercise High Mark-10 is spread over the entire country from Skardu in the North up to the Arabian Sea in the South. The exercise has been tailored to include joint operations with extensive participation from Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy that would further enhance might to conduct joint operations amongst the three most essential services.
High Mark-10 is aimed at conducting operations in near-realistic tactical environment while integrating new inductions and providing role-oriented training to combat and support elements of PAF and other services. “It is designed to achieve stipulated objectives with special emphasis on exposing PAF combat crew to simulated air battles based on contemporary concepts,” he said. He said, all the Main Operating Bases (Peace Time) and Forward Operating Bases (War Time) are operative during the on-going exercise.
New inductions like JF-17 Thunder aircraft and force multipliers such as Saab-2000 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft and Air-to-Air Refueller aircraft are participating in the exercise for the first time.
Exercise High Mark is the biggest operational event in the PAF’s history that is being conducted after a pause of five years. The ever changing geo-political environment in the region demands change in the employment concepts and doctrinal changes in the application of air power with emphasis on joint operations, he said. Exercise High Mark 2010 would provide PAF an opportunity to validate these concepts that are vital in the overall defence of the country.
On January 22, we had our first cultural trip to Shao Xing (绍兴). Shao Xing is another city in Zhejiang Province that is known for its rice wine production. Also, there is a lake called East Lake that is the sister lake of West Lake in Hangzhou. Here in Hangzhou, West Lake is a beautiful lake surrounded by pagodas and beautiful scenary. It was great to see the East Lake in Shao Xing. It was surrounded by rock cliffs that were carved out of the mountains in order to remodel the area for a Chinese emperor. We took a boat ride around the lake, walked around, and then went to a traditional Chinese restaurant for lunch where we ate regional foods. One of the famous Shao Xing dishes is smelly tofu (which I did not dare to try because it smelled a bit too pungent for me). However, I did try some other foods like duck neck. Besides these foods, we also ate some more palatable foods like rice, vegetables, and other delicious things. We also drank some locally produced rice wine. Rice wine is very strong, but great to try as I felt very Chinese with a rice wine shot in my left hand and a duck neck in my right hand.
This is a picture of some of the foods we ate at the restaurant. As you notice, it’s on a rotating glass circle so that the dishes can easily be moved around the table for all to enjoy.
The first picture here is me holding some incense that Chinese people typically will burn to show respect to their ancestors. Despite being far away from my family, this gave me a good opportunity to show them respect, light some incense for them, and feel more connected to the Rodkey clan while in Shao Xing. To the right, there is a photo of Sam and I wearing our complimentary hats. The tour company gives us a hat like this during each cultural tour with a phone number written on the underside of the hat brim in case we run into problems. They are really funny and an innovative way to make sure everybody has the phone number in case of an emergency.
The first photo here is a sign welcoming us to East Lake. To the right is a photo of the lakes and the boats that we took rides on during our visit.
This is a picture of an enormous statue. The statue is of a Chinese warrior named Da Yu. We hiked up a mountain with many stairs winding up to the base of the statue. He is holding a farming tool because he was known for farming despite being a warrior.
The conservative Heritage Foundation, no friend of socialism, has ranked Canada ahead of the United States in economic freedom, at 7th and 8th place, respectively.
From their 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, the top 10 countries with the most economic freedom in descending order are:
Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, United States, Denmark and Chile.
Ranked by Business Freedom, Trade Freedom, Fiscal Freedom, Government Spending, Monetary Freedom, Investment Freedom, Financial Freedom, Property Rights, Freedom from Corruption, and Labor Freedom, Canada beats the U.S. on 7 out of 10, ties on Investment Freedom, and falls behind only on Government Spending and Labor Freedom.
Particularly embarrassing to the U.S. should be Canada’s ranking of 90% for Property Rights versus 85% for the U.S., given that the U.S. Constitution explicitly provides for just compensation for the taking of property, and the Canadian Constitution does not. Instead, it leaves property rights to the jurisdiction of the provincial legislatures. Even the Chinese Constitution provides for compensation for the taking of property, whereas Canada’s doesn’t.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
I recently finished up a short but hectic trip to China, specifically the Yangtze River Delta region, China’s most prosperous and most populous area, and where one half of my grandparents are from. The tour went to several cities of which the most well-known are Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou.
Of course, going on a travel tour, a Mandarin-speaking one where I was the only non-Taiwan person, meant that there were many things that could have been better or avoided such as the frequent trips to boutiques selling stuff like pearls and silk. This was a staple part of the tour because this is how our Chinese guides earned the pay, from commission and not from salaries. Waking up at 5.30 am and leaving in the morning and coming back at 9 or 10 at night to a different hotel in a different city every day was also something that was seriously less than enjoyable. The amazing price of this tour was what made us choose it, it being so low that it was almost as if the hotel accommodation and restaurant meals were free, because ideally I would have preferred to just go to the key cities and spend a few days in each each. I didn’t spend more than a day in each city, so my views below are based on brief and fleeting observations and that certainly misses a lot of stuff.
It’s no secret that Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta, which includes the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, have become amazingly developed in the past decade, and this was borne out by the amazing skylines, the amount of fancy apartment and office buildings, the massive construction projects, the proliferation of cars on the roads, and the general appearance of the people. In some ways, Shanghai and Hangzhou and even Wuxi are better off than Taipei. Their streets were larger, straighter and cleaner, and they had side lanes only for motorcyclists and cyclists, unlike Taiwan’s free-for-all. These cities were also more attractive than Taipei, though one can also say that some Taiwan cities are also more attractive than Taipei. The people weren’t dressed too shabbily too, and some of the women certainly match up to or exceed those here in terms of attractiveness.
But before people think that I must be getting drunk on the Communist Party’s Kool-aid, there were definitely some noticeable deficiencies. First is that, the apparent large number and immense size of construction projects may be good for economic growth rates and gives the impression of progress and wealth, but the question remains whether these projects can be fully utilized. I went to a huge mall in Suzhou on a weekday night and it was largely deserted though the stores were all open. I also noticed for many of the restaurants in all the cities except Hangzhou that we went to for lunch and dinner, there was a noticeable lack of patrons and many empty tables.
In Hangzhou, my mother and I broke away from the tour to have dinner with relatives and stroll along Xihu. This pleasant evening ended with a half-hour’s wait for a taxi to take us back to our hotel, that included seeing lots of taxis driving past but with passengers inside. The driver said that because it was a Friday, it was the busiest day of the week for taxis hence the long wait for a free one, but I thought such a major tourist destination and a wealthy city should not have such a scarcity of taxis. The street lights along Xihu were quite dim, though maybe this was to keep down light pollution along the lake, but so were the lights along some of the streets we drove past, suggesting maybe inadequate electricity or really serious electricity-saving measures.
China has the world’s largest population and this is reflected in its cities where little-known ones can have populations over one million. Hangzhou has over 3 million in its metropolitan area so it’s not surprising that transportation, especially public transit, can be insufficient. The most serious concern has to be whether all these new construction projects can really benefit the people or instead be large, fancy malls or office towers that don’t have enough occupants.
Space.com has an article up about Chinese plans for a lunar rock receiving lab, as well as general updates on the Chinese program.
Presenting at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), Chinese experts noted plans for their processing center, which sounds roughly equivalent to NASA’s famed Lunar Receiving Laboratory. China currently plans to have the Chang’e-3 lander down in 2013, with the Chang’e-4 rock hauler touching down in 2017 and the Chang’e-2 luanr orbiter launching later this year.
There’s an almost aside quote towards the end of the article that caught my attention:
“”In addition they have started participating in discussions for the International Lunar Network (ILN) mission…” – Ray Arvidson, Washington University Professor
Details on that ILN have been slim so far, but to see a current mention after NASA’s cancellation of Constellation is interesting. A NASA site says about the project:
“NASA will undertake landed lunar missions and is architecting a conceptual “global lunar network” as a backbone of its envisioned robotic surface activities. This concept, called the International Lunar Net-work (ILN), aims to provide an organizing theme for all landed science missions in the 2010s by involving each landed station as a node in a geophysical network.” -NASA Science Mission Site, ILN
Clearly, with NASA taking a step back, someone else would likely step in to ‘architect’ the continuation of the network…and from that quote about the recent Chinese “discussions” about it, it sounds like someone is. Guess international lunar development will roll on, with or without NASA, at just the same pace
I’ve decided that I do not currently participate in enough challenges and so I am joining the China Challenge. I came across this challenge through Amy’s blog A Striped Armchair and when I thought about it I noticed that I actually have four books on China on my bookshelves, waiting to be read. Thus, it wasn’t all that hard to decide what books I want to read for this challenge. I am still looking for a good non-fiction book on China and I could do with some more fiction-recommendations as well. I am joining the Fast Train to Shanghai level, which has the following rules:
Read 5 books about China
1 should be a translated work of fiction by a Chinese author (or not translated if you have the language skills.) I will make exceptions for Chinese authors that also write in English– their English works are fine.
1 should be nonfiction
I’m thinking that I’d like to participate on some of the activities mentioned for the Silk Road Trek (for example, reading a Chinese blog, watch a Chinese movie, eat Chinese food, etc), but I know I won’t be able to read 10 books on China this year. So I might just cheat and report on these activities anyway.
The books that I have selected for now are:
Red Dust by Ma Jian: A book about a journey through China by the author. I picked this book up a few years ago at a book sale. It’s part of the Vintage books “Take Your Imagination East” series.
Miss Chopsticks by Xinran: Another booksale buy. Part of the blurb is the fascinating sentence: “Women, their father tells them, are like chopsticks: utilitarian and easily broken.” I think I could read this for the Women Unbound Challenge as well, but we’ll see.
Becoming Madam Mao by Anchee Min: This has been on my shelves for forever, I don’t even remember when or where I got it from. I’ve never read it, because the size of the book makes me hesitant to pick it up. I think this book will be the hardest to actually start reading for this challenge.
Wu. The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God by Jonathan Clements: This might be my non-fiction pick for this challenge, although I might want to read more non-fiction about China this year. It’s advertised as “the true story of the first and only woman in Chinese history to become ruling emperor’. Something about this line tells me that this might be a rather too-popular non-fiction read. Actually, I bought it thinking that it would be a fiction book. But there are some notes at the end of the book, so let’s just say I’m curious to see what I’ll think of it when I’ve read it.
I have a copy of Wild Swans by Jung Chang waiting to be reread on my shelves. I remember how I loved this book when I was a fourteen-year-old, but I’m thinking that I might want to add a book that I haven’t read already.
Do you have any recommendations on books I might like to read about or related to China?
The UK’s ambassador to Beijing has warned that China could face isolation internationally, should it fail to give its consent to fresh sanctions against Iran.
“It’s not in China’s interests to find itself isolated from permanent members of the Security Council or the E3+3. It would damage China internationally,” Sebastian Wood said on Friday.
Wood said that China favored a different approach to the Iranian nuclear issue but he hoped that “fluid” talks would persuade Beijing to accompany others in imposing more sanctions against Iran.
“China has emphasized a need for engagement and diplomacy and wants to see the situation resolved soon. We have seen tactical differences in recent weeks but it’s a fluid discussion,” he added. #mce_temp_url#
Considered by many to be the Eighth wonder of the world- The Terracotta warriors and horses are the most significant archeological excavations of 20th century. Work is ongoing at this site, which is around 1.5 kilometer East of Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum in Lintong, Xian, and Shaanxi province. It is a sight not to be missed by any visitor to China. The Terracotta army was discovered by accident in 1974, when local farmers digging a well broke into a pit containing 6000 life-sized terracotta figures. Excavation in 1976 revealed two further pits both filled with terracotta warriors. On the eastern side of the tomb smaller pits have been found containing the bones of horses and smaller size terracotta figures of grooms. Since than, discoveries have continued to be made at the site and to date remains of nearly 8000 terracotta figures have been recovered.
The Terracotta warriors were made during the Qin dynasty of ancient China, a dynasty known for fighting. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13, Qin Shi Huang had begun to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish. It is speculated that many buried treasures and sacrificial objects had accompanied the emperor in his after life. Qin shi Huang is remembered for instigating the building of the Great Wall of China, and the fanatical fear of death ultimately gave us the legacy of the terracotta warriors. The warriors were intended to protect the emperor’s tomb and support him as he reigned over an empire in the afterlife.
The terracotta warriors are unique, according to historian Sima Qian, construction of this mausoleum began in 246bc and involved 700,000 workers. Not only are they life size and individually modeled in clay, but the detail of the figure is astounding. Qin Shi Huang specifically stated that no two soldiers were to be made alike. Not only can we observe the construction of the body armor of terracotta army, with even the heads of the rivets standing out, but the soles of the shoes of the kneeling warriors are modeled with fine tread pattern. The heads and hands of the warriors were made separately, and each head is reputed to be different and individual. The warriors vary in height, uniform and hair style in accordance with rank. The colored lacquer finish, individual facial features, actual weapons and armor from battle used in manufacturing these figures created a realistic appearance.
The terracotta warriors provide a wealth of information for military historians, and their existence is a testimony to the power and wealth of Qin Shi Huang. The site was listed by UNESCO in 1987 as a world cultural heritage site.
Cheap Flights to China are also one major reason that not only makes this attraction busier but also, affordable for all. Cheap flights to China are operated and provided at large by Chinese Airlines. Some cheap flights from Uk include Indian and Middle East airlines as well. Yet, if you can get some seats available in the promotional offers by British Airways, they beat the rest in being the cheapest flights to China from UK.
It’s Friday so I’m going to keep this light-hearted and keep it brief. I just have a couple of things to show you.
Firstly, Bloomberg’s exceptional interactive piece which illustrates how certain economic variables (in particular Debt) and their trends provide a good fundamental support volatility. This is very easy to use just click on anything which is green to interact and expose more information. I’d encourage you to take a look at this.
One of the potential sources of volatility comes from sovereign risks, another source is China’s policy actions which affect us all over the World, whether we choose to believe it or not. Perhaps the most hotly debated is the Renminbi currency peg. Yesterday Roachie says that Talk of Overheated China Economy is ‘Overblown’. Interestingly, he implies that a certain overcapacity in office space is needed to accommodate the massive rural to urban migration still occurring in China.
Lastly, just to end on a philosophical note, here is a talk I love from Daniel Kahneman, the father of Behavioral Economics. This talk has nothing to do with finance or economics – it’s about happiness. Worth a listen, if you have a few spare moments on a Friday.
Macro Data to Watch:
Japanese Industrial Production
Indian Industrial Production
Spanish Inflation
Canadian Jobs
Markets
I’m not sure if you’ve seen this as the luster of Gold gets all the attention but Platinum is back to its highs again. It’s been slowly creeping up there for the past few weeks.
Another big rally from Citigroup – that stock is up 18% in 3 days on 3 billion shares volume. Time to sit up and take notice – Citigroup’s market cap is now $120 billion.
Source: Bloomberg
Global Stocks to Watch:
Keep an eye on Citi and the financials in general going into the weekend – can we hold on to all those gains?
Earnings:
Taiwan: Formosa Petrochemical and Hon Hai Precision
The three Chinese operators have been readying their smartphone portfolios and services since the 3G licences were awarded in 2009. Here we analyse the different smartphone strategies of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, and assess the challenges and opportunities presented by the emerging smartphone market.
Table of Contents :
Executive summary
In a nutshell
Ovum view
Key messages
Challenges and opportunities
China Mobile has an early lead, but needs to raise awareness of OPhone brand
Pricing and subsidies are critical in this market
China will benefit from industry-wide focus on low-cost smartphones
China’s censorship system could prevent international vendors from penetrating the Chinese market
Smartphone competition in the Chinese market
Operator strategies for smartphones
OPhone: home-grown by China Mobile
iPhone and GPhone: China Unicom’s hope
RIM’s BlackBerry: China Telecom’s first step
Comparison of OPhone and iPhone
3G showed strong growth in 4Q09
SWOT analysis
China Mobile
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
China Unicom
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
List of Tables
Table 1: OPhone on China Mobile versus iPhone on China Unicom
Table 2: 3G development by China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom
List of Figures
Figure 1: China’s mobile operators compared
Figure 2: Current OPhone models
Figure 3: UI comparison of the OPhone and iPhone
More Information: http://www.aarkstore.com/reports/Smartphones-in-China-market-overview-38140.html
The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom、 Trailer
Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s new documentary looks at the current Tibet situation. As Tibet erupts in flames and exile Tibetans march on their homeland, can the Dalai Lama find a peaceful solution or will the voices from within his own ranks calling for stronger action prevail?
The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom http://www.whitecranefilms.com/film/sun-behind-clouds.html
While the world markets continue its melt-up, here’s some Big News from China – according to Bloomberg, all loan guarantees by local governments are now declared null and void.
Yes. Null and void.
For those wondering what the BFD is, try putting yourself in the shoes of those who lent approximately US$3.5 Trillion (yes, it’s T, not B) to local governments across the Middle Kingdom.
This is the financial equivalent of “Fire One” in nuclear weapons parlance (haha Gorby – you’re such a kidder). Creditors (fortunately..ahem…Goldman Sachs is one of them) are now wondering which congressman to lobby to get their money back. Opinion is probably divided between creditors: half of them will want the US to launch its entire nuclear arsenal towards Beijing, while the other half are eyeing a 40th story leap as the less painful option.
From Bloomberg, “China to Nullify Financing Guarantees by Local Governments”
China plans to nullify all guarantees local governments have provided for loans taken by their financing vehicles as concerns about credit risks on such debt surges.
The Ministry of Finance will also ban all future guarantees by local governments and legislatures in rules that may be issued as soon as this month, Yan Qingmin, head of the banking regulator’s Shanghai branch, said in an interview. The ministry held meetings on the rules on Feb. 25 with regulators including the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the People’s Bank of China, Yan said March 5.
China’s local governments are raising funds through investment vehicles to circumvent regulations that prevent them from borrowing directly. A crackdown on local- government borrowing, estimated at about 24 trillion yuan ($3.5 trillion) by Northwestern University Professor Victor Shih, could trigger a “gigantic wave” of bad loans as projects are left without funding, Shih said this month.
“Beijing’s fiscal situation probably isn’t as good as it looks at first glance,” said Brian Jackson, an emerging markets strategist at Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong. “Perhaps at some stage the central government is going to have to bail out the banks or the regional governments and take it on its own balance sheet.”
Fiscal Risks
Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said March 6 during the National People’s Congress that while “many” local financing vehicles have the ability to repay, two types cause concern. One uses land as collateral, while the other can’t fully repay borrowing, meaning that the local governments may be liable, leading to “fiscal risks.”
Premier Wen Jiabao, at the opening of the annual parliamentary meetings last week, said the central government would sell 200 billion yuan of bonds for a second year to help local governments fund infrastructure projects. Wen also warned of “latent risks” in China’s banking system as he pledged to continue a moderately loose monetary policy and a proactive fiscal stance.
The parliamentary meetings will end March 14 with Premier Wen’s annual press conference in Beijing.
A few cities and counties may face very large repayment pressure in coming years because of debt ratios already exceeding 400 percent, a person with knowledge of the matter said in January. The ratio is of year-end outstanding debt to annual disposable fiscal income.
Regional Concerns
The financing vehicles of large coastal cities are well-funded as most have publicly traded subsidiaries that can raise capital from the markets and rely less on bank loans. Entities in northern and western China are of particular concern, the banking regulator’s Yan said while attending the parliamentary meetings.
The 1998 collapse of Guangdong International Trust & Investment Corp., which borrowed domestically and overseas on behalf of southern China’s Guangdong province, left creditors including Dresdner Bank AG of Germany and Bank One Corp. in the U.S. with $3 billion of unpaid bonds. It marked the first time that Chinese authorities failed to bail out one of the nation’s state-owned trusts.
Commercial banks have already been told to assess their exposure to such lending and stop providing further credit if problems are found, Yan said.
Commercial Banks
Bank of China Ltd. President Li Lihui said in an interview last week that the nation’s third-largest lender has reviewed its exposure to borrowings by local governments and identified some financing vehicles that didn’t have adequate liquidity to make payment. The bank plans to exit projects without proper collateral and reduce new advances to local governments this year, Li said.
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. Chairman Jiang Jianqing said the lender found some risks in such borrowing arms. These situations aren’t yet widespread, Jiang said. The bank has already inspected its loans extended to local government financing vehicles in 2008 and 2009 and “so far didn’t find many big problems,” ICBC President Yang Kaisheng said yesterday.
China’s banks doled out a combined 9.59 trillion yuan in new loans last year, helping the government engineer a turnaround in the world’s third-largest economy. The credit binge sparked concern about more bad loans and asset bubbles.
Northwestern’s Shih estimated that borrowing by China’s 8,000 local-government entities may have totaled 11.429 trillion yuan in outstanding debt by the end of last year and they had credit lines with banks for an additional 12.767 trillion yuan. That may result in bad loans of up to 3 trillion yuan.
China’s banks had 497 billion yuan of non-performing loans as of Dec. 31, accounting for 1.58 percent the nation’s total advances, according to the banking regulator.
Many economists and experts at the IMF and World Bank have said that China’s GDP growth could be over 10% this year. That is based on the increased demand for consumer goods among China’s growing middle class and a potential rising demand for China exports which should be stimulated by a recovery of the economies in Japan, the US, and the EU.
It turns out that China’s senior leaders want to mute those expectations. The country’s Premier Wen Jiabao said that the world’s most populus nation will target GDP growth of only 8% this year. One of the reasons that China is less ambitious about its economic improvement is concern that inflation will rise and the manufacturing sectors will “overheat”. Both these worries have been expressed by economists since China’s $585 billion stimulus package showed signs of improving production and a demand for consumer goods. But, the liquidity pumped into the marketplace also cause a surge in bank lending and probably a rise in real estate and equity prices. China has begun to cut access to capital for both individuals and companies, a process that will slow growth.
The FT quotes Wen Jiabao as saying that the banking sector contained “latent risks.” In other words, capital availability has become so great that the government has lost control of the growth rate of the economy.
The 8% target could also be a screen. Factory output in China is up sharply and has risen since the middle of last year. This is extraordinary because the recession was still in full force in every large nation outside of China during most of 2009. The demand for Chinese goods could not have rebounded so considerably for such a long period of time. Western nations did need to replenish inventories, but that is not, in and of itself, sufficient to sustain a long-term increase in factory output in China.
It has probably begun to occur to China’s senior leaders that they cannot keep up GDP growth because the demand for the nation’s exports is slowing as the economies in the US and most of Europe lose much of the steam that they seem to have picked up in the fourth quarter of last year. A deceleration in the need for exports will also put pressure on China’s middle class which relies on factory jobs driven by rapid growth of industrial production and easy access to capital to keep up its demand for consumer goods. That, in turn, will add another weight to China GDP expansion.
China will not grow as quickly as expected this year because the global economy is stalling again.
It was recently reported in Africa Business Source, that a Chinese green energy firm, Yingli, became the first Chinese company to become an official 2010 World Cup sponsor. This should not be shocking given China’s recent interest (and investment) all over the African continent. But it is an interesting move given the “green” credentials of the company. Not only are they spreading the renewable energy gospel around the continent with their sponsorship they are also getting in on some of the other CSR initiatives such as the 20 Centres for 2010, the Official Campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, by providing solar panels.”
Of course Yingli sees the benefits of their sponsorship as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy, Liansheng Miao stated
“as one of the world’s leading solar companies we are excited to be joining other world-class brands as an international sponsor of the FIFA World Cup. This sponsorship links Yingli Green Energy to the world’s most popular and passionately followed sport. We feel privileged to have this opportunity, and look forward to offering our expertise to help FIFA leverage this much-loved sport to promote a better, greener environment.This sponsorship links Yingli Green Energy to the world’s most popular and passionately followed sport. We feel privileged to have this opportunity, and look forward to offering our expertise to help FIFA leverage this much-loved sport to promote a better, greener environment.”
If the price of solar continues to decrease as energy efficiency improves, I can see solar becoming a major player around the Continent. Becoming a household name in solar energy in Africa seems like a really smart move by Yingli and I could see this sponsorship investment having a very high ROI. Their sponsorship immediately gives them extensive brand coverage and puts them in the same light as major brands such as Satyam, Continental, Coca-Cola, Adidas, etc. It will be interesting to see how else Yingli decides to take advantage of this opportunity and engage with communities and countries all over the continent.
For the full article click here: http://www.africabusinesssource.com/articles/world-cup-2010-articles/yingli-green-energy-becomes-first-chinese-company-to-sponsor-2010-fifa-world-cup/
I think a fireworks store just exploded. I heard of it happening. That or someone was goin’ a little nuts with ‘em. It started out loud and constant, like the speed of those fireworks they launch off from the ground near the end of the show. Then it started getting louder and quicker and more and more and more. it was bright daylight, and must have happened around a corner, since I couldn’t see anything when I looked out the window.
Even during the day, even this far away from the new year, you still hear some fireworks go off every few minutes. That was definitely the biggest I’ve heard.
SPECIAL DOUBLE POST!!! 2 FOR ONE!! FIREWORKS FIREWORKS FIREWORKS!!!
During Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, take your pick, Fireworks are legal for a period of about 2 weeks. Today must be the last night, ’cause it is crazy. They’ve been going off all day, including in broad daylight. It’s been pretty spectacular since sundown, not a minute when there aren’t some fireworks going off in 3 directions, and like major fireworks, and like major fireworks that people can just BUY. In the CITY. It was snowing too. Down on the street where the fireworks were a few blocks away, it seemed like I was in a warzone, bombs going off not far away as I cross the bridge over the street to get to the bank. It must have been mindblowing on actual the actual New Year. Judging from today, your imagination can go wild and it would probably be accurate. The sky must have been lit up, like when that transformer exploded while I was watching Collateral at the drive-in. If you want to go to China and see something cool, go during Spring Festival. If you want to go to China and see anything else, DO NOT go during Spring Festival.
Mark Faber advised hedge fund managers to buy gold and live on farmland away from cities.
The bleak warning of social and financial meltdown was delivered today in Tokyo at a gathering of 700 pension and sovereign wealth fund managers.
Speaking today, Dr Faber said that investors, who control billions of dollars of assets, should start considering the effects of more disruptive events than mere market volatility.
“The next war will be a dirty war,” he told fund managers: “What are you going to do when your mobile phone gets shut down or the internet stops working or the city water supplies get poisoned?”
His investment advice, which was the first keynote speech of CLSA’s annual investment forum in Tokyo, included a suggestion that fund managers buy houses in the countryside because it was more likely that violence, biological attack and other acts of a “dirty war” would happen in cities.
He also said that they should consider holding part of their wealth in the form of precious metals “because they can be carried”.
One of Dr Faber’s darker scenarios involves growing military tension between China and the United States over access to limited oil resources.
Dr Faber, who advised his audience to pull out of American stocks one week before the 1987 crash and was among a handful who predicted the more recent financial crisis
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Marc Faber Warns Of 20% Fall In US Stocks (benzinga.com)
1st Takeaway: The chapter talks about the young bulge in the emerging markets and how companies like MTV have successfully targeted the young segment in the emerging markets. In an entertainment industry this is particularly interesting point because for example in India there are multiple film industries (Hindi, Telegu, Tamil and others) and each of these industries caters to specific segment of the population. Companies like MTV India realized the essence of the how each of these segments are different and were able to come up with a package that catered successfully to the market with shows like MTV Bakra, Roadies and others. Similarly in other countries MTV was able to blend itself and become successful. In the same breadth Channel [V] a production from Star TV follows the regional flavor with presences in Asian countries. The important takeaway is that consumers’ in emerging countries have different preferences than developed countries. Hence for a company to be successful in emerging market then it has to first learn about the consumers and then come up with products that fit the need of consumers. A failure to understand the consumer’s taste is a recipe for disaster.
2nd Takeaway: In Emerging market consumers are more entrenched in tradition and culture. A company needs to understand and recognize it to be successful. A very good example of it is the Middle Eastern version of the popular English show “Big Brother”. Even though the program was sanitized to the maximum but a small incident of a social kiss was it undoing. Whereas a similar incident of a social kiss in a program in other developed or developing countries might not have caused any news. Hence when doing business in emerging markets the margin of error is small and a small mistake can be the last nail in the coffin. So a strong understanding of local culture and tradition is very important.
3rd Takeaway: Africa Rising: There is a huge youth market in Africa and companies like Unilever, Bel Group, Toys R Us and others have been successfully at targeting the group. The long-term success of these business stems from the strong relationship with the consumers based on the deep roots in the local cultures and markets, creating products that help them to ‘feel good, look good and get more out of life’ and the total commitment to exceptional standards of performance and productivity. These brands have been successful because the companies are deeply committed to meet the everyday needs of people. For any companies to venture into Africa they would have to understand the needs of the people, live up to the expectation of them and provide highest quality of products. There is no short cut to success in any market whether they are in developed or emerging markets.
Considered by many to be the Eighth wonder of the world- The Terracotta warriors and horses are the most significant archeological excavations of 20th century. Work is ongoing at this site, which is around 1.5 kilometer East of Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum in Lintong, Xian, and Shaanxi province. It is a sight not to be missed by any visitor to China. The Terracotta army was discovered by accident in 1974, when local farmers digging a well broke into a pit containing 6000 life-sized terracotta figures. Excavation in 1976 revealed two further pits both filled with terracotta warriors. On the eastern side of the tomb smaller pits have been found containing the bones of horses and smaller size terracotta figures of grooms. Since than, discoveries have continued to be made at the site and to date remains of nearly 8000 terracotta figures have been recovered.
Sarah & Kyrre
Many economists and experts at the IMF and World Bank have said that China’s GDP growth could be over 10% this year. That is based on the increased demand for consumer goods among China’s growing middle class and a potential rising demand for China exports which should be stimulated by a recovery of the economies in Japan, the US, and the EU.
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