SHANGHAI, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese bankcard holders' consumer confidence in January was up year on year, according to an index issued jointly by China Unionpay and Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday.The Bankcard Consumer Confidence Index (BCCI) stood at 86.81 in January, 2.44 points higher from the same period last year, and stayed at basically the same level as December 2009, said the index report.The increasing consumer confidence mainly stemmed from China's steadily improving macroeconomic conditions, the report said.China's economy resumed a double-digital growth in the fourth quarter last year, pushing the annual figure beyond the government target of 8 percent at 8.7 percent.The index also resulted from an increase of 9.1 million urban jobs and a higher-than-8-percent income rise for urban and rural residents in 2009, according to the report.The report also attributed the rising confidence to people's growing demand during the New Year and the approaching Spring Festival, the Chinese lunar new year, which falls on Feb. 14 this year.The report said China Unionpay would release the BCCI index on a monthly basis starting 2010.
BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- China's top quality watchdog said Sunday it has received complaints from consumers against HP laptops for quality problems.The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine pays close attention to the complaints and has started investigations, said a brief statement posted on the administration's website.The complaints included problems of overheated graphic chips and display screen problems.
KAMPALA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday met officials of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) amidst increased lobbying by international oil giants to enter the country's oil sector.A State House statement issued here said that the CNOOC officials who met Museveni at State House Entebbe, 40km south of the capital Kampala, expressed interest in joining Uganda's oil and gas sector by partnering up with Tullow, an Irish oil company.Tullow, which has oil blocks in western Uganda, is seeking a partner to help it start oil production in the country.The CNOOC meeting comes weeks after Italian oil giant, Eni Spa, also expressed interest in joining the country's oil sector, promising an oil refinery and a power plant.Eni wants to enter the sector by buying stakes of another oil company Heritage Oil which jointly operates two blocks with Tullow on a 50-50 percent venture.The Eni-Heritage deal which is yet to be concluded is embroiled in controversy as Tullow exercised a pre-emption move saying it has the first option to buy the Heritage stakes, a move the government said it would not accept because it would create a monopoly.Museveni told the CNOOC officials joined by Tullow officials that the government will discuss all proposals and announce its decision soon."President Museveni said that the government will discuss all proposals by companies operating in the oil and gas sector adding that the country looks forward to welcoming new companies," the statement said.The Museveni-CNOOC-Tullow meet also comes days after Aiden Heavey, Tullow's chief executive met Museveni urging Uganda to honor contractual obligations following the Eni-Heritage deal.Uganda's recently discovered oil is attracting a lot of attention from international oil giants.So far the country has discovered an estimated two billion barrels of oil and according to experts there is a possibility of discovering more.
BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Jia Qinglin on Monday called for religious believers' role in promoting the country's economic development and social stability.Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks when meeting with heads of national religious groups.He urged religious groups in the country to pool the wisdom and strength of believers to explore ways of helping promote economic and social development.He also asked them to help consolidate harmonious religious relations and help religious people build up national consciousness, civic consciousness and legal consciousness to ensure social harmony and stability.During the meeting, Jia, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee,bid greetings to religious believers for the upcoming Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 14 this year.He said 2009 was an important year for the country's religious work as the Party's basic policies on religious work were well implemented and people's religious freedom was fully ensured.He said 2010 was a key year to cope with the financial crisis and it was also of great significance for the country's harmony and stability in the religious circle.
BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Sunday urged improvement of the Party's role in leading the economic work as the country pushes forward transformation of the economic development mode.Xi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the call at the closing ceremony of a seminar for provincial and ministerial level officials, which began on Feb. 3.Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (2nd L), also a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, speaks during the closing session of a seminar on the implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development and the transformation of the mode of economic development in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 7, 2010. The seminar, attended by the country's provincial and ministerial chiefs, opened on Wednesday at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing"As the international environment is experiencing major changes and the country's economic development is showing a series of new characteristics, we must... adapt ourselves to changes and accelerate the transformation of the economic development mode," said Xi, adding that the country should sharpen the competitive edge of its economy amid fierce international competition and meet people's expectations for a better life.He said that in the drive, Party committees must exert full efforts in guidance while Party organizations at lower levels should strengthen their role in implementation with Party members setting examples for others.
上海优化排名
BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- China restated on Sunday its resolute opposition to claims that the government was involved in cyber attack and vowed to enhance cooperation with international community to fight against Internet crimes."Accusation that the Chinese government participated in cyber attack, either in an explicit or inexplicit way, is groundless and aims to denigrate China. We firmly opposed to that," spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Sunday."China's policy on Internet safety is transparent and consistent," he said.Internet security was a global concern which required international coordinated efforts. China was willing to deepen cooperation with other countries and learn from their experiences to make Internet a better place, he said.The spokesman's remarks came nearly two weeks after search engine giant Google said it might quit China citing disagreements with government policies and unidentified attacks targeting Google's services in China."China is the biggest victim country of hacking as its Internet has long been facing severe threats of hacker and online virus attacks," the spokesman said.Official data showed more than one million IP addresses were under control by overseas sources and the number of Web sites tampered by hackers exceeded 42,000 last year.The widespread Conficker worm virus infected 18 million computers per month in 2009, the most in the world, or 30 percent of the global total infected.According to the Internet Society of China, the number of cyber attacks from abroad saw a year-on-year increase of 148 percent in 2008.They not only affected a large number of netizens but also sectors of finance, transportation and energy, which posed severe harm to economic development and people's lives, the spokesman said.He noted the Chinese government had issued various regulations and launched many Internet safety campaigns against the attacks.The National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team dealt with more than 1,000 Web accidents in 2009 and helped recover economic losses for many banks and E-business Web sites.China has also taken part in the Internet safety emergency drill organized by the ASEAN countries for many times, and signed cooperation pacts with member countries of regional organizations in Asia.
BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- China will further improve the formation mechanism of exchange rate of the renminbi, or the country's currency yuan, to keep the exchange rate basically stable at an adaptive and balanced level, the People's Bank of China said Saturday.The central bank made the statement in a report delivered to media during a press conference on the sideline of the annual parliament session. Zhang Ping, Chairman of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Xie Xuren, the Minister of Finance, Chen Deming, the Minister of Commerce, and Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, attend a news conference of the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) on the enhancement and improvement of macro-economic control held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 6, 2010.
BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Foreign-funded enterprises in China exported 494.4 billion U.S. dollars worth of machinery, electrical and electronic products in 2009.A document posted on the website of the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said the figure made up 69.3 percent of the country's total exports of such products in the past year.Exports of machinery, electrical and electronic products by privately-owned enterprises totalled 106.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, down 8.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the document.State-owned enterprises only exported 92.1 billion U.S. dollars worth of machinery, electrical and electronic products, accounting for 12.9 percent of the country's total machinery, electrical and electronic products last year.The GAC document also said the majority of the country's exports of machinery, electrical and electronic products fell into the category of processing and assembling trade.China's exports of machinery, electrical and electronic products in the category of processing and assembling trade totalled 466.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, making up 65.4 percent of the country's total exports of such products.The country exported 713.1 billion U.S. dollars worth of machinery, electrical and electronic products last year, down 13.4 percent year-on-year. The exports contributed 59.3 percent to China's total exports in 2009.The European Union (EU), the United States of America and Hong Kong were the three major destinations for the China mainland's exports of machinery, electrical and electronic products last year.China exported 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars worth of products last year, down 16 percent from 2008, replacing Germany as the world's largest exporter.
BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Monday voiced his hope to boost exchanges between supervisory departments of China and Poland during a meeting with a delegation from the Supreme Camber of Control of Poland."The Chinese government attaches importance to international cooperation on fighting corruption, and is willing to make joint efforts with other countries in the field, " said He Guoqiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau.He, also secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said China would uproot corruption and take measures to prevent its occurrence to maintain healthy social development.He Guoqiang (R), a member of the Standing Committee of the the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau and also secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), shakes hands with Jacek Jezierski, president of the Supreme Chamber of Control of Poland, in Beijing, capital of China, March 15, 2010.He told the Polish delegation, led by Jacek Jezierski, president of the Supreme Chamber of Control, that the Chinese government had set the economic growth target as 8 percent this year during the just-concluded session of the National People's Congress.China would speed up the transformation of the economic development model and optimize the economic structure to achieve quality of growth, he said.