Hainan to halt land development approval on speculation concerns
News on January 17, China: China’s southern island province of Hainan will suspend land leasing and development approval in a move to curb property speculation, the province’s Party chief has said.
Following a tourism promotion policy document issued by the central government earlier this month, real estate developers have flocked into the island, causing new property bubble concerns, WeiLiucheng, secretary of the Communist Party of China Hainan provincial committee, said at a meeting in Haikou Friday.
The provincial government would not approve any program for land leasing and development before a specific plan gets nod from the the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), in an effort to clamp down on potential speculation in the housing market, he said.
The central government announced on Jan. 4 a plan to build the island into a top international tourist destination by 2020. The specific tourism promotion plan is currently under study and scheduled to be submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission between March and April.
Housing prices in Hainan has surged after the release of the tourism-boosting plan, with some programs hitting 70,000 yuan (10,249 U.S. dollars) per square meter, arising high alertness from the local government.
The government will step up efforts for affordable housing construction, intensify governmental regulations in market planning and land supply, so as to guide the real estate market todevelop in a healthy and steady way, according to Wei.
China’s forex reserves near $2.4 trln
BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) — China’s foreign exchange reserves almost hit 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of 2009, up 23.28 percent year on year, the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, announced on Friday.
China might become top world exporter, but weakness remains
BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) — China will probably overtake Germany to become the world’s largest exporter though its exports in 2009 had fallen 16 percent from a year earlier, according to figures released Sunday by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
But Chinese experts and officials said the country was far from being a real trade power if measured by exports structure, technological innovation and industry competitiveness. Full story
Shanghai sees further recovery in foreign trade last month
News on January 17: China’s economic hub Shanghai in December posted the first year-on-year growth in both imports and exports in 14 months, indicating further recovery from the economic downturn, local customs said Sunday.
Last month, Shanghai’s foreign trade stood at 30.7 billion U.S. dollars, a growth of 35.3 percent over the same month of 2008. This was the second year-on-year growth of foreign trade in two consecutive months in the city, the sources said.
Exports in particular, which stood at 15.21 billion U.S. dollars, reported the first year-on-year growth of 23.5 percent since November 2008, while imports surged 49.5 percent, up from the 26.7 percent growth rate in the previous month.
Last month saw the city’s trade with the European Union, the United States and Japan up 15.4 percent, 36.8 percent and 19.8 percent, respectively.
However, Shanghai’s foreign trade in total last year went down 13.8 percent from 2008 to 277.73 billion U.S. dollars due to the economic crisis effect. The total included 141.91 billion dollars in exports, down 16.2 percent, and 135.82 billion dollars in imports, down 11.1 percent.
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