New telecom system to open
China Mobile will soon provide 2.5 generation mobile telecom services in competing with China Unicom, which recently started building the country's first CDMA network, according to top officials with the firm. The so-called 2.5G, the transition between 2G and 3G, is represented by GPRS technology (general packet radio service), which supports much higher speed data transmission than the 2G. (China Daily, 29 May)

Price change ahead for oil, gas, water
The country will take more steps to reform the prices of water, crude oil and natural gas this year, according to a senior state planning official. Vice-Minister of the State Development Planning Commission Wang Yang said that more efforts would be made to link crude oil and oil product prices with the international market while guarding against volatility. (SCMP, 29 May)

Health, medical industry to see strong growth in 2001
The medical and health industry will be one of the fastest growing industries in China's economy this year, according to officials of the State Economic and Trade Commission. Officials predict that the total output for the medical and health industry will be around RMB 270 billion, with profits around RMB 16.5 to 17 billion. This would be RMB 2 billion more than last year. (ChinaOnline, 29 May)

State Power Corp. plugs into telecom business
The State Power Corp. (SPC), whose principal business is power generation and supply, is applying to the Ministry of Information Industry for a license to operate a telecom business. After gaining the official permit, SPC's communications network will become the ninth biggest in China's telecom market. Insiders disclosed that SPC is planning an overhaul that will add communications to power generation and supply as a core operation. (ChinaOnline, 30 May)

Heat of advertising meltdown
Average revenues from advertising for all regional television stations fell by more than 30% in the first quarter this year. Print media also experienced a steep decline. Compared with the same period in 2000, the pharmaceutical industry's ad spending fell 43%; the real estate sector's ad expenditure plummeted 85% while the food industry's ad spending dropped 38%. Media experts attribute the precipitous decline in advertising revenues to the Corporate Income Tax Deduction Method. This part of the tax code limits a firm's tax-deductible advertising expenses to no more than 2 percent of its total business revenues for the tax year. (ChinaOnline, 30 May)

Survey: 98.7% of Chinese firms inflate earnings in financial reports
About 98.7% of all Chinese enterprises offered padded earning results in their 2000 financial reports, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Finance. The survey showed that 92% of companies offered forged asset accounts. Among the 157 polled firms, 147 had padded statistics in asset accounts on their balance sheets for 2000. (ChinaOnline, 30 May)

ICBC eyes USD 515 billion slice of mortgages
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) plans to raise its outstanding individual mortgage loans to between RMB 550 billion and RMB 600 billion by 2005. The bank aimed to boost its outstanding individual mortgage loans to 15% of overall loans by 2005. They accounted for about 5.5% of the bank's overall loans. (SCMP, 31 May)

China's agricultural trade drops in 1Q
Imports and exports of China's agricultural products both dropped in the first quarter, latest customs authorities statistics show. Compared with the same period in 2000, foreign trade of China's agricultural products for this year's first quarter was down 5.5%, accounting for only USD 5.65 billion. Of this number, USD 3.48 billion came from exports, down 1.9%, while USD 2.17 billion were generated from imports, down 10.8%. (ChinaOnjline, 31 May)

Chinese upset over cellphone quality
A study by the China Consumers Association (CCA) shows that cellphone users are predominately unhappy with the quality of their cellphones. Criticism of the quality of cellphones made up 42.9% of all complaints. Major problems cited by customers included problems with the automatic turnoff feature, main board breakdown, poor signal and poor display. (ChinaOnline, 31 May)

China Mobile announces bond issue
China Mobile (Hong Kong), the listed branch of the country's dominant mobile telecom operator, will issue corporate bonds worth RMB 5 billion in July. The issue will be one of the biggest in the country's corporate bond history according to China Mobile (HK). These 10-year bonds will be used to pay part of bank loans the company borrowed last year to acquire mobile businesses in seven provinces from its parent company. (China Daily, 01 June)

4 more foreign countries open to Chinese visitors
Chinese citizens will be able to enter as tourists into four additional foreign countries-Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia and Brunei from June 10, 2001. The China National Tourism Administration announced on May 29 that China had signed agreements with the four countries. Until now, Chinese citizens could join overseas tour groups to visit 14 countries and regions in the world. (ChinaOnline, 1 June)

Giant economic data system comes to life
The State Economic Information System (SEIS), the largest national information system in China, is up and running. The SEIS is a large-scale information system focused exclusively on economic data. It consists of seven subsystems and one public network platform. The seven subsystems include a macroeconomic forecast system, an enterprise and product information system, a market and price information system, a world economic information system, economic laws and regulations system, foreign-loan project information system and government investment project information system. (ChinaOnline, 1 June)

State spending still central for growth
Beijing will continue to pursue a proactive fiscal policy to sustain economic growth in the short term, according to Vice-minister of Finance Jin Liqun. Mr Jin said fiscal spending would remain the engine for growth but it would not be a long-term measure and China in the long-run would depend on domestic demand to sustain its growth and would look for financial stability. (SCMP, 2 June)