Other Briefings
China reduces VAT burden in central provinces
The long-anticipated value-added tax pilot test plan for the central China provinces was released May 18 amid assurances that such the pilot test will cut tax burdens, encourage investment expansion, and boost industrial structure upgrading of the enterprises in central provinces. Authorities believe that the pilot test will cut production cost in 8 sectors by one-sixth to […]
China imposes export tarriffs, lowers import duties to combat trade imbalance
The Ministry of Finance announced Monday that the country will impose extra export tariffs, while cutting import duties as of June 1 to narrow its widening trade surplus. The ministry said a total 142 low-end and resource products will be hit with additional export tariffs. According to Xinhua, China will impose five to 10 percent export […]
Zhejiang’s instant cities
In a piece that is being talked about all over the blogosphere, Peter Hessler (of River Town and Oracle Bones fame) reports for National Geographic on the entrepreneurial spirit in Zhejiang province. This enjoyable bit of reporting begins with the planning of a factory near Wenzhou: There was no architect, no draftsman; nobody had brought […]
Luxury brands target China’s second tier cities for expansion
We’ve been looking at movement into second tier cities recently and China Daily today ran an article on just that. The piece by Jiang Jingjing looks at the movement of top luxury brands into these emerging markets. The rapidly growing purchasing power and appetite for high-end products in small cities have drawn the attention of top […]
FDI in second tier cities: investors flock to Chongqing
Several international companies have recently set up shop in Chongqing as more and more foreign investors look to China’s western second tier cities. With the rising costs of land, labor, energy and other inputs to manufacturing making the coastal regions less attractive to companies looking for places to park their factories, the inland second and third […]
Dezan Shira associate firm opens office in Kabul
Globalization, it appears, is springing up everywhere. With Dezan Shira & Associates, the main contributors to China Briefing, attending their spring global conference in Edinburgh three weeks ago it was a great chance for me to get to meet some of our European partner firms, plus a few stragglers from the US and Asia, to […]
Chinese stocks rise again as investors push back into the market
Just seven days ago we wrote about the surging Chinese stock market. Since then, there has been endless talk of bubbles and corrections for the mainland markets in the media. That talk got much louder on Tuesday as stocks fell dramatically. Since then however, the coming bust has failed to materialize and after brisk trading yesterday lead the […]
China’s iron ore imports soar in first four months of year
Propelled by rapid economic growth, China’s imports of iron ore surged 23.3 percent in the first four months of 2007 from a year earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC). Iron ore imports rose to 133.6 million tons from 108.3 million tons in the same period last year, the GAC said. It added […]
