IN BRIEF (Page 14)

Investment

Baidu nets France Telecom deal in Africa

Baidu, China's biggest online search engine, is set to launch its largest international expansion to date with an exclusive deal to provide a mobile browser for many of the smartphones that France Telecom sells in Africa and the Middle East.

France Telecom will pre-install the Baidu-based mobile browser for its Android customers as part of a broader expansion in the region, where its Orange service has a total mobile base of nearly 80 million customers.

France Telecom said Africa would be the world's most dynamic telecom market in the next few years, adding that the Baidu deal would help drive mobile data adoption in markets where Orange is already seeing increased demand for Internet access via smartphones.

Pepsi ousts Coca-Colain Burger King outlets

The US food and beverage giant PepsiCo says it has formed a partnership with Burger King Corp in China. PepsiCo will be the exclusive supplier of soft drinks in more than 100 Burger King restaurants throughout the country.

Under the partnership Burger King is selling a range of PepsiCo soft drinks, including PepsiCola, 7UP, Mirinda and Tropicana. Burger King's drinks supplier in China had been Coca-Cola.

Burger King and PepsiCo have a business relationship in other markets, such as the US, Latin America, Russia and Turkey, PepsiCo said.

MGM China gets nod for 2nd Macao casino

Macao has given the casino giant MGM China the go-ahead to build a second casino in what is the world's biggest gambling center, sending shares in the company soaring 7 percent.

The $2.5 billion (1.9 billion euros) casino, to be built on the up-and-coming Cotai Strip, which houses rival casinos including Sands China, will feature 1,600 hotel rooms, 500 gambling tables and 2,500 slot machines, MGM China Holdings said.

China eyes more top overseas talent

China will make efforts to recruit more high-caliber talents from overseas, according to comments by an official on Jan 15.

Zhang Jianguo, general director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, pledged to employ more market-oriented measures, including cooperation with high-level expert associations and headhunting firms, in recruiting the experts.

A government-funded program has recruited 94 experts from overseas to help China's economic and social development, Zhang said at a work conference.

Initiated in August 2011, the 10-year program aims to recruit 500 to 1,000 overseas high-caliber experts, focusing on the nation's needs in important industries and key areas.

COSCO considersstake in Greek port

China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co, the country's largest state-owned shipping conglomerate, is considering buying a 60 percent stake in Greece's largest port, in Piraeus, media reports said. COSCO declined to comment on the matter.

The amount of the deal could reach 1 billion euros ($1.33 billion), Reuters said, adding that COSCO planned to present the proposal after Greece decides what procedures it will follow on privatizing its two largest ports, in Piraeus and Thessaloniki.

The country's finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, in a speech on Jan 14, said the Chinese group had "shown an interest" in increasing its investment in Piraeus. It spent 4.3 billion euros on a 35-year management lease for two piers there that it has been operating since June 2010.

Culture

Nation now the world's 2nd-largest film market

China's box office sales hit 17.07 billion yuan ($2.74 billion; 2.06 billion euros) last year, surging 30.18 percent year-on-year and making the country the world's second-largest film market.

Chinese filmmakers produced 893 films last year, including 745 feature films and 33 animated films, according to data published on Jan 9 by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

Energy

Chinese companies discuss African mine

Sichuan Hanlong Group, an investor in highways and power projects, is talking to Wuhan Iron & Steel Co about developing an iron ore project in West Africa owned by the Australia-based Sundance Resources Ltd, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Hanlong is seeking an investment from Wuhan Steel into the Mbalam project, which straddles the border of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, and is also in discussions with other Chinese state-owned companies, said the people, who did not want to be named.

Trade

Polysilicon rulings to be published

The Ministry of Commerce will issue a preliminary ruling on its anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into imported polysilicon from the United States, the European Union and South Korea on Feb 20, the 21st Century Business Herald has reported.

China launched an investigation on Nov 27 to determine whether retrospective duties should be levied on imported solar-grade polysilicon from the three countries.

China targeted by 72 trade investigations

Chinese exports were targeted in 72 trade investigations last year, according to China's General Administration of Customs. Trade protectionism is prevalent globally and the conditions for Chinese trade are worsening, according to Zheng Yuesheng, a spokesperson for the administration.

Among the world's largest economies, China saw its exports most targeted by trade protectionism last year. Emerging economies are also increasingly initiating investigations against China, and the number of industries that are being targeted is also increasing.

Auto

Volkswagen's sales up 24.5% in China

The multi-brand German carmaker Volkswagen AG said it sold 2.81 million vehicles to Chinese customers last year, up 24.5 percent year-on-year.

Volkswagen Group China, along with its two Chinese joint ventures Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co and FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co, sold 2.81 million vehicles on the mainland and in Hong Kong, including 189,200 imported ones, the company said.

The group's sales included a total of 2.15 million units of Volkswagen models, up 25 percent from a year earlier. Sales of the group's sub-brands Audi and Skoda climbed 29.6 percent and 7.1 percent in 2012, respectively, data showed.

GM hangs on to lead over VW in sales

General Motors Co outsold Volkswagen AG in China last year, keeping its lead among foreign automakers in the country for an eighth year, after sales of the US carmaker's Wuling minivans climbed to a record high.

Deliveries at GM and its Chinese joint ventures rose 11 percent to a record 2.84 million vehicles, the Detroit-based automaker said on Jan 14. Volkswagen said deliveries climbed 24.5 percent to 2.81 million.

Both carmakers, which count China as their biggest market, may increase their reliance on the country, where the total number of vehicles sold is forecast to top 20 million units for the first time in 2013.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 01/18/2013 page14)