BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — The Bank of China (BOC), one of the country’s four largest state-owned commercial banks, said its after-tax profits rose by 40 percent to 45.5 billion yuan (6.1 billion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months of the year based on the international accounting rules.

    The bank contributed the leap in profits to the rapid increase in net interest income and earnings from intermediary services.

    Its net income from interest rose 26.7 percent year on year to 110.6 billion yuan (14.8 billion dollars).

    The commission charges from distribution and entrusting of mutual funds and corporate intermediary businesses expanded by 88.9 percent to 18.9 billion yuan (2.53 billion dollars) in the Jan.-Sept. period.

    The bank said its income from other than interest rose 32.7 percent to 26.7 billion yuan (3.57 billion dollars) to account for nearly 20 percent of its total turnover.

    It said the non-performing loan ratio continued to drop, without revealing the exact figure.

    The lender said its business turnover per capita reached 319,400 yuan (42,757.7 dollars) in the first three quarters, up 34.9 percent from the same period last year, leading all the other domestic commercial banks.

    By Sept. 30, the bank’s total assets hit above six trillion yuan (803.2 billion dollars), said the bank.

    The rival Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country’s largest lender, had reported a 66 percent year-on-year increase in its net profit in the first nine months of this year.

    The BOC also revealed it held about 7.95 billion dollars of debt obligations related to the U.S. sub-prime mortgage by the end of Sept., already down by 1.7 billion from the end of June.

    It had booked another 322 million dollars of devalue provision for the risky debt obligations in the past three months, and the balance of the provision stood at 321 million dollars by the end of September.

    Share prices of the Bank of China on the Shanghai bourse fell to 7.14 yuan on Wednesday’s closing.

Hu: China will continue to play constructive role in Middle East

[China]Ambassador: China’s growth brings opportunities

[World]Clinton publicly opposes Attorney General nominee

[Biz]Hong Kong stocks end at another record high

[Health]Early autism detection strongly recommended

[Popular]Katharine Hepburn tells her stories from the stage

Special report:   2008 Olympic Games 

    BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — Beijing commuters using public transport now outnumber those using private cars, according to the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications.

    The latest figures from the committee on Wednesday show 34.5 percent of the city’s commuters now choose public transport, beating for the first time since figures were first recorded in 2001/2 the number of people opting for private vehicles, which made up 32 percent of the total.

    The increase comes in the wake of the city government’s decision to spend one billion yuan (about 1.33 million U.S. dollars) a year slashing subway and bus fares. Subway fares have been cut by 30 percent.

    Since Oct. 7, when the price cut took effect, the daily average of the city’s subway passenger volume has reached 2.48 million, up 910,000 from the daily average of the previous nine months this year, according to the figures.

    About half of the increased traffic was due to the No. 5 subway line, which was opened to commuters also on Oct. 7.

    The other half came from the four existing lines. Each of them posted 33 to 50 percent increases in their passenger volumes, compared with the figures in the first nine months of the year.

    In 2005 a total of 28.1 percent of commuters made their journeys to work by public transport. This had risen to 30.2 per cent in April this year.

    Currently, Beijing has five subway lines in operation, with a total length of 142 kilometers. The city will have nine lines totaling 200 km by 2008, and 19 lines totaling 561.5 km by 2020.

    Beijing, a city with a population of 17 million and more than 3 million registered vehicles, has been trying to boost public transit to ease traffic pressure and improve air quality ahead of the 2008 Olympics.

    The capital has staged a slew of measures, including improving public transport structure, slashing bus fares by 60 percent for residents since the beginning of this year and imposing temporary car bans.

    The city’s public transport system now carries 15 million commuters every day, and the number is expected to rise to 28 million people in 2012. The city aims to raise the proportion of people commuting on public transit to 50 percent by then.

Hu: China will continue to play constructive role in Middle East

[China]Ambassador: China’s growth brings opportunities

[World]Clinton publicly opposes Attorney General nominee

[Biz]Hong Kong stocks end at another record high

[Health]Early autism detection strongly recommended

[Popular]Katharine Hepburn tells her stories from the stage

    NANNING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — The Fifth China-ASEAN Expo will be held during Oct. 20-23 next year in its permanent venue of Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, South China, the organizing committee said here Wednesday.

    ”We are considering putting cooperation in the electronic information industry as the theme of the next exposition,” said Li Jinzao, deputy director of the organizing committee.

    The next exposition will focus on sustainable development and its results so as to consolidate the platform of China-ASEAN Expo for further cooperation between China and Southeast Asian countries, Li told a press conference at the end of the Fourth China-ASEAN Expo.

    ”We will pay more attention to major issues concerning social and economic development in China and Southeast Asian countries, such as poverty reduction and food safety, and list them as themes for discussions at forums to be held during the exposition,” he said.

    ”We will continue to improve our services for the holding of the exposition for a win-win result of both China and ASEAN member countries,” Li added.

    The China-ASEAN Expo is an annual gathering of political and business leaders as well as experts to discuss major issues concerning the development in the region covering China and the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Business people from both China and the Southeast Asian countries also come on the occasion for make their fortune.

    The ASEAN regional bloc groups Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

    At the just concluded four-day exposition, Chinese and Southeast Asian businesses signed agreements on investment a total of 6.15 billion U.S. dollars on machinery, building materials, consumer electronics, farm produce, foodstuffs and other projects.

    This figure represented a 5.28 percent increase from the previous China-ASEAN Expo. Agreements on a total of 182 international economic cooperation contracts were signed. Traders from China and ASEAN countries also signed 1.42 billion dollars worth of trade contracts, up 12.1 percent year on year.

    According to Li, also vice chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the number of Chinese and ASEAN companies and institutions participated in the exposition increased 4.9 percent to 1908.

Hu: China will continue to play constructive role in Middle East

[China]Ambassador: China’s growth brings opportunities

[World]Clinton publicly opposes Attorney General nominee

[Biz]Hong Kong stocks end at another record high

[Health]Early autism detection strongly recommended

[Popular]Katharine Hepburn tells her stories from the stage

A combo photo shows the newborn quadruplets at the First People’s Hospital in Xiangfan, central China’s Hubei Province, Oct. 30, 2007. The 32-year-old woman Qin Lihua gave birth to the quadruplets on Tuesday, all of whom are boys.(Xinhua Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that China attaches great importance to the friendly cooperation with France and appreciates the French government’s positive policy towards China when he met with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Wednesday.

    Wen told Kouchner, who is here to prepare for a state visit to China by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, that China is ready to make joint efforts with France to strengthen contacts and coordination on major issues, deepen and expand mutual-beneficial cooperation and promote the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

    Wen hailed the China-France relationship saying the relationship is in the interests of both countries which has played an important role in promoting world peace and common development.

    Kouchner said China has conquered a lot of difficulties and challenges and made remarkable achievements in its reform and opening up and its modernization process.

    He said the Chinese government has worked hard to improve the people’s livelihood and has played a role as a responsible power in the international community, which France admires a lot.

    The French foreign minister said the French government will continue to promote the development of France-China relations, adding China’s development will bring more opportunities for France-China cooperation,

    Kouchner arrived here Wednesday for a two-day official visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

    China welcomes French President Nicolas Sarkozy to pay a state visit in late November, said Yang when meeting press with Kouchner after their talks on Wednesday.

Hu: China will continue to play constructive role in Middle East

[China]Ambassador: China’s growth brings opportunities

[World]Clinton publicly opposes Attorney General nominee

[Biz]Hong Kong stocks end at another record high

[Health]Early autism detection strongly recommended

[Popular]Katharine Hepburn tells her stories from the stage

    NANNING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — Representatives from China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday promised they would work together to promote social development and poverty alleviation in the region.

    A proposal on poverty reduction was issued after two days of discussions among more than 100 Chinese and ASEAN officials, scholars and entrepreneurs at the First China-ASEAN Forum on Social Development and Poverty Reduction in the southern Chinese city of Nanning.

    Acknowledging the region is “one of those that suffer from serious poverty in the world”, the proposal identified poverty alleviation as a “common mission for policy-makers, researchers and practitioners in China and the ASEAN.”

    The proposal stressed the importance of policy-makers, vowing to give them full roles to play to collect all necessary resources, but saying they should strengthen the accountability and transparency in the implementation of poverty reduction policies.

    It said researchers from China and the ASEAN will increase theoretic research and assist policy-makers in producing effective polices of poverty reduction and social development.

    It also called on developed countries in and out of the region to further open their markets and increase technology transfer to improve trade and accelerate industrial transformation, and give developing countries more support in economic development, infrastructure construction and capacity building.

    For relevant international organizations, the proposal said they should increase inputs on projects of poverty reduction and social development and enhance the effectiveness of their assistance.

    ”Poverty reduction…should be based on economic growth and structural optimization, and guaranteed by improved public services including public information network, and social security system plus specialized poverty reduction interventions and relief services,” the proposal says.

    It recommended China and the ASEAN jointly establish a mechanism of cooperation among policy-makers, researchers, enterprises and non-governmental organizations to ensure projects and policies to be more scientific and reasonable, and to avoid any overlapping and duplication during implementation.

    China and the ASEAN decided to carry out a series of follow-up activities according to the proposal. Bringing the degree of poverty in different countries into consideration, priorities will be identified to give the most needy counties earliest and utmost help.

    The two sides also agreed to turn the forum into an annual event, concentrating each year’s discussions on theories, research methodologies, and policy information.

    China has made remarkable progress in poverty alleviation in the past 30 years. The rural population in absolute poverty has been reduced from 250 million in 1978 to 21.5 million last year. The ratio of national poverty in the country now stands at 2.3 percent, compared with 30.7 percent in late 1978, according to Fan Xiaojian, deputy chief of the State Council Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation, China’s national organization in charge of poverty reduction.

    ”The Chinese standard of poverty is relatively lower than the international benchmark. In fact, China has 100 million people living on less than one U.S. dollar a day, a poverty line set by the World Bank,” said Fan at the forum, one of the main focuses of the annual China-ASEAN Expo ending Wednesday.

    Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged in his report on behalf of the 16th CPC Central Committee earlier this month that a reasonable and orderly pattern of income distribution will be basically in place, with middle-income people making up the majority and absolute poverty basically eliminated in China.

Hu: China will continue to play constructive role in Middle East

[China]Ambassador: China’s growth brings opportunities

[World]Clinton publicly opposes Attorney General nominee

[Biz]Hong Kong stocks end at another record high

[Health]Early autism detection strongly recommended

[Popular]Katharine Hepburn tells her stories from the stage