HONG KONG, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — China’s special administrative region of Hong Kong and Japan have struck a deal to eliminate capacity restrictions over air services between Hong Kong and most Japanese cities, the SAR government said Thursday.

    The agreement, covering air services between Hong Kong and all Japanese cities except Tokyo, was a key achievement in the consultation concluded in Hong Kong Thursday, the Transport and Housing Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR government said.

    ”The traveling public will no doubt benefit from more competitive services to existing and new destinations. Trade, investment and tourism ties between Hong Kong and Japan will also be strengthened,” said Eva Cheng, secretary for transport and housing.

    The move, coupled with recent substantial liberalization of the air services arrangements with China’s mainland and India, will strengthen Hong Kong’s status as an international and regional aviation hub, Cheng was quoted as saying.

    Airlines based in Hong Kong will be able to respond to market demand by increasing services to Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Sendai and Okinawa, and launching new services to Kagoshima, Okayama and other destinations, she said.

    Cheng said the Hong Kong SAR government will seek to increase the air services between Hong Kong and Tokyo in the next round of air services consultation.

    Hong Kong-based airlines currently provide 42 weekly passenger services between Hong Kong and Tokyo and 61 weekly passenger services between Hong Kong and six other Japanese cities, as well as 33 weekly cargo services between Hong Kong and Japan.

    Japan-based airlines provide 28 weekly passenger services between Hong Kong and Tokyo, 14 weekly passenger services between Hong Kong and Osaka, as well as 56 cargo services between Hong Kong and Japanese cities including Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

    PHNOM PENH, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi arrived here on Thursday afternoon for a three-day official visit at the invitation of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Namhong.

    Yang is scheduled to respectively meet King Norodom Sihamoni, Prime Minister Hun Sen and Hor Namhong on Friday.

    This has been Yang’s first visit to Cambodia since he became foreign minister in 2007.

    Cambodia is the first stop of Yang’s regional tour which also includes Brunei and Australia.

    BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — Li Yuanchao, head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), met here on Thursday with a delegation from the Social Democratic Party of Germany(SDPG) headed by Sigmar Gariel, federal environment minister.

    Li, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, spoke highly of the exchanges between the CPC and the SDPG.

    He said the CPC would like to strengthen exchanges with young politicians of the SDPG and promote long-term, healthy and steady development of China-Germany relations.

    HONG KONG, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong stock market opened higher Thursday on announcement of expected rate cuts but failed to hold on as concerns over the U.S. economic future surfaced again in the afternoon.

    The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened at 23,789.72, up 136.03 points or 0.58 percent, after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority followed the Federal Reserve to announce a half percentage point rate cut.

    But the index soon turned to move downward before closing at 23,455.74, down 197.95 points or 0.84 percent. It moved between 23, 887.17 and 23,052.95 during the volatile session on a turnover of 110.65 billion HK dollars (14.19 billion U.S. dollars).

    The performance of the key barometer was currently below the 250-day moving average of 23,592, the mark that has usually been called a bull/bear threshold in spite of disagreements from some analysts.

    It also meant that the Hang Seng Index lost a total of 4,536.91points, or 15.67 percent during the volatile month of January.

    The two rate cuts by the United States Federal Reserve in the past week were nothing beyond expectations of the market, analysts said, adding that volatility was expected in the near term.

    Some have also been toning down their forecast for the next quarters.

    Sixteen of the 43 blue chips on the Hong Kong market turned out gainers, outnumbered by the number of losers, which totaled 26.

    PCCW, the local telecommunications operator and a blue chip, remained flat.

    The heavyweight banking giant HSBC Holdings lost 1.5 HK dollars, or 1.28 percent, to close at 115.6 HK dollars, while its local unit Hang Seng Bank lost 2.7 HK dollars, or 1.73 percent, to end at 153.2 HK dollars.

    China Mobile, the mainland’s largest mobile carrier, went up 0.7 HK dollars, or 0.62 percent, to close at 114.3 HK dollars.

    The finance sub-index suffered the most among the four major categories, moving down 702.18 points, or 2.13 percent, at 32,327.08, followed by the properties genre, which closed at 33,618.07, down 229.58 points or 0.68 percent.

    Bank of China continued its losing run at 3.17 HK dollars, down0.1 HK dollars or 3.06 percent while BOC Hong Kong gained 0.26 HK dollars, or 1.37 percent, following rate cuts by the local Monetary Authority.

    Ping An, one of the Chinese mainland’s major insurance players, slumped 3.2 HK dollars, or 5.58 percent, to close at 54.2 HK dollars while China Life lost 1 HK dollar, or 3.45 percent, to end at 28 HK dollars.

    The commerce and industries sub-index was slightly higher at 13,935.19, up 20.37 points, or 0.15 percent while the utilities category outperformed the market by gaining 389.32 points, or 0.94percent, partly thanks to increasing energy consumption in a wintry season across China.

    Hong Kong Electric went up 0.3 HK dollars, or 0.68 percent, to close at 44.45 HK dollars while Hong Kong and China Gas added 0.55HK dollars, or 2.65 percent, to close at 21.3 HK dollars.

    China Shenhua, however, went down 1.35 HK dollars, or 3.27 percent, at 40 HK dollars.

    Mainland shipping giant China Cosco gained 1.9 HK dollars, or 12.03 percent, at 17.7 HK dollars, thanks to the strength of an important industry index. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)

    BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — Housing prices continued to soar in China’s major cities in the fourth quarter, official figures released on Thursday show.

    The average housing price in China’s 70 large- and medium-sized cities climbed 10.2 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period of 2006, two percentage points higher than in the third quarter, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement.

    Experts said the figures were not surprising as the growth rates in November and December had both reached 10.5 percent year on year, the largest monthly gain since July 2005.

    Houses have been getting more expensive despite government efforts to curb real estate investment and shelter low-income families.

    Prices of new apartments jumped 11.4 percent, up 2.4 percentage points from the third quarter, while second-hand units went up 9.8percent, an increase of 2.2 percentage points.

    Rents rose 3.1 percent, while the growth of land transaction prices slowed from the third quarter by 4.3 percentage points to stand at 10.7 percent.

    Housing prices in major Chinese cities increased 5.6 percent year on year in the first quarter, 6.3 percent in the second quarter and 8.2 percent in the third, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

    HONG KONG, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — The recent interest rate cuts in Hong Kong will help boost local consumption and asset values, Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority Chief Executive Joseph Yam said Thursday.

    However, he also said that the serial interest rate reductions by the United States Federal Reserve also reflected serious concerns about the U.S. economy.

    The Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to 3 percent Wednesday in a move to prevent the U.S. economy from going into a recession, prompting a half- percentage point rate cut in Hong Kong on Thursday.

    The currency in Hong Kong, a special administrative region and independent economy in south China, is pegged to the U.S. dollar at 7.8 U.S. dollars to 1 HK dollar.

    Noting the U.S. sub-prime mortgage meltdown has developed into a loan crisis, Yam said the U.S. also faced risks in other financial sectors.

    The future developments of the situation deserved close attention, he said.

    Stock markets in the Asia Pacific region mostly ended lower Thursday as the expected rate cuts by the Federal Reserve failed to boost market confidence, with the benchmark Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong opening higher but closing down 0.84 percent at 23,455. 74.