by Zhang Yongxing, Gao Chuan

    SINGAPORE, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — The establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA), which will be effective on Jan. 1, 2010, is a win-win outcome and will no doubt boost intra-regional trade, a well-known Singapore business leader has said.

    In a recent interview with Xinhua, Phua Kok Khoo, president of Singapore-China business association, hailed the FTA between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a good event for both sides, saying that after the launch of the FTA, which took eight years in the making, trade between the 10-member regional bloc and China will be more liberal and convenient.

    The environment for investments from both sides will be further improved while ASEAN countries and China’s trade partnership will surely be more closer, he said.

    Phua believes that China-ASEAN FTA, the world’s biggest with a population of 1.9 billion and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) close to 6 trillion U.S. dollars, will not only help ASEAN and China to grow, but also help the rest of Asia and the world to grow as a whole.

    The ASEAN countries each have their different resource and industrial advantages, and the FTA will give impetus to maximize their advantages, he said, adding that the countries like Singapore can make use of its geographical, investment and operating advantages to serve as a bridge to help enterprises from China and other ASEAN countries to achieve internationalized development and better market their enterprises.

    Phua stressed that since the completion of the FTA, ASEAN and China should continue to strengthen their economic, trade and investment links, and try hard to explore newer and freer cooperation system.

    Meanwhile, the enterprises from ASEAN and China should seize the opportunity to well develop themselves by making better use of the preferential policies provided by the FTA, which is mutually beneficial for both sides, he said.

    He suggested that ASEAN and China should further develop the depth and width of their cooperation through the FTA.

    Both sides should work out a long-term strategy to sustainable develop their existing industrials and actively seek fresh cooperation fields, he added. 

Special Report:  China-ASEAN FTA 

    BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping Thursday urged improving the quality of Party officials at grassroots level.

    Xi, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks here while meeting with Wang Boxiang, former secretary of a county committee of the CPC, whom Xi described as the model of such officials in the new period.

    Wang, born in 1943, has been a local official for more than 30 years and won praises for keeping a just and thrifty working style.

    From 1986 to 1991, he was Secretary of the Shouguang County Committee of the CPC in east China’s Shandong Province. He led local people to promote greenhouse vegetable production, develop alkaline soil, and launch industrial projects, which greatly boosted local economic growth and solved the imbalance of development between north and south of the county.

    Xi said Wang helped build a solid material foundation for the county’s development and won acclaim from both local officials and people with his hard work and uncorrupted behaviors.

    Xi called upon other Party members and officials to learn from Wang and seek benefits for people while at the same time maintain a clean style in life and work.

¡¤Hu urged maintaining steady and relatively fast economic development.¡¤A proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy will be continued. 
¡¤Hu added that the country will stick to the guidelines of “one country, two systems.”

Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a New Year address titled “Jointly Create a Better Future for World Peace and Development” which is broadcasted to domestic and overseas audiences via state TV and radio stations, in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 31, 2009. (Xinhua Photo)

    BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Hu Jintao urged maintaining steady and relatively fast economic development in a New Year address broadcast Thursday to domestic and overseas audience via state TV and radio stations.

    He said in 2009, in the face of global financial crisis, Chinese people of all ethnic groups united together and firmly adhered to maintaining steady and relatively fast economic development as the primary task in economic work.

    ”People’s life continued to improve and the society was kept harmonious and stable,” said Hu in the address, titled “Jointly Create A Beautiful Future of World Peace and Development,” broadcast by China Radio International, China Central Television, and China National Radio..

    Hu said that the year 2010 is the last year of the country’s 11th Five-Year Plan period and the country will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy.

    Hu added that the country will stick to the guidelines of “one country, two systems”, “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong”, “Macao people governing Macao” and a high degree of autonomy to maintain long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macao.

    He said the policy of “peaceful reunification and one country, two systems” will be adhered to and exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait will be enhanced to bring more benefits to people on both sides.

    ”I’d like to solemnly reiterate that China will hold high the flag of peace, development and cooperation and firmly adhere to the foreign policy of maintaining world peace and promoting common development,” Hu said.

    He said China will develop friendly cooperation with all other countries on the basis of the five principles of co-existence and continue to actively participate in international cooperation on issues such as coping with the international financial crisis and climate change.

    ”We will work with people of all countries to jointly promote the construction of a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity,” said Hu.

    He said at this moment, there are still people in the world who are suffering from war, poverty, disease and natural calamities. The Chinese people are deeply sympathetic and will continue to do all they can to help them.

    An article by Hu on Party building in a new situation will be published in Qiu Shi (Seeking Truth), an official magazine of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Jan. 1, 2010.

Chinese leaders celebrate New Year with political advisors

    BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Hu Jintao, along with other leaders, celebrated the New Year with political advisors Friday morning in Beijing, where he delivered an important speech.

    Hu and Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, attended the tea party held by the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Full story

Chinese, Russian leaders exchange greetings on New Year

    BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday exchanged New Year greetings and formally launched the Year of Chinese Language in Russia.

    Hu said in the greetings that the strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Russia witnessed a high-level rapid development in the year 2009. Full story

Chinese, South Korean leaders exchange New Year greetings

    BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) — President Hu Jintao exchanged congratulatory messages with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak on the occasion of Friday’s New Year celebration.

    In the message, Hu said China and South Korea are good neighbors and their relations have made much headway in recent years. Full story

    ACCRA, Dec. 31 ( Xinhua) — Kwabena Duffour, Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, on Wednesday commended China for its continuous support to Ghana’s developmental agenda.

    Duffour also appealed to the Chinese government to consider and approve Ghana’s applications for concessionary loans for the implementation of projects in critical areas of the economy, including health, roads, railways, water and agriculture.

    He was speaking at the signing of two different agreements, a grant and an interest-free loan, between Ghana and the People’s Republic of China in Accra.

    The agreements, which consist of a grant of 60 million Yuan (8.8 million U.S. dollars) and an interest-free loan of 40 million Yuan (5.9 million dollars), are to enhance the Technical Co-operation between the two countries.

    Duffour initialed the agreements for Ghana whiles the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Yu Wenzhe signed for his country.

    Duffour said the agreement symbolizes a further deepening of the cordial bilateral relations between the two nations.

    He said the agreement also reflects the growing bilateral co-operation between the two countries, based on mutual respect and the increasing economic and political influence of China in global affairs.

    He said economic and bilateral relations between the two nations date back to the early 60s and have ever since, grown from strength to strength, adding that, development asssistance to Ghana had also increased tremendously in the past few years.

    Duffour said the provision of grants and interest-free loans to Ghana by China has become an annual ritual, since Ghana has continuously received these facilities for the past fifteen years.

    He said earlier in May this year, China extended an amount of 20 million Yuan (2.9 billion dollars) and 10 million Yuan (1.5 dollars) as a grant and interest-free loans respectively to Ghana.

    He said China’s development assistance to Ghana since 2006, including those disbursed and those in respect of which agreements have been signed, to talled around 650 million dollars.

    Yu pledged his country’s continuous assistance to Ghana for her development agenda.

    CHANGCHUN, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — The global economic meltdown impacted many of the clients of BT Frontline, which provides outsourcing services for the IT systems of docks and logistics companies. But its General Manager, Lawrence Low, is still satisfied with the company’s performance amid the financial crisis and confident about its future.

    China’s service outsourcing industry, mostly about software outsourcing, bounced back in the second half of the year from a hard time of three months caused by shrinking demand from the global market, according to Yu Hengzhuang, vice president of Dalian Software Park.

    ”We have gained access to high-end market and recently entered the Middle East market, which more than offset the impact of the global downturn,” Low said.

    ”Our business not only survived, it grew and thrived,” Low said with a smile, keeping the exact figures as business secret.

    RAPIDLY DEVELOPING INDUSTRY

    The software outsourcing park in Dalian, the industrial hub in China, attracted 63 new clients in 2009, bringing the overall number of businesses in the park to more than 400, and the park’s total sales are expected to top 20 billion yuan, up 32.9 percent year on year.

    The sales of Dalian’s software outsourcing business grew from 200 million yuan (29.3 million U.S. dollars) to more than 30 billion yuan in the past 10 years. A total of 700 companies are in the industry, including 300 joint ventures and more than 40 Fortune 500 companies.

    In the first ten months, the industry’s sales in Dalian grew by33 percent to 33.7 billion yuan and its export grew by 34 percent to 1.1 billion U.S. dollars.

    While Dalian has become a world famous hub of software outsourcing after Thomas Fridman compared it with Bangalore in India, another less known industrial hub with equally fast pace in east China’s Jiangsu Province, is taking shape.

    The contract value of Jiangsu’s software outsourcing industry reached 3.28 billion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months of the year, a growth of 174 percent. The province has 2,470 companies in the industry, with 290,000 employees, according to statistics from the provincial department of commerce.

    The provincial capital Nanjing’s software outsourcing industry had a contract value of 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of the year, growing by 239 percent.

    ”The income of China’s software industry, which software outsourcing takes a major part, has been growing by 38 percent annually and its revenue is expected to top 1 trillion yuan in 2010,” said Hu Kunshan, vice chairman of China Software Industry Association.

    China’s software industry earned 757.3 billion yuan in 2008, and the figure is expected to reach 900 billion yuan in 2009.

    BOOSTING EMPLOYMENT

    The rapid development of outsourcing industry bears great significance in sustaining economic growth, restructuring economy, stabilizing export and boosting employment, said Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan during a visit to Dalian in November.

    More than 60,000 people are working in the software outsourcing industry in Dalian.

    China’s outsourcing industry recruited 690,000 new employees, 460,000 of whom were college graduates, in the first 11 months of 2009, according to statistics released on a national conference on commerce.

    China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security expects the outsourcing industry to create 1.2 million new jobs in five years, including 1 million jobs for college graduates.

    At the end of Sept. 2009, 1.42 million people were working in 8,060 outsourcing companies in China, said Qian Fangli, deputy head of the foreign investment department of the Ministry of Commerce.

    The software outsourcing companies in China have enough programmers but lack mature project managers and decision makers, who are on the top of the talent pyramid, said Yu Hengzhuang, vice-president of Dalian Software Park.

    The gap in talent pool limited the size of such companies to less than 300 people, which is a human resource threshold to carryout core projects with high added value. “That’s why Chinese companies are now the lowest ring of the world software outsourcing chain,” Yu added.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis

    MANILA, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — The full establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) on Jan. 1, 2010 will bring greater opportunities to the Philippines, Liu Jianchao, Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, said here Thursday.

    In a signed article to local media, Liu said, “With strong export potentiality in electronics, agricultural produce, fruits, fishery products and minerals, the Philippines will enjoy considerable comparative advantages and expand market shares of its competitive goods. Furthermore, with the agreements on trade of services and investment coming into force, the Philippines would be well poised to boost service trade and attract investments. ”

    Tourism, English teaching, eco-medical and retirement care services are those areas where the Philippine Government can really turn potential into profits. More incoming investments from both China and other ASEAN countries will give driving impetus to infrastructure development in the Philippines, he said.

    CAFTA will open broader vista for China-Philippine trade and economic cooperation. China-Philippine trade has registered relatively rapid growth in recent years, with the record high of more than 30 billion U.S. dollars in 2007. With CAFTA functioning in a full-fledged manner, both China and the Philippines should do more to press ahead with exchanges among prominent enterprises and to facilitate more effective bilateral cooperation in trade. China and the Philippines should work to strengthen cooperation mechanism among authorities in charge of respective areas, he said.

    In addition, he said, CAFTA will spur two-way investment flow between China and the Philippines. The Chinese companies are willing to bring their infrastructure investment up to higher level in various fields such as transportation, power generation, water supply and telecommunication. At the same time, China will do its utmost to get its policies well understood by Philippine companies in terms of foreign investment in China. We remain ready to invite Philippine enterprises to tap investment potential in China.

    It will also serve as catalyst for China-Philippine economic cooperation, the Chinese ambassador said. As part of package plan to boost China-ASEAN cooperation, China set up in 2009 China-ASEAN Investment Cooperation Fund totaling 10 billion U.S. dollars. The first 1 billion dollars will soon be made available for project orientation. The Philippine government stands in a good position to make full use of this fund and determine on candidate projects according to its strategy of economic development. The Chinese side is looking forward to seeing the related application be filed at an earliest date.

    Liu said, “Free trade allows China, the Philippines and other ASEAN countries to compete in CAFTA on the basis of our fundamental economic strengths and to reap the productivity and efficiency gains that promote long-run wealth and prosperity for all the peoples in the region. In reality, there is no distinction between free trade and truly fair trade.

    On the road to recovery, China and ASEAN countries share common fate and shoulder common responsibility. To advance regional economic cooperation in unprecedented width and depth is particularly significant at the moment. Putting CAFTA into place is surely something in the right direction. Let’s work to turn this blessing in disguise into benefits in real.”

Special Report:  China-ASEAN FTA