MOSCOW, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — An assembly line of Chinese automaker Geely was officially launched in Russia’s Caucasus republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, local media reported Saturday.

    Russian car company Derways has started body welding and other assembling work of Geely-brand vehicles on Friday, according to Russian state TV channel Russia-24.

    Some 1,100 units were expected to be produced by the end of February, the first batch of which will be delivered to Moscow by Jan. 20. The annual production of Geely will be no lower than 12,000 units.

    Besides Geely, Derways was also scheduled to manufacture for other Chinese brands such as Li Fan, Great Wall Motors, Chery and Haima. The total annual output of the Derways company was estimated to reach 100,000 units.

    Local residents could enjoy price discounts when purchasing these cars, according to the company, which also foresees a great demand of Chinese vehicles on Russian market.

    HONG KONG, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Saturday approved a HKSAR government proposal to earmark 66.9 billion HK dollars (8.6 billion U.S. dollars) for the construction of the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express rail link.

    Speaking after the meeting of the finance committee of the Legislative Council (LegCo), Secretary for Transport and Housing Eva Cheng said the project was in the best interest of Hong Kong and built for the next and future generations.

    ”It is not only a transport project, but also an important community investment,” she said, adding people from different sectors and levels will benefit.

    The approval came after marathon meetings of the finance committee as some of the LegCo members raised questions about the plan, and supporters and protesters gathered outside the LegCo building to voice their opinions.

    The Hong Kong section of the express rail link will be a 26-km underground rail corridor from the terminus in west Kowloon to the boundary south of Huanggang, where it will connect to the mainland section of the rail link.

    The funding approved on Saturday comprises a 55 billion HK dollars (7.1 billion U.S. dollars) cost for the construction of the railway works, 11.8 billion HK dollars (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) for non-railway works and about 86 million HK dollars (11. 0 million U.S. dollars) for land acquisition and clearance.

    Cheng said the HKSAR government would address people’s concern carefully and closely monitor the construction expenditure, regularly report the details to LegCo, and put in place a spending control mechanism.

    The HKSAR government will consider working with the district council to hire professionals to provide advice to owners and residents of affected buildings in the Tai Kok Tsui area. It will also actively work on the compensation arrangements for the affected households in the Choi Yuen Tsuen village, she said.

    Cheng also announced that the registration period will be extended to the end of February for those affected households that have not registered with authorities.

    The HKSAR government will improve its consultation work in future railway development and transport projects, she added.

    The express rail link is part of a 16,000-km national high- speed rail network currently under construction in China. Works on the mainland section of the rail link between Hong Kong and Guangzhou started in late 2005. The HKSAR government has previously planned for the construction of the Hong Kong section to start in late 2009. The Hong Kong section is expected to be completed in 2015.

    The traveling time by railway from Hong Kong to Guangzhou will be reduced from about 100 minutes to 48 minutes. Passengers from Hong Kong shall also be able to arrive in Wuhan in five hours, Shanghai in eight hours and Beijing in ten hours.

    The HKSAR government said it expected economic benefits of 87 billion HK dollars (11.2 billion U.S. dollars) for the express rail link in the first 50 years.

    BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — The total foreign and domestic currency assets of Chinese financial institutions rose 26.3 percent year on year to 78.8 trillion yuan (11.54 trillion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2009, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said on Saturday.

    The CBRC also said that combined liabilities rose 26.8 percent from the same period last year to 74.3 trillion yuan.

    Assets of state-owned commercial banks were 40.1 trillion yuan by the end of 2009, up 25.9 percent year on year, while those of joint-stock commercial banks 11.8 trillion yuan, up 33.7 percent year on year.

    Liabilities of state-owned commercial banks were 37.9 trillion yuan, up 26.9 percent year on year, while those of joint-stock commercial banks 11.2 trillion yuan, up 34.1 percent year on year.

    The bad loan ratio among major commercial banks (state-owned commercial banks and joint-stock commercial banks) fell to 1.59 percent, down 0.86 percentage points from the beginning of 2009.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis

    SHENZHEN, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — China’s top appliance maker TCL Saturday started building a 8.5-generation LCD production line in the southern city of Shenzhen to meet the rising demand for flat-screen TVs.

    The plant, in which TCL and Shenchao Technology Investment Company each hold a 50 percent stake, involves an investment of 24.5 billion yuan (3.6 billion U.S. dollars). It covers an area of 600,000 square meters.

    The fund includes 10 billion yuan from TCL and Shenchao, bank loans and also investment from domestic TV makers and overseas LCD panel producers, the two investors said.

    The plant has a full capacity of 14 million LCD panels per year with an estimated output value of 16.9 billion yuan (2.48 billion U.S. dollars).

    Its initial phase is expected to be put into operation in August 2010 and start mass production at the end of 2011. The second phase will start mass production one year later.

    TCL, founded in 1981, sold 14.28 million color TVs globally last year. Shenchao Investment, owned by the Shenzhen government, runs businesses including investment in projects related to integrated circuits and flat screens.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis

    URUMQI, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — China Huaneng Group, China’s biggest power producer, will build two 600MW power units in the far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an executive at its Xinjiang subsidiary said Saturday.

    Liu Xinmin, general manager of the Huaneng Xinjiang Energy Development Company, said the regional development and reform commission, the local economic planner, gave the green light to the initial phase of its Turpan power plant Saturday.

    The plant will help to meet rising power demand in Turpan and southern Xinjiang and also is a major power source for the country’s west-east electricity transmission project, Liu said.

    Huaneng planned to start construction this April. The units, which cost about 4.8 billion yuan (703 million U.S. dollars), are expected to be put into operation at the end of 2012, he said.

    Huaneng also planned to add another two 600MW power units to the Turpan power plant before 2015 to take advantage of the rich coal resources and the region’s position as a power-grid hub, the executive said.

    The power grid in Turpan will be connected this year to a national one that helps transmit power from the west to the east.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis

    BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — The Bank of China (BOC), the country’s largest foreign exchange lender, said it had already completed the preparatory work for establishing its Taiwan branch, according to a statement on the bank’s website.

    The bank will submit the application documents as soon as detailed regulations regarding a financial cooperation agreement between the mainland and Taiwan come out, said BOC spokeswoman Zhao Rong on Friday.

    A memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the financial regulatory authorities of mainland and Taiwan last November will take effect on Saturday, paving the way for financial cooperation between banks on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, she added.

    BOC hopes to be in the first batch of mainland lenders to operate in Taiwan. Its new branch will probably be located in Xinyi District, Taipei. with an initial management team of 20 to 30 staff, said the statement.