The minimum monthly wage will rise to 1,100 yuan ($161) for full-time workers, while hourly pay for part-time employees will climb to 9.8 yuan ($1.44), the government said in a transcript of a press conference posted on its website.

More than 20 Chinese provinces and cities raised minimum wages this year, the city government said. Higher pay will help companies to recruit workers and also to boost consumption, it said.

Source : Konaxis

“We were seeing progress over a number of years … but that has essentially stalled and the (piracy) rate has been roughly flat for the last three years,” said President Robert Holleyman of the Business Software Alliance.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, Carl Bass of Autodesk and Enrique Salem of Symantec are among the chief executives meeting with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Attorney General Eric Holder, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag.

Microsoft, which has continued doing business with China despite the piracy, recently won a lawsuit in Shanghai against a local insurance company that was running 450 copies of pirated Microsoft software.

The BSA is asking the Chinese government to ensure that government offices and businesses use only licensed software and to pledge to refrain from compelling intellectual property transfers as the cost of doing business, in addition to other steps.

Source : Konaxis

Germany is the preferred location,? Henry Li, general manager of BYD?s auto export trade division, said in a telephone interview. The decision depends on BYD ?finding the right property and place? and will likely be made before the end of the year, Li said.

Shenzhen-based BYD plans to start selling electric and hybrid cars in western Europe next year and become the first Chinese company to market alternative energy-powered vehicles in the region. The E6 electric car is among the models BYD plans to introduce, Paul Lin, a company spokesman, said in March. The carmaker may eventually design and build cars in Europe, he said.

BYD signed an agreement with Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler AG, to develop electric vehicles in China last month. Daimler, the world?s second-biggest maker of luxury cars, and BYD will invest 600 million yuan ($88 million) in the equal partnership.

Source : Konaxis

The three auto-assembly ventures–Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co., Honda Automobile (China) Co. and Guangqi Honda Automobile Co.–will restart operations once they can procure transmissions and other engine related parts from Honda Auto Parts Manufacturing Co., whose workers walked off on May 17. Production of those parts had been fully or partially suspended since.

The workers accepted a pay hike proposed by the parts production company late Friday, a Honda spokeswoman said.

The stoppage of production was a big headache for Honda as it finds it hard to keep up with growing demand for its vehicles with its scarce production capacity in China. The Japanese car maker plans to increase its overall capacity in China to 830,000 vehicles a year from the current 650,000 by 2012.

The pay raise could also squeeze profitability in Honda’s operations in China.

Honda is targeting China sales of more than 630,000 vehicles this year, or up about 10% from 2009.

Source : Konaxis

The trade-in, which started in June last year as part of the government?s $586 billion stimulus package, will also be gradually extended nationwide from the nine provinces and cities currently offering subsidies, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Since the program began, sales of televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and computers reached 54 billion yuan in the areas covered under the original plan and more than 5 billion yuan of subsidies were handed out to consumers, according to today?s statement.

Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd. and Suning Appliance Co. reported that the volume of sales under the five categories of products covered by the program surged 94 percent and 62 percent respectively in the nine regions, the ministry said. The two companies? unit sales from trade-ins accounted for more than half of their total sales of such goods since June 2009, according to the statement.

Source : Konaxis

Yi Xiaozhun, vice-minister of commerce, told WTO members that China would make the offer before the next meeting of the global trade body’s government procurement committee, due in the middle of next month, the officials said.

He was speaking during the WTO review of China’s trade policies, held every two years, at which China faced demands for more transparency in its trade policy and calls to continue liberalizing its economy — to which Yi responded by assuring members that China would continue opening up.

Some members including the United States had questioned China’s “indigenous innovation” policy which they said amounted to a form of “Buy China” favoring domestic producers over foreign suppliers, but Yi said it applied to all companies established in China.

China first applied to join the WTO government procurement agreement in December 2007 but its partners wanted better terms than it first offered.

Worldwide, government procurement accounts for about 23 percent of demand — nearly a quarter of the economy.

China estimates that the share of government procurement in its economy which would be covered by the agreement is much less.

Yi said it accounts for only two percent of gross domestic product because China excludes purchases by state-owned enterprises and limits the definition to purchases using budgetary funds above a certain threshold.

That would still make it worth some 615 billion yuan ($90 billion) a year.

Source : Konaxis

The workers will receive a 24 percent pay increase to 1,910 yuan ($280 dollars) per month, the Tokyo-based company said in a faxed statement Monday. Most workers have accepted the offer, while talks continue with those who are unsatisfied, Honda said.

Production at all four Honda car factories in the country will remain suspended through at least June 2, with plans beyond that date to be decided Tuesday, the company said in a separate statement. Production of manual transmissions at the parts plant resumed Monday.

The maker of Accord and Civic cars shut down all four of its auto assembly plants in China last week after workers at the parts unit walked out, demanding a pay raise. The strike, the first to stop Honda?s production in the country, may be reducing its output by as many as 3,000 vehicles daily, analysts said.

The carmaker shut two plants in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on May 24 and factories in Guangzhou and Wuhan, Hubei province, on May 26 after 1,850 workers making transmissions and engine parts at Honda Auto Parts Manufacturing Co. in Foshan, Guangdong, went on strike May 17.

The striking workers had demanded monthly pay be boosted to between 2,000 yuan ($293) and 2,500 yuan, said Yasuko Matsuura, a spokeswoman for Honda on May 27.

China accounted for 17 percent of Honda?s global sales last year, and the brand ranked fifth in China by unit sales in April, according to J.D. Power & Associates.

The parts factory, a wholly owned Honda subsidiary, started production in 2007 and makes transmissions for the Accord, City Odyssey and Fit models, according to the company.

Source : Konaxis

Nomura said He, 48, will be responsible for all China equities operations while keeping his current post as head of fixed-income research for Asia excluding Japan.

He previously led fixed-income and equity research for the Asia Pacific region at Lehman Brothers, the failed U.S. investment bank whose European and Asian operations were snapped up by Nomura in late 2008.

Establishing a strong presence in fast-growing China is seen as a key component of the broker’s global expansion.

But Nomura is still looking for a partner in the country, where foreign banks are required to form joint ventures with Chinese firms or invest in local brokerages to gain the right to underwrite and handle securities.

Some of its global peers, including UBS AG, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, already have joint ventures in China.

Currently Nomura is offering equity research for Chinese shares.

Source : Konaxis

The 2010 China Tobacco Control Report says that 3 percent of women in China are smokers.

The companies are investing heavily in advertisements to encourage women to smoke, portraying smoking as associated with beauty and liberation.

To persuade women into smoking, the companies also sold “light” and “fruit-flavoured” cigarettes, which were in fact no less harmful, it said.

“The low-income and less-educated women were more vulnerable to such campaigns,” Xinhua quoted Yang Gonghuan, head of the Tobacco Control Office, as saying.

He also stressed that the government should take action and impose restrictions on tobacco advertising and promotion targeting women.

Compared with male smokers, female smokers suffer more consequences, such as increased risks of premature senility, menstrual disorders and breast cancer, said the report.

Source : Konaxis

?Europe has been, and will be one of the major markets for investing China?s exchange reserves,? the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement on its website Thursday. The official Xinhua News Agency reported China Investment Corp. President Gao Xiqing said Wednesday Europe?s turmoil ?hasn?t had too big of an impact? on CIC?s investment decisions.

Concern that Europe?s crisis will hamper a rebound in global trade has spurred traders to reduce bets that China will let its own currency appreciate against the dollar.

China?s $300 billion sovereign wealth fund will maintain its investments in the euro area, CIC?s Gao said according to Xinhua, which cited a May 26 interview in Paris. Gao was in the French capital to attend a forum held by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development.

CIC, which manages a portion of the nation?s foreign currency reserves for the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, will ?closely watch? the short-term market volatility of the euro region, Xinhua cited Gao as saying. The sovereign wealth fund will also watch the stability of the euro and changes in EU policy, Gao was cited as saying.

The fund is a financial investor and has no political goals, Xinhua cited Gao as saying.

Source : Konaxis