CHINA’S pharmaceutical companies should pursue more opportunities overseas and seek greater collaboration with foreign partners, an industry official said yesterday.

“Chinese pharma companies and manufacturers should allocate more resources to the international market in the next five years so that they can play a more important role,” Xu Ming, vice president of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Medicines & Health Products, told a press conference.

He was speaking ahead of the 16th International Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients, which is co-organized by the chamber.

As one of the world’s biggest exporters and manufacturers of pharmaceutical ingredients, China should focus more on foreign markets, he said.

The chamber will seek to promote industry collaboration between China and central and eastern Europe countries at the upcoming convention, Xu said.

 RENEWABLE energy sources will account for almost 100 percent of China’s electricity needs by 2050, an industry insider said yesterday at the 2016 International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference & Exhibition in Shanghai.

“The cost of solar energy is expected to drop by more than 50 percent in the future, thanks to new technologies like micro-grids, smart electricity optimization and efficient storage,” said Andreas Liebheit, who heads the photovoltaics (PV) global business unit of German tech company Heraeus.

Heraeus also yesterday opened a new technical center in Shanghai, as it seeks to expand its presence in the sector. Last year, it derived 30 percent of its revenue from China.

Among the other companies at the event was Nextracker Inc, which develops single-axis solar trackers and PV systems, and is seeking new opportunities in China.

The company claims its technologies improve the efficiency of solar energy generation, and can reduce operational and maintenance costs.

New technologies like wider tracking ranges — of 120 degrees rather than 90 degrees — can cut costs by two-thirds over 20 years, Mike Mehawich, the company’s chief marketing officer, told Shanghai Daily.

The conference and exhibition end tomorrow.

 SALES of new homes by floor area in Shanghai in the seven days through Sunday rose 32 percent week on week to 241,000 square meters, said a study released yesterday.

The total, which excluded government-subsidized housing, was the first above 200,000 square meters for three weeks, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Ltd said.

“On one hand, the abundant supply of new homes over the past few weeks helped fuel buyers’ momentum while on the other, the recent land buying frenzy served as a strong stimulus,” said Lu Wenxi, a research manager at Shanghai Centaline, adding that he expects demand to remain high until the end of the month.

The mean selling price in the period fell 4.8 percent from the previous week to 34,493 yuan (US$5,260) per square meter, the company said.

According to a separate report by Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co, two projects in Nanqiao, Fengxian District, occupied the first and fourth spots on the best-seller list for the week, with sales of 165 and 61 units, respectively.

On May 11, a developer from Fujian Province acquired a residential parcel in Nanqiao for an average gross floor area price of 22,625 yuan per square meter, representing a premium of 126 percent from the asking price.

The supply of new homes in the period fell 22 percent week on week to 206,000 square meters, according to the Centaline report.

 CHINA has set a target to achieve 7 percent annual growth for its manufacturing industry during the 2016-18 period, the National Development and Reform Commission said yesterday.

A statement jointly issued by the planning agency and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said also that a goal of 15 percent annual growth has been set for technology investment over the period.

The expansion is necessary to ensure the implementation of 10 major industrial projects in the digital, automation, clean-tech and advanced service industries, the statement said.

The projects will require financial and policy support from the government, research institutions and industry associations, it said.

The growth targets are expected to be achieved through the application of computerized systems within the country’s manufacturing sector, and increased investment in the Internet of Things and cloud-computing services, the statement said.