Asia-Business

News from China

Environment minister demands sound air quality in year beginning

14th January 2016

China's Minister of Environmental Protection Chen Jining has called for tough and targeted measure to ensure sound air quality in the first quarter of 2016, the remaining winter season.

The minister listed several "feasible" measures for the goal, such as conducting regular inspections over companies and vehicles with excessive emissions, better monitoring major pollution sources and improving forecast.

The 2015 average PM2.5 density in north China regions around Beijing dropped 10.4 percent from 2014, said Chen, adding it's a "hard-earned achievement" despite winter smog in the area.

All places must also work out measures to actively cope with serious pollution weather, he said.

He asked local authorities to launch the highest-level pollution warning -- red alert -- in a timely manner once the pollution weather appears to be extreme. Those who fail to well respond to the pollution emergencies will be held responsible.

Source: Xinhua

China's trade surplus up 56.7 pct in 2015

13th January 2016

China's foreign trade surplus widened to 3.69 trillion yuan (562 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, an increase of 56.7 percent from a year earlier, customs data showed on Wednesday.

Exports fell 1.8 percent year on year to 14.14 trillion yuan in 2015, while imports declined 13.2 percent to 10.45 trillion yuan in 2015, according to the General Administration of Customs data.

Last year, the country's total export and import values decreased 7 percent year on year to 24.59 trillion yuan.

Source: Xinhua

Beijing to shut 2,500 polluting businesses

12th January 2016

Some 2,500 small enterprises in four southern districts of Beijing will be closed by the end of this year to improve air quality, according to a media report.

The businesses are in districts including Fengtai, Fangshan, Tongzhou and Daxing, which have seen more severe air pollution than the northern part of the capital.

The Beijing municipal government said large-sized ventures that were major polluters and high energy consumers have been moved out of the city although Xinhua News Agency reported that small businesses such as restaurants, hostels and automobile repairers had been to the detriment of residents' health.

By 2017, the four districts will remove all small enterprises of those kinds, the municipal government said.

Source: Chinadaily

China starts rice imports from Laos

11th January 2016

The first shipment of rice imports from Laos have passed through inspection and quarantine procedures at south China's Shenzhen port, according to local authorities.

The shipment weighed 87.8 tonnes and was valued at 746 million U.S. dollars, said the Shenzhen Entry-Exit Inspection And Quarantine Bureau.

China mainly imports rice from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan. It recently added Laos to the list.

Chinese appetite for grain imports has been growing fast, as the increasingly wealthy population seek more choices of staple food.

As China's biggest port for rice imports, Shenzhen handled over 1 million tonnes of rice imports in 2015, accounting for nearly half of the country's total.

The Shenzhen bureau said it has carried out both on-the-spot inspections and lab tests for pesticide residue and heavy metal pollutants on each batch of goods to ensure the quarantine quality of the imports.

Source: Xinhua

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