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To: RealMuLan who wrote (21765)	1/19/2005 5:05:31 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

China suspends 26 power projects Part of the massive Three Gorges Dam project must stop China has ordered a halt to construction work on 26 big power stations, including two at the Three Gorges Dam, on environmental grounds. The move is a surprising one because China is struggling to increase energy supplies for its booming economy. Last year 24 provinces suffered black outs. The State Environmental Protection Agency said the 26 projects had failed to do proper environmental assessments. Topping the list was a controversial dam on the scenic upper Yangtze River. "Construction of these projects has started without approval of the assessment of their environmental impact... they are typical illegal projects of construction first, approval next," said SEPA vice-director Pan Yue, in a statement on the agency's website. Temporary halt? Some of the projects may be allowed to start work again with the proper permits, but others would be cancelled, he said. Altogether, the agency ordered 30 projects halted. Other projects included a petrochemicals plant and a port in Fujian. The bulk of the list was made up of new power plants, with some extensions to existing ones. The stoppages would appear to be another step in the central government's battle to control projects licensed by local officials. However, previous crackdowns have tended to focus on projects for which the government argued there was overcapacity, such as steel and cement. The government has encouraged construction of new electricity generating capacity to solve chronic energy shortages which forced many factories onto part-time working last year. In 2004, China increased its generating capacity by 12.6%, or 440,700 megawatts (MW). The biggest single project to be halted was the Xiluodi Dam project, designed to produce 12,600 MW of electricity. It is being built on the Jinshajiang - or 'river of golden sand' as the upper reaches of the Yangtze are known. Second and third on the agency's list were two power stations being built at the $22bn Three Gorges Dam project on the central Yangtze - an underground 4,200 MW power plant and a 100 MW plant. Criticism The Three Gorges Dam has proved controversial in China - where more than half a million people have been relocated to make way for it - and abroad. It has drawn criticism from environmental groups and overseas human rights activists. The damming of the Upper Yangtze has also begun to attract criticism from environmentalists in China. In April 2004, central government officials ordered a halt to work on the nearby Nu River, which is part of a United Nations world heritage site, the Three Parallel Rivers site which covers the Yangtze, Mekong and Nu (also known as the Salween), according to the UK-published China Review. That move reportedly followed a protest from the Thai government about the downstream impact of the dams, and a critical documentary made by Chinese journalists. China's energy shortage influenced global prices for oil, coal and shipping last year. news.bbc.co.uk

To: RealMuLan who wrote (21765)	1/19/2005 8:05:48 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

Housing prices expected to drop by 10% in 2005 BEIJING - China's macro-control policy will continue exerting impact on China's real estate development market this year. Housing price is forecast to drop by 10% in 2005, said Jia Hai, deputy directory of the Investment Department of the National Bureau of Statistics. But the real estate industry will still face such problems as large-scale investment in development and fast increase of housing prices, Jia noted. Jia said that the national performance index of property industry, a main indicator of China's real estate market, had dropped from 107.75 points in earlier 2004 to 104.78 points in the first 10 months. The index is expected to rebound to about 105 points by the end of 2004. Potential demand for residential buildings will turn into effective demand. For land supply, the country is estimated to have more than 400 million square meters of land that have not been put under development stage. For funds supply, sources of funds will be comparatively sufficient this year, basically maintaining more than 30% higher growth than that of investment in development. The country's investment in development of real estate is forecast to continue its strong pep of growth of about 23% in 2005, and average growth of sales price of marketable houses is expected to decline to about 10% as the country's national economy is developing at a fast pace, market environment is improving, and the basic conditions to support the sustainable development of real estate industry remain unchanged. Jia has listed several problems facing the industry, including: # Big numbers of real estate projects which are still under construction. China's construction area of marketable housing reached 1.2 billion square meters in the first ten months of 2004, and the planned investment in real estate development projects was as high as 4.2 trillion yuan (US$508 billion), rising 35.2% year on year. # Irrational structure of investment. Proportion of luxury residential buildings, villa and high-grade apartment buildings is high in the total investment, while that of livable housing and low- and medium-grade residential buildings is low. China invested 646.1 billion yuan in marketable housing in the first ten months of 2004, of which livable housing only accounted for 5% as against 8.1% in the same period of the previous year. # Rising of average selling price of housing. The average selling price was 2,758 yuan per square meter in January-October of 2004, rising 11.7% year on year, a record high growth since 1998. (Asia Pulse/XIC) atimes.com

To: RealMuLan who wrote (21765)	1/28/2005 10:51:55 AM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 116555

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