To: Charles A. King who wrote (10030 ) 11/5/1998 8:49:00 AM From: Charles A. King Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 13091
I have been seeking understanding of the flow of capital over the borders of Red China. The Chinese yuan, also called renminbi (people's money?), is not tradable for foreign exchange. The Hong Kong dollar is tradable and its value is pegged to the US dollar. Exactly how all this works seems complicated to me. Just like every other developing country, especially socialistic ones, the central government tries very hard to prevent capital flight and to promote development of its own industries and infrastructure. To do that, it must attract foreign capital, so it can't restrict the flow of capital associated with foreign investment. The central government is taking steps to prevent the problems that have sunk the economies of its neighbors. It is moving to control short term borrowing in foreign currencies which are invested in long term domestic entities. [Lateline News (lateline.muzi.net): 10/30/98] BEIJING - China on Friday unveiled a sweeping reform package for its central bank in a bid to reduce risk and avoid the Asian financial contagion. lateline.muzi.net Here is another source of Chinese foreign exchange information and links.lateline.muzi.net At the same time, smuggling of goods is a serious problem for China because a lot of it is done by the Chinese armed forces. That is one reason why the central government has recently ordered the People's Liberation Army to get out of the ownership of businesses. How many years it will take for the PLA to divest itself and to stop the smuggling is anybody's guess. Thursday November 5 1998 Top group to enforce army sell-off Beijing has set up a leading group to ensure that branches including the army, police and courts shed their business operations by the Lunar New Year. The high-level unit, known as the Leading Group to Handle the Businesses of Party and Government Units, is headed by Premier Zhu Rongji. scmp.com Educating local officials may be the easy part. Far more difficult to rein in will be the military and security forces which have built a vast business out of smuggling and run it with impunity, protected by high-level generals and high-powered weapons. Several years ago, a number of super-luxury yachts that went missing from their typhoon shelter moorings in Hong Kong turned up in naval bases near Shantou in Guangdong province. infoseek.com :80/Content?arn=a4212LBY584reulb-19981104&qt=china&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486 I have tried to restrict my research to the Web so that I can pass my findings on or to show sources for my statements. In an earlier post, I provided an article indicating investment by Chinese in foreign ventures, mostly in providers of commodities and raw materials. I said I wish GRNO could get some of that badly needed capital for itself. Every indication I have seen so far is that getting such capital out of China for GRNO would be extremely difficult because of the restriction of capital flow from China. That is especially true now that China's neighbors are experiencing serious financial problems of their own and have devalued their currencies. Red China's rulers are praised by the rest of the world for not devaluing their HK dollar or the yuan. It can easily be argued that I am dreaming anyway since all I have to go on is that some people from Red China visited GRNO recently. As we have seen, there is a world of difference between a plant visit and an order for a plant. Anyway, here is an article about foreign investment in China. I highlighted a paragraph about capital equipment imports because I consider a GRNO plant to be capital equipment. China lures US, Europe investors as Asia backs off 09:37 p.m Nov 03, 1998 Eastern BEIJING, Nov 4 (Reuters) - China's foreign direct investment (FDI) is likely to fall this year as the Asian financial crisis hurts its main investors, but Beijing's bid to diversify inflows has helped avert a big slide, economists said on Wednesday. ''Actual inflow of foreign direct investment is expected to decline this year,'' said Zhao Jinping, an economist at the cabinet's Development Research Centre. Economists forecast China's actual FDI to reach $35 billion to $40 billion this year after a record $45.3 billion in 1997. China's actual FDI fell 0.59 percent year on year to $31.4 billion in the first nine months of this year. Contracted FDI -- an indicator of future trends -- rose 2.45 percent year on year to $35.8 billion in the period. ''The figures are better than most people had expected,'' said Qu Hongbin, chief economist with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Securities in Hong Kong. Some Chinese officials had previously forecast actual FDI could drop to around $30 billion this year. Faced with an investment slowdown from Asia, which has accounted for about 80 percent of China's FDI inflows, Beijing has sought to lure more funds from the United States and Europe. Pledged investment from the United States soared 45.96 percent to $4.48 billion in the first nine months of this year, while investment from the European Union surged 64.2 percent to $4.67 billion, according to official figures. ''Western investors are still eyeing China's market, unlike Taiwanese and Hong Kong investors in the 1980s who moved their factories to the mainland to save costs,'' Qu said. Western investors had also been encouraged by Beijing's reintroduction of tax breaks for capital-equipment imports this year. ''Such favourable policies can offset the impact of the Asian financial crisis. Foreign firms are still willing to invest in China,'' said a foreign trade ministry official. China is the world's second largest recipient of FDI after the United States and takes around 40 percent of such inflows to the developing world. Foreign investors have poured an accumulated $250 billion into China. They have set up more than 145,000 ventures employing 17.5 million people, roughly 10 percent of China's urban workforce. Moreover, foreign-invested companies accounted for around 40 percent of China's exports and more than half of its imports. infoseek.com :80/Content?arn=a4007LBY484reulb-19981103&qt=china&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486 Here are more articles on the themes of Chinese economic development and concern for the environment. I pointed out in a previous post that the official central government recognizes petroleum as a pollutant of water in China. It is also official government policy to try to make the government-owned industries more efficient by down sizing and laying off workers. THE State Environmental Protection Administration (Sepa) will concentrate on control of water and atmospheric pollution during the next five years (1998-2002). chinadaily.com.cn.net [Lateline News (lateline.muzi.net): 11/3/98] Beijing - Senior legislators alarmed at the rise in violent crime by laid-off workers called on provincial governments yesterday to instil stability by creating jobs and speeding up economic development.lateline.muzi.net THESE DAYS, MIDDLE-AGED CHINESE are lamenting their "three xias." In the 1960s and 70s, they experienced "xiaxiang" - being sent to the countryside to learn farm labor. In the 1980s and early 1990s, "xiahai" was the fashion. It meant to "put out to sea," in search of better-paying jobs in the burgeoning market economy. Now, it's "xiagang," or losing once-secure jobs at state-owned enterprises. pathfinder.com Economic growth nears 1998 target China's economy grew 7.2%in the first three quarters of the year on a year-on-year basis, the State Statistics Bureau (SSB) noted on October 16. SSB spokesman Ye Zhen said an anticipated surge in economic growth in the last quarter will make the 1998's growth goal 8%achievable. In view of the 7.6%growth in the third quarter compared with 7%in the January-June period, the economy has already begun to pick up. Spurred on by China's pumppriming measures this year, fixed asset investment growth in the State sector has picked up speed month by month, reaching a staggering 33.8%last month. China is counting on investment growth this year to stimulate domestic demand to counteract a domestic economic slowdown and sluggish external demand resulting from the Asian financial crisis. The government has given a strong boost to infrastructure spending to create an investment spree. State sector investment during the first nine months of this year averaged 20%growth, compared with 13.8%for the first six months. State companies usually account for more than 50%of the country's fixed assets investment. State sector activities will push total investment growth for the whole year to 15£¥. chinavista.com (Go to recent news on right side of page and click on "Economic Growth Nears 1998 Target". Zeng Peiyan, minister of the State Development Planning Commission, voiced on September 23 strong confidence in China's ability to achieve its economic goals for 1998. The targets proposed by the government at the beginning of the year--an 8% growth in gross domestic product (GDP); inflation of less than 3%; and a stable exchange rate -- can all be reached. He reiterated China's stance on maintaining the value of the renminbi, saying the country does not want a devaluation of the currency to ruin investors' confidence in China.chinavista.com Charles