China Economy Weekly: Southeast Asia’s Robust Trade; High-Speed Railways; China Becomes Hydro Superpower

China-ASEAN Trade Rises:  Trade value between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) rose 49.6% year-on-year in the first seven months to $161 billion, with ASEAN enjoying a surplus of $7.54 billion.

High-speed Railways in South China to:  China will complete 5,000 kilometers of high-speed railways in the mainland's southern region by 2012 to accelerate ieconomic integration with Hong Kong and Macao.

The railways, to be laid in the sprawling pan-Pearl Delta region of eight provinces and an autonomous region of the mainland, will account for nearly 40& of the country' total in the next three years.

Chinese Coal Mines:  The Chinese Government has stressed the need for the country's coal mine enterprises to continue with mergers and acquisitions for the healthy development of the industry.

The statement was issued following an executive meeting of China's State Council, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

The government will also introduce preferential measures on finance and taxation to support the upgrade of safety technologies of the merged enterprises, and it said it will protect workers and investors' rights by law during the merger and acquisition process.

Government Expenditure up 134%:  China's government expenditure surged 134.3% in the first seven months of 2010 as compensation for land purchases grew rapidly.

From January to July, the spending was 1.32 trillion yuan ($194 billion). Total revenue reached 1.8 trillion yuan, up 146%.

Chinese Economy to Stabilise?:  The Chinese economy will start to stabilise in the fourth quarter after the recent marked slowdown due to government measures, but it might face risks next year as external demand weakens, Ben Simpfendorfer, chief China economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has.

China's purchasing managers' index (PMI), a leading indicator of economic health, has fallen for two consecutive months to 51.2% in July, barely above the expansive baseline of 50%.

State Enterprises to Hire Overseas Managers:  More than a dozen State-owned enterprises will hire new managers by the end of the year after a worldwide recruitment campaign, the States Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) announced.

Four general managers and eight assistant managers will join during the eighth and largest global hiring programme.

The new hires are part of the nation's "1,000-talent" initiative offering high salaries and attractive funding to overseas employees who want to work in China.

China Becomes Hydro Superpower:  As all generating units began running at Xiaowan Hydropower Station in the southwestern Yunnan province, China's capacity became the world's largest.

The new 700,000 kilowatt-unit at Xiaowan sent China's installed hydropower capacity just above 200 million kilowatts and marked the completion of the 4.2 million-kilowatt project, China's second-largest hydropower plant after the Three Gorges.

With a total investment of 40 billion yuan ($5.86 billion), Xiaowan can produce 19 billion kWh of electricity every year.

China Economy Weekly: Rail Projects, Inflation, International Trade Links

China Clears Inter-city Rail Projects: The National Development and Reform Commission on Friday approved inter-city rail transit networks covering more than 2,000 kilometres to accelerate regional integration.‬

The network runs across central China, mainly in Henan province, and is expected to link nine cities with its 496 kilometres.‬ It also includes alterations to railways across the Pearl River Delta region, with a length of 1,478 kilometres, and to metro lines in Xi'an, the capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi province.

China This Week: Deadly Mudslides, Pollution Crackdown, Nuclear Weapons Promise

China, Switzerland to Ztart Free Trade Talks: China and Switzerland agreed on Friday to start discussions on a free trade agreement, as the two states celebrate their 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties.‬

‬ Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Swiss counterpart, Doris Leuthard, witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understanding. Switzerland has become China's major trade partner in Europe, and Leuthard said the two states should boost cooperation in finance, education, culture, environmental protection, tourism, and international affairs.

China's July Inflation: China's consumer price index (CPI), one of the main gauges of inflation, rose in July to its highest level since October 2008, boosted by rising food prices after widespread floods.

The CPI was up 3.3% in July from a year earlier, 0.4% higher than the rise in June. It has now exceeded the 3-percent full-year target ceiling the government set in March. However, economists said the acceleration in CPI growth was a temporary result of the floods.

The Producer Price Index, a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, grew 4.8% year on year in July, 1.6% lower than June and 2.3% lower than May.

China's Consumer Confidence Edges Up : China's Consumer Confidence Index stood at 109 in the second quarter, up one point from the first quarter.The reading in the second quarter was the fifth consecutive quarterly rise.

China calls for more investment with ASEAN: Bilateral investment between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is low compared with trade, Yi Xiaozhun, vice minister of China's Ministry of Commerce, said Friday.

In 2009, bilateral investment between China and ASEAN nations totaled $10 billion, a sharp contrast with the $213 billion of bilateral trade, said Yi, attributing the low investment to the fragmented infrastructure within the China-ASEAN region.

Sri Lanka Co-operation China: Visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris, on his first official visit to China since taking office in April, pledged Thursday to boost economic and trade cooperation with China.

Sri Lanka appreciates China's support in constructing education and medical facilities, he said.

Sri Lanka's civil war ended in May 2009 after the the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was defeated by government troops.

Zimbabwe Seeks Economic Links in East China: Zimbabwe hopes to further its economic and trade co-operation with east China's Anhui Province, said visiting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday.

Zhang Baoshun, secretary of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, said that Anhui and Zimbabwe, which were economically complementary, had reached consensus on co-operation in agriculture, mining and infrastructure.

China Investment in Chile: China attaches great importance to economic cooperation with Chile and is committed to boosting mutual investment between the two countries, Lu Fan, the Chinese ambassador to Chile has said.

In the first half of this year, bilateral trade reached $10.9 billion, an increase of 58.9 percent compared with the same period of 2009, and Chilean exports amounted to $7.65 billion.

The Supplementary Agreement on Trade in Services of the Free Trade Agreement between China and Chile took effect on 1 August, and negotiations are underway on a supplementary agreement on investment.

Brazil Agricultural trade with China: Brazil wants to boost trade with China in agricultural products, and will export more pork to and import more fish from China in the next few years, Brazilian Agriculture Minister Wagner Rossi said Thursday.

Automobiles, Home Appliance Subsidies Spur Chinese Spending: Chinese government subsidies for purchases of automobiles and home appliances have boosted consumer spending and bolstered the national economy, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

China rolled out the subsidy policies for rural consumers last year. In the first seven months of 2010, the government paid out 9.57 billion yuan ($1.41 billion), lifting sales in rural regions to 83.82 billion yuan (about $12.5 billion), up 240% from a year ago.

China State Enterprises Grow: The assets in China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOE) reached 2.01 trillion yuan ($297.40 billion) by the end of June, up 10.71% from 2008, China's state-owned assets regulator said on Thursday.

Nearly a quarter of the SOEs have state-owned assets over 10 billion yuan each, while six have state-owned assets over 100 billion yuan.

Housing Market Regulation to Continue: Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang said Friday that the government would continue to regulate the housing market and resolutely crack down on speculative property investment.

He said the government would continue to increase the supply of affordable housing for low-income families to consolidate the effects of the regulation over the past months.

Housing prices in major Chinese cities rose 10.3% year-on-year in July, slower than the 11.4% growth in June.