What does the Third Plenum mean for China’s growth? November 21, 2013 Last week, China's much-anticipated Third Plenum published a raft of policy reforms. Most notably, plans to loosen China's one child policy, abolish its notorious labour camps, encourage more private investment in state-owned enterprises, push through more rural land reforms, and advance more financial reform by liberalising interest rates and capital accounts. Although the reform package [...]
IHG to recruit 110,000 new staff in China November 19, 2013 INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group is to step up its presence in China by recruiting over 110,000 employees in the country over the next two years and doubling the number of hotels. Speaking ahead of an investor meeting yesterday chief executive Richard Solomons said the group was focusing its efforts on 10 key markets led by China [...]
London Report: Aberdeen Asset Management buy lifts FTSE November 18, 2013 BRITAIN’S top equity index rose slightly yesterday, lifted by a rally in Aberdeen Asset Management and ambitious economic reform plans in China, a key export market for some UK blue chips. Shares in Aberdeen jumped 14.7 per cent, the biggest daily gain in five years, after it bought SWIP, Lloyds Banking Group’s fund management arm, [...]
Don’t write off India: 2014 vote holds promise for the untapped Asian giant November 18, 2013 I AM just back from my latest trip to the sub-continent, having spent a week talking to the Indian political elite about their coming election for the Lok Sabha, India’s parliament, which is likely to be held in May 2014. While the Chinese Communist Party’s just-concluded plenum has rightfully overshadowed all else in Asian politics, [...]
China’s bold reform plan won’t halt growth slide November 18, 2013 Reform of state-owned enterprises may boost productivity but politicised decisions will continue Euphoria over the reform agenda released by China’s Communist Party on Friday helped push global shares to a six-year high yesterday. Chinese stocks listed offshore rose by 6 per cent, their best trading day in two years, while domestic shares increased by 2.9 [...]
Germany’s Dax hits new record high as Chinese reforms lift global markets November 18, 2013 Germany's Dax just hit a fresh high of 9228.16, hours after world markets reached their highest levels since Janaury 2008. The positive sentiment in markets comes after the Chinese government announced its Third Plenum reforms. Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital says that traders have "welcomed reform plans", and are "enthused that the country’s [...]
The Long View: UK leadership of the international space race isn’t entirely out-of-this-world November 14, 2013 WHO SAYS the sky has to be the limit? Britain’s space industry has ambitions to become a global leader. The sector’s new growth plan, announced this week, includes establishing a British spaceport within five years. It wants our 6.5 per cent share of the global space market in 2010 to be 8 per cent by [...]
Bitcoin reaches all-time high of $402 November 13, 2013 Virtual currency Bitcoin has climbed to an all-time high of $402 (£252) on the Mt. Gox exchange. Much of the recent surge has been attributed to Chinese demand where BTC China, the leading Chinese Bitcoin exchange, surpassed Japan-based Mt. Gox. On Tuesday Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (pictured), who famously sued Mark Zuckerberg over the origins [...]
General Motors moves Asian headquarters to Singapore November 13, 2013 General Motors (GM) has announced it it will be moving its international headquarters from Shanghai to Singapore in 2014. The move comes in the wake of of the company's decision to separate its Chinese operations from its international business. Singapore proved an attractive prospect, owing to its proximity to markets outside China. The city-state boasts [...]
Chinese bank issues the UK’s first-ever renminbi bonds in London November 12, 2013 CHINA’S first offshore debt sale in the UK went ahead yesterday, with the government-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) issuing bonds to the value of 2bn renminbi (£206.3m). The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Standard Chartered and JP Morgan managed the sale of the bank’s debt securities. An RBS spokesperson told City A.M. [...]