By Vivian Ni
Jun. 30 – While estimations on the scale of China’s local government debt vary based on different official statistical sources, China’s National Audit Office (NAO) has finally confirmed how massive the local debt is to the Chinese public recently. According to the NAO report, China’s local government debt stacked up to RMB10.7 trillion by the end of last year, generating concerns over Chinese banks’ financial conditions and drawing the central government into a dilemma where efforts to combat inflation could be limited.
Addressing the 21st meeting of the 11th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on June 27, NAO Auditor General Liu Jiayi said 90.05 percent of prefecture-level governments and 86.54 percent of county-level governments in China are indebted, owing a total of RMB10.7 trillion by the end of 2010, accounting for over a quarter of the GDP of the year. The NAO released these figures based on its auditing work on 1,873,683 sums of debts borrowed by 25,590 governmental arms, 6,576 financing vehicles, 54,061 other kinds of borrowers, and 373,805 projects across the country. Continue reading
Jun. 29 – India will overtake China as the world’s most populous nation by 2025 and the combined populations of the two countries will reach nearly 3 billion by 2050, according to projections released by the U.S. Census Bureau earlier this week.
Jun. 28 – Asia’s largest low-cost airline, the Malaysian-based AirAsia Berhad is looking to develop more routes to India and China, seeing the opportunities generated from the increasing demand from those fast-growing countries. Its expansion plan in India may bring more competition to IndiGo, India’s domestic airline that operates under a similar low-cost model and currently boasts routes to 25 destinations in the country.
Jun. 27 – Sharp-eyed viewers of CCTV may have noticed the recent adverts promoting the port of Dandong on China’s border with North Korea as a new northeastern gateway to global markets. That campaign goes hand-in-hand with the recent decision to set up a free trade zone on North Korea’s Hwanggumpyong Island, an undeveloped island adjacent to Dandong, where a tax-free zone of 11 square kilometers will be set up. China has reportedly signed a 50 year lease agreement to develop the island.
Jun. 24 – An eight-member Indian military delegation began a six-day visit to China on June 19, marking the resumption of the two countries’ military exchanges which were suspended for almost a year due to a visa dispute.