China won t stop rare earth exports
THE claim that China will stop exports of rare earth is completely groundless, Ma Kai, a Chinese State councilor, said in a speech Saturday.
At the same time, we also hope that other countries with rare earth deposits can also produce rare earth to meet global demand, Ma said in Hamburg following a meeting between German and Chinese business leaders in the German city Saturday.
The world is not in shortage of rare earth resources the problem is in the supply and demand structure, said Kai. China accounts for only 36 percent of rare earth deposits, however, we contribute more than 90 percent of the world exports. Many countries also have abundant resources of rare earths but they don t explore them or export them and rely on imports.
Govt. to phase in new bank provisioning rules
CHINA will phase in planned changes to its loan-loss provisioning rules to give banks time to adapt, an official newspaper reported over the weekend.
Banks of systemic importance must meet the requirement by the end of 2012 while others must achieve it by the end of 2016, Shanghai Securities News paraphrased a source as saying.
Under the new rules, foreshadowed in local media reports in recent months, lenders will be required to set aside at least 2.5 percent of their loans as a general reserve. Currently, Chinese banks must hold provisions to cover 150 percent of non-performing loans. That ratio at the end of June was 186 percent.
Baidu to invest $1.5m in Web gaming firms
THE country s largest search engine, Baidu, will invest at least 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million) in companies involved in Web games over roughly the next six months, a senior executive said Friday.
The company also wants to double the size of its gaming department from its current 100 staff, the head of Baidu s gaming department, Wei Hongrui, said in an interview. We want a few good examples to show everyone that Baidu is capable of doing good online Web games, Wei said, adding that the company is only interested in taking a stake of at least 10 percent in the companies they invest in.
