DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “China Focus: Auto industry expected to grow faster in H2” plus 9 more

CHANGCHUN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The growth of China's auto sector will quicken in the second half of the year, according to top auto makers and experts at an auto expo in the northeastern province of Jilin.
The government may implement favorable policies to boost the market and ensure sound development after the growth rate of both auto sales and output slowed in the first half of the year, said Yu Tiantian, researcher with Jilin North Automobile Industry Information Development Co., Ltd., while attending the eighth China Changchun Automobile Expo, on Saturday.
"The government is studying new polices to boost auto consumption," Yu said.
Auto sales in the first half of the year reached 9.23 million units, up 3.25 percent year-on-year. But the growth rate was 29 percentage points lower than that of last year. The output only rose 2.48 percent to 9.16 million units during the period, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
The decrease, caused by the removal of tax incentives for car purchases, rising fuel costs, purchase limits in some cities and tight money supply, will be eased later this year, said Chen Fangming, director of Public Relations with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.
"What policy the government adopts has become a dominating factor for the ups and downs in the auto market," Chen said.
Industry heavyweights and experts attending the auto show said they were optimistic about future growth.
"Despite the drop in sales during the first half, we are still confident about the market as the government moves to adjust its policies," said Xu Yulin, vice president with the Guangzhou-based GAC Motor.
The government has introduced a slew of measures recently that are aimed to help small and middle-sized enterprises (SMEs) get finance.
"It's good news for the intermediate and senior passenger vehicle market because a considerable share of its targeted consumers are SME owners," Yu said.
Further, the government announced in June it would introduce measures to lower transportation costs by reducing relevant taxes and road tolls, Yu noted.
Meanwhile, the car purchase limit implemented in Beijing, which has led to shrinking sales in the local market, was unlikely to be adopted in any large scale way in other regions, according to the CAAM.
Jiang Jun, professor with Jilin Academy of Social Sciences, shared the view, saying that any intent to institute a similar policy in other parts of the country was unlikely to get approval.
Beijing launched a car-quota system on Jan. 1, limiting only 240,000 new cars to be registered in the city this year, compared with the 800,000 new automobiles that took to the streets in 2010.
According to Yu, the rising consumer prices, which are discouraging people from spending generally, will start to decline later this year as the country's tightening measures gradually take effect.
"Consumers will become more confident once the inflation is contained," said Yu, who expected the country's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, to peak during June and July.
According to Jiang, the country's current oil shortage will significantly be eased as the Ministry of Finance starting levying zero import tariffs on diesel oil and jet fuel starting July, following the International Energy Agency's strategic oil release, a move aiming at easing supply disruptions in Libya.
"Stable oil prices will buoy consumer confidence," Jiang said, adding that the auto exports, which are estimated to increase 50 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, will continue to expand at such a rate in the second half.
China's auto sales, predicted to grow around 6 percent this year, surged more than 32 percent year-on-year to hit 18.06 million last year, making the country the world's largest auto market for the second year in a row.

overseas trips, receptions
BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 24 of the 98 central departments have disclosed their expenses for "overseas trips, receptions, and purchase and maintenance of official vehicles" amid rising public calls for transparency of government expenditure.
Eight central departments, including the Ministries of Commerce, Supervision, Health, Transport and Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Intellectual Property Office and the Development Research Center of the State Council, or Cabinet, published Friday their 2010 expenditures and 2011 budget.
Since May, the State Council has repeatedly called on its ministries to reduce "squandering practices" and make their fiscal information public in more areas and "provide greater details," especially regarding using funds for the "three public consumptions" -- overseas travel, receptions and official cars, since excessive expenditures on the three areas have long been criticized as "sources of corruption and waste."
According to the website of the Ministry of Commerce, about 94 percent of the ministry's expenditure on the three items was spent on overseas trips, or nearly 58 million yuan (8.96 million U.S. dollars), an unusually high proportion compared to that of other departments.
"This is closely related to China's increasing status in global business landscape," said the ministry's spokesman Yao Jian.
He defended the high overseas travel expenses by saying that China ranked the first in the current global trade, compared with the 32nd three decades ago.
"China holds 50 to 60 bilateral trade meetings and several negotiations on free trade zones each year, required by the country's economic development and reform and opening up," he said.
The Ministry of Transport's expenses on official vehicles in 2010 reached 82.56 million yuan and its 2011 budget reached nearly 88.72 million yuan, the highest among the 24 departments disclosing fiscal information.
An unnamed transport ministry spokesman said that as the ministry is in charge of transport safety supervision in areas along the coasts and rivers and on islands, and each supervising agency serves a large area. Therefore, "the frequent use of vehicles and the rising fuel cost contributed greatly to the high vehicle expense."
The expense published by the National Audit Office has been praised by the public as it includes specific information on overseas trips and the cost for purchase and maintenance of specific cars, whereas most departments only give a general figure.
While more central government departments are expected to disclose expenses of the three areas next week, the public still wants more details to be included on how the money has been spent.
Ye Qing, a national lawmaker, said he hoped more central departments would publish more detailed expenses.
Last month, the top legislature approved the final account of 2010 central spending, and for the first time, it included a special section on expenses of the central government's "three public consumptions."
Ministry of Finance statistics show that the central departments and government-owned public institutions spent 9.47 billion yuan on the three items in 2010.
Many Chinese have accused the government of deliberately omitting information regarding their extravagant spending of public funds on receptions, official cars, or other personal expenses in their fiscal statement.
In mid-April, an online posting revealed that the Guangdong branch of Sinopec, a well-known state-owned petroleum refiner enterprise, spent more than 1 million yuan on expensive liquor.
China issued a regulation on government transparency in 2008, that requests administrative agencies to disclose certain information that involve citizens' interests.
Since then, information about the state's central budget and expenditures of over 70 central government departments have been made public.
In March, Premier Wen Jiabao urged the country's government agencies to reduce administrative expenses, including cutting spending on overseas business trips, reforming the system for government service cars, and cutting the number of meetings and documents.
China's crackdown on various forms of extravagant spending by officials saved the country 5.7 billion yuan last year, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

GUIYANG, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A two-day eco-forum opened Saturday in Guiyang, capital city of Guizhou Province, attracting hundreds of government officials, scholars, NGO representatives and business people from around the world.
Over the years, the forum has served as platform for exchange of information in the field of ecological civilization, said Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), in a statement to the meeting.
Jia said that the forum should continue its efforts in environmental protection and actively push forward the development of ecological civilization so as to build a resource-conserving and environmental-friendly society.
China has been promoting eco-civilization as a strategic objective for the country's future development in recent years.
This year's forum, themed "Green Changes toward Eco-Civilization, Challenges and Opportunities," is co-sponsored by the CPPCC, Peking University and Guizhou's provincial government.
The forum has been held annually in Guiyang since 2009.

GUANGZHOU, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The 23-year-old college graduate should have been preparing for her new job, but Ou Jiayang from south Guangdong Province spent the past two months doing something else.
Over the last 51 days, Ou kept asking for the publicity of a feasibility report on a 150-million-yuan renovation of the lighting apparatus along the Pearl River in two areas of Guangzhou, the provincial capital.
"Every citizen needs to be involved in the city's development," Ou said.
She submitted a request for the report in early May but got the run-around from Guangzhou Municipal Development and Reform Commission and Guangzhou urban-rural construction committee.
Yet because of Weibo, a Chinese twitter-like mircroblog, things changed.
Via Weibo, Ou asked users who were concerned about the renovation to send her a photo of their thumb in the thumbs-up position as a sign supporting Ou's demand for the disclosure of the feasibility report. So far, she's received 359 photos.
Ou's concerns were finally addressed by Hou Yongshuan, head of the  Guangzhou urban-rural construction committee.
Hou explained that the feasibility report had not been finished, but  promised that the committee would release the report after its completion. He welcomed Ou's advice and considered netizens's concerns on urban construction "progress of society."
Ou also found the meeting with hou meaningful, dubbing it as "good interaction between the government and the public." She said she would continue applying for the disclosure of the report and advocate for young people to care about public affairs and take actions beneficial for the  society.
Ou is not the only person that attracts pubic attention to public affairs through her own action.
Chen Yihua, a 16-year-old high school student from Guangzhou queried Guangzhou Metro soon after the company announced its plan to spend over 90 million yuan renovating 16 stations of line one.
He first posted his objection on Weibo and an online forum called " Metro Fan," before filing his complaint to the company. But Guangzhou Metro has not yet responded.
Undeterred and standing at the metro exit, Chen held a pasteboard to solicit signitures from local residents to support his objection to the  "standardized renovation" of line one. In three days, Chen got the signature of more than 300 residents.
His action aroused even more attention on Weibo. Thousands endorsed Chen's complaint with a flood of objections to the metro renovation project, pushing the Guangzhou Metro company to make a change. It assured the public that the company would economize the renovation and maintain each station's overall decoration.
"The response is affirming," Chen said.
The two young citizens were generally applauded throughout major web portals, popular online forums, and famous microblogs. Netizens praised  them as "growing into pillars of society" and said "well-done, youngmen."
Netizen "Adong" commented: "Young people no longer confine their horizons within daily trivialities... but are more aware of their rights and keep a watchful eye on public matters and are more direct to express their opinions."
Experts said that young people's concerns on public affairs play an unneglectable role in pushing for urban development and publicity of government information. They also regarded this as a new channle for the government to hear public voices in policy-making.
Guo Weiqing, a professor with the School of Government of Sun Yat-Sen University, said "One's opinion should be heard and understood, but might not be on the agenda, or be accepted, but the initiator's proposal will be discussed as long as he gets the public's endorsement," Guo said.
He said the young citizen's voice relies on the Internet to spread, and this generation lives with the Internet, so they can use it effectively. Guo believes it sheds a new light on absorbing public ideas for policy-making.   
Local party committees and governments of various levels should be openhearted and wide-field to accept critism and monitoring, and pool the wisdom of the people and find out the feelings of the people via the Internet, and solve problems for the people and improve work, said Wang Yang, party chief of Guangdong Province, in a recent on-line chat with local netizens.

BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Saturday welcomed the World Trade Organization ruling that the European Union (EU) is illegally taxing Chinese steel fasteners.
It is of great significance and will help Chinese enterprises enjoy better competitive conditions in the international market including the EU, said an unidentified official of the MOC Treaty and Law Department in a statement on its website.
"This is not only a victory for Chinese industry but for the WTO rules as well," the official said.
The ruling has reinforced the confidence of WTO members in the WTO rules and the multilateral trading system, the official said.
The ruling from the WTO's appellate body on Friday said the EU isn't complying with international commerce rules by imposing anti-dumping duties on the fasteners from China.
The WTO ruled the EU's single duty requirements and practices are discriminatory and violated WTO rules.   
It said the EU isn't calculating them fairly as it takes China as a single exporter, instead of treating the companies individually.
For a long time, the EU has been requiring Chinese exporters to prove they meet with the "single duty" requirements in responding to anti-dumping cases.
The EU imposed anti-dumping duties of 26.5 to 85 percent on fasteners from China for five years in January 2009.
China is the world's biggest producer of screws, nuts, bolts and washers, while the EU is its major market.
The WTO set up an expert panel on Oct. 23, 2009 after China initiated the WTO case on July 31, 2009, saying anti-dumping measures taken by the EU against the import of Chinese steel fasteners violated WTO trade rules.
The WTO ruled on Dec. 3 last year that the EU anti-dumping duties are discriminatory and violate global commerce rules.
The EU appealed on March 25 this year. China appealed further on March 30 on the remaining problems that did not win support from the expert panel.

BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Report on the quality of air in 47 major Chinese cities (12:00 July 15 to 12:00 July 16, Beijing Time), released by the China Environmental Monitoring Center:

City         Major Pollutant                  Air Quality Level
Beijing      particulate matter                        II
Tianjin      particulate matter                        II
Shijiazhuang particulate matter                        II
Qinhuangdao  particulate matter                        II
Taiyuan      particulate matter                        II
Hohhot       ------------------                        I
Shenyang     particulate matter                        II
Dalian       particulate matter                        II
Changchun    particulate matter                        II
Harbin       particulate matter                        II
Shanghai     ------------------                        I
Nanjing      particulate matter                        II
Suzhou       particulate matter                        II
Nantong      particulate matter                        II
Lianyungang  particulate matter                        II
Hangzhou     particulate matter                        II
Ningbo       ------------------                        I
Wenzhou      ------------------                        I
Hefei        particulate matter                        II
Fuzhou       ------------------                        I
Xiamen       ------------------                        I
Nanchang     sulfur dioxide                            II
Jinan        particulate matter                        II
Qingdao      ------------------                        I
Yantai       particulate matter                        II
Zhengzhou    ------------------                        I
Wuhan        particulate matter                        II
Changsha     particulate matter                        II
Guangzhou    ------------------                        I
Shenzhen     ------------------                        I
Zhuhai       ------------------                        I
Shantou      ------------------                        I
Zhanjiang    ------------------                        I
Nanning      particulate matter                        II
Guilin       particulate matter                        II
Beihai       ------------------                        I
Haikou       ------------------                        I
Chongqing    particulate matter                        II
Chengdu      particulate matter                        II
Guiyang      particulate matter                        II
Kunming      particulate matter                        II
Lhasa        ------------------                        I
Xi'an        particulate matter                        II
Lanzhou      particulate matter                        II
Xining       particulate matter                        II
Yinchuan     particulate matter                        II
Urumqi       ------------------                        I

The center classifies air quality in China's urban areas into five levels: level I or excellent (pollution reading: not exceeding 50), level II or fairly good (pollution reading: 51 to 100), level III or slightly polluted (pollution reading: 101 to 200), level IV or poor (pollution reading: 201 to 300), and level V or hazardous (pollution reading: over 301).
The 47 cities monitored by the center include the four municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing, provincial (or autonomous regional) capitals, and major cities in economically developed coastal areas, and tourist attractions.

KUNMING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- More than 800 people and 300-odd motor vehicles are stranded in a highway in southwest China's Yunnan Province after the road was partly covered by a landslide Saturday morning, according to local police.
No casualties are reported.
The mudslide occurred at around 10:00 a.m. Saturday in Fugong County of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture. Mud and rocks from the snow-cladded Biluo Mountain rushed to the Wagong Highway, the only highway leading to Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County of the Prefecture, and covered a  more-than-100-meter-long section of the road.
Rescue work is under way.

BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The ship carrying China's deep-diving submersible Jiaolong reached the northwestern Pacific Ocean 2 p.m. Saturday (Beijing time) where the submerisble will make a 5,000-meter dive.
The submersible is the world's first manned submersible designed to reach depths of 7,000 meters below sea level, according to Xu Qinan, the submersible's chief designer.
During the dive, the submersible will undergo several operational tests in which it will take photos, shoot video, survey seabeds and take samples from the ocean floor, according to Jin Jiancai, deputy director of the submersible's diving test program team.

LANZHOU, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of a vehicle damage accident after a rainstorm-triggered mudslide Friday night in northwest China's Gansu Province has risen to 13, local police said Saturday afternoon.
Another six people were injured and still hospitalized.
The accident occurred at around 10:00 p.m. Friday, when a landslide caused by torrential rain struck a highway in Qin'an County of Tianshui City. A medium-sized bus and a truck were damaged in the mudslide, leaving five people dead at the scene, two more dead en route to hospital and another 11 injured.
Six more people died later in hospital after emergent medical treatment failed.
Of all the 13 dead, eleven people were from the bus, and the rest two from the truck.
Direct cause of the vehicle damage is being investigated.

GUANGZHOU, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Five more people have received jail terms ranging from a year and a half to five years and eight months over last month's unrest in a city in south China's Guangdong Province, local court sources said Saturday.
The People's Court of Zengcheng City handed down the jail terms on Thursday.
Local police said last week altogether 11 suspects involved in the unrest were charged. Six people received jail terms ranging from nine months to three and a half years on Monday.
On Thursday, Lin Yongfa and Zhang Jie were convicted on the charges of creating disturbances and intentionally injuring.
Li Jianming and Peng Laiping were convicted on the charge of creating disturbances.
Chen Mengling was convicted on the charge of inciting violent defiance against the law.
According to the court, Li Jianming, Zhang Jie, Peng Laiping and Lin Yongfa threw stones at and smashed vehicles on a main highway in Xintang Town of Zengcheng on the night of June 11.
One day later, Lin Yongfa, Zhang Jie and Peng Laiping got together again to stir up disturbances in a road of Xintang, and Lin threw stones and bricks at passing-by vehicles. Serious chaos were created at the scene.
On June 10, a pregnant migrant woman and her husband from the southwestern Sichuan Province were involved in a dispute with a security personnel surnamed Lu.
Lu asked the couple to move their stall in front of a supermarket in Dadun Village of Xintang.
Irritated by the row, more than 100 migrant workers gathered in front of the supermarket for two days. Some of them hurled bottles and bricks at government officials and police vehicles.
They later marched toward the nearby Dadun public security station, damaging several police vehicles and private cars with rocks on their way.
Su Zhijia, deputy secretary of Guangzhou City Committee of the CPC, said the incident was triggered by mounting anger among migrant workers.
Su said public services for migrant workers needed to be improved to avoid further unrest.
Several officials, including the secretary of Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee of Xintang, where the unrest occurred, and the town chief, had also been removed from their posts.