CRE eyes dominance with supermarket bid

If China Resources Enterprise is successful in a bid for ParknShop, billionaire Li Ka-shing's supermarket chain in Hong Kong, it will help CRE dominate the market and update its retail unit, experts say.

Flash PMI data point to growth

Activity in China's vast manufacturing sector hit a six-month high in September as new orders rebounded, a non-official survey showed on Sept 22, adding to signs of stabilization in the world's second-largest economy.

Little-known vehicle with a big name

Everybody has heard of the Great Wall, but few outside China know of the products it lends its name to.

A bright light in the euro gloom

Crisis and opportunity often run in tandem. A new report shows that Chinese investments in Europe grew dramatically in 2011-12, despite the continent continuing to suffer a downturn in that period.

Up, up and Huawei

After the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei opened an exhibition center near Amsterdam recently, Eberhard van der Laan, the city's mayor, sang the companies praises to business leaders in a speech.

Expats head to greener pastures

As foreign companies search for new markets in China's tier-two and tier-three cities, more expat senior managers are being asked to leave the bright lights of Beijing and Shanghai to work in places they are not fully familiar with.

Top jobs getting difficult to fill

China will experience a severe managerial shortage in the world in the second half of 2013, continuing a five-year trend, according to a survey of executive search consultants.

In go-ahead Guiyang, it all figures

These days it is the kind of growth target that most countries, including China, would think of as impossibly ambitious - 14 percent. But that is what Guizhou province, in Southwest China, is projecting for its GDP growth this year, the highest in the country. Lest anyone think the aim is outlandish, the province can happily report that its GDP grew 12.5 percent in the first half of the year, 4.9 percentage points higher than the national average for the period.

Topography and poverty no match for willpower

Big domestic companies, banks and multinationals are rarely tempted to take a plunge into China's southwestern hinterland because of a lack of modern infrastructure, human resources and services.

Quotable

"The gap between Chinese products' technical parameters and international standards still exists. Blind investment in production capability without proper forecasting mechanisms only leads to overcapacity."

IN BRIEF (Page 18)

As Africa ascends, lift business booms

Shenyang Brilliant Elevator Co Ltd is looking to Africa to gain more growth as it strives to catch up with better-established rivals in the continent.