Golf course construction in China is going full tilt from the rain forests of Hainan to the Stone Forest in Kunming, but greens fees are not the driving force. The catalyst is the residential real estate that surrounds the courses. Owners splash out on flashy facilities and courses designed by the biggest names in golf. "That ramps up the real estate value," explains American course designer Brian Curley.
Hence, David Chu has plenty of competition. Scattered around Shenzhen are scores of courses. Every big city across China has a dozen; small towns, beaches, even nature resorts are now seeking a slice of the action. Design firms find themselves fully booked. "For the past five years 80% of the work and 90% of our income comes from China," notes Neil Haworth, who heads the Singapore office of golf-course designer Nelson & Haworth.
China's passenger car sales in August increased 59.26 percent from one year earlier to 977,300 units, the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATRC) said Wednesday.
The growth rate was 43.83 percentage points higher compared with that in July, the Tianjin-based CATRC said. China's auto sales, including those of passenger cars and commercial vehicles such as vans, lorries and tractors, totaled 9.46 million units in the first eight months of this year, up 31.53 percent year on year, it said.
Read more: China's passenger car sales increase 59.26% in Aug
China Huarong Asset Management Corporation (Huarong), one of China's four state-owned asset management firms, said Friday it has signed a cooperation agreement with Taiwan-listed SinoPac Financial Holdings Co. to jointly develop financial products and business models.
Under the agreement, the two companies will cooperate in business information, talent exchange, and development of new products and business models, Huarong said in a statement.
Huarong president Lai Xiaomin said the cooperation will promote cross-Strait economic exchange.
The Chinese mainland and Taiwan in June signed a landmark economic pact, the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a systematic mechanism to enhance cross-Strait economic cooperation.
China's top 500 enterprises reported smaller revenue gaps with their U.S. counterparts, while outperforming their worldwide competitors in profitability amid the nation's rapid economic recovery, an industrial ranking report showed Saturday.
China's top 500 enterprises chalked up 4.05 trillion U.S. dollars in operating revenues last year, equivalent to about 18 percent of the operating revenue total created by the world's top 500 companies in the same year, and the ratio was 2.62 percentage points lower than the figure recorded for the year earlier, according to a report released Saturday in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, by the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) and China Enterprise Directors Association.
Read more: China's top 500 enterprises catching up with world's largest businesses
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Thursday it would urge industrial enterprises to produce high-quality products as part of the effort to enhance the image of "made in China."
The Ministry would also draw up a blacklist displaying the names of those firms breaching quality-related regulations, said Li Yizhong, Minister of the MIIT.
The MIIT would reward those companies that have good records for producing quality products with increased policy and funding support, and punish those with poor quality-control records, said Li at a forum held in Beijing which focused on how to improve the quality and reputation of Chinese industrial products.
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