BizChina

The booming Chinese economy won't have to sweat much to meet its official target of 8% growth this year, and might surpass it.

A report published by brokerage CLSA on Monday showed that China's purchasing managers' index (PMI) hit a twelve-month high in July. Eric Fishwick, head of economic research for CLSA, said, "manufacturing activity continues to accelerate and, importantly, orders growth is being driven by the domestic economy. This is a positive as Chinese exports are now underperforming those of the north Asian NIEs supporting the panel's description of export demand as "lacklustre." Output and input prices rose for the first time in 11 months. CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets is Asia's leading independent brokerage and investment group.

More new production orders from local and overseas buyers helped China's manufacturing sector expand for the fifth straight month in July, according to the official survey released Saturday. China's purchasing managers' index increased to 53.3 in July, up from 53.2 in June, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing announced Saturday. The survey, conducted on the behalf of the National Bureau of Statistics, covers purchasing and supply managers in more than 700 firms across China.

With prospects of further interest rate cuts on the anvil, investors seem to be shunning bonds in favor of equities and commodities, according to experts.

Adding more credibility to the view has been the nearly 70-percent rise in the A-share market since the beginning of the year and the anticipation of an ensuing inflation activated commodities trading.

Former pesticide salesman Chen Qiyuan, 47, and wife, 43, joined China’s new rich on Friday with a net worth of $885 million after they listed their shampoo company, BaWang, and sold part of it to investors in Hong Kong’s most popular public offering this year.

Oversubscribed 446 times, BaWang set its listing price at the top of its indicative range, tapping a total of 1.7 billion Hong Kong dollars ($214 million) for the share floatation. Chen and his spouse still own three quarters of the cosmetics company. On its first day of trading BaWang, which was the most searched item on search engine Yahoo in Hong Kong that day, soared 32.4% to as high as 3.15 Hong Kong dollars (40 cents) before closing 27% higher at 3.03 Hong Kong dollars (39 cents). The herbal shampoo maker, bubbled another 7.3% to 3.25 Hong Kong dollars (42cents) on Monday.

The ChinaBio(R) Partnering Forum, held in Shanghai, was by all measures an unqualified success. Co-produced by ChinaBio(R) LLC and EBD Group, the ChinaBio(R) Partnering Forum was the first biotech/pharma partnering conference held in China, attracting 486 attendees from 274 companies and 29 countries.

Greg Scott, President and Founder of ChinaBio LLC, and Carola Schropp, President and Founder of EBD Group, confirmed that the event significantly exceeded the original projections of 300 attendees. "Interest was high from both sides of the biopharma industry," said Scott, "with the global pharma looking for new drug candidates and development platforms in China, and China's biotech companies and researchers seeking partnerships to develop some highly interesting novel technologies created in China."

"Most of the global pharmaceutical companies attended the event, including Bayer, AstraZeneca, Merck, Roche, and Pfizer, and all of them were actively seeking partnerships," said Carola Schropp, President of EBD Group.

"More than 570 one-to-one meetings were scheduled during the Partnering Forum, which is a very strong number for a first time event," added Schropp, whose firm has helped to generate over 24,000 one-to-one meetings over the past year through some of the largest and most productive partnering events for the life science industry such as BIO-Europe, BIO-Europe Spring(R) and BioPharm America(TM).

Creating cross-border partnerships was the primary theme of the ChinaBio Partnering Forum, which took advantage of EBD Group's web-based partneringONE(TM) system to facilitate one-to-one meetings between attendees at the event. EBD Group pioneered automated partnering, and the attendees, many of them first time users of partneringONE, reported that the system was easy to use and very effective at identifying potential partners they wished to meet.

"We had over 20 meetings during the ChinaBio Partnering Forum," said Yuwen Liu, General Manager of BioBay in Suzhou, which is the fastest growing life science park in China. "We have attended other major partnering events in the U.S., and the ChinaBio Partnering Forum was very well organized and the attendees were of very high caliber. We met several companies we expect to collaborate with in the near future."

The ChinaBio Partnering Forum was the seventh event organized by ChinaBio LLC in China and the first event EBD Group held in Asia. Scott said, "We felt that bringing together our credibility with China biopharma with EBD Group's expertise in global life science partnering would result in a highly successful event, and that's exactly what happened."

Next year's ChinaBio Partnering Forum is scheduled to be held in Suzhou at the new Cold Spring Harbor Conference Center on June 23-24, 2010. EBD Group and ChinaBio LLC are also organizing several other joint events, the next being ChinaBio(R) Day on September 15, 2009, which is a pre-conference to EBD Group's BioPharm America(TM) in San Francisco.

About ChinaBio(R) LLC

Since its founding in January, 2007, ChinaBio LLC has rapidly launched a number of successful initiatives connecting China biotech with the world. With offices in Shanghai, Silicon Valley and San Diego, ChinaBio's activities include:

-- Conferences: Organizer of the premier life science investment and partnering forums in China, which have helped early stage China companies raise over USD 100 million to date.

-- Consulting: Helping global life science companies, entrepreneurs and investors understand the China life science market, create a China strategy, and identify novel technologies and partners.

-- Information: Developing in-depth market intelligence and databases on novel technology development, clinical trials, and investment and partnering activity in China.

-- ChinaBio(R) Today: Publishing online and email newsletters focusing exclusively on China's life science industry.

For more information please visit www.chinabiollc.com.

About EBD Group

EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global life science industry. Since 1993, biotech, pharma and medical device companies have leveraged EBD Group's partnering conferences, technology and services to identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships essential to their success.

EBD Group's conferences are run with the support of leading corporations and international trade associations and include:

-- BIO-Europe and BIO-Europe Spring(R), the world's largest stand-alone life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)

-- BioPharm America(TM), EBD Group's North American partnering event

-- EuroMedtech(TM), EBD Group's new partnering event for the innovative medical technology industry

-- BioEquity Europe, the investor conference co-organized with BioCentury Publications and BIO*

-- ChinaBio(R) Partnering Forum, the first dedicated biotech/pharma partnering conference in China co-produced with ChinaBio LLC.

EBD Group's sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE(TM), is used as the partnering engine at numerous third-party events around the world. Outside of the conference format, EBD Group's consultants provide hands-on assistance for firms seeking to in- or out-license products and technologies.

EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.