Monthly Archives: July 2008

As part of its on-going commitment to support the practice of sustainable design and green building in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries, Autodesk announced two acquisitions to improve building performance analysis in the building information modeling (BIM) process. Autodesk has acquired substantially all the assets related to the Ecotect software tools for conceptual building performance analysis from both Square One Research Ltd. and Dr. Andrew Marsh. Autodesk also announced that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Green Building Studio, Inc., a provider of web-based whole building energy, water and carbon-emission analysis software [...]

The scale of China’s software industry has reached 583.4 billion yuan, ranking fourth in the world, as learned at the recently held 12th China International Software Expo in Beijing. The software industry, the core of the information industry, advanced manufacturing and modern services, has now become a basic, pilot and strategic industry for China…

Urban Chinese saw their disposable income expand 3.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008, the lowest increase for the same period since 1997. The per-capita disposable income of the country’s urban households rose 11.5 percent year on year in the first three months to 4,386 yuan (about US$ 626.6). However, after counting in inflation, the growth slowed to 3.4 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on recently…

Twenty-five years after China opened up to the west the Chinese are paying a price. Rapid social and economic change is transforming China, with enormous implications for its population and economy. Today the country has the fastest-growing obesity rate in the world and more than a fifth of China’s adult population is overweight, related to changing dietary and physical activity patterns. Overweight and poor diets are becoming a greater burden for the poor than for the rich, with subsequent large increases in hypertension, stroke, and adult-onset diabetes. The related economic costs represent 4–8 percent of the economy.

Autodesk announced recently that it will be working with the city of Salzburg, Austria, as the first pilot city in Autodesk’s new Digital Cities initiative. The Digital City initiative is Autodesk’s technology designed to provide a collaborative environment for visualizing, analyzing, and simulating the future impact of urban design and development at a citywide scale…

More citizens of China’s eastern metropolis of Shanghai were not satisfied with their salaries and may postpone buying houses or cars, a survey shows. The income index for the second quarter of this year set a record low of 114.8 points, 3.8 points lower than that of the first quarter and 7.5 points lower than the last quarter of 2007, according to the survey on consumption confidence conducted by Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE)…

Researchers are concerned that obesity may become a bigger problem among children in Shanghai after completing a study that found kids here have almost the same average height and weight as those in the United States, Shanghai News Times reported. The research team, under the leadership of Jiang Yifang, dean of children nutrition at the Children Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, found that boys aged 10 to 15 were slightly taller and heavier on average than those in the US…

India, China, and Brazil saw bigger growth in the millionaire population last year than anywhere else, and wealth in the Asia-Pacific is expected to grow nearly 8 percent a year to 2012 despite a slowdown in the world at large, a survey showed. The number of millionaires in the Asia-Pacific grew 8.7 percent from a year ago to 2.8 million people and their combined wealth soared 12.5 percent to $9.5 trillion US dollars, excluding the value of their homes and consumables, Merrill Lynch and Capgemini said at a news conference in Singapore recently…