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China Economics

Investing in China: Shanghai to launch plan to use yuan for foreign trading

Shanghai is set to be among the first to implement a pilot program to settle overseas trade using the Chinese RMB yuan to consolidate its international financial hub position, the Shanghai Financial Services Office said recently. Using the yuan as a settlement currency for international trade is a step forward to internationalizing the currency and will also boost Shanghai as an international financial hub. The city is a magnet for overseas financial players, home to the China headquarters of giants such as HSBC and Citigroup. The city also holds the mainland’s bigger stock market, biggest futures market, gold, currency and interbank markets…

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: In a Tidal Shift, Chinese Spending More Overseas

Money is moving in a new direction in China — out: Some Chinese are so eager to turn their yuan into other assets that when an online real estate brokerage organized a tour of foreclosure auctions in the United States, it received so many applications that it had to turn away nearly 400 people. In Shanghai, cash-rich Chinese companies are buying high-yield bonds issued by distressed American companies at a time when most investors are steering clear of bonds even from solid companies […]

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Design Economics Innovation

Clint Edmonson’s “Organizational Politics: A Survival Guide”

You’re smart. You deliver. What else could your company want from you? Why don’t they come to you for the big decisions? Why won’t they listen to your proposals? It seems like everyone has an agenda and they’re doing everything they can to kill your great ideas. To be effective leader we must bring more than our academic pedigrees to a organization. In this presentation, Clint Edmonson attempts to explain the complex nature of organizational politics and how to survive in a dynamic and often chaotic environment.

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Design Economics Information Technology Innovation Software Trend Watching

Designing Infrastructure: market drivers affecting the utility industry

Autodesk Technical Evangelist Pete Southwood, Senior Industry Manager for Utilities and Telecommunications Alan Saunders, and Utilities Industry Marketing Manager Doug Laslo discuss the market drivers affecting the utility industry over the next few years, industry pain points, and how Autodesk solutions address these issues. Listen to the podcast, from Autodesk Geospatial Resource Center

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China Economics

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: Shanghai to speed infrastructure investment, boost job rolls

Shanghai needs to push investment in infrastructure, expand domestic consumption and aid threatened enterprises as it strives to help its citizens and businesses survive the global economic downturn, Mayor Han Zheng said recently […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: Imported luxury cars to face possible consumption tax rise

Gas-guzzling imported luxury cars with heavy emissions are to face a possible car consumption tax rise in China, industry insiders predict. The Chinese State Council — China’s Cabinet — held an executive meeting earlier this year noting the significance of energy savings and made a special call on the country’s auto industry to cut back on gas consumption […]

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China Economics

Living in China: Shanghai has age-old problem

About a third of Shanghai’s population with local residency would be aged 60 or above in 2020, while families in the city were getting smaller and with fewer children, the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission said recently. Shanghai is China’s most populous city, with 18.58 million residents in 2007. There were 6.6 million migrants in the city, including the 4.99 million staying in the city for more than six months…

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: auto prices to fall in Q4/2008 on slowing demand

Auto prices in China were expected to fall in the fourth quarter led by slowing demand, the price monitoring center under the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a report on recently. Prices fell 2.09 percent in the first nine months due to excessive output and oversupply of new models in the second and third quarters, it said…

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China Economics

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: 4 billion US dollars invested in transportation

China’s National Development and Reform Commission stated that out of the 100 billion yuan (over 15 billion US dollars) of newly-added central government investment, 28 billion yuan (4 billion US dollars) has been designated for the construction of major transportation infrastructure, just less than the amount of investment for people’s livelihoods…

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China Economics

China, Technology, Innovation and the Environment: Carbon Emissions Research

In view of the recent research publication from the China Energy Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the China Green Building blog discusses the embodied and operational carbon emissions in China’s buildings: China’s buildings officially account for 19% of China’s total energy consumption but according to various Chinese academics, buildings probably account for more like 23%. This is expected to rise to 30% by 2010, broadly in line with the US…