Innholdsfortegnelse for January 28, 2016 i Beijing Review

As a multilateral financial institution proposed by China, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), inaugurated in Beijing on January 16, represents an important contribution the country has made to the development of the world. Its inauguration also indicates that China is playing an increasingly prominent role in international governance. The AIIB will bring benefits on three fronts: First, it will fund infrastructure con-struction to improve connectivity in Asia in order to promote regional social and economic development. Weak infrastruc-ture has always been a drag on economic growth in Asia. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that from 2015 to 2020, developing countries in Asia will need an investment of $730 billion for infrastructure construction every year. Nevertheless, previously established mul-tilateral development banks including the ADB invest no more than $20…

Comments to yushujun@bjreview.com The inauguration of the AIIB on January 16 marks a breakthrough for global financial governance, which has had its structure overhauled since the world’s financial crisis of 2008. Nonetheless, in order to improve, the global economic and financial order is now fac-ing a new set of challenges including additional changes and readjustments. The AIIB’s goal is to build an inclusive, open and transparent financial institution. Its purpose, functions, membership composition, allocation of capital stock, organizational structure and governance framework are all in conformity with operational standards of current multilat-eral development banks. For a long time, the G7 has been at the center of the global governance, which features a leadership role of developed countries and an economic system spearheaded by the U.S. dollar’s hegemony. In the fields…

• Value-added output of industrial enterprises above a designated size—principal business revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($3.04 million) a year—grew 6.1 percent. • Fixed assets investment totaled 55.16 trillion yuan ($8.38 trillion), up 12 percent.* Investment in the property sector reached 9.6 trillion yuan ($1.46 trillion), up 2.8 per-cent.* • Retail sales of consumer goods totaled 30.09 trillion yuan ($4.57 trillion), up 10.6 percent.* Online retail sales amounted to 3.88 trillion yuan ($589.76 billion), up 33.3 percent. • Foreign trade decreased 7 percent to 24.58 trillion yuan ($3.74 trillion). Exports decreased 1.8 percent to 14.14 trillion yuan ($2.15 tril-lion), while imports dropped 13.2 percent to 10.45 trillion yuan ($1.59 trillion). • Non-financial foreign direct investment stood at 781.35 billion yuan ($126.27 billion), up 6.4 percent. • China’s non-financial…

Chinese President Xi Jinping (front left), accompanied by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (front right), visits the historic Murabba’ Palace in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, on January 20. The Chinese president started the 2016 diplomatic year with a state visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran on January 19-23. During his two-day trip in Saudi Arabia, the first by a Chinese head of state to the kingdom in seven years, Xi witnessed an upgrade of China-Saudi Arabia relations—the two governments have agreed to form com-prehensive strategic partnership—and deepened energy cooperation between the two countries.…

Membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is open to members of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as the Asian Development Bank. The Board of Governors of the bank is responsible for decisions on new members. Regional members are those located within areas classified as Asia and Oceania by the UN, except as otherwise decided by the Board of Governors. Fifty-seven prospective founding mem-bers (PFMs) are listed in Schedule A of the AIIB’s Articles of Agreement (AOA): Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia,…

What is the composition of the Board of Governors? Each member of the AIIB will appoint a gover-nor to represent it on the Board of Governors, which is vested with all of the AIIB’s powers. The board meets annually, and can delegate any of its powers to the Board of Directors except for certain reserved powers. What is the composition of the Board of Directors? The AIIB will have 12 directors on its Board of Directors: nine elected by regional members and three elected by non-regional members. Each director will have an alternate director, and directors elected by more than a specified number of members may appoint an additional alternate director. The Board of Directors will be responsible for the direction of the AIIB’s gener-al operations and, for this purpose,…

Comments to yanwei@bjreview.com Any assumption that China has somehow expanded its maritime claims because it now feels more powerful is not borne out by the facts China’s recent activities on its ocean frontier have given rise to a fear that it’s seeking to expand its power at the expense of others now that it has a more powerful navy. The essence of this idea is that China’s activities are expansionist and more aggressive compared with 20 or 30 years ago because it has a new urge for more territory or because it wants to throw its newfound weight around in maritime areas to rewrite regional order. Another interpretation is possible, more in con-formity with the facts, and less sinister. China’s ocean frontier has, for the most part, never been settled…

MIGRANT WORKER TAKES ON NEW ROLE Ju Xiaolin, a rail technician holding a senior high school diploma, was elected vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) on January 17. Ju, 53, is the first migrant worker to hold such a high post, which reflects the ACFTU’s push to better represent the interests of ordinary workers. Ju said after his election that he was “very surprised” and “hon-ored.” “I will continue to help protect the interests and rights of migrant workers,” he said at the ACFTU headquarters in Beijing. Ju, who will serve his new post on a part-time basis, works with the China CREC Railway Electrification Bureau Group. A native of Qishan County, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, he has been involved in the construction of a number…

January 16-18, 2016: The AIIB’s inaugura-tion ceremony and inaugural meetings of the bank’s Board of Governors and Board of Directors were held in Beijing. December 25, 2015: The AIIB was formally established in Beijing after its Articles of Agreement (AOA) came into effect. November 4, 2015: The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, ratified the AIIB’s AOA. November 3-4, 2015: The eighth Chief Negotiators Meeting (CNM) on the es-tablishment of the AIIB was convened in Jakarta, Indonesia, where attendees dis-cussed the draft AIIB 2016 Business Plan and Budget, the draft Public Information Interim Policy, the draft Environmental and Social Framework, and preparations for establishing the bank. The CNM was established by the bank’s prospective founding members (PFMs) as the forum to negotiate and agree on the…

Comments to yulintao@bjreview.com When it erupted five years ago, the Arab Spring was expected to bring about massive changes to the political, social and economic systems in the Arab world. However, after series of violent protests, years of civil conflicts and regime changes, the social situation in the region has for the most part not yet improved. What is more, as a result of the power vacuum, extremist and terrorist forces—the rapid rise of the so-called “Islamic State” group (ISIS) in par-ticular—have taken hold. The “Arab Spring” has since been dubbed by some scholars as the “Arab Winter.” Nevertheless, while the Middle East often gets caught in bouts of chaos, there is sup-port for regional economic cooperation among some countries, and a consensus that the situation must improve. The Silk…

The result of the Taiwan’s leadership election has aroused concerns about the devel-opment of the relationship between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan and doubts about the mainland’s policies concerning affairs across the Taiwan Straits in the past eight years. The first thing that should be noted is that it is a result influenced by multiple and complex factors, among which the island’s economy, people’s livelihoods and the men-tality of the young were the most decisive. Despite well-acknowledged achieve-ments made in improving cross-Straits relations, Taiwan under the rule of Kuomintang (KMT) in the past eight years has suffered an economic downturn, a grow-ing wealth gap, unsatisfactory improvement in livelihoods and a sense of deprivation among the younger generation. As a result, voters pinned their hope on someone new and a new…

According to NBS Commissioner Wang Baoan, the measures adopted by China’s new leadership to stabilize economic growth have produced five main results: These measures have coordinated the stabilizing of growth with economic restruc-turing. The market has been allowed to play a decisive role in resource allocation. In addition, innovative macro-control measures such as targeted controls over economic sectors in need of adjustment have been adopted. The measures have promoted innova-tion as a major growth driver. The fostering of mass entrepreneurship and innovation has also contributed much to the stability of employment, as well as helped to optimize the industrial structure and promote the de-velopment of new economy. In 2015, roughly 12,000 companies got registered every day on average. The measures have facilitated coor-dinated regional development. In terms of investment growth,…

Entering the first year of the 13th Five- Year Plan (2016-20) period, the Central Government has laid a focus on pushing forward supply-side structural reform, promot-ing new breakthroughs in green development and speeding up the expansion of green fi-nance. In other words, bolstering green finance gives a push to green development, which is an effective component of the supply-side reform. Therefore, financial institutions should grasp the opportunity. Green finance, or carbon finance, serves financial institutional arrangements and trading activities targeted at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and has evolved into a major financial measure taken by countries to tackle climate change, carry out environment management and attain sustainable development. Green credit issued by commercial banks worldwide in combination with separate carbon finance mar-kets in the European Union, the United States, Australia…