Nowadays, Pingtan Island, the fifth largest island in China, attracts the attention of experts from both sides of the straits. Considering its location, the experts are trying to found a new model for the island, which lies 28 km from the provincial capital Fuzhou and about 120 km from Taiwan.

In order to bring benefit for both sides as well as to create a series of preferential policies for Taiwan investors, Pingtan Island is considered to be built into a pioneering area regarding exchange and cooperation cross the strait.

On the same day, Chen Hua, Fujian’s deputy governor made a speech to the public. He stressed the importance of maintaining the island’s original appearance above all. He also confirmed the island’s specific status in enhancing cross-straits industrial cooperation based on its unique and strategic location.

According to Chen’s imagine, Pingtan Island will be equipped with a modern industrial system which is characteristic as well as mutually-beneficial. It will become a frontier platform for cross-straits cooperation in the near future.

The cultural and business ties between Fujian and Taiwan are inseparably close. There are over 10000 Taiwan businessmen and women who dwell in Fujian permanently.

Fujian is the ancestral home for more than 80 percent of Taiwanese. So it is hardly surprising that most Taiwan’s culture, beliefs and arts were inherited from Fujian.

There are direct cross-straits flights in Xiamen and Fuzhou airports, with Xiamen Airlines being the first mainland airline to have a subsidiary in Taiwan.

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1. Project Briefs

The Second bridge is a connecting line in the planned expressway network of Guangdong province, to be a high-class expressway crossing the core economic area of the Zhujiang River Delta from east to west. The bridge starts from Dongyong, Fanyu in the west, meeting the southern section of the Zhujiang River Delta area’s ring road as well as the Jingzhu Expressway (from Beijing to Zhuhai, Guangdong), and ends at the Houjie intersection, meeting the Guangshen expressway (from Guangzhou to Shenzhen). The bridge meets the planned expressway from Houjie to Liaobu. The length of the whole line, the entire bridge, is 20.92 km. The main bridge of the planned Second Bridge of Humen, Guangdong is about 10 km north of Humen and about 20 km south of Huangpu Bridge of the Zhujiang River, crossing over the Dasha and Nizhou waterways. The width of Dasha water way surface is about 1.5 km, with the navigable net width not less than 1,164 m; the width of Nizhou water way surface is about 2.4 km, with the navigable net width not less than 1,154 m. The waterways have high navigable requirements, resulting in the need and conditions to construct a world-class super-large bridge. The total investment of the project is about RMB12 billion which will be self-raised.

2. Purpose and content of design collection

The construction objectives of the project are “safe and durable, harmonious and attractive, environmental and economic, scientific and innovative” that should all be used in designs. The responders should consider all the basic background elements including the bridge’s positioning plan, the geology, water, climate and environment conditions as well as the advanced philosophy in long span bridge design. Respondents’ own design experience is encouraged to be used based on the given requirements.

Respondents are to submit the following documents:

(1) Whole-picture design scheme of the bridge and necessary structure and component part design;

(2) Supporting technical materials for the whole-picture design scheme of the bridge, including (but not limited to) the following:

a. Main considerations and reasons about the span layout, bridge type and structure system in the design scheme;

b. Scheme explanations of the main component parts of the bridge;

c. Reasonable explanations about the design ability and practicality in the design scheme;

d. Consideration of the main operation plan or techniques in the design scheme;

e. Aesthetic presentation of the environmental harmony and bridge vision in the design scheme;

f. New materials or techniques that the design may involve, and necessity and practicality of adopting the new materials or techniques;

g. Consideration of the design scheme about the operation and maintenance of the bridge;

h. Consideration of the design scheme about controlling the building cost of the bridge;

i. Suggestions on key and difficult points of the design if the design scheme is adopted;

The above supporting materials should be brief and clear, explaining how to put into practice the general design and stating the advantages of the design, with necessary simple drawing or calculation sheet or concrete examples.

3. Qualification requirements

Any units, organizations, groups, associations or individuals, home or abroad, with experience in large-scale bridge design can apply to this design scheme collection.

Respondents can apply independently or in form of joint ventures, but the total partners of a joint venture should not be more than three.

In form of joint ventures, the partner in charge should have large-scale bridge design experience.

4. Time table for the design scheme collection (Beijing Time):

(1) How to sign up:

a. Sign up in designated location (documents for design scheme collection available on site);

b. Online sign up (downloads of documents for design scheme collection available) at www.hmeq.net;

(2) Time for sign up:

9:00 – 11:30 AM, 2:00 – 5:00 PM, May 14 – 30, 2009 (national festivals and holidays excepted)

(3) Address and contact for sign up:

Address: Room 807, Wuyang New Town Plaza, No. 111-113, Siyouxinma Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Tel and Fax: 86-20-87364508

(4) Documents required for sign up:

To sign up on site, respondents should provide with the following documents for review:

a. For domestic corporation respondents: Business license (copy), letter of authorization from legal representative and most representative works of any previous bridge design.

b. For domestic non-corporation respondents such as organizations, groups or associations: License of institution code (copy), introduction letter and most representative works of any previous bridge design (copy).

c. Domestic individual respondents: ID card (copy) and most representative works of any previous bridge design (copy).

d. Foreign corporations, organizations, groups or associations: relevant institutional license or certificate (copy with Chinese translation) and most representative works of bridge design before (copy with Chinese translation).

e. For foreign individual responders: valid ID certificate (copy) and most representative works of any previous bridge design (copy with Chinese translation).

For online sign up, respondents should upload (a designated link for uploading is reserved on the website) or fax the documents required above. Short-listed candidates will be informed online after the confirmation.

5. Site visit

Collector will arrange site visit to the location of this project on the following date and address:

Time: 9 AM, May 25, 2009

Address: Front Gate of Wuyang New Town Plaza, No. 111-113, Siyouxinma Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Any respondents viewing the site after the scheduled date shall go by themselves.

6. Meeting for design scheme collection

An introduction meeting will be held on the following date and address for this design scheme collection competition:

Time: 3 PM, May 25, 2009.

Address: Wuyang New Town Plaza, No. 111-113, Siyouxinma Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

No other introduction meeting will be held for respondents coming after the scheduled date.

7. Submission of Design Scheme

Responders should submit the design scheme according to the following schedule. No earlier, no later.

Time: 9:00 -11:30 AM, 2:00 – 5:00 PM, July 27 – 31, 2009 (Beijing Time)

Address: Room 807, Wuyang New Town Plaza, No. 111-113 Siyouxinma Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510600, China

Respondents can also mail the design schemes to arrive before the deadline. (Postal packages should be noted with “Design Scheme for the Project of the Second Bridge of Humen, Guangdong” as well as respondents name, contact telephone number, contact fax number, etc.) Respondents should guarantee the design schemes to be delivered to the designated address within the above required time and should bear the risks of missing, delay, damage during delivery and consequence result.

8. Rewards for Chosen Design

The Collector will arrange for the Design Review Committee to review all the design schemes for a preliminary examination and choose 6 design schemes for the final decision.

In accordance with the final result, a winner for the First Prize will be rewarded with RMB2,000,000; two winners for the Second Prize, RMB800,000 each; three winners for the Third Prize, RMB200,000 each.

Besides, the model views for rewarded design schemes (with the name of the designers) will be exhibited in the Memorial Museum to the Bridge in the future.

Other than the above mentioned rewards, the collector shall not be responsible for any compensation to other respondents. If the Design Review Committee decides that no design schemes can meet with the requirements for this design scheme collection, some or all of the prizes can be vacant.

9. Design Review Committee Composition

The examination of design schemes for this project will be carried out by the Design Review Committee designated by the Collector, which composed of 6 bridge experts and 3 architecture aesthetics experts, from home and abroad.

10. All rights, including interpretation for this design scheme collection competition, are reserved to the Collector.

Collector: Guangdong Highway Construction Corporation

Address: 7/F, Wuyang New Town Plaza, No. 111-113, Siyouxinma Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510600, China

Tel: 86-20-87364508 Fax: 86-20-87364508

Contact: Mr. Liang

Collection Agent: CHELBI Engineering Consultants, Inc.

Address: 8/F Xingyuan Century Building, No. 20, Anyuan Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, China

Tel: 86-10-84896987 Fax: 86-10-84896937

Contact: Mr. Ruan or Mr. Han

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In the e-mail replying to China Daily on April 1^st, this US auto parts supplier said its portfolio transformation, asset sale and purchase agreement have already been made.

BeijingWest Industries is owned by a state-owned company Shougang Group, Bao’an Investment and Development Co Ltd and Beijing municipal government, all of which hold 51%, 24% and 25% respectively.

The last thing to do of this sale is waiting for court approval and other details. Delphi expects that the sale can be finished at the end of this year.

However, no further details are exposed by both groups.

US local newspaper Detroit Free Press reported that the amount of this sale will be $100 million in cash, which is badly needed for Delphi to maintain its core business.

“This is a prompt deal at this special time,” said by Rodney O’Neal, Delphi’s CEO and president.

In accordance with the agreement, BeijingWest Industries will take over its machinery and equipment, intellectual property and certain customer and supplier contracts.

Delphi, the former parts subsidiary of GM, said that they will successfully finish this transition of the business, in coordination with its customers, employees, unions and other stakeholders.

Chinese auto analysts express that it’s a wise idea for Chinese investors to acquire international automobile parts assets and brands instead of vehicle producers for the former is of low risk.

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William Ding, Netease founder and CEO said his firm would start feeding over 10,000 swine in Zhejiang province with a pastoral environment and strictly organic diet.

It is said that the process of feeding swine and the journey of the porker from farm to pork will be online for the whole world to see.

Kagominma prefecture in Japan is famous for its high-quality swine. It will also be the homeland of the first batch of pigs being selected to Zhejiang. Consumers can track the lives of the pigs and pig farmers will be able to exchange feeding experiences.

Ding, a 38-year-old gourmet said that the main motivations behind the move are concerns over the country’s food safety and quality.

He declared that they are hoping to explore a new business model which can promise safe, high-quality and also can improve the living conditions of rural areas rather than expecting to make much money. More details about the plan will be disclosed in April.

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Besides the other three centres in Germany and the US, the centre in Beijing will be the fourth in the world for the pharmaceutical division of the German drug and chemical group Bayer.

According to the company, the new centre aims to develop new drugs tailored to Asian patients and plans to lead conduct research in partnership with Tsinghua University.

Industrial experts forecast that the investment of 850 billion yuan in the nation’s healthcare industry over the next two years will help keep the sector’s 20 to 30 percent annual growth.

The reason that Bayer decided to invest in China in such a global recession is that the healthcare plan can be beneficial to expand business in China, said Andreas Fibig, chairman of the board of management of Bayer HealthCare.

As Bayer’s third largest and the fastest growing market, China now has its three manufacturing units which are located in Beijing, Guangdong and Jiangsu. Most of the products are sold in China.

Fibig said in spite of the financial crisis, the healthcare business did not get any negative impact. He is confident with the market in 2009. Bayer will outperform the local market, which is expected to grow over 20 percent year-on-year in the next two to three years, Fibig said.

Results from IMS Health, the world’s largest medical researcher have showed that based on sales revenue, Bayer is the NO.1 among international healthcare companies in China. Its local sales in 2008 increased over 50 percent compared with the same period in 2007.

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While Australia is now second only to the European Union in its drive to cut emissions by establishing a cap-and-trade system that puts a price on carbon output, it was said that the target is far from powerfulness and blasted the trading plan that will give free credits to some of the economy’s most carbon-intensive industries.

According to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, it is essential to implement carbon scheme in Australia, which has the fourth-highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and five times more per person than China, due to its reliance on coal for electricity.

Because of no action on climate change, Australia is going to face a series of problems brought by the worsening climate.

But some carbon market participants thought the unveiled system still had a long way to go if it wants to be satisfactory.

And the government said Australia would only target the full 15 percent cutback if a global deal emerges from UN talks in Copenhagen in late 2009, angering environmentalists who had hoped Rudd would follow through on his green electoral mandate by taking a leading role in cutting global emissions.

Greenpeace climate campaigner John Hepburn said the scheme is madness and totally a failure and the climate change is happening much faster than people thought.

The plan is called a “polluters” paradise by Friends of the Earth.

Scientists and green groups wanted cuts of at least 25% but the scheme can’t get to the standard absolutely.

The reduction of Australia’s target is far from 20% that Europe has promise and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommendation of up to 40 percent by then. And the challenge is to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in the next 12 months.

Rudd defended the targets by saying they were more aggressive on a per-capita basis than those in the European Union.

The government also said that the scheme would only cut about 0.1% off annual growth in total national product from 2010 to 2050, with a one-off increase in inflation of around 1.1%.

Gary Cox, head of environmental derivatives at global brokers Newedge said economy is more important than environment when we have to choose one.

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But the global recession has also forced Sony to close at least five factories and curb world-wide investment.

It is said that there will be 16,000 people losing jobs since Sonyis reviewing China operations amid a global layoff plan.

Because of the global economic crisis, Sony China said that it will actively support its headquarters in Japan.

Due to the economy slowdown, consumers are no longer willing to by electronics products if they don’t need them so urgently, which hurt Sony a lot, according to Hou Li, an analyst at Essence Securities.

Price wars have clouded China’s consumer electronics market for a long time, which have produced razor-thin margins for some products.

In spite of the possible layoff wave, Sony said it remains committed to the China market.

Last year, Sony China generated $5.1 billion in sales, recording 20% annual growth for the third consecutive year.

Although the demand is slowing and competition is intensifying, China is still Sony’s largest growth potential market and also the most important part in the operation value chain, Sony China said, they have implemented several measures to struggle with the economy crisis.

Hou said that if Sony decides to curb investment in China, such movement could also destroy the profit of its partners.

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The measures were announced by the central bank last week who had cut the reserve money requirements for banks and removed curbs on lending. These moves will squeeze interest spread of banks as well as boosting the total lending amount at the same time, they said.

Bankers and economists said that the lower lending rates have lowered both the financing burden for most of the banks and the chances of loan defaults.

People’s Bank of China cut its benchmark interest rate by 1.08 percentage points last Wednesday amid a number of less massive cuts in short-term deposit and lending rate.

As Chinese lenders’ major income source, the interest margin was narrowed although interest rates for the one-year deposit and lending rate fell by the same amount, said She Minhua, a China Securities analyst, it was expected to have bigger points than the 0.36 percentage points fall in demand deposit interest rate.

The interest spread is expected to narrow by 32 basis points, according to Wu Yonggang, an analyst at Guotai Jun’an Securities.

Based on the report of the Bank Of Communications International Trust Co, compared with the strong growth in recent years, lenders’ profit growth might fall below 10 percent in 2009.

But the moves are also light for many others. They said the negative impact of shrinking interest margins would be offset by the anticipated surge in lending.

In the short term banks’ net income will be reduced along with the narrowing interest spread, said Southwest Securities analyst Zhao Jun, but after a long time the rate cuts would increase lending and raise income.

According to Zhu Baoliang, an economist with State Information Centre, the Chinese commercial banks around 400 billion yuan for new lending which is higher than 360 billion yuan in 2008 will be available because of the latest rate and reserve ratio cut.

Since there maybe still a tough year ahead, Chinese bankers would rather remain cautious on new lending.

Bank of China’s vice-president, Zhu Min said that banks would not follow the projects of stimulus plan, and we need rigorous examination to guarantee the quality and results of the nation’s macro adjustment policies.

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The urban construction and communications bureau announced last week plans to spend 500 billion yuan on a large scale of infrastructure projects, such as the improvement of affordable and low-rent housing, building projects in the suburbs, constructing an international shipping centre and investment in urban transportation facilities.

In addition, a series of measures were announced to expand financing for small and innovative companies. Sun Lijian, a professor of Fudan University said, “The measures, along with the billions of yuan being committed, are in response to the central government’s latest moves to stimulate domestic demand.”

According to Chen Xiao, a professor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the 500-billion-yuan investment will speed up the reconstruction projects. He said, other delayed investment projects caused by the shortage of funding may also be activated through the investment package.

He still said the real effects of the stimulus plan would be determined by the criteria for the selection of projects. Under such circumstance, the investment will be put into areas where are in need of money.

Compared with the first half of the previous years, the growth rate of the city fell to 10.3 percent, down 2.7 percentage points. The next two months and the first half of 2009 will be “tough”, the mayor said, to sustain the smooth development and keep the livelihood of the citizens will be the city’s priority and they will take every effective measure to achieve the goal.

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Chen Lei, spokesman for Motorola China said that the company is recently under an international evaluation of its Chinese operations, which is aimed at reducing costs and streamlining its products. He noted that after a planned restructuring is completed, Motorola’s arm in China will get more resources from its headquarters in the United States.

Motorola’s share in the global handset market shrank to 8.4 percent in the third quarter of this year, influenced by its inability to extend the success of its Razr mobile phone. That is down from 9.5 percent in the second quarter and 22.4 percent in 2006, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

The company also has been facing the fierce competition by market leader Nokia and a rising number of domestic vendors and private handset makers. Its market share in China dropped to less than 10 percent this year from nearly 20 percent in 2006, according to research firm GFK China. What is worse, it said that such terrible performance have led the resignation of Re Weiguang, head of Motorola’s mobile business in China, at the end of last month.

Earlier this year, Motorola announced its decision to spin off its mobile division to turn around its handset business. But driven by the financial crisis, the survival plan has been clouded. Pang Jun, analyst from GFK China, said the long-term effects of Motorola’s layoff plan are still unclear, but the move can at least stem its bleeding in the short-term. And the impact of financial crisis will be laid on all mobile phone makers.

He still further noted that the growth of the mobile phone market in China has dropped a lot and the rate might be even lower in 2009.

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BPOVIA is the leading virtual assistant and Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) service provider in China. BPOVIA is the only virtual assistant company ever been nominated for the prestigious “Red Herring 100 Asia” Awards 2008. Combines international perspective with local know-how, BPOVIA can provide our clients China business development service and help our clients doing successful business in China.

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