┣━Finance━┫

The State Council has selected Central Huijin Investment Co. to inject funding into the Export-Import Bank of China and China Export & Credit Insurance Corp., people close to the Ministry of Finance and the central bank told Caijing on Sept. 15. Central Huijin is a wholly owned subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. Prior to the selection of Central Huijin, both the finance ministry and the People's Bank of China had been considered as lead agencies for the fund injection. The capital injection reflects Central Huijin's readiness to supervise China's state-owned financial assets, an analyst who declined to be identified told Caijing. 

China's outstanding yuan loans to small and medium-sized enterprises stood at 12.52 trillion yuan at the end of June, or 53.7 percent of total outstanding corporation loans, a senior official from the China Banking Regulatory Commission said at a Sept. 15 banking conference. Yang Jiacai, head of the CBRC's SME financial services division, said banks will not tighten lending to SMEs in the second half. It is also the first time that the growth rate of loans to SMEs has exceeded that of total corporate loans. SMEs often face difficulty raising money because it is hard to assess their credibility and many pose a greater risk of defaulting, Yang told Caijing.

China recorded a 7 percent year-on-year rise in foreign direct investment to US$7.5 billion in August, the first rise in 11 months and a sign of investor confidence in the country's economic recovery, the Ministry of Commerce said at a Sept. 15 press briefing. The figures represent a significant turnaround from July, when FDI fell 35.7 percent year-on-year to US$5.36 billion. Ministry spokesman Yao Jian said the growth in FDI was mainly driven by investment in the manufacturing sector, with August FDI in the sector up 11.72 percent year-on-year to US$4.29 billion. 

┣━Industry━┫

Private Chinese real estate developers are rushing to go public in Hong Kong to take advantage of an improving stock market and a recovery in the mainland property sector, analysts said. Glorious Property will list on the Hong Kong bourse on Oct. 2 following a share offer running from Sept. 21 to 24. Shanghai Industrial Holdings Ltd., Sino-Ocean Land Holdings Ltd., NanFung Property and qualified domestic institutional investors under China Southern Fund are cornerstone investors for the Glorious IPO, with combined subscriptions of US$130 million. Longfor Property, Evergrande Real Estate, Excellence Group, Fantasia Holding Ltd. and Powerlong Group, are also lining up for Hong Kong IPOs.

The unpleasant relationship between Yahoo Inc and Alibaba Group could be the reason why Yahoo announced it would sell 57.5 million Alibaba.com shares, BDA analyst Liu Ning told Caijing on Sept. 15. Yahoo has set up an independent research team in Beijing, indicating that the relationship between the two parties is "not close," Liu said.  Alibaba.com closed down 11.1 percent at HK$18.80 on Sept. 15, its biggest single-day decline for six months, after Yahoo said it would raise as much as US$150 million by selling all of its shares in the firm between HK$19.80 and HK$20.30 apiece.

Shanda Games, a subsidiary of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., plans to launch an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Sept. 25, raising up to US$788 million. The games company plans to issue 63 million American depositary shares, priced between US$10.5 and US$12.5 apiece, according to a Sept. 14 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2008, there were 30 million online games players in China, and that number is expected to double by 2013, according to statistics from International Data Corp. 

┣━Politics and Law━┫

China wants to see specific steps at the upcoming G20 summit towards increasing the role of China and other developing countries in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), central bank assistant governor Guo Qingping said Sept. 15.

Laying out China's position prior to the summit in Pittsburgh, Guo said the meeting should set further goals and timetables for transferring voting rights from developed countries to developing countries in the IMF. Guo added that China wished to see an increase in staff from developing countries and emerging markets in the IMF management.

Developed countries currently have 57 percent of voting rights in the IMF and Brazil, Russia, India and China this month proposed a 7 percent shift in favor of developing countries.

A U.S. decision to impose special duties on Chinese tires has triggered a swift response from China, which said on Sept. 14 it would request World Trade Organization consultations with the United States over the duties. The U.S. president Barack Obama slapped punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tires imported from China, slightly lower penalties than those the federal trade panel recommended.

The tire case is regarded by many as a touchstone of the Obama trade policy, as it was not widely-believed to have provided a clear roadmap earlier. A Chinese professor of economics argued the punitive tariffs indicate a protectionist trend from the U.S. in the short run.
China announced its own anti-dumping investigations of chicken and automotive products imported from the US on Sept. 13.

Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) signed an agreement with the finance institute of China's central bank and a Chinese oil company to establish a new research center on financing low carbon initiatives, called the China-U.S. Carbon Finance and Development Research Center.

China's central bank looks forward to working together to provide critical research in the area of low carbon economic development, and being a vital component of the educational process in China, said the bank's governor Zhou Xiaochuan last August.

In September 2008, CCX, oil giant China National Petroleum Corp. and the city of Tianjin opened the Tianjin Climate Exchange (TCX), China's first exchange established to design and market environmental products and the platform for the new center.