PRESS DIGEST – China – March 4

KATHMANDU, march 4: Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Wednesday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

– Shanghai’s gold exchange will increase its range of products this year and launch more yuan-denominated gold trading products, the exchange’s director, general Xu Luode, told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday.

– Hong Kong chief executive C.Y. Leung told reporters on Tuesday that preparatory work for a Hong Kong-Shenzhen stock connect was going “smoothly” and he hoped the scheme would be launched soon.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

– China will take a more tolerant stance on agriculture-related firms that have bad loans, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a recent statement.

SHANGHAI DAILY

– Shanghai will start testing a system next month which will use people’s mobilephones to track movements of large crowds. China Mobile Ltd, China Unicom and China Telecom will work with a fourth unnamed firm to develop the system, a senior city official said on Tuesday.

CHINA BUSINESS NEWS

– Profits in China’s banking industry could decline 3 to 5 percent this year after the People’s Bank of China cut reverse requirement ratios twice and interest rate once since the second half of last year, industry insiders said.

CHINA DAILY

– China will step up activities in the Antarctic, especially in fishing crustacean krill, China National Agricultural Development Group chairman Liu Shenli told reporters on Tuesday. The krill would be used as a source of protein.

For Hong Kong and South China newspapers see….. (Reporting by Chen Yixin and Adam Jourdan; Editing by Sunil Nair).

Reuters