TECH TALK: Two visitors talk about a deep-water drilling platform model at the 11th China International Petroleum and Petrochemical Technology and Equipment Exhibition held on March 22-24, which attracted 1,500 companies from 45 countries and regions (DAI XUMING)

Non-Toll Roads

The Ministry of Transport (MOT) said on March 23 that non-toll roads would account for more than 96 percent of the country's road mileage in the future.

He Jianzhong, spokesman for MOT, said China is considering building two road networks: one that will mainly consist of low-charge but highly efficient expressways and another made of non-toll common roads.

The government would be responsible for financing the non-toll road network, while the funds for expressway building projects would mainly come from bank loans and social funding, he said.

Currently, China's roads transport 74.1 percent of the country's freight traffic and 94.5 percent of passenger volumes.

T-Bond Sales

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) began selling 30 billion yuan ($4.57 billion) worth of book-entry treasury bonds on March 24.

The one-year bonds carry a fixed interest rate of 2.8 percent and were sold to the public from March 24 to March 28, according to a statement on the MOF website.

The bonds, MOF's ninth issue of book-entry treasury bonds this year, can be traded in exchange markets starting March 30 and interest on the bonds will be paid upon maturity on March 24, 2012, the ministry said.

CNOOC Profit Up

Offshore oil producer, China National Offshore Oil Co. Ltd. (CNOOC), said on March 23 that its net profit surged 84.5 percent year on year in 2010.

Net profit reached a record high of 54.41 billion yuan ($8.29 billion) last year, the company said in its annual report to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The company's net production of oil and gas rose by a record 44.4 percent year on year to 328.8 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2010. The company's oil and gas sales reached 149.12 billion yuan ($22.72 billion), an increase of 77.7 percent year on year.

HK Surplus Drops

Hong Kong recorded HK$30.1-billion ($3.85-billion) surplus in its balance of payments in the last quarter of 2010, according to figures released by the Census and Statistics Department of the HK SAR Government on March 22.

For the whole year of 2010, Hong Kong recorded HK$71.1-billion ($9.12-billion) surplus in its balance of payments, accounting for 4.1 percent of the regional GDP, compared with HK$549.3 billion ($70.5 billion) and 33.9 percent of GDP in 2009, respectively.

UnionPay in Taiwan

China UnionPay Co. Ltd. (UnionPay), a bankcard service provider, said on March 22 that it had reached an agreement with Taiwan-based Chinatrust Commercial Bank (CTCB) to further expand the acceptance of UnionPay bankcards by merchants in Taiwan.

UnionPay bankcards will be accepted by 10,000 point-of-sale (POS) machines of the CTCB within this year, up sharply from the current number of 1,000 merchants, according to the agreement.

Some 1.16 million mainland tourists visited Taiwan last year, a year-on-year increase of 92.6 percent. The mainland had become the largest source of tourists for Taiwan, according to the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.