FIELDS OF GOLD A farmer weathers corn in a threshing field in a village in Liaocheng, east China's Shandong Province (ZHAO YUGUO)

Foreign Hospitals

Private hospitals solely owned by foreign investors will be allowed to open in seven cities and provinces, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced on August 27.

Wholly foreign-owned hospitals will be permitted in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan provinces. Foreign investors will be either able to set up a new hospital independently or take part via mergers and acquisitions.

However, the MOFCOM specified that only investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan may set up hospitals featuring traditional Chinese medicine.

Administrative approval procedures will be handled by provincial-level authorities.

The Chinese Government has stressed reform in its healthcare sector following public demand for more and better healthcare services. A State Council statement in May pledged price reforms in public hospitals and that more private hospitals would be established.

There were about 5,400 private hospitals on China's mainland in 2008, with that number rising to 10,877 by the end of October 2013, according to official figures. Public hospitals, which provide 90 percent of China's medical services, totaled 13,440 by the end of October.

Shoring Up Farming

China's central bank has set aside another 20 billion yuan ($3.24 billion) for a scheme designed to funnel credit into agriculture, it announced on August 27.

The money has been allocated to a re-lending program, under which the central bank extends loans to commercial banks on the condition that they in turn lend to businesses in required sectors.

The move follows a State Council meeting in July that saw pledges to boost agriculture by increasing the scale of re-lending and also re-discount programs, which allow the central bank to pump funds into commercial banks by purchasing their bills.

On August 8, the central bank added 12 billion yuan ($1.95 billion) to the re-discount quota.

Authorities hope the policies will help support growth in agriculture while stemming credit flow to undesired sectors.

Private Telecom Firms

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on August 25 licensed six more private enterprises to pilot the resale of certain mobile services, in its latest move to open the largely monopolized sector.

The six are the third such batch of companies to be given the licenses, which allow them to partner and compete with China's "backbone" telecom operators through the resale of mobile services.

The companies can repackage the services they buy from the basic telecom operators before selling them to clients using their own brands, including voice, SMS, MMS and data services, according to a statement on the MIIT's website.

Before the sales take place, the companies may need to engage in some preparatory work including the establishment of better charging and customer service systems.

The MIIT said it would closely monitor the progress of the pilot program and is ready to offer assistance to companies that face problems in providing the services.

The MIIT granted such licenses to 11 private firms last December and another eight in January.

The developments come after a set of MIIT guidelines last June opened up the telecom sector to private capital, offering participation in eight major areas, including the resale of mobile communication.

CONNECTING MOUNTAINOUS AREAS Laborers pave a road along an expressway passing Enshi, central China's Hubei Province, on August 24 (SONG WEN)

Anti-Dumping Waived

MOFCOM said on August 25 it would stop imposing anti-dumping measures on catechol imported from the European Union starting on August 26.

The ministry said it has not received an expiry review request from Chinese industries to extend the anti-dumping measures, which expire on August 25, and it would not start an expiry review itself.

Catechol is a chemical used in the production of medicines and paints.

In 2009, MOFCOM extended anti-dumping measures on catechol imports from the EU for another five years following a review investigation of five-year anti-dumping duties ranging from 20 percent to 79 percent imposed in 2003.

New Nuclear Plant

A nuclear power plant in east China's Shandong Province is expected to go into operation in 2016, the local power company said on August 26.

The conventional islands of the project's first stage, located in Haiyang of Yantai, are currently being installed and expected to be put into use in two years, according to Yantai State Grid Corp. A conventional island contains equipment which changes steam heat into electricity.

The Haiyang Nuclear Station, with a total investment of 80 billion yuan ($13 billion), will eventually have six reactor units.

The first stage includes two AP1000 reactor units with power capacity of 1.25 million kilowatts each. The plan for the second stage includes another two units of the same capacity.

Enterprising Firms

A spurt of growth in new Chinese enterprises is the direct result of recent pro-business measures, an official said on August 26.

Zhang Mao, Minister of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said over 5.5 million new market entities, including private businesses and farming cooperatives, were registered from March to July.

Among them, about 1.6 million were enterprises, up 64.5 percent from the same period in 2013, Zhang told a press conference. Nearly 95 percent of them are private companies.

"More than 10,000 enterprises were set up each day in the past five months," he said.

Changes to business registration came into effect on March 1, lifting restrictions on minimum registered capital, payment deadlines, down payment ratio and cash ratio of registered capital. Theoretically, a business can be started with just 1 yuan ($0.16).

"The reform has helped entrepreneurs and increased the momentum of economic development," Zhang said.

Along with a lower market threshold, new disclosure rules for corporate information will take effect on October 1 to prevent unqualified companies from flooding the market. Companies will be obliged to release annual public reports on their finances and activities under the supervision of local industrial and commercial authorities.

"Easy access accompanied by strict regulation will help create a fair market for competition," said Zhang.

Cross-Border Yuan

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC) announced that total cross-border yuan transactions handled by the bank amounted to 1.7 trillion yuan ($276 billion) in the first half of 2014, jumping more than 70 percent from a year earlier.

ICBC, China's largest lender by market value, said on August 25 it had completed cross-border renminbi settlements worth nearly 6.7 trillion yuan since 2009, when China started trials for cross-border trade settlements using yuan in Hong Kong, Macao, and ASEAN countries as well as a few other select locations.

Institutions at home and abroad have opened 512 accounts with ICBC on cross-border yuan clearing, and the bank is now providing cross-border yuan clearing in 75 countries and regions.

ICBC said it has been expanding cross-border yuan businesses in the last few years, both on the Chinese mainland and in overseas markets.