maintained steady growth in the first two months of 2010, buoyed by the nation’s car purchase incentives and strong demand brought by the week-long Spring Festival holidays.

The combined auto sales in January and February surged 84 percent from a year earlier to 2.9 million units, with February’s figures alone reaching 1.2 million units, up 46 percent year-on-year, according to the China Association of Auto Manufactures (CAAM) Tuesday.

China, the world’s largest auto market, adjusted the auto tax-cut policy and old-for-new program in January this year, to boost domestic consumption.

Ministry of Commerce said in February that the favorable policies for car purchasing had paid off, with a significant rise in the number of subsidy applications.

Dong Yang, the first deputy director of the CAAM, urged the nation’s automobile industry to properly handle the relationship between improving product quality and maintaining fast development.

New 50-50 joint venture plans to develop copper mines in Chile

BEIJING – State-owned public utility, The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), plans to cooperate with Canadian miner Quadra Mining Ltd to jointly develop copper mines in Chile, to secure raw material supplies for electric cables and to expand its investment portfolio.

According to a statement issued by Quadra on Monday, State Grid International Development Ltd (SGID), a wholly owned subsidiary of SGCC, will form a 50-50 joint venture with Quadra to develop and operate Quadra’s Sierra Gorda project, Franke Mine and other copper assets in Chile.

The Sierra Gorda project and Franke Mine are valued at $900 million in assets, said the Quadra statement.

As part of the agreement, SGID will also subscribe for 10.9 million Quadra shares, or a 9.9 percent stake in the company, at C$13.91 ($13.53) per share through the Canadian miner’s private placement.

“It is SGCC’s strategy to accelerate overseas business development and diversify its investment portfolio,” said an SGCC executive who declined to be named.

The project funding will be made in accordance with the Sierra Gorda construction schedule and may spread over two years, said Paul Blythe, president and CEO of Quadra. “The feasibility study is now under way and due for completion in December 2010,” he said.

“The strategic joint venture brings together a unique and powerful combination, with SGCC’s financial capacity and position as a major end user of copper in China and Quadra’s skills in acquiring, developing and operating copper producing assets,” said Blythe.

About 60 percent of copper is used in the power industry. However, Wei Jianghong chairman of the nation’s second largest copper producer, Tongling Nonferrous Metal Group Co Ltd, said on the sideline of the ongoing National People’s Congress (NPC): “Our sales to wire and cable users indicate that the demand is rather weak.”

Wei said China, the world’s largest copper consumer, is expected to use 6 million tons of copper in 2010, up 7 percent from 2009, but lower than earlier expectations of a 14 percent year-on-year growth.

Although the short-term demand from the electricity industry is weak, the long-term demand is still strong as China plans to upgrade its grid for transmission of new energies like solar and wind power and to improve efficiency.

Last week, Premier Wen Jiabao said in his work report to the NPC that China will actively develop new and renewable energies, and go ahead with the construction of smart grid.

In line with the national strategy, China’s two grid operators, SGCC and China Southern Power Grid, have put smart grid construction on top of their agenda.

SGCC, the larger of China’s two grid operators, said it would complete the construction of smart grid by 2020, entrenching its position as a major end user of copper, the raw material for electric cable.

As the commodity price rallies, both miners and end users like SGCC are seeking to pile up resource reserves, said Peng Bo, an analyst at Guosen Securities. Copper climbed new highs after an earthquake hit Chile, the world’s largest copper producer. The prices adjusted down later on concern that China’s demand may decline if the government retreats from its stimulus package.

BEIJING – China would step up work to monitor non-banking financing, said the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) Tuesday in a statement on its website.

More focus would be put on businesses in connection with trust companies and the real estate sector to prevent banks from using non-banking financing to circumvent policies, said Liu Mingkang, chairman of the CBRC.

The 2010 government loan target is 7.5 trillion yuan ($1.10 trillion). But in January alone, banks extended 1.39 trillion yuan in new loans — 18.53 percent of the full-year target.

More work should be done to improve risk management capacity to achieve sustainable development of the non-banking financing sector, Liu said.

Non-banking financial institutions under the CBRC supervision include trust companies, finance companies, financial leasing companies, auto financing companies and money brokers.

Hong Kong will have greater room for development this year, and opportunities will come one after another, Chinese Central Government’s top liaison official in Hong Kong said here Friday.

“The city will have greater room for development as China speeds up the implementation of the Pearl River Delta development strategy and the process of the internalization of Renminbi,” said Peng Qinghua, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People ’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ( HKSAR) when addressing a Spring Festival reception hosted by the office.

Development opportunities will also come along with the launch of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and major infrastructure projects such as Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge and Guangzhou- Shenzhen-Hong Kong express rail.

The 12th five-year national development program which is being drafted will provide a new platform for Hong Kong to play a bigger role in the country’s shift of economic growth pattern and economic restructuring, he said.

“We firmly believe that the SAR government and people from all walks of life will seize the opportunity with concerted efforts to maintain the hard-won fair status and promote the stable social and economic development of Hong Kong,” he said.

“The Central Government has repeatedly said that no matter what difficulties Hong Kong encounters, it will as always render strong support,” he said.

In the new year, the Central Government will continue to unswervingly implement the principles of “one country, two systems “, “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong” and a high degree of autonomy, he said.

The Central Government will also continue to unswervingly support the Chief Executive and the SAR government to govern by law, and continue to unswervingly support Hong Kong in its effort to stabilize the financial sector, develop the economy and improve people’s livelihood, while working with Hong Kong compatriots to maintain the city’s prosperity and stability, he said.

“The Liaison Office will better shoulder the responsibilities for communication and liaison, build extensive links with all sectors of the society, contribute our unremitting efforts to promoting the exchanges and cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland, and make new efforts for Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” he said.

Some 4,000 people, including HKSAR Chief Executive Tsang Yam- kuen as well as foreign diplomats in Hong Kong attended the reception.

A policeman has been detained after the police car he was driving fatally hit a pedestrian in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, local authorities said Saturday.

The accident occurred at 7:40 p.m. Friday in Changshou District as the policeman, Li Zhirong, drove the police car.

The victim died after medical treatment failed, according to the municipal public security bureau.

The bureau head has ordered Li be strictly punished according to the law.

At least two people were killed and two others injured after an explosion ravaged a factory in Shandong Province, local authority said Sunday.

The blast occurred at 3:20 p.m. Saturday in a plant of Xinhecheng Phamarceutical Co. Ltd. in Weifang City, leaving one worker dead at the site, the Binhai Economic Development Zone, where the firm is located, said in a notice Sunday.

Three workers were injured and one of them died Sunday in hospital due to fatal injuries, according to the notice.

The company mainly produces flavors and aromatic chemicals with 1.06 billion yuan (155.2 million U.S. dollars) in investment. It is building the first-stage project with an annual production capacity of 8,000 tonnes.

Officers with the local work safety watchdog and public security authorities are investigating the accident.

As Latin American and Caribbean leaders meet in Mexico to discuss the creation of a new regional alliance that excludes the United States and Canada, there is an opportunity for China to seek more cooperation in the region, experts said.

The Group of Rio meeting that runs from Saturday to Tuesday in Playa del Carmen, a resort city on Mexico’s Caribbean coast could see the creation of a new larger organization that adds Caribbean island nations to the existing Group of Rio 24-nation membership, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The Mexican-led initiative will exclude both the US and Canada, and observers believe it could eventually rival the 35-member Organization of American States (OAS), which includes the US and Canada, and which has been the principal forum for hemispheric issues during the past half century, the Financial Times reported.

Salvador Beltrn del Ro, Mexico’s under-secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, told the Financial Times that Latin America’s leading powers have agreed on the need for such an organization. “The need to take this step is a sign of the region’s maturity. We need to give ourselves that space.”

However, Jorge Castaneda, Mexico’s former foreign minister, told the Financial Times that the meeting could end up sending an unconstructive message from the region to Obama and that might mean “you are going to have people in the US Congress saying, ‘OK, Latin America can have its organization so let’s scupper the OAS’.”

“The willingness of Latin American countries to challenge US positions indicates a slowly changing balance of power in the hemisphere,” said Tom Loudon, a writer for a US news organization Truthout.

However, Sun Hongbo, a researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the move can also be seen as a diplomatic gesture because Latin America actually wants more attention from the US, which, since the global financial crisis, has been unable to maintain the amount of economic benefits it provided.

But Latin America is also seeking diplomatic autonomy to develop relations with other major countries, Sun said. “The creation of such an organization could be a platform for more effective communication between China and Latin America. It would also be easier for them to ask for bigger bids from China with a more united voice.”

Trade between China and Latin America reached $111.461 billion in the first three quarters of 2008, with China’s direct non-financial investment in the region involving trade, manufacturing, gas and oil exploration amounting to $960 million at the end of June in 2008.

Although the huge asymmetry between the large amount of trade between China and Latin America and the low level of direct Chinese financial could impede further cooperation between the two, said Sun.

Osvaldo Rosales, from the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), speaking to the BBC said he blamed Latin American governments for the lack of properly evaluated investment projects for China to invest in.

Sun said China has been considering increasing investment in the Latin America region and exploring diversified channels other than the local governments to launch the investments.

However, despite the increasing common interests and the need for integration among the Latin American countries since the financial crisis, there are doubts about the realization of such an organization and its effectiveness in operation.

The emergence of Hugo Chvez, Venezuela’s radical leftwing president, has helped create a clear political split in the region, with the likes of Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua on the left and Colombia, Peru and Mexico on the right, with, until now, Brazil often bridging the deep fissure dividing the two.

The president of the US think tank Inter-American Dialogue told the Financial Times that serious questions about unity and cohesiveness are likely to hang over the new organization, as in the past there hasn’t been much success resulting from Latin America’s integration efforts, “I can’t imagine that this is going to be terribly different.”

HANGZHOU: A house fire has killed four and injured four others including the bride in east China’s Zhejiang Province early Sunday, just a few hours before the wedding, local police said.

The fire occurred at 3:41 am in a three-storey residential building in Nanxun District, Huzhou City in Zhejiang, when Zhou Min, the 23-year-old bride, was sleeping along with seven other people, including six women and her nephew whose age and name was not yet known, police said.

Three people including the boy died at the scene while five others were hurt, among whom three were seriously injured.

The bride was among those seriously injured as she jumped out of a third floor window.

One of the injured died in hospital and the bride was still in critical condition, police said.

It is the local custom to invite family members and friends to stay at the bride’s house the night before the wedding.

The house belonged to Zhou Defu, the father of the bride, police said.

Municipal party secretary Sun Wenyou was at the scene of the fire to organize the rescue work.

The police was investigating the cause of the accident.

SHANGHAI: At least six people died in a fire at a recycling center in the Qingpu District in Shanghai Sunday afternoon, local authorities said.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) – Google Inc co-founder Sergey Brin said on Tuesday it has become “very hard to operate” in China, but he is optimistic that the Internet company can continue to “open up information for everyone everywhere, free of political censorship.”

“In the past couple of years, especially since the Olympics, the situation has gotten considerably worse on a variety of fronts,” Brin told Reuters.

Google sent shockwaves across business and political circles when it declared on January 12 it would stop censoring Chinese search results, and said it was considering pulling out of the country.

Brin’s comments are among the first by senior Google management on the issue since the announcement.

He said that not only has information been omitted from the company’s core search service in China, but also other Google products as well.

“Other sites of ours, such as YouTube and Google Docs … are blocked,” Brin noted.

Asked whether Google was in direct communication with the Obama administration regarding these issues, Brin would only say “there have been a lot of parties that have responded to our blogpost and offered interest.”

Brin, who grew up in the former Soviet Union and controls the majority of Google’s voting shares with co-founder Larry Page, said Google has had an important impact on China since it entered the market in 2006.

“The initial momentum that we saw hasn’t really continued, and it’s made it very hard to operate under these kinds of circumstances,” Brin said, adding he had no new information to share about discussions between China and the Internet search leader.