Ningbo ushering in a shopping peak after the snow

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Tuesday, 31 January 2012 10:13

After paying new year's call to relatives and friends and staying at home due to the heavy snow, the citizens came out for shopping on the third day of the lunar month. Yesterday, all the shopping malls, supermarkets and specialized sales areas witnessed a busy atmosphere and a small sale peak came for such products as gold, winter clothing, food, tobacco, alcohol and electronic products.

The gold counter of Ningbo Second Department Store was surrounded by a number of customers inquiring about and trying on all kinds of jewelry, especially those dragon-shaped pendants and gold bars. According to a clerk, as people prefer to choose gold crafts as gifts and there are some discounts in price, the sale of gold jewelry has been going up and gold dragon decorations and pendants have been out of stock.

Large shopping malls launched the last round of effective discounts for winter clothing. Major shopping malls and department stores, such as Intime, Ningbo Second Department Store, New Hualian and Oriental Mall, launched such Spring Festival promotion activities as discounts, coupons, credits and lucky draws. The sale of winter clothing in these four stores increased by 5% over the same period last year, no less than that before the festival. "Today is the busiest day of the festival period, especially in the afternoon." said a cashier in the clothing counter in Intime. The most popular clothes are down jackets and cashmere sweaters. With a discounted down jacket costing only three to four hundred yuan, it is a good deal.

In large supermarkets such as Tesco and Auchan, all kinds of gift boxes with dragon patterns are put in some eye-catching positions on shelves. In the Spring Festival sales area, lots of customers are buying glutinous rice balls and seafood.

Banking industry for shipping sector has good prospects

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Thursday, 19 January 2012 18:12

Zhang Yu, member of CPPCC Zhejiang Committee and vice chairman of CNDCA of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee, proposed to accelerate the development of shipping-oriented banking industry at the Fifth Session of the Tenth CPPCC of Zhejiang.

Zhang Yu said that to speed up the development of shipping-oriented financial industry plays an important role in promoting the transformation and upgrading of Zhejiang economic patterns during "The Twelfth Five Year Plan "period; it would also further promote the development of marine economy in Zhejiang province. It has been a national strategy to develop marine economy of Zhejiang Province. The development of Shanghai's shipping and financial industries provide good opportunities for Zhejiang province. He also pointed out the problems in this area such as low specialization in financial institutions and financing difficulties in shipping industry. At present, the financial institutions mainly provide traditional financial services for shipping industry, and with a limited business range the business expands slowly. Also there is a lack of shipping-related financial talents and lack of policy support.

For this reason, Zhang Yu suggested that the province should vigorously introduce shipping-related financial entities and give scope to various ports of different zones. Meanwhile, by offering various preferential policies, the government of Zhejiang aims to encourage and attract renowned financial institutions from overseas, say, London, Singapore to establish branches and joint ventures here, and other related international leading businesses are also welcome. The government should promote the innovation of shipping-related finance products, and actively encourage banks at home as well as well-known financial institutions overseas to carry out ship financing business in Zhejiang province so as to build a complete ship financing product chain

Balance of deposits and loans for financial institutions exceeding a trillion yuan

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Tuesday, 31 January 2012 10:12

News came from the Ningbo central branch of People's Bank that in 2011, both the balance of deposits and the balance of loans for financial institutions exceeded a trillion yuan in Ningbo. The loans increased by 126.32 billion yuan, which serves as an effective support for Ningbo's economic development and industrial transformation and upgrading.

At the end of 2011, the balance of the Chinese and foreign currency deposits for financial institutions reached 1.065927 trillion yuan, an increase of 90.211 billion yuan compared with the beginning of the year and up by 9.12% over the previous year. The balance of RMB deposit reached 1.043592 trillion yuan, an increase of 88.446 billion yuan and up by 9.13% over the previous year.

At the end of December 2011, the balance of the Chinese and foreign currency loans for financial institutions reached 1.067684 trillion yuan, an increase of 126.32 billion yuan compared with the beginning of the year and up by 13.41% over the previous year. In terms of the features of the loans, the investment has become more optimized by flowing to small and medium enterprises, "three rural" projects and key projects. By the end of 2011, the loans for small and medium enterprises had reached 603.837 billion yuan, an increase of 81.815 billion yuan. Meanwhile, more support was given to key projects. The balance for syndicated loans amounted to 30.352 billion yuan, increased by 12.379 billion yuan over the beginning of the year. However, the growth rate of personal loans fell sharply, for instance, the growth rate of personal housing loans dropped to 1.25%.

The financial institutions made more of their funds. At the end of the year, the deposit-loan ratio stood at 100.16%, an increase of 3.79% over the previous year.

ECFA certificates of origin reduced over 4 mln yuan of tariffs for Ningbo businesses

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Thursday, 19 January 2012 18:10

Since inspection and quarantine departments began to issue ECFA certificates of origin on Jan. 1, 2011, Ningbo Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau has issued 838 certificates, involving a total amount of 25.46 mln dollars and saving a sum of over 4 mln yuan tariffs. The certificates receivers are mainly in such sectors as light industry, chemical industry, fitness equipments and electromechanical devices.

ECFA is a preferential trade agreement between mainland China and Taiwan that aims to normalize the economical ties between the two sides. The pact, signed on June 29, 2010, covered all the economic exchanges across the Taiwan Strait. And the "early harvest" list of tariff concessions covered about 800 products, with the promise to reduce all the tariffs to zero in three years.

Last year, Ningbo Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau made great efforts in encouraging trading businesses to take advantage of the preferential policies. According to ECFA, the second round of tariff concession of the products listed in the “early harvest” program would take effect on Jan. 1, 2012. From that day on, the tariffs of over 94% of all the products on the "early harvest" list would be reduced to zero, and tariffs of 30 products that had tariffs of over 15% before would be reduced to 5%. As a result, import and export businesses are highly recommended to make use of the preferential policies to decrease costs and increase competitiveness in trading with Taiwan.