Recruiting in China

Chinese government will spend 12.7 billion yuan ($1.85 billion) on upgrading lower-yield farmland this year, the State Office for Comprehensive Agricultural Development said on Wednesday.

The money, which is 10.27 percent more than last year, will transform 1.77 million hectares of lower-yield farmland into high-yield. As a result, three billion kilograms will be added to China's total annual grain production capacity.

Around 7.69 billion yuan, or more than 60 percent of the funds, will go to the 13 major grain producing regions of Heibei, Henan, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shandong, Sichuan and Anhui provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Lower-yield farmland is farmland that has an output less than 20 percent of the regional average, calculated on a three-year base.

The measures to upgrade lower-yield farmland varies from different places and the major means includes:

-- to improve the irrigation system and road system;

-- to transform mountainous farmland into terraces, making it easier for the machines to work;

-- improve the soil quality by increasing organic matter content in the soil;

-- to improve farming efficiency by training the farmers.

Altogether 35 water-efficient projects for the medium-scale irrigated regions will be initiated this year with an investment of 301 million yuan, said the office.

The rush in modern China to turn traditional farming areas into industrial zones or residential areas for expanding cities has caused continuous shrinkage of China's farmland in recent years. So the nation has drawn a critical line of 120 million hectares as the official minimum of arable land to feed the world's largest population. But statistics reported the amount of arable land fell to 121.73 million hectares last year.

From 1988 to 2007, China invested 320.3 billion yuan in comprehensive development of agriculture, including 99.2 billion yuan by the central government and 76.8 billion by local governments. Of the total, 34.3 billion yuan was bank loans, and 110 billion yuan was raised by farmers and other sectors.

This year, the country could see the fifth consecutive bumper harvest of summer grain, the first such run of harvests since 1949, the Ministry of Agriculture has said.

Summer crops, which usually account for about 23 percent of the total annual grain output, would surpass the 115.34 billion kilograms produced in 2007, the ministry said.

China yielded approximately 500 billion kilograms of grain last year.

Nokia Siemens Networks has won a network expansion contract worth 550 million euros (about 870 million U.S. dollars) from China Mobile, the Finnish-German networks company said Friday.

The contract includes designing, building, maintaining and optimizing the radio and core network for China Mobile, Nokia Siemens Networks said in a statement.

The solutions supplied by Nokia Siemens Networks will help China Mobile increase its network capacity and improve customer experience, while controlling capital and operating expenditure, the statement added.

Nokia Siemens Networks, headquartered in Espoo, Finland, is an international telecom infrastructure company with operations in some 150 countries.

China Mobile, established in 2000, is one of the largest telecom carriers in Asia.

Nokia Siemens Networks has won a network expansion contract worth 550 million euros (about 870 million U.S. dollars) from China Mobile, the Finnish-German networks company said Friday.

The contract includes designing, building, maintaining and optimizing the radio and core network for China Mobile, Nokia Siemens Networks said in a statement.

The solutions supplied by Nokia Siemens Networks will help China Mobile increase its network capacity and improve customer experience, while controlling capital and operating expenditure, the statement added.

Nokia Siemens Networks, headquartered in Espoo, Finland, is an international telecom infrastructure company with operations in some 150 countries.

China Mobile, established in 2000, is one of the largest telecom carriers in Asia.

German Continental AG said Thursday it plans to scale up investment in China and introduce environmentally friendly technology to improve competitiveness.

Continental, the biggest auto parts supplier in Europe, said that 10 percent to 12 percent of its current earnings comes from Asian markets, where its sales are expected to double by 2015.

Continental has recently invested 55.5 million euros (88.2 million U.S. dollars) in Changshu in China's southeastern province of Jiangsu to build a hydraulic brake factory..

The company said it will make Changshu its production center of the hydraulic brake system in East Asia.

Continental, a world-leading manufacturer of tires and brake systems, has become one of the top five international auto parts suppliers after acquiring Siemens VDO.

The working hours in Beijing will change from July 20 for the next two months to ease traffic pressure on the roads in the run up to and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Public institutions will open an hour later, at 9:30 am, and close at 5:30 pm, while working hours for companies will be between 9 am and 5 pm, says a Beijing municipal government notice, released on Saturday.

Shopping malls will open at 10 am and close at 10 pm or even later.

Schools, administrative bodies and essential service sectors are exempt from the changes.

The Beijing government encourages people to work online from home, if possible, to avoid commuting and adapt to flexible working hours for government bodies and companies.

The change, first suggested by Liu Guoxiang, a deputy to Beijing municipal people's congress, last year, is aimed at reducing traffic congestion and pollution in the capital.

Home to more than 3 million vehicles, Beijing has urged people to use more public transport during the Olympics.

Taiwan's leading aircraft carrier China Airlines said Thursday its board had elected Philip Wei as the company chairman.

Wei, 66, who was chairman from November 2005 until he stepped down in October, replaces Ringo Chao, who resigned Monday after less than a year in the post.

Wei's October resignation came two months after a China Airlines Boeing 737-800 burst into flames after landing in Okinawa, Japan. All of the passengers and crew evacuated the plane without serious injuries.

Local newspapers said the transport ministry -- in effect the airline's largest shareholder -- hoped Wei would help the airline swing to profit.

"Regarding the company's operation, we will centre on short-haul flights as the surging oil prices have especial negative impacts on long-haul flights," Wei told reporters.

He vowed to further reform the company and continued to improve flight safety but said he was not mulling salary cuts or lay-offs.

The carrier early June cut its monthly flights by 10 percent to combat rising oil prices.

China Airlines posted a net loss of 2.97 billion Taiwan dollars (97.7 million US) for the first quarter to March.