Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Energy News .




TRADE WARS
China approves three more free-trade zones
by Staff Writers
Shanghai (AFP) March 25, 2015


Australia to join Asia infrastructure bank if conditions met
Sydney (AFP) March 25, 2015 - Australia will join a China-backed infrastructure bank if conditions such as multilateral and transparent governance are met, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday, flagging an announcement "in the next few days".

China and 20 other countries signed a memorandum last October of understanding to establish the Beijing-headquartered US$50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) bank.

Britain, France, Germany and Italy have also announced plans to join.

But Washington has voiced concern about whether the bank would meet international governance, environmental and social standards.

The institution is expected to address the region's burgeoning demand for transportation, dams, ports and other facilities and is seen as a potential rival to US-based institutions such as the World Bank.

Abbott said his government had approached China, Australia's largest trading partner, about how the bank would be governed and would be making an announcement soon.

"We have been talking to the Chinese to try to ensure that it is in fact a multilateral institution, that it is run in all important respects by a board, that its processes are transparent, that it is genuinely accountable and that it is not controlled by any one entity," the prime minister told parliament.

"Under those circumstances we would certainly be prepared to join."

Abbott said he had several conversations with US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the AIIB.

The bank has support from countries including India, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Abbott's comments came days after International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Christine Lagarde said during a visit to China that she welcomed the AIIB's establishment.

She added that the IMF would be "delighted" to cooperate with it.

World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati has also hailed the AIIB, telling China's official news agency Xinhua: "Any new initiative that will mobilise funding in order to fill the infrastructure gap is certainly welcome."

China has given the go-ahead for three more free-trade zones, state media reported, despite the country's first project in Shanghai proving disappointing 18 months after its establishment.

A meeting of the Communist Party's politburo hosted by President Xi Jinping on Tuesday approved zones in the southern province of Guangdong, eastern province of Fujian and northern city of Tianjin, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

China's commerce ministry had already announced in December that three FTZs would be set up in those locations.

State media have said the Guangdong FTZ aims to speed economic integration with neighbouring Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China.

The Fujian zone is focussed on Taiwan, which China considers part of its sovereign territory. The Tianjin FTZ is part of a push to better integrate the city with nearby Beijing and Hebei province.

Media reports originally gave March 1 as the official opening date for all three, but that deadline passed. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper later reported that the Guangdong FTZ would launch on March 18, but no opening was announced.

A statement from the politburo said the establishment of FTZs aimed to "deepen reform" and "expand opening up to explore new approaches", adding the Shanghai zone had shown "positive progress" since its founding, according to Xinhua.

The Chinese commercial hub set up its FTZ in September 2013, promising a range of financial reforms, including full convertibility of the yuan currency and free interest rates, but they remain unfulfilled.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said this month that 73 percent of the 377 companies responding to its annual business climate survey said the FTZ offers "no tangible benefits" for them.

A former top official of the Shanghai FTZ, executive deputy director Dai Haibo, is now under investigation for violating the law, authorities said earlier this month, but gave no details.

Telefonica sells O2 to Hutchison Whampoa
Madrid (AFP) March 25, 2015 - Spain's Telefonica said Tuesday it would sell British telecom giant O2 to Hong Kong group Hutchison Whampoa for 10.25 billion pounds in a deal that could create Britain's biggest mobile phone firm.

"A definitive agreement has been reached after the finalisation of the process of due diligence on O2 UK," the Spanish firm said in a statement, adding the deal was worth the equivalent of 14 billion euros ($15.2 billion).

Subject to regulatory approval, Hutchison Whampoa will make an initial payment of 9.250 billion pounds and a further 1.0 billion pounds later once O2 reaches an agreed cash flow level, it said.

It hopes to wrap up the deal by June 30, 2016 -- a deadline that may be pushed back to September 30, 2016 in certain circumstances.

It is the latest purchase in a spending spree by Hutchison's owner, Hong Kong investment tycoon Li Ka-shing, one of Asia's richest men.

Li, 86, who is worth $30.6 billion according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, announced a sweeping re-arrangement of his business empire in January.

Hutchison already owns Britain's Three mobile phone network -- if he merged O2 with that company, he would reduce to three the number of players in Britain's fast-consolidating wireless telecoms sector.

A statement from Hutchison said the agreement to buy O2 "will create the number one mobile operator in the UK".

Hutchison's group managing director Canning Fok described the deal as a "major milestone".

"The combination of Three UK and O2 UK will create a business with unmatched scale and strength that will allow us to better compete against other operators in the marketplace," Fok said.

But some analysts have warned that a merger could lead to price hikes, owing to less competition.

Hutchison could "drive a lot of synergies" with the takeover, James Britton, a London-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg News.

"Whether that really equips them to be fully competitive in a converged UK market remains to be seen."

- Telecom sector shake-up -

It was the latest in a series of shake-ups in Britain's telecom sector.

British telecoms and TV firm BT had said in November that it was in preliminary talks to buy back O2 -- its former domestic mobile phone division -- from Telefonica.

Instead BT ended up buying another British mobile phone operator, EE, for 12.5 billion pounds.

British telecom giant Vodafone took over Spanish cable firm Ono on July 24 for 7.2 billion euros.

Telefonica, with operations across Europe and Latin America, is meanwhile looking to turn around its fortunes.

It reported a 35-percent plunge in net profits to 3.0 billion euros in 2014. Its debt stood at 45 billion euros at the end of 2014.

It said last month it plans to step up its value-added activities such as fibre optic cable, pay TV and smartphones, and to focus on its main markets in Spain, Germany and Brazil.

The Spanish group wants to pull out of the British market where it has been present since 2005, when it bought O2 for 26 billion euros.

Telefonica has already sold its operations in the Czech Republic and Ireland.

Hutchison's revamp is expected to pave the way for Li's retirement and follows speculation of a handover to his son Victor.

Li's shift away from a slowing Chinese economy to bargain hunt in Europe is seen as a further quest for stability for his vast empire.

Fok said the deal to buy O2 "reflects our continued confidence in the UK economy".

Hong Kong-based independent financial analyst Francis Lun said investors would be happy with the move.

"They (Hutchison) will have much better economies of scale -- they will be able to improve their profitability for the mobile and telephone sector."


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Global Trade News






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








TRADE WARS
'Made in China' tops EU list of unsafe products
Brussels (AFP) March 23, 2015
From toy-shaped cigarette lighters to a short-circuting plush rabbit that catches fire, a European safety watchdog warned Monday of a growing number of dangerous products for sale, with most coming from China. The watchdog said it had issued 2,435 notifications of unsafe products ranging from children's playthings to clothing and appliances in 2014, which was three percent more than in 2013. ... read more


TRADE WARS
Energy company Eneco is heating homes with computer servers

Polish Power Exchange hosts 18th AFM Annual Conference

Reducing emissions with a more effective carbon capture method

China to further streamline energy layout amid "new normal"

TRADE WARS
New technology converts packing peanuts to battery components

Superconductivity breakthroughs

You can't play checkers with charge ordering

Researchers increase energy density of lithium storage materials

TRADE WARS
U.S. to fund bigger wind turbine blades

Gamesa and AREVA create the joint-venture Adwen

Time ripe for Atlantic wind, advocates say

Wind energy: TUV Rheinland supervises Senvion sale

TRADE WARS
Single-Axis market to reach nearly $2 Billion in 2019

Discovery could yield more efficient portable electronics, solar cells

Spain's Iberdrola touts green footprint

Italian Solar Power Generation During Solar Eclipse

TRADE WARS
NE China nuclear plant generator operational

Hungary reaches EU deal on nuclear fuel from Russia

Jordan agrees deal for Russia to build nuclear plant

Nearly all fuel inside Fukushima reactor melted: TEPCO

TRADE WARS
Weltec Biopower Builds 500-kW Biogas Plant for Vegetable Producer

Chinese airline completes cooking oil fuel flight

Supercomputers help solve puzzle-like bond for biofuels

Scientists engineer faster-growing trees ideal for biofuel

TRADE WARS
China's Yutu rover reveals Moon's "complex" geological history

China's Space Laboratory Still Cloaked

China has ability but no plan for manned lunar mission: expert

Tianzhou-1 cargo ship to dock with space lab in 2016

TRADE WARS
As lakes become deserts, drought is Iran's new problem

Top China weather expert warns on climate change

US aims to cut government greenhouse gases

Research 'measures the pulse of planet Earth' to reveal hidden patterns of climate change




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.