Govts & policies

High-speed train service arriving

China will in April open a new high-speed train service, linking the central industrial hub of Wuhan with the city of Zhuhai on the southern coast. Under the new service a single trip will take 5 hours and 14 minutes to cover the 1,123 kilometer distance, which takes more than 13 hours by car. Ticket sales started on Tuesday for the new service, which is scheduled to open on April 16.

Belt and Road buoyant in 2017

Strategic acquisitions and investments related to the Belt and Road Initiative by Chinese companies are expected to remain buoyant in 2017, despite an uncertain global political and economic outlook, according to a report published on Wednesday. Under the Chinese government initiatives, economies in the Belt and Road region are emerging as hot spots for Chinese outbound foreign investment, especially in Southeast Asia and South Asia, because of their huge market potential, according to Deloitte's 2017 Outbound Investment Guide for Chinese Businesses.

Companies & markets

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 835

United States chip giant Qualcomm Inc officially introduced its Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 mobile platform in China on Wednesday. Qualcomm said the new platform is able to support next-generation entertainment experiences and connected cloud services for a variety of devices, including smartphones, virtual reality or augmented reality head-mounted displays, tablets and mobile PCs. The company said the new flagship product aimed to meet increasing demand for mobile virtual reality and better connections. The US group said the new mobile platform had started production and it expected to ship in commercial devices in the first half of 2017.

Aircraft Recycling buys US group

Aircraft Recycling International Ltd, a unit of China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Ltd, has acquired US aviation service provider Universal Asset Management Inc. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aircraft Recycling, Universal will be responsible for its aircraft recycling business overseas - and will be part of its global distribution platform, according to an announcement made by China Aircraft.

Dubai tourism gets China stimulus

Dubai Tourism said on Wednesday that its hospitality sector saw a 12 percent year-on-year growth in the first two months of 2017, mostly propelled by tourists from China and Russia. Dubai welcomed just over three million visitors, nearly four times the rate compared to the previous year, said the government-controlled Dubai Tourism authority. This period, said Dubai Tourism, witnessed a 60 percent growth in overnight tourists from China with January alone peaking at a dramatic 102 percent, attracting a total of 157,000 Chinese visitors in just the first two months.

AliHealth partners CP on egg tracking

AliHealth, a health arm controlled by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, partnered with Thailand agri-food company Charoen Pokphand Group which has an egg processing unit in Beijing, to launch a coding system on Wednesday. It aims to help better ensure food safety for customers, mainly by tracing CP Group's eggs to their origin. Customers can access information such as the production date and the specific location of the egg production sites, by scanning a QR code on the package. AliHealth first launched such a system in mid-2016 for medicines and the latest move represents a further expansion of the system's use in the food industry.

New fruit route for ASEAN nations

A ship laden with fruit from ASEAN countries arrived at Fangchenggang Port, marking a new shipping route for transporting fruit, local authorities said on Wednesday. The shipping route, from Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh to the port city of Fangchenggang in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, will be operated by four ships from China COSCO Shipping Corp.

Around the world

Polish startup Blik powers ahead

Banks competing in one of Europe's most cutthroat markets - which decided to team up on a new technology that allows their customers to leave their wallets at home - are doing roaring business with a startup. The Polish startup, Blik, enables customers of nine banks to draw cash from ATMs, wire money using telephone numbers and pay for goods or services on the internet and in shops without sharing card or bank data. Two years after its launch, it has 3.5 million users and enables 2 million transactions per month.

Petrobras sees third year of losses

Brazil's national oil company Petrobras registered a loss of 14.82 billion reais ($4.94 billion) in 2016, its third straight year of negative growth, the group announced on Tuesday. The performance was less severe than the 34.846 billion reais loss the company recorded in 2015. Despite the negative result, Petrobras closed the fourth quarter with a net profit of 2.51 billion reais, which was far from enough to stem the flow of losses accumulated over the whole year.

China Daily - Agencies