Unmoderated Real World

Afternoon All

Whilst you bloodthirsty little lot have been dreaming your nasty little dreams of horrific death and destruction to millions ..... Things have been happening in the real world!!!!

Following up on the Yuans revaluaution last summer, China is continuing with its currency reform by the issue of "Market Maker" licences to over a dozen domestic and foriegn Banks operating in China.

These banks will be able to trade the Yuan (within I presume daily limits) and genrally help the currency move towards a more true market value. Personally, I believe that this announcement has a lot to do with Citicorp Bank making a US$3 Billion bid for a controlling 51% of The Guangdong Development Bank. The bid has to be approved of course, but both developments represent landmarks in Chinese Economic reform and development.

So you see, whilst you plan Air Raids and Amphibeous Invasions, the Corporate World is planning some very different Take Overs of their own.

Happy Dreaming

A unified planet all under the Mircosoft-citibank combined flag/Logo.:roll:

Well you may well laugh.

Apparently the bid for the Guangdong Development Bank (GDB) has been succesfull subject to CCP approval.

The US$3 Billion is made by a consortium led by Citigroup and will buy 85% of the bank. It will retain 50% for itself, with the rest distributed through the other consortium members.

Now the GDB is a State Owned Bank, so this is both a sale of a bank to a foriegn company and a Privatisation. The question however, will the CCP take the moral and global economic high ground and approve the deal, or will they take the opportunity to play snub tit for tat in the wake of US blocking the Unicol Oil company purchase last summer and for the other "block Chinese bids" campaigns that Congress has recently promoted.

Either way Utelore; regarding the above, I bet you wish you had had an Insider Tip regarding this purchase eh? Well if this is the beginning of a trend, perhapse you should take a risk and ask a Stock Broker about buying shares in Chinese Banks. This is how you make (or lose) money!!!!!

just as a piece of news: China is getting rid of agricultural tax starting Jan 1, 2006. that means those poor farmers don't have to pay anymore taxes for the grain etc. i don't think i need to put the source because it's everywhere, just search for it on google news.

apparently, according to numerous news sites that the agricultural tax is only 5% of the total income of the government. i always thought it would be a lot bigger...

Well, the farmers are so poor that even if they pay their taxes, it's probably only cents per (a lot of things) but since China don't have sales tax, where do most of their income come from?

What is the Chinese name for Guangdong Development Bank? It's not "Guang-dong Sheng" Bank, is it?

Citibank still has to deal with HSBC and maybe Bank of America. (Too bad you can't find Bank of America in China or HSBC in America most of the time...... Transfer of money is so..o messy or expensive sometimes.)

Hi Punisher Hi Sumdud

It does seem a long time since we "spoke" last. Too long perhapse

I was aware of the scrapping of the Agricultural Taxes, it was announced a little while ago as part of President Hu's policy of rebalancing the benefits of development etc. I would also guess that collecting so little money from so many over so much territory probably costs more than the value of the tax. Also to be honest, I guess China can now get very adaquate tax revenues from those to whom development has been beneficial.

Its all part of the contradiction that can often be China. On the one hand, we can expect to hear early next year, that in 2005 the Chinese economy overtook that of france and Britain and became the worlds fourth largest:china: Forecasts of on year on year growth of 10% remain unchanged.
On the other hand China is still a developing country

Think about it, the worlds fourth largest economy is a developing country. It will still be a developing country when it overtakes Japan for Second Place at the end of the decade. Pretty freaky thought isnt it.

As regard banks; well obviously I only read the English Language news reports. I did ask Mrs S for a Cantonese translation of Guangdong Development Bank and she said something much longer than Gunagdong Sheng. It was however a direct translation, not necessarily the Chinese name for the bank.

I am surprised to hear that there are few HSBC's in US, yes money transfers are expensive even in UK. generally I find that for just a few hundreds of pounds PAYPAL is the cheapest transfer option.

Oh well, this has been very pleasent, but I must now get on

Happy New Year

sumdud said:

What is the Chinese name for Guangdong Development Bank? It's not "Guang-dong Sheng" Bank, is it?

Click to expand...

this is it's translation: 广东发展银行 (guang dong fa zhan yin hang), and here's its homepage for those who can read chinese:


there are at least two HSBC in vancouver, could be more, but that's all i know. one is in my area actually.

and yes, long time no talk, sampan.

Actually there are lots of HSBC's in US. Look up the HSBC site. There are SOOOO many HSBC's in Vancouver. I used to live there, too.

Regarding China's ranking. The ranking is biased because China's currency is under-valued. Using Purchasing Price Parity as a measure, China is easily #2 in the world.

It is both sad and amazing that the recent growth has come from just a few cities and areas. Sad because much of country is still VERY VERY poor. Amazing because if those areas accounted for 10% growth overall in the country, the growth rate in those cities themselves must be like 70% per year or something.

China needs to reform its rural areas so the economic boom spreads there too. If the whole China is booming like those few cities are right now... we could see some 20% growth or more!

Well, China is developed if you count only the Eastern half, exclude supply systems (Not sure about the area that has electrical/water supply), and the mines.....

China is developed in the sense that it has many industries, and is in many ways independent. It may not have much oil, but the steel and food and coal is enough. The explosion in power plant construction in China shows this.

I'd say China is like the West in the 1870s. Corruption, pollution, environmental destruction, expansion, industrialization, modernization.

I am surprise that there are so few HSBC in US too. Luckily, they just started their expansion, and a new bank on the Chintown-Downtown(City Center) just started up, finally. Money transfer has just got so much simpler.(The old bank that we transfer them in were a real pain; HSBC uses a really cheap flat rate.)

Yes, Sampan, No time no talk.