Full Contents - March 2005

We have the technology
US$10bn Medtronic, Inc makes so many pacemakers, stents and other devices that the company claims its devices are implanted in somebody somewhere every six seconds. And they are deployed in ever more varied therapies as research finds more ways to work the electricity that pervades the human body. About 120,000 devices were implanted in China, where the company sees its biggest potential market - 200m people who, with the exception of many of China's 40m diabetes sufferers, are over 50 and now live long enough to be snared by degenerative cardiovascular, neurological and other diseases for which Medtronic offers a wide range of therapies through the country's estimated 3,000 top-tier hospitals.
Looming looms
Quotas on textile and garment producers did come off January 1, for everyone but China, that is.
Bumper cars
Competition and capacity keep rising in China's auto sector, while buyers watch their yuan
Old and broke
To grasp the looming pension crisis China faces in just one generation, consider the demographics, where two very powerful factors are at work: the one-child policy, in force for 25 years now, means there will be many fewer young people entering the work force - just as the population of old people, who now live much longer, skyrockets.
Japan as No 2
China dominates the news so totally these days that other parts of Asia struggle to get a mention.

Railways strained beyond limit
Trains swollen with people clutching their goods and chattels swayed creakily out of railway stations as tens of millions headed home for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Saving for a rainy day
An oil exporter as late as the early 1990s, China only comparatively recently came to grips with the fact it might depend on imports, the thinking being that domestic energy sources could always be developed to match rising demand.
Closing ranks
With Japan putting China on its enemies list and siding with the United States in its opposition to European Union moves to lift the arms embargo against China - a policy initiated after the Tiananmen crackdown - China and Russia moved closer to cementing security ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and visiting Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan jointly announcing the two countries would inaugurate regular security consultations to strengthen military cooperation.

Big plan, small impact
China is building a huge oil reserve, but its impact on overall demand will be minimal.
China reconstructs
Investment banks want to get into China's equity markets for their long-term potential. But there is business to be grabbed now.
Distress call
The real estate sector has begun to look promising.
Handset hell
Casualties are piling up in China's brutal handset market.
GDP rise highest in eight years
The news was in and it was official:

Eye on America
Think it is stirring up trouble over the IBM sale? Just wait till China buys something serious.

The man who came too late
Zhao Ziyang's death revives memories of how the economic miracle of the past 20 years really got started.

Doing the rounds in China
Dr Stephen Oesterle, Medtronic's senior vice president for medicine and technology and Medtronic China Vice President and General Manager Victor Tsui also contributed points in the conversation.

Under construction
Talk about infrastructure frenzy. One UK engineering firm did one new town master plan a month for the last 24 months - to house 5m people.
India
India and China are exploring new partnerships in software outsourcing, Electronic Engineering Times reported, noting that China set up its Sino-India Cooperative Office in December to lure Indian software firms such as TCS, Wipro, Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Satyam Computer Services to expand their China operations beyond Shanghai into other Chinese cities such as Beijing.

Numero uno
Shanghai displaced Rotterdam as the world's largest cargo seaport.
Greens take charge
China's environmental authority said construction on all 30 projects alleged to have started without their environmental impact assessments approved had stopped.
Amazing Shanghai
China's metropolis has hit enough ambitious targets to imagine what the future can be.
Semiconductors
China will do what it takes to narrow its widening supply and demand gap.

Here comes 2002
Economic view/ From Bank of America's Situation Room, A prediction of a slowdown back to earlier growth levels

Whales and minnows
Plan to convert old British consulate rivals news that old state enterprise bosses have converted too.
Glasses, please (burp)
The food and beverage segment posted results that should thrill dentists.
In money-losing news�
Moves to get pensions off the ground in China took a hit in Harbin,capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province.
Foreign eyes on China biotech
<i>China Business Weekly</i> reported foreign companies sniffing around for potential acquisitions in China's biotech sector, noting California-based Invitrogen Corp's just completed US$8m takeover of reagent and lab equipment maker Bio Asia in Shanghai.

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