pins blog,pins weblog,pins news

We felt so insecure about the return to the motherland 10 years ago and a BNO (a simplified name for a passport of British National Overseas) was considered a way to fly if situation in Hong Kong became worse,” David Chan recalled his rush for a BNO passport in 1996.

Sitting in a Starbucks in Central, seeing office people hurrying around the skyscrapers, David said, “However nothing has changed, except land in Hong Kong is getting more expensive and we are more busy.”

Being an accountant in a world famous financial company, David felt Hong Kong is still an attractive financial center and become even hotter due to its closer connection with Chinese mainland, which is on a fast track of economic development.

But David said most people in Hong Kong felt a stroke and worried about their future, when the British government announced in 1986 that Hong Kong people’s British Dependent Territories citizenship (BDTC) status ceased to exit after midnight 1 July, 1997, the time Hong Kong starts a new era with its motherland.

Hong Kong people began to replan their life and getting a BNO passport is the least way for self protection since a BNO holder can travel around 88 countries or regions without applying for a visa while the passport of newly established Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) can only provide about 4 visa-free accesses.

David remembered on 31 March, 1996, the last day for BNO application, when over 50,000 Hong Kong people queuing over night in Wan Chai as if they are grasping a straw of hope.

However, ten years later, the number of BNO holders in Hong Kong reduced from 3 million to 1.5 million and people like David who used to travel with their BNO passport now begin to take their HKSAR passports with them.

“The reason is convenience, convenience and convenience,” David said, “HKSAR passport now can provide free-visa access to about 134 countries or regions. Besides, since Hong Kong has become part of China, Hong Kong people is naturally recognized as Chinese when traveling overseas. Taking a HKSAR passport with me thus become the most convenient and natural way to identify myself.”

According to statistics from Immigration Department of HKSAR, the number of HKSAR passport holders was 1.85 million in 2003, five years after Hong Kong’s return to its motherland and the number increased to over 4 million this year, when Hong Kong is preparing a big celebration for its tenth anniversary of returning.

David admitted, “Using HKSAR passport doesn’t mean patriotic, instead Hong Kong people are more pragmatic. They won’t believe anything until they see the fact.”

“We choose HKSAR passports because they are more convenient, we choose to stay in Hong Kong because it is more alive and prosperous. Perhaps what we haven’t realized is that in the process of making those choices we become closer to our motherland,” he said.

China and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) are looking forward to great opportunities brought about by the Free Trade Area (FTA) to be established on Jan. 1 next year, as both sides have witnessed closer trade and investment ties.

The 6th China-ASEAN Expo, a key platform to promote mutual exchanges and cooperation, closed with fruitful results here Saturday in Nanning, capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

“The expo has focused on the incoming FTA and brought huge business opportunities to both sides,” Chen Wu, vice co-chair and secretary general of the expo’s organizing committee, said at the closing press conference, who is also Guangxi’s vice governor.

As of 4 p.m. Saturday, total trade volume at the five-day expo hit 1.65 billion U.S. dollars, up 3.8 percent over last year’s event, while 136 cross-border investment projects had been signed with investment up 1.19 percent from last year to 6.44 billion U.S. dollars, Chen said.

Chinese enterprises reached 204 deals with total investment of 61.85 billion yuan at the expo, up 1.05 percent from a year ago, Chen said.

A total of 11 high-level forums were also held on the sidelines of the expo, including the China-ASEAN Customs-Trade Cooperation Forum, the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, and the China-ASEAN Summit Forum on Radio and Television.

“The expo reflects the growing and expanding trade relations between ASEAN and China as the comprehensive FTA takes effect in 2010,” said Yap Laipeng, representative of the ASEAN Secretariat.

Representing the first FTA agreement signed by China, it will provide zero tariff on 90 percent of products traded between China and ASEAN and other favorable policies on trade and investment.

Zheng Junjian, chief of Guangxi Exposition Bureau, said at the closing press conference that the 7th expo next year would mainly display products given zero tariff or other favorable treatment.

“The expo is tailored for the FTA,” Zheng said.

The 7th expo will be held from Oct.20 to 24 next year in the permanent venue of Nanning with the theme of “FTA and New Opportunities”, according to Chen.

The China-ASEAN FTA will create a combined GDP of nearly 6 trillion US dollars and cover a population of 1.9 billion, becoming the world’s third largest FTA in terms of trade volume.

“It’s a significant, historical event for China-ASEAN cooperation and development, and also for the world’s regional integration,” Chen said.

China is currently ASEAN’s fourth largest trading and investment partner, with its trade with ASEAN accounting for 10.6 percent of the association’s total. Its investment in ASEAN member states soared by 125 percent year-on-year to reach 2.18 billion U.S. dollars in 2008.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam with a total area of 4.5 million square kilometers.

The UN General Assembly opened its 64th session on Tuesday at the UN Headquarters in New York, as world leaders are set to gather here in the next few days for a string of summits on pressing global challenges.
In a world still shrouded by a financial and economic crisis rarely seen in decades, and hassled by environmental degradation and regional conflicts, hot topics will include climate change, nuclear disarmament, development, global financial and economic governance as well as international peace and security.

About 130 heads of state or government are expected to take the podium at the assembly hall and some will also stay for other eye-catching events, including a climate summit and a Security Council summit on nuclear disarmament.

When some western countries began to pin their hope of economic recovery on trade protectionism, China and the 10 ASEAN countries are immersed in the delight of embracing a free trade area which will allow goods to flow across borders freely.

The free trade area has undoubtedly become a central theme of the five-day China-ASEAN Expo, held from Oct. 20 to 24 in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. State leaders, high-ranking officials and businessmen all applauded free trade while scolding trade restrictive measures.

Out of the 4,000 booths at the expo, the ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) occupied 1,168, a record high since the first expo in 2004.

What’s special of this year’s expo was that attendees also included enterprises from nations beyond the China-ASEAN region, such as the United States, France, Italy and enterprises from Hungary and Madagascar that exhibited for the first time at the expo, desiring opportunities for trade and investment cooperation.

These facts showed the common pursuit of these enterprises as well as officials from China and ASEAN at the expo — “trust, cooperation and free trade”.

The upcoming China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) is obviously a significant event attracting worldwide attention.

The CAFTA, due for operation on Jan. 1, 2010, will cover a population of 1.9 billion and conduct zero-tariff policy on 90 percent of the products traded between China and ASEAN.

For better exchanges, custom authorities of both sides reached agreement at the expo to actively reduce trade barriers and boost trade facilitation to build closer economic ties amid the lingering global economic crisis.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang said at the opening of the expo on Tuesday that the completion of the FTA would be a milestone for regional economic integration and a new starting point for bilateral relationship.

It demonstrated the efforts and resolution of China and ASEAN to promote trade and investment, and resist protectionism in any form, he said.

China and ASEAN vow to push forward free trade to help each other buoy economic growth, while some western developed countries adopt protectionist measures against products from mainly developing countries when cooperation is in desperate need to stabilize the world economy.

Such measures will stymie the hard-won world economic recovery from a slump, helped by huge amount of money pooled into the economy.

The financial crisis originated in the United States in September of last year not only dragged the world economy into recession, but also undermined market confidence and credit systems. Protectionist measures employed by some nations further extended the credit crisis across the globe.

China was one of the victims as the European Union, Argentina, Brazil started anti-dumping and anti-countervailing investigations against Chinese products, following the United States that decided to levy high tariffs on tires and steel pipes from China.

Such measures were implemented in the name of protecting their domestic businesses and employment. However, taking protectionist measures has been proven to be short-sighted and destructive, which would not only hurt their own economies but also depress the world economy.

For example, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act adopted by the U.S. government in 1930 raised U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, which reduced the world trade then by about two-thirds.

Now, as globalization pushed forward ties among economies, any policy or measure taken by one economy would have an impact on others. One country’s protectionist measures would result in chain effect and trigger retaliatory policies, which would create a vicious circle and stifle world trade and jeopardise international relationship.

A report from the World Trade Organization issued in September said the main risk was that G20 members would continue to bow to protectionist pressures, even if only gradually, particularly as unemployment continued to rise.

The world economic order is going through reform but cooperation is always the path to mutual benefits.

Poh Choon Ann, deputy president of Singapore Manufacturers’ Federation, criticized protectionist measures at the Expo that it was “sad” that western developed countries pursued protectionist measures while claiming themselves advocate of free trade.

“Even if you win today, you will lose the whole world tomorrow,” he said.

A final decision on the reduction of subway ticket fares in Beijing is likely to be made within this month, according to the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

The proposed reduction is to encourage more people to use the metro system.

“We will study all the proposals to the government as soon as possible and try to come to a decision within this month,” Chai Xiaozhong, deputy director of the commission, said

Current subway ticket prices are higher than that for buses, and this is driving commuters away, Liu Tongliang, head of Beijing municipal transportation administration bureau, said.

“The metro system should play a major role in solving traffic congestion and environmental pollution,” he said.

Beijing now has four subway lines and they transport about 1.15 million passengers a day, according to the bureau.

At the hearing, Liu proposed two pricing systems: Lower the price of a one-way ticket to 2 yuan (25 cents) or adopt a flexible pricing scheme ranging from 2-4 yuan according to the distance traveled.

Twenty-five people attended the meeting. They included transport experts, passengers, representatives from the metro operator and government officials.

The majority approved the first proposal. But they were also concerned about overcrowding.

“This is the first hearing I have attended about reducing ticket prices. I am sure this will attract more people to use the metro system. But the question is whether or not our subway system can cope with a large number of passengers?” Xu Guangjian, professor at Renmin University of China, said.

Xu’s concern was shared by Chen Fang from the Beijing Finance School. He said the subway system was already very crowded during rush hours.

“Train doors can hardly be closed due to the overcrowding. Under the new pricing system, more people will use the metro system, posing great danger to public security,” Chen said.

Many at the meeting were also concerned about the tenure of the new pricing policy as it could cost the government about 1 billion yuan.

Geng Peishi, from the Beijing Subway Company, said the company is trying to improve its transportation capacity and ensure security,

“The solution for Beijing’s congestion is not above ground but underground. I can assure you that the government can afford it. The price reduction policy should not be of concern in the short term,” Chai said.

HONG Kong police arrested a Filipino woman who was in a hotel room where two American businessmen were found dead of possible poisoning last week, an investigator said yesterday.

Police are investigating whether the two Americans - identified only by their first names, Paul, 45, and Richard, 51, - were drugged at the five-star Grand Hyatt hotel on Friday.

The 20-year-old Filipino woman, Michelle Balingit Callejas, was arrested on Friday night and appeared in court on Monday on immigration violation charges, a police investigator said. She remained in police custody.

“We still don’t know if she has anything to do with the deaths, but she did appear in the hotel room,” said the officer.

Callejas - who worked at the Show Biz Night Club, a 15-minute walk from the Grand Hyatt - was charged with violating her condition of stay in Hong Kong by working outside her place of employment as a prostitute, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press yesterday.

Prostitution is legal in Hong Kong, but running a brothel is not.

A Hong Kong newspaper, The Standard, reported that police traced Callejas to the club, in Hong Kong’s lively nightlife district of Wan Chai, after a credit card check showed that one of the Americans had used his card there.

The two men were seen returning to the hotel with two women the night before they were found dead with white froth coming from their mouths, the paper reported.

The police investigator said they were also investigating the possibility of an attempted robbery that went wrong involving the use of the “date rape” drug flunitrazepam - a sedative sold as Rohypnol.

Police were investigating on Thursday whether an Italian man was drugged and robbed in his Hong Kong hotel room by a woman he had just met.

The case comes two weeks after two American businessmen were found dead in their room at Hong Kong’s five-star Grand Hyatt hotel, after they met women at a nightclub in the red-light Wan Chai district and brought them to the hotel.

Police were awaiting toxicology results to find out what caused the men’s deaths, and have not ruled out the possibility they were drugged.

A friend found the 56-year-old Italian, identified only by his first name, Xueres, on Thursday morning after he returned to the hotel the night before with a woman he had just met, police said. He told police he had eaten food the woman gave him.

He later regained consciousness and found he was missing HK$20,000 (US$2,575; €1,755) in cash and a watch worth HK$20,000 gone, according to the police.

“The victim said the woman is a newly acquainted friend. She is about 25 years old,” a police spokeswoman said, requesting anonymity because of policy.

He complained of feeling ill and was sent to a hospital, the spokeswoman said. Police were investigating whether he had been drugged.

Police have recently received a rash of reports of men going to Wan Chai nightclubs, then waking up the next morning to find they have been robbed and have no recollection of what happened.

At least 44 men have reported such incidents in the last three years, according to police.

Although prostitution is legal in Hong Kong, it was unclear whether the women in the cases are believed to have been sex workers. Many of them in Hong Kong are illegal immigrants from places including mainland China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

NEGLIGENCE has been found to be the cause of Saturday’s fatal gas explosion.

Scientific analysis and investigation by Shanghai’s Safety Production Administration shows that repairmen pressurized a gas pipe without first separating a gas storage tank which was connected to the pipe. When the pressurized air mixed with residue of liquefied petroleum gas in the tank, the mixture exploded.

The blast on Pudong’s Pusan Road near Yanggao Road S. killed four and injured another 32. Most of the injured were released from hospital on Saturday. The two remaining patients are out of danger.

The administration has ordered an immediate check on all of the city’s gas stations.

Although the tragedy has aroused public concern about the safety regulations covering gas stations, residents continue with their own dangerous practices making cell-phone calls or not turning off their engines while filling up with the gas.

In a gas station on Yangpu District’s Guohe Road, one station attendant asked a woman driver to shut off the engine before her filling gas tank. “I am a new driver - I forgot to stop the engine,” said the woman.

The attendant told Shanghai Daily it was not uncommon to serve customers like this. “We have to keep reminding them,” said the man named Qian.”We have to remind them to stop their engines, not to make cell-phone calls and not to smoke.”

Meanwhile some city gas stations have posted large special warnings, advising customers not to make cell phone calls. In a gas station on Dahua Road near Xincun Road, Baoshan District, an eye-catching slogan has been put together with the media report of the explosion.

Dangerous behavior like this also upsets residents, especially those living near gas stations.

“I often see moped riders making cell phone calls after entering gas station,” said a woman named Ye living near a gas station on Zhongshan Road S, Luwan District. “They are apparently unaware of the ban.”

“I heard of a blast recently in Brazil which was caused by a worker talking on the cell phone. It is really worrying,” she said.

Chai Junyong, a former safety official and now a delegate of the Shanghai People’s Congress, said he had asked governments to remove the 21 gas stations that are within 100 meters of schools and kindergartens.

Chinese Director Zhang Yimou was among nine winners of the “Green Chinese” awards, a government environmental prize, on Friday for his engagement in environmental protection.

The Academy Award-winning director was “following eco-friendly rules during movie shooting and highlighting green issues as the chief director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 2008,” according to the award citation.

The annual award this year has focused on the protection of water after a series of major water pollution incidents.

The award winners, considered environment protection “role models,” include: Wang Yongchen, the founder of non-governmental Green Earth Volunteers; Chai Jing, a China Central Television journalist, who has conducted in-depth reports on environmental issues; Zhao Xihai, a retired worker who has planted hundreds of thousands of trees over the past decade.

The award, co-sponsored by seven Chinese government departments, including the State Environmental Protection Administration and the Ministry of Culture, and supported by the United Nations Environment Program, was established in 2005.

The award caught public attention last year as a result of the controversial “negative example” nomination of Chinese film directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Jizhong, though neither made it to the final short list.

Chen’s film, “The Promise,” damaged the environment near a pristine lake shore in Shangri-la, in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, and the film company behind Zhang’s film was accused of damaging the environment in the Jiuzhaigou National Park, in Sichuan Province, during shooting.

Zhang later agreed to make a documentary to compensate. Chen was fined as a result of his film damaging the environment.

Many netizens described the nomination of the directors as an outrageous irony, saying Chen’s movie had focused mass attention on environmental protection.

“Negative examples” and “controversial figures” have for the first time being added to the nominations to serve as a warning, according to the organizing committee.

All candidates went through several selection rounds, started as early as September, and public voting, before the announcement of the final result on Friday evening.

Less than 200 days to go for the Olympic Games. The adrenalin is pumping a bit faster, with every political advisor; lawmaker and government official trying to get things right to the last detail. The objective: to ensure a successful and high-quality Games.

More than 12 percent of the 1,188 proposals submitted by 729 members of the Beijing Municipal Committee (BMC) of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) were related to the Games. And they ranged from transport and toilets to culture and entertainment.

Beijing will withdraw more than half of its 3 million cars from the roads during the Olympics to ensure better air quality and improve the flow of traffic, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications Liu Xiaoming told a panel discussion at the ongoing first session of the 11th BMC.

The traffic plans for the Olympics and Paralympics, to be held in August and September, have been completed, Liu said.

Public transport will operate more efficiently and carry more passengers during the Games, with 173 bus routes and special lanes for Olympics-related vehicles. And more metro trains, some of which will not stop at all stations, are likely to be introduced to deal with passenger rush.

Also, the local government will stagger working hours and change the timings for commercial businesses to ease traffic jams during normal peak hours.

“Beijing has long been short of public toilet signs,” Beijing International City Development Research Institute President Lian Yuming said. He suggested the city issue a brochure or a map of public toilets and make toilet signs more prominent.

“We should have such signboards at every 500 meters in major streets, and areas frequented by tourists. They should tell where exactly a toilet is,” Lian told a panel discussion.

Beijing Municipal Administration Commission Deputy Director Chai Wenzhong said the public toilets at and near Olympic venues will be ready before August.

Chai’s department has just bought a number of high-quality movable toilets. “They will be installed in places that are generally frequented by a lot of people,” especially foreigners.

Head of Beijing Railway Station Bureau An Luqin said all necessary measures will be taken to ensure order at Beijing’s two railway stations for long distance trains during the Games.

The department has already installed eight big elevators to help passengers get in and out of the stations more easily.

“We are fully prepared to increase the number of trains whenever the Beijing Olympic Committee (BOCOG) requests in order to ensure athletes and spectators reach their destination cities on time.”

Xiao Mingzheng, a member of China Democratic Promotion Party’s Beiing committee, suggested that special sightseeing routes be provided for Olympic visitors. The existing transport facilities for a visit to Olympic sites are not up to the mark.

“People have to either take taxis or buses, causing more traffic jams. Moreover, traveling to these sites now takes a longer time,” Xiao said. And many taxi drivers know little about the venues.

He suggested every passenger be ensured of a seat on a bus, and that an automatic translation and illustration machine be installed beside each seat.

BOCOG plans to set up 26 cultural squares in the city where residents and visitors alike can watch the greatest sports event on giant TV screens.

Big screens will be installed at the squares and will beam the Olympic events live. Also, exhibitions and other Olympic-related performances will be held at the squares.

People will have free access to these squares, which will be open from June 23 to the end of the Paralympic Games in September, director of the BOCOG’s cultural activities department Zhao Dongming said.

Deputy director of the Beijing Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang Li Aijun suggested holding Peking Opera performances with English translations during the Games.

A Peking Opera lover herself, Li said translation services should be provided to foreigners attending such shows to help them better understand the nuances of Chinese culture.

“Many Peking Opera pieces have fixed lyrics, so we can pre-record the English translations and play them during performances,” she said.

Head of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture Jiang Gongmin said the city will bring together a collection of Chinese lanterns from provinces such as Fujian, Sichuan, Shanxi, Yunan and Guizhou to organize lantern shows in order to create a special atmosphere during the Games.

The department will also hold a number of other cultural events at the Beijing Cultural Palace of Nationalities.