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China could not have today’ s achievements if it had not carried out the policy of reform and opening-up some thirty years ago, says a Malaysian media expert.

China’s reform and opening-up has navigated into its 30th anniversary now, and its astonishing achievements since 1987 have not only been experienced by its own people, but also witnessed bythe world, Kee Hong Tan, a Malaysian researcher working for Malaysia Press Institute, told Xinhua during a recent interview.

Kee used to be a senior desk editor of Malaysia’s Chinese-language newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau before he retired in 1995. He made his first tour of China in 1991, a visit that he described as amazing and highly impressive.

During the tour, he traveled across vast parts of China, from Guangzhou to Beijing, and then all the way up north to Shenyang. Kee said he felt astonished with all of the changes he saw everywhere in China at that time.

“I saw tall buildings in cities, cars packing the streets, shops and stores full of commodities,” he said.

“People dressed well too. They followed the international fashion trend. Maybe it’s because China was turning to a ‘world factory’ for clothes,” he added.

After his trip, Kee wrote a story about China’s economic development.

He took another tour of China in 2006, mainly to cities in east China, such as Shanghai and Hangzhou, and again was surprised by the fresh changes. He was deeply impressed by seeing many young people starting to set up their own businesses, especially in finance, accounting and law.

According to Kee, China couldn’t have scored its present achievements without China’s late leader Deng Xiaoping, who pushed through many obstacles to start reform and opening-up in the country.

After 30 years of reform and opening-up, China’s economy has grown rapidly with the country’s living standards improving year after year, Kee said.

In recent years, China’s “soft power” in culture and education has also been seen to be on the rise. Currently, more people around the world are learning the Chinese language, waging a wave of “Chinese fever,” he said.

China’s rising “soft power” was also mirrored in its successful hosting of the Beijing Olympic Games this year, Kee said.

Reform and opening-up to the outside world is the right road that China has chosen, which is also necessary, Kee said. The policy is not only beneficial to China, but also has a positive influence on the world, he added.

In recent years, the Chinese government has started to take a “people-oriented” approach in its reform and opening-up, which showed vitality and humanity of the policy, Kee mentioned. He hoped China could smoothly push forward its reform and opening-up process, and properly handle the emerging problems alongside the economic development, such as environmental and humanity issues.

Economic confidence in the euro zone in November declined to its lowest level since August 1993, a survey from the European Commission showed Thursday.

The economic sentiment indicator in the 15-nation bloc sharing the euro fell by 5.1 points to 74.9 in November, following a fall of 7.1 points in the previous month.

In the 27-nation European Union (EU), the monthly indicator, based on business and consumer surveys, also dropped sharply by 6.7 points in November to 70.5, its lowest level since January 1985 when the statistics started.

The surveys are conducted in different sectors of the economy, namely industry, services, construction and retail trade as well as among consumers.

In both the euro zone and the EU, confidence fell considerably across all sectors. The industrial confidence indicator decreased significantly again. The services confidence indicator marked a new record-low level since 1985. Consumer confidence declined only marginally, but remained at very low levels compared to its average value. Sentiment in the retail sector declined further in the EU, but remained the same in the euro zone, while the construction confidence indicator dropped markedly in both regions.

All EU countries reported a fall in their economic confidence. Among the large member states, confidence deteriorated most markedly in Britain, down by 8.8 points, followed by Poland, Germany and the Netherlands, down by 7, 6.3 and 5.4 points respectively.

Meanwhile, the business climate indicator (BCI) for the euro zone decreased further in November to values last observed in 1993,the Commission said in a separate survey.

“The continued steep decline of the indicator signals a deteriorating trend in year-on-year industrial production growth, which is likely to continue to be negative even in the fourth quarter,” the Commission said.

All five underlying components of the BCI declined. Managers reported a sharp fall in the production trend while stocks of finished goods increased. Their assessment of the current overall order book and export order book is increasingly negative. Looking ahead, production expectations in the euro area worsened notably compared to last month.

Worsening confidence strengthened widespread fear of a deep recession in Europe. According to forecasts by the European Commission, the euro zone plunged into recession in the third quarter and the EU is set to follow in the fourth quarter.

EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia warned Thursday that both the EU and the euro zone will see contraction next year due to the financial crisis.

Previous Commission forecasts said the EU will grow by 0.2 percent next year and the euro zone by 0.1 percent.

In a bid to prevent the financial crisis evolving into an economic crisis, the Commission unveiled on Wednesday a massive package worth 200 billion euros (260 billion U.S. dollars) to stimulate the economy.

The economic stimulus plan proposed by the European Commission, global warming and the Lisbon Treaty are the main topics on the agenda at a summit of European Union (EU) leaders beginning Thursday.

The two-day summit seeks to approve a 200-billion-euro economic recovery plan, unveiled by the European Commission at the end of last month to check the downturn trend of the EU economy.

The leaders of the EU’s 27 member nations are yet to bridge differences over some details concerning the economic plan as some members have opposed the sum of the package.

Germany is reluctant to put in more money than the 32 billion euros it has announced to revive the economy, while Britain and France, together with the European Commission, insist that Germany, the biggest economy in the EU, spend more to pull itself out of recession and thus help other European economies.

Big differences also remain to be resolved on whether to cut value added tax (VAT) across the EU states and invest 5 billion euros of unused EU budget in energy and Internet infrastructure sectors.

Led by Germany, some countries prefer that the unused EU budget, totaling 120 billion euros, be returned to national treasuries rather than be invested in EU-wide projects.

Though euro-zone nations have raised objections to lowering VAT, Britain has already adopted the measure, cutting its VAT rate from17.5 percent to 15 percent, the lowest in the EU.

EU leaders also face the thorny issue of how to tackle global warming.

According to the European Commission proposal, the EU should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and bring renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of total energy consumption.

Poland and Italy are among nations opposed to the package as they are worried it could affect their manufacturing sector.

Leaders at the EU summit are also expected to announce a compromise on the Lisbon Treaty, which was designed to help streamline the decision-making mechanism of the bloc.

The economic stimulus plan proposed by the European Commission, global warming and the Lisbon Treaty are the main topics on the agenda at a summit of European Union (EU) leaders beginning Thursday.

The two-day summit seeks to approve a 200-billion-euro economic recovery plan, unveiled by the European Commission at the end of last month to check the downturn trend of the EU economy.

The leaders of the EU’s 27 member nations are yet to bridge differences over some details concerning the economic plan as some members have opposed the sum of the package.

Germany is reluctant to put in more money than the 32 billion euros it has announced to revive the economy, while Britain and France, together with the European Commission, insist that Germany, the biggest economy in the EU, spend more to pull itself out of recession and thus help other European economies.

Big differences also remain to be resolved on whether to cut value added tax (VAT) across the EU states and invest 5 billion euros of unused EU budget in energy and Internet infrastructure sectors.

Led by Germany, some countries prefer that the unused EU budget, totaling 120 billion euros, be returned to national treasuries rather than be invested in EU-wide projects.

Though euro-zone nations have raised objections to lowering VAT, Britain has already adopted the measure, cutting its VAT rate from17.5 percent to 15 percent, the lowest in the EU.

EU leaders also face the thorny issue of how to tackle global warming.

According to the European Commission proposal, the EU should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and bring renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of total energy consumption.

Poland and Italy are among nations opposed to the package as they are worried it could affect their manufacturing sector.

Leaders at the EU summit are also expected to announce a compromise on the Lisbon Treaty, which was designed to help streamline the decision-making mechanism of the bloc.

Annual rate of India’s inflation continued falling trend and dropped to 6.61 percent, the lowest in9 month, for the week ended on Dec. 13 compared to 6.84 percent the week before, reported Indo Asia News Agency Friday.

The wholesale price index (WPI) for all commodities declined 0.2 percent to 230.7 (provisional) from 231.1 (provisional) the previous week.

The inflation rate was 3.84 percent during the corresponding week the previous year.

The index for primary articles rose 0.1 percent to 249.2 (provisional) from 249 (provisional) the previous week.

The index for fuel, power light and lubricants remained unchanged at the previous week’s level of 332.1 (provisional).

The index for manufactured products declined 0.3 percent to 201.7 (provisional) from 202.4 (provisional) in the previous week.

“The fall in inflation is related to the global slowdown due to which the commodities and oil prices have come down,” said D.K. Joshi, chief economist at credit rating agency Crisil (Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited).

“All these had earlier triggered higher rate of inflation but now the corrective prices have acted as a catalyst in decelerating inflation,” he added.

At least 73 Nepali women and children who were trafficed after being allured for employment have been rescued, Nepali national news agency RSS reported on Tuesday.

They were trafficked during the past six months from various entry points of Parsa district (bordering to India), some 90 km south of Nepali capital Kathmandu.

Though joint effort of local police and people remained substantial to bring back helpless Nepali women and children, only one case was filed against the traffickers during the period.

A crime case on human trafficking was registered against Kanchha Lama, a local of Parsa district on Monday; report quoted a local police as saying.

Lama was bringing 20-year-old woman Mandira Thapa Magar of Sindupalchowk district, some 40 km east of Nepali capital Kathmandu and her sister Hema Kumari, 15, to India alluring them to employ in India, said the report.

According to the report, local policemen argued saying that the number of cases registered was very nominal due to the rising trend of mediation to settle the case each other.

Chinese equities continued the upward trend of the previous trading day and gained markedly in Monday’s morning session upon signs of an economic recovery, government policies to boost industries and a strong performance on the U.S. capital market.

The Shanghai A-share index rose 34.92 points, or 1.60 percent, to close the morning session at 2,216.15, while the Shenzhen Component Index went up 260.55 points, or 3.35 percent, to 8032.44.

Combined turnover was 123.79 billion yuan (18.1 billion U.S. dollars).

Global market recession makes Bangladesh’s software industry a very suitable harbor for outsourcing as many western and European companies shifted their focus on the country for low-cost IT services, sector insiders said on Sunday.

They said the country’s software export has achieved hefty growth in recent months, as more than 400 software and IT companies are exporting their services to around 30 countries in the world.

President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) Habibullah N Karim told Xinhua on Sunday, “Global economic downturn hastened export growth of our software industry.”

“Bangladesh’s software industry will become a 500 million U.S. dollars export earning sector by 2013-2014 fiscal year (July 2013-June 2014) if the current trend of robust growth continues,” he said.

With nearly 100 percent growth, Karim said Bangladesh fetched over 14 million U.S. dollars from export of software in the first five months of the current 2008-09 fiscal year.

The country set 30 million U.S. dollars of software export target for the current fiscal year after the sector earned 24 million U.S. dollars in 2007-08 fiscal year which was 2.24 million U.S. dollars in 2000-01 fiscal year, he said.

Karim said Bangladesh has already become a large ground of potential human resources with bright aptitude, quality and natural ability in software development during the last few years.

Bangladesh’s approximately 20 billion taka (about 285.71 million U.S. dollars) software industry currently employs nearly 20,000 skilled and semi-skilled professionals, he said.

A leading exporter Nahid Ahmed said although a majority of the companies are exporting software services to the North America, recently there has been encouraging performance by a good number of firms in European and East Asian markets, mainly Japan.

Following global companies’ interest about Bangladesh’s software industry, he said many local and foreign IT firms are investing for developing high-quality software taking advantage of low-cost work force here.

“We’ve found many global companies over the last few months to come and invest in the country as they think developing software here will help them to reduce their cost of operation and remain competitive in global market in the wake of economic downturn,” Ahmed said.

Among the hundreds of export-focused companies, according to BASIS, at least 30 companies have been set up either as joint venture or as ODC (Offshore Development Center) with hundred percent foreign investment in the country in the recent past.

The BASIS, national trade association of software & IT services companies of Bangladesh, in its website also said the European Union has already ranked the South Asian country as one of the top20 outsourcing destinations in the world.

To meet the high quality standard of offshore jobs and comply with the expectation of overseas clients, the companies in Bangladesh are rightly focusing on putting in place global standard practices and processes, said Ahmed, also secretary general of BASIS.

Sector insiders said the country’s new government’s dream to make digital Bangladesh by 2021 will also help local software industry to grow as it is expected to provide more budgetary supports like tax and duty cut to woo more investment in the IT sector.

The Bangladeshi government currently provides 60 percent of the salary/allowance cost for recruiting interns (fresh graduates) by any software companies.

Bangladesh, which is now connected to Submarine Cable Network South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe-4 (SEA-ME-WE-4), has already brought all of its major cities and towns under high-speed and low-priced fiber optic backbone.

Profit-taking in blue chips and disappointment due to a lack of fresh economic stimulus measures from Beijing sent Hong Kong shares lower Thursday, led by China Mobile.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 119.91 points, or 0.97 percent, to 12,211.24 after trading between 12,163.55 and 12,488. 33 during the session.

Turnover fell to 43.09 billion HK dollars (5.56 billion U.S. dollars) from Wednesday’s 44.96 billion HK dollars (5.80 billion U. S. dollars).

Without any new stimulus in China, the local market will likely fall further in the short term, because more companies are expected to issue disappointing earnings this month, traders said.

Experts felt disappointed that Premier Wen hasn’t announced any new stimulus in his speech at the National People’s Congress. Apart from more details on China’s recently announced 4 trillion RMB (585.09 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package, market participants expect Beijing to disclose new stimulus during the annual meeting of China’s parliament, which would bring the stimulus package to a total of 6 trillion RMB(877.64 billion U.S. dollars) to 8 trillion RMB(1.17 trillion U.S. dollars). The meeting began Thursday and is scheduled to end March 13.

China Mobile fell 1.9 percent to 66.45 HK dollars on profit- taking and concerns about competition and a slowing economy, after rising 3.6 percent in the last two sessions. It accounted for 32. 72 points of the Hang Seng Index’s 119.91-point fall.

Also dragging the local market lower was a fall in Hong Kong bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which ended 4.6 percent lower at 56.85 HK dollars after gaining 6.6 percent in the last session.

PetroChina dropped 1.7 percent to 5.26 HK dollars on profit- taking, after rising 3.7 percent Wednesday.

Heavyweight HSBC bucked the broad decline on bargain hunting. The banking giant rose 1.4 percent to 44.80 HK dollars after slumping 22.4 percent over the past two days.

The finance sub-index went down 13.23 points or 0.08 percent to 17,302.10.

The properties sub-index fell 270.30 points or 1.78 percent at 14,927.10.

The commerce and industry sub-index went down 105.20 points or 1.51 percent to 6,884.49.

The utilities sub-index fell 532.63 points or 1.52 percent at 34,560.59. (7.75 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)

Jing Linbo, a Beijing-based economist, told Xinhua Sunday that although China’s revenues declined in the first two months, the government’s stimulus package can be conducive to revenue growth.

China’s fiscal revenue fell 11.4 percent in January and February from the previous year to 1.02 trillion yuan (149.7 billion U.S. dollars) as economic growth slowed. Tax revenue shrank 13 percent in the same period to 923.73 billion yuan, according to figures from the Ministry of Finance.

Jing, assistant director of the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank, said two factors contributed to the revenue fall.

One factor was the slower economic growth pace and business profit drops. The other was the tax cuts and proactive fiscal policies taken by the government to stimulate the economy, he said.

China announced a plan last month to halve, to 5 percent, the purchase tax on cars with engine displacements of less than 1.6 liters. In an effort to boost the equity market, the government cut the share trading stamp tax from 0.3 percent to 0.1 percent last April and scrapped the stamp tax on stock purchases in September.

“The government has recently reemphasized its resolution to carry out the fiscal stimulus package as well as support plans for ten industries to shore up the economy. Much of the funds targeted projects to benefit people across the country. This can brake the slowed down economic growth trend and help boost fiscal revenue,” added Jing.

The country’s Cabinet this year has rolled out support plans for ten industries including iron and steel, auto, textiles and logistics, trailing the 4-trillion-yuan stimulus plan presented in November.

He added that the newly released loan and M1 figures showed the upbeat trend, while operation of companies were on the path to recovery.

China’s bank credit continued to expand in February, with Renminbi loans rising to 1.07 trillion yuan, up 827.3 billion yuan from the same month a year ago, the second straight month that new yuan-denominated loans exceeded 1 trillion yuan.

The narrow measure of money supply, M1 (cash in circulation plus corporate current deposits), was up 10.87 percent year on year to 16.65 trillion yuan, and 4.19 percentage points higher than the January growth.

He was “cautiously optimistic” about the country’s fiscal revenue growth for the whole year.

China’s fiscal revenue exceeded 6.13 trillion yuan for the whole of 2008, up 19.5 percent from the previous year.