The Four Plenary Session of the Tenth Guangdong CPC Committee Commences
The four plenary session of the tenth Guangdong CPC Committee commenced today (Jan. 5th). The meeting will have a review of 2008 and launch the work focuses for 2009, an effort to assure stable and sustainable development.

Guangdong's Local Tax Revenue Exceeds 350 billion Yuan in 2008
The latest official statistics regarding Guangdong's national and local tax income in 2008 were announced yesterday (Jan 4th), the total figures amounted to nearly 772 billion yuan in 2008. It is worth mentioning that Guangdong's local tax revenue hit over 350 billion yuan for the first time. Moreover, the figure has stretched to the top  in the nation for 15 consecutive years accounting for one seventh of the national total.

Chinese Banks Offers Lower House Loan Interests to Debtors but with Strict Procedures
Major banks in Guangdong are expanding the preferential policy on housing loan interests, but the lenders should file a written application for lower interest rate offers. Apart from Agricultural Bank of China, which will reduce the benchmark interest rates from the original 85% to 70% automatically to customers who have lent the loans of over 300, 000 yuan, other 3 major Chinese banks have not yet adopted any automatic interest reduction system. Besides the written application, lenders should meet other requirements such as no overdue loan payment history before they can successfully get the interest rate cuts.

Chinese Shares Rise on 1st Trading Day of 2009
Chinese shares opened higher on the first trading day of 2009, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, closing at 1880 points, an increase of over 3%. The smaller Shenzhen index was also up 2.3% to close at 6634 points.