Government to encourage private and foreign capital to promote Culture
The Chinese government adopted a plan yesterday (July 22) to promote the country's cultural industry by encouraging private and foreign capital. The plan was discussed and adopted in a cabinet meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao. A statement regarding the plan says that the "Market access threshold should be lowered to encourage private and foreign capital to enter the cultural sectors that the government permits and let them take part in state enterprises' share-holding reform."

City Finance Income Increased by 6.99% Year-on-Year
According to the Guangzhou Finance Bureau, in the first half, the general financial budget income reached 32.47 billion yuan, a 7% increase compared to last year. The total general expenditures on the other hand, reached 33.3 billion CNY, rising by 27.6% from last year.

Official: China's online gaming industry retains rapid growth
According to Sun Shoushan, the deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), China's online gaming industry is expected to develop rapidly, with the income from sales increasing 30-50% this year. For 2009, sales are forecast to reach between 24 and 27 billion yuan (3.51 billion - 3.95 billion U.S. dollars), consequently bringing another 67 billion yuan in income for telecommunications, IT and other related industries.

Photo from QQ.com

Steelmakers' Grim Forecast
Listed steel mills in China are expected to report either a decline in profit or even losses in the first half due to a very low demand which led to lower steel prices and over production. Twenty-seven listed steel firms have forecast a less-than-rosy performance in the first-half; 15 companies forecast losses and 12 predict a decline in profits compared to the same period in 2008.

China's top 3 telecom operators invest 80 bln yuan in the first half
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday that so far this year, China's top three telecommunication operators, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom, invested a total of 80 billion yuan to boost the 3G network.