SHENZHEN, SinoCast -- McKinsey Global Institute predicts in a recent report that China's individual consumption is expected to top USD 2.5 trillion by 2020. By that time, it will become the third largest consumer market in the world, taking the dust of the US and Japan.
The personal consumption in China hit USD 890 billion in 2007, ranking the fifth after the US, Japan, the UK, and Germany.
State-owned conglomerate Russian Technologies plans to combine its 25 percent stake in carmaker AvtoVAZ and its 37.8 percent stake in truckmaker KamAZ to create a merged entity called Avtoinvest Holdings, according to news reports from Russia.
KamAZ chief Sergey Kogogin, who is credited with turning around the company, would reportedly head the new company. Independent-minded AvtoVAZ President Boris Alyoshin, who suggested the merger, is expected to leave the company.
Republic of Tatarstan truck manufacturer KAMAZ is to get $8.5m state subsidies from the federal government to be spent to organize temporary jobs at the plant. The funds will reportedly enable to keep up employment level for 16,845 workers.
A Northern Ireland bus builder has broken new ground in Asia and today announced multimillion-pound contracts to build more than 200 buses for use in Singapore and Hong Kong.
The Co Antrim Wright Group has been pursuing new market opportunities and said the contracts would reinforce its position as a world leader in public transit vehicle design.
Washington - The nation's largest business lobby wants to put the science of global warming on trial.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, trying to ward off potentially sweeping federal emissions regulations, is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a rare public hearing on the scientific evidence for man-made climate change.
So Paulo, 25 - Brazil's leading bus body maker Marcopolo has decided to shut down its Portugal plant, reported Brazilian daily O Estado de S. Paulo Tuesday. Inaugurated in 1990, the unit was the company's first overseas subsidiary.
Demand for buses has fallen sharply as a result of the global crisis, leading Marcopolo to operate way below capacity in Europe. In January, the company had already closed one of its two factories in Russia.
SHENZHEN, SinoCast -- China's economic fundamentals remain sound and its real economy is expected to be affected moderately by the global financial crisis this year, according to a recent report released by Wang Qian, an economist at JPMorgan in Hong Kong.
The report predicts that China's economy will continue its robust path in 2009 with an 8.4 percent growth in GDP.