SIAL China - Retail & Hospitality Forum
My China B2B - My Food B2B (by Qiao LAB) will be keynote speaker at SIAL China's inaugural Retail & Hospitality Forum. Confirmed speakers include directors from Shanghai Import Food Enterprise Association, Shanghai Fisheries General Corporation (Group), Goodwell, Unilever China, XTC and many other elites from food, retail & hospitality industry. Shanghai Import Food Enterprise Association Shanghai Fisheries General Corporation (Group) Goodwell Unilever China XTC World Innovation City Super Shanghai Ltd DALIAN XIAOQIN FOOD CO.,LTD My China B2B - Taste of Italy La Cantina dei Feudi Srl Fabbri(Shanghai) Food Trading Co., Ltd Sumerian Specialty Coffee Shiyao Investment Ltd. Peace Hotel

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SINCE Gong Guifang's family bought its first cell phone in the 1990s, the three-member household has gone through nearly 20 mobiles.

That's a lot of old hardware sitting on shelves, collecting dust.

SHANGHAI needs more energy-efficient buildings and a new data platform will help building operators reduce usage. Meanwhile, there's a lot of money to be made in retrofitting energy-guzzling buildings. Fu Chenghao and Zha Minjie report for Earth Day.

While "green" buildings are designed to use minimal energy, actual consumption frequently doubles expectations and in some cases may be five times greater.

PEOPLE still enjoy reading books the old-fashioned way - on paper - in the digital age, according to a survey released by the Shanghai Statistics Bureau yesterday.

Local residents have quickly adapted to e-reading, according to the survey based on telephone interviews of 1,000 people from various age groups. But the majority of people said they read better on printed books rather than on cell phones, laptops and e-readers, the survey said.

Higher number of Internet users likely to propel fast expansion, report predicts

Shopping in the fashionable stores of New York, London and Paris may soon be a thing of the past for Chinese customers, with online shopping fast changing the retail trade. Unlike popular Western shopping destinations, the online retail market is a new kid on the block. But more importantly, it is the impressive returns being notched up by the sector that are making it a "must-be" market for multinational companies and Western brands.

Up to now, the global retail market has often been dominated by mega brands with shops in prime locations. Shopping was often an experience that also had the added elements of affluence, travel and holiday built into it.

REVENUE of China's software and information technology service industry will surpass 4 trillion yuan (US$634.9 billion) in 2015, more than double the 2010 level, thanks to new opportunities like cloud computing, next-generation network and chip design, the IT industry regulator said yesterday.

According to the 12th Five-Year (2011-2015) Plan, the software and IT service industry will create 6 million jobs by 2015, double the 3 million in 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said. By 2015, China's software and IT service revenue will hit 4 trillion yuan, with annual growth of 24.5 percent on average, from 1.8 trillion yuan in 2010. It will account for 25 percent of total IT revenue then, compared with 18 percent in 2010.

"Software and IT service is a strategic industry for China to upgrade its economic structure and lift global competition ability," the ministry said.

The pudgy penguin, the well-known icon of China's biggest Internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd, might join "hands" with Donald Duck in a bid to tap into China's animation industry, media reports say.

Tencent is negotiating with the Walt Disney Co on a cooperation deal to explore the nation's blooming animation market, the China Business News reported on Thursday, citing an anonymous source from the Chinese company.

Israel's cabinet on Sunday moved to bolster bilateral trade ties with China by voting to support joint industrial research and development (R&D) projects between the two countries.

The Chief Scientist's Office at the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry is going to oversee the agreement, which will join 45 other bilateral accords aimed at encouraging cooperation between Israeli and international companies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lavished praise on the agreement, telling ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting that Israel and China "together are a winning combination because we are two nations with magnificent traditions who also adopt modernism."

Electronics market Zhongguancun signed more agreements with high-tech partners and enterprises on March 28 for its Zhongguancun Science Town project.

Since 2010, more than 46 enterprises and partners have joined the project, which would see Zhongguancun's continuing transformation from a trading center into a center of innovation.

The project's goal is to create more than 30 billion yuan worth of products and services by the end of 2015, and create about 15,000 jobs.

China successfully sent a French-made communication satellite, "APSTAR-7," into orbit Saturday evening, using a Long March-3B carrier rocket launched from the southwestern Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Monitoring data indicated that the satellite separated from the rocket and reached its designated orbit 26 minutes after its launch at 6:27 pm Beijing time.

Angry customers have gone to court seeking redress against one of China's biggest Internet retailers after the company failed to provide sightseeing trips for 1 yuan (16 cents).

"We have submitted the case to Shanghai Jinshan District People's Court on behalf of dozens of customers demanding that 360buy, one of China's largest online traders, honor its contract and offer compensation," said Chen Cheng, a lawyer with Shanghai-based Co-career Law Firm, on Wednesday.

CHINA'S plans to build a next-generation Internet network by 2015 will improve Internet penetration rate as well as create 3 million new jobs and a new system which can hold more Internet addresses.

China's Internet penetration rate will rise above 45 percent by the end of 2015 from 38.3 percent in 2011, according to a statement issued yesterday by government bureaus including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

CHINA is the coal capital of the world. With few of its own oil and gas resources, the nation depends on its vast coal reserves to literally fuel growth. Expanding in recent years at a rate of one new coal-fired power plant a week on average, the country's coal capacity is expected to triple that of the United States by 2015.

China's dependence on the dirty, sooty mineral, in turn, is a shot in the arm for cleaner, low-carbon coal technologies. As the world's leading carbon emitter, China has targeted energy and environmental conservation as one of its key growth industries in the 12th Five-year Plan.