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A Chinese company has offered sprint star Usain Bolt a staggering deal that could see the Jamaican reap more than $115 million in the next five years.

Ajani Williams, chief executive officer with Anza Marketing Group (AMG), yesterday confirmed that the organization, which has the sole rights to market Bolt in China, received the offer after \”Lightning\” struck twice at last month\’s Berlin World Championships – winning both the 100 m (9.58) and 200 m (19.19) in world-record times.

While Williams was reluctant to reveal the 23-year-old\’s potential suitor, he said the offer could not only change the face of track and field but sport in general.

The potential deal is understood to include a base salary \”in the teens (between 13 and 19 million)\” plus a licensing deal that could see Bolt reap $60-70 million during the five years.

Also, Bolt would get the opportunity to set up his own branch of the unnamed firm, which would put him in the stellar range of sports entrepreneurs that includes basketball\’s Michael Jordan and golf\’s Tiger Woods.

\”This is unprecedented in terms of (track and field) base salary and the licensing deal and could change the whole landscape. It\’s a trailblazer,\” said Williams, who is a former NBA player and the current president of the Jamaica Basketball Association.

\”We (Anza) have done our bit; we have handed in a 15-page evaluation and it\’s now up to Usain – he\’s the boss – and the people around him,\” he said. \”I would not like to put a betting figure on whether he accepts it or not but it is a great deal and very hard for other companies to match.\”

Before signing on the dotted line with the Chinese company, Bolt will have to find a way out of current sponsorship deals with companies including Puma, Gatorade, Texaco and Digicel.

\”Although I don\’t want to reveal the name or nature of the company, there may be possible conflicts and legal ramifications,\” Williams said. \”However, this very well-established company in China has stated it is willing to buy out current sponsors.\”

While the AMG boss was upbeat, \”Team Bolt\” remains coy and issued a statement saying, in part: \”The Management wishes to make it clear that it respects the terms of the valid contract which it has with Puma, wherein its terms restrict the Management from having any direct contact with a competitor of Puma – the shoe contract sponsor, until after 2010 when the present contract ends.\”

He said the Chinese company may be willing to wait.

\”(The company) came to me after his second race in Berlin with the offer. There have been no negotiations. I am waiting on word from Usain and his people and then, if they are interested, I will go forward with a counter proposal,\” he said.

According to reports in Jamaica, that reply could double the original figures.

Also potentially adding to the Olympic medalist\’s fortune is a possible deal with sina.com, host of one of the biggest blogs in China.

While no official deadline has been set for the \”major\” Chinese deal, Williams believes the company wants an answer by the end of next month.

(China Daily September 25, 2009)

China started building a 5.4 million cubic meter strategic oil reserve in the far western Xinjiang region Thursday in the latest effort to ensure its energy security.

The project in Dushanzi, Karamay City, is part of the country\’s second phase of strategic oil reserves with a planned total storage capacity of 26.8 million cubic meters.

Sun Longde, vice president of PetroChina Co., said construction on the first phase of the reserve base, with a capacity of 3 million cubic meters, is expected to be finished in October 2010.

The first phase costs 2.65 billion yuan ($388 million) and covers 95 hectares.

The 30 oil tanks, with each having a capacity of 100,000 cubic meters, will be filled up mainly by the crude from Kazakhstan and Russia, Sun said.

PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical Co. has earlier built a 1.4-million-cubic-meter commercial oil reserve.

China had filled up the first phase of four strategic oil reserves in Zhenhai, Huangdao, Dalian and Zhoushan by earlier the year, according to the National Energy Administration.

The government plans to build up oil reserves amounting to the equivalent of 100 days of imports by 2020 after finishing filling up the second and third phases of strategic oil reserve bases.

China also started building another six energy projects in Xinjiang on Thursday, including three power plants, a power grid, an LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant, and a coal mine.

Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Administration, said the seven projects have a total investment of more than 23 billion yuan and will create 6,000 jobs and generate 2 billion yuan in profits and taxe revenues annually.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2009)

Australia has once again turned down an investment plan by a Chinese company in a proposed mine near an outback missile testing range, citing security concerns.

Australia\’s Defense Department knocked back the proposed bid by Wugang Australia Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wuhan Iron and Steel Corp (Wisco), to buy half of the Hawks Nest magnetite mine, which falls within the Woomera prohibited military range.

Under the joint venture proposal, Wugang Resources was set to receive 21.1 million shares in Western Plains, Wugang\’s proposed Australian partner in the mine, and a 50-percent stake in the project for A$45 million.

It is the second time this year that the Australian Defense Department has vetoed an application from a Chinese company for investment near the Woomera prohibited area.

In March, the government blocked China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co from buying Australian miner Oz Minerals Ltd for AU$2.6 billion because one of the assets, the Prominent Hill gold and copper mine, was within the range precincts. China Minmetals eventually bought Oz Minerals minus the mine for AU$1.7 billion.

Industry insiders said Australian mining companies have generally welcomed Chinese investors, as they needed capital to expand their businesses. However, China\’s eagerness to extend its footprint in the Australian resources sector has triggered tensions.

\”On the one hand, Australia welcomes Chinese investment as it knows its economic development cannot ignore China, but on the other, it hopes it can get the most benefits in the cooperation and is reluctant to see Chinese companies taking the major stake in the resources sector,\” said Yu Liangui, director of research center at Mysteel.

Zou Weimin, chairman of the Metallurgical Corporation of China Overseas Ltd, told China Daily in a July interview that he had not seen a favorable attitude by the Australian government toward Chinese companies investing in mines in the country.

But Australian DM John Faulkner said while other mines had been allowed within the Woomera area, the problem with the Hawks Nest mine was that it was in the missile firing line, and it was not because it was Chinese in origin.

\”China has all along held an open attitude toward foreign enterprises investing in China, and we hope other countries will take the same stance on Chinese companies (intending to invest there),\” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said yesterday.

(China Daily September 25, 2009)

The European Union decided Thursday to impose five-year duties on aluminum foil imported from China, Brazil and Armenia over alleged dumping charges.

The EU said in its decision that the duties were up to 30 percent as a punishment to Chinese exporters for selling the product at below cost, or dumping. Reports say that Shanghai-based Alcoa Aluminum Products Co. was affected by the punishment.

The tariffs on Brazilian products are 17.6 percent, Armenia\’s are 13.4 percent.

The EU accepted an offer by Brazil\’s Companhia Brasileira de Aluminio to sell at a minimum price in return for an exemption from the anti-dumping duty. It rejected a similar proposal by Armenia\’s Rusal-Armenal company.

The five-year duties came after six-month provisional duties expired and will go into effect once being published in the EU\’s Official Journal by Oct. 8. The six-month levies were up to 42.9 percent.

The EU staged a probe into the products from the three countries began in July 2008 after receiving a dumping complaint by the European Association of Metals.

The measure covers aluminum foil in rolls as wide as 650 millimeters and a weight exceeding 10 kilograms, with a thickness between 0.008 millimeter and 0.018 millimeter.

On the same day, the EU decided to slap tariffs as high as 39.2 percent on Chinese steel seamless pipes and tubes.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2009)

China\’s foreign exchange reserves rose from $1,577 billion in 1978 to $1,950 billion in 2008 to rank first in the world, said Yu Wenzhe, Chinese Ambassador in Ghana, on Tuesday.

To the same token, China\’s per-capital annual income of $62.5 in 1978 reached $9,863 in the urban areas, showing an increase of over 100 percent.

Ambassador Yu Wenzhe announced this during a press briefing which was aimed at highlighting China\’s significant socio-economic development for the past 60 years.

The People\’s Republic of China would be 60 years on October 1, 2009 and the Chinese people and its allies are expected to celebrate the country\’s 60th anniversary with pomp and pride.

The stated achievement, he noted, was due to China\’s vigorous pursuance of a strategy or model that featured high speed socio-economic development.

He was happy that China has metamorphosed from agricultural country to an industrial nation with the result that the country is now ranked the third largest manufacturing country in the world.

On the strength of China\’s development, Yu urged African leaders to translate the continent\’s advantage in natural resources into socio-economic development.

The ambassador disclosed that in 2006, the output of 172 categories of Chinese products ranked first on the world market, adding that about 70 percent of DVDs and toys; 50 percent of telephone sets and shoes; one-third of color TVs, bags and suit cases were made in China.

To be part of Ghana\’s future success, he said, China had invested more in Ghana in the fields of economic and technical assistance, which included grant and cash, human resource training among others.

Touching on China\’s investment in Ghana, he said, China topped the list of countries with the highest number of registered projects in Ghana.

\”Up to June 30, 2009, China had registered 387 projects in Ghana valued at $235.18 million,\” he added.

\”To achieve a sustainable and steady development of China-Ghana bilateral trade, both sides should adopt effective measures to balance the trade,\” he stressed.

Yu said this against the backdrop that China\’s export to Ghana had increased rapidly between 2002 and 2007 as against Chinese imports from Ghana, which he noted, had decreased for two consecutive years since 2005.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2009)

By Yi Xianrong (blog.china.com.cn)

The Shanghai Composite Index, China\’s stock market benchmark, began a steady climb from 1,820 points at the start of the year to reach a high of 3,478 in August, a growth of 91 percent. Major volatility closely followed, though, pulling the index down to 2,639 before sending it up again recently, to 3,068. Before long, the index tumbled once again, down to 2,900.

The indexes suggested an upward trend in the national stock market during the first seven months of the year. Why, then, would a major downturn suddenly hit in August, especially when, at the same time, the US Dow Jones Index saw a fresh high, beating its performance just before the market crashed in September 2008.

In other words, while extreme challenges lay ahead for the international financial situation, the Chinese stock market had already begun its recovery, as evidenced by the soaring index. But, as the international markets became more stable and stock prices began rising, the Chinese stock market oddly started plummeting. The subsequent pessimism felt as a result of the volatility in turn affected some international markets, though not quite as seriously, and indexes like the Dow Jones began to climb after a temporary dip.

Another question we have is how long this volatility will last. The plunge at the beginning of August, according to market analysts, was a natural adjustment to the preceding upward frenzy. The present adjustment brought the index down from 3,478 to 2,639, a loss of more than 800 points, or more than 25 percent, a decline that is by all means too acute to go unnoticed.

In my opinion, two key factors contributed to the recent instability. First, the Chinese stock market has never freed itself from being capital driven – every large influx of capital would give the market an instant surge. From January to August this year, credit funds in China increased by 8.15 trillion yuan (US$1.193 trillion). Since the economy was in a healing process, a large amount of the funds that were originally aimed at financing large-scale national projects, went into the stock markets instead. When the capital was forecast to drain out in the second half of the year, the market almost immediately started to tumble.

In fact, the increase of credit funds during H2 so far isn\’t any different from that of previous years, and market liquidity is not expected to stagnate. With rumors of both, however, many investors have chosen to bail out of the wavering market, scared off by last year\’s turbulence. On the flipside, the financial hurricane has also instilled a sense of caution into numerous Chinese investors, who otherwise would have continued with a starry-eyed view of the stock market and eventually burst the market bubble. That\’s why last year\’s economic turmoil was still a positive thing for the stock market\’s long-term prosperity, despite the losses incurred.

The second factor is the government\’s excessive eagerness for instant success. Once there\’s a boom in the stock market, like during the first half this year, the authorities think it\’s time to have numerous state-owned companies go public.

Although basic improvements have been made to the Chinese stock market over recent years, the focus of \”going public\” has never shifted from \”the enclosure movement\” – getting fast funds, or as the tool to becoming rich overnight. Therefore, among the swarm of companies wishing to be listed, companies like the Chinese State Construction Engineering Corporation and Metallurgical Corporation of China, accompanied by the so-called Growth Enterprise Market, have been able to solicit as many as 10 companies to raise capital by floating shares in a single trading day. Not only are acts like this never a reflection of the market\’s prosperity, but they also cause panic, as market investors will inevitably perceive that domestic enterprises are once again rounding up their money, resulting in their subsequent escape. Financing giants like Vanke is just a case in point.

The current economy, both at home and abroad, are in the healing process. The US stock market has already seen steady climbing, while the Chinese economy is recovering at a better-than-expected rate. Meanwhile, listed companies report improved performance, and the domestic financial market has regained liquidity – all pointing to mounting momentum in the Chinese stock market during the second half of this year.

In light of the current state of the stock market, the authorities should pay close attention to drastic trends and institute the appropriate policies to guard the market against excessive risks, rather than purposefully upsetting the fragile market with harsh policies. And only by these means can the stock market resume its development, safeguarded by a well-meaning authority.

This blog was first published in Chinese on September 22, and translated by Maverick Chen.

(China.org.cn September 25, 2009)