China has lifted restrictions on cash withdrawals from southern banks after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
Wen said on Monday there were other ways to prevent the flow of underground cash and that depositors should not be barred from accessing their own money from Shenzhen banks bordering Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post said.
The Shenzhen Development Bank, China Merchants Bank and Citic Bank confirmed they had gotten notices from the People's Bank of China in Shenzhen to cancel the limits, the newspaper said.
Media reported last week that withdrawal limit from banks in Shenzhen has been capped at 30,000 yuan (US$4,000), and some banks have limited or stopped cash withdrawals from ATM machines.
Mainland papers said the moves were aimed at curbing the illegal underground transfer of cash into the territory.
The report yesterday said that half the almost 200 billion yuan in cash withdrawn across China in the first nine months of the year came from bank branches in Shenzhen.
Billions are believed to have been pumped into Hong Kong stocks through underground channels in the past few months.
The move comes as investors await the much-vaunted scheme to allow mainland individuals to invest in the Hong Kong bourse.
Separately, state media reported yesterday that the Chinese government was prepared to bar polluting companies from raising money on the stock market, as part of efforts to clean up its devastated environment.
"Enterprises found guilty of environmental violations or failing to meet pollutant discharge requirements will not be allowed to list their shares," said Zhou Shengxian (周生賢), head of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).
Listed companies will be required to "open up their environmental records to public scrutiny," Zhou was quoted as saying in the China Daily.
He also warned that from 2009, all enterprises that discharge pollutants must obtain environmental permits.
"Otherwise, they will not be allowed to continue, or start, operations," he said.
However, the EPA is tiny compared with the economic bureaucracies, and traditionally has held little clout over policymaking.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS