HK stock plan on track: researcher

THE government will definitely go ahead with a delayed program allowing mainland residents to buy Hong Kong shares directly for the first time, a government adviser said Thursday.

When the program does kick off, people will be able to invest through more banks and in more cities than envisaged in the original proposal, which tagged Bank of China’s Tianjin branch as the sole investment conduit. “As the program is part of opening the capital account, it’s for certain that China will push ahead with it unswervingly,” said Li Yang, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and an ex-member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee.

Jianghuai gets nod for truck project

ANHUI Jianghuai Automobile Co., a mid-sized automaker, said Thursday it has obtained regulatory approval to invest 837 million yuan (US$113 million) in a truck manufacturing project.

Jianghuai Auto said the facility would be able to make 40,000 medium-to- heavy-duty trucks a year and generate an estimated 4.48 billion yuan in annual sales and 224 million yuan after-tax profit. The Shanghai-listed company said the project would take six years to complete from the time of its launch, although it did not give a time for the launch.

No plans for stakes in U.K. banks: ICBC

INDUSTRIAL & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) isn’t planning to buy a stake in U.K. mortgage bank Northern Rock or Standard Chartered, ICBC president Yang Kaisheng said Thursday.

However, the head of China’s largest bank by assets said ICBC would consider further overseas acquisitions if suitable opportunities arise. Northern Rock is trying to sell itself since nearly collapsing in the midst of this summer’s global credit crisis. It had to be bailed out by the Bank of England. The Financial Times reported earlier this month, without citing sources, that Northern Rock is thought to have contacted Asian banks, such as ICBC and Bank of China Ltd. in its search for a buyer. Yang also said on the sidelines of a financial conference in Beijing that ICBC isn’t in talks with other parties to buy a stake in London-based Standard Chartered. The Financial Times reported earlier this month that ICBC, along with Bank of China and China Construction Bank Corp., had approached Singapore’s Temasek Holdings about acquiring its 17 percent stake in Standard Chartered.