Healthcare reform provides chances

CHINA’S efforts to reform its healthcare system provide a major opportunity for American companies to enter the Chinese market, a top U.S. commerce official said Friday.

As China looks toward revamping a healthcare system that currently had hundreds of millions of uninsured citizens, American businesses have the chance to be involved in the selling of medicine, health services, and health insurance, U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce Christopher Padilla told reporters in Beijing.

Rural Internet users double in 2007

THE number of Internet users in the Chinese countryside surged 127.7 percent last year, thanks to double-digit economic growth and fast expanding rural network construction, domestic media said Friday.

The number of rural Internet users, most of them boys in middle or high school, grew to 52.6 million in 2007, the Xinhua news agency said, citing the China Internet Network Information Center, a government think-tank.

Due to lower incomes and less advanced education levels in the countryside, rural users still only make up a relatively small proportion of China’s total online population. China now has 221 million people online, more than in the United States, according to recent reports.

Australian developer eyes Chinese market

AUSTRALIAN developer Becton Property Group held its first real-estate exhibition in Shenzhen on Saturday, seeking sales growth from Chinese homebuyers who are looking to invest overseas.

A promotion in Shanghai earlier this month brought Becton more than 10 million Australian dollars (US$9.3 million) in sales, according to John Meagher, general manager of the marketing department of Becton.

Becton, which now has 40 major projects under construction in Australia, sees China as a market with huge opportunities, Meagher said.