1.Asahi Shimbun：Hello, I’m from Asahi Shimbun and my questions involve two aspects. The first one is about the maglev train. Does the maglev project Shanghai reported to the State Environmental Protection Administration include the whole line from Shanghai to Hangzhou or just the Shanghai stretch? Is the project suspended or advanced? Besides, the administration once announced that it has accepted the environment assessment report on Shanghai maglev project. Has the administration approved the project? Will its approval indicate the official start of construction? Will the project be finished before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo? The second one is about the issue over Chen Liangyu. Hong Kong media has said the Shanghai People’s Congress would discuss whether to remove Chen as the deputy of the Shanghai People’s Congress at a meeting today. Is this information true? Has the result been concluded? Thanks.

Jiao Yang：We are following the national authorities’requirements to work on the Shanghai stretch of the maglev, including deepening preliminary work, collecting public opinion, optimizing plans, improving works on related projects and advancing the preliminary work.

Sorry, I’m not authorized to answer the second question. Thanks.

2. Shanghai Morning Post：Thanks for the spokesperson. I’m a reporter from Shanghai Morning Post. I have two questions and the first one is about Shanghai’s real estate market. Some media said that sales volume grew while the prices have been stable so far this year. Are there figures or reasons to support this? What is the trend of the city’s property market in the second half of this year? What rank is the city’s housing price among China’s major cities? I feel that the published housing price index is lower than expected. Can you tell me the reason?

I have another two questions about the release report. It said the industrial profits grew 40.7 percent in the first half of this year, 35.2 percentage points faster from the same period of last year. Why has growth accelerated so much? The city’s retail sales rose 14.2 percent to 188.75 billion yuan in the first half, and the growth was the strongest in a decade. Is the strong growth driven by the robust stock market? Thanks.

Cai Xuchu：You asked about the reason of“growing sales volume and stable housing prices”in Shanghai’s real estate market. The public is concerned about the property market. Some figures showed that Shanghai’s housing prices in the first half of this year were stable and sales volume began rebounding, which is mainly because the city has implemented a string of policies to cool off the market in the period, especially the“three principles.”The principles, giving priority to residences, citizens’consumption and ordinary properties, enhanced the macro-adjustment of supply and demand of properties. Developers’investments began rebounding and accounted for a stable percentage of fixed-asset investments. The sales volume of residences was growing and prices were stable. The overall supply and demand was balanced in the city except some regional unbalance between supply and demand.

Specifically, there are three features in Shanghai’s real estate market based on the statistics. The first one is developers’overall growth has been slowed to a stable pace. The investments in Shanghai’s property market in the first half of this year reached 61.96 billion yuan, growing 6.2 percent from a year earlier. The overall growth slowed and was stable. The investments in residences hit 39.46 billion yuan, growing 5.2 percent and accounted for 63.7 percent of total property investments.

The second feature is the accelerated trade in properties. In the first half, a total of 15 million square meters of properties were traded, growing 25.7 percent from a year earlier and the growth rate was 6.8 percentage points higher from the same period of last year. The sales of residences reached 13.79 million square meters, rising 32 percent.

The third feature is shown in the slight single-month growth of housing prices. On a monthly basis, the price dropped in January, little changed in February and rebounded in March, but the growth was very slow at about 0.1 percent. The fastest growth was in June at 0.7 percent. Sales prices of residences inched up 0.3 percent in the first six months from a year earlier on average. The growth of prices in second-hand residences was a little higher than that of total homes. The overall monthly growth of second-hand homes gained 1.5 percent, 0.7 percentage point faster than last year.

The faster growth in traded volume in the first half is caused by two reasons. First, more individuals planned to buy a residence after waiting for two years of macro-controls. The rigid demands among relocated and married people still exist. The second reason is that excessive capital flew into the real estate market, including from the stock market.

The second question is about the rank of Shanghai’s housing price in the country’s major cities. The National Bureau of Statistics published the housing prices in 70 major cities yesterday. The average housing price in the first half grew 6 percent and the price of new residences rose 6.2 percent from a year earlier. Shanghai’s housing price grew 0.5 percent in the first half from a year earlier, and the price of new residences rose 0.3 percent, much lower than the national level.

Generally, Shanghai’s housing price growth was one of the slowest among the 70 cities.

The feeling that the published figure was lower than expected is because the public are unclear of the constitution of the index. We conducted the statistics via spot check and key check: selecting representative properties in different locations and of different types. These samples were combined with new properties and second-hand properties, whose indexes were a weighted average. Two reasons caused the gap between the figure people“felt”and the figure we announced. The first reason is the samples. We selected the samples from downtown as well as suburban areas. People were more impressed by the prices in downtown, which might cause the difference.

Secondly, developers might promote lower-priced properties first and then expensive ones, so buyers would feel that the housing prices are growing. However, we eliminated these elements during the survey, so people might feel the real growth is faster than we announced.

The statistics departments should explain more to the public about their work and keep improving the statistics methods to make the figures more timely and accurate to reflect the trend of the real estate market and to better serve the public.

Industrial profits surged at a rapid 40.7 percent because the profits in last year’s first half dropped sharply and only gained 5.5 percent, especially auto profits. Six sectors accounted for a big part of the industrial profits, and the petrochemical, steel and iron and auto sectors reported strong profit growth this year.

About the retail sales hitting a new decade high, I have explained in the previous answers. People earned more money from the robust stock market, which may drive up retail sales.

3. Wenhui Daily：Thanks to the spokesperson. I’m a reporter from Wenhui Daily and I have two questions for Mr. Cai. First, can you tell us the specific reasons about Shanghai’s achievements in stable, healthy and balanced economic developments in the first half of this year? Can you estimate the economic situation in the second half? Secondly, the National Bureau of Statistics announced China’s gross domestic product in the first half last week, and the growth rate reached 11.5 percent. The bureau said the economy may become overheated. What is the status of Shanghai’s economy? Will it also be overheated? Thanks.

Cai Xuchu：We have published parts of the half-year figures to the media. We couldn’t reveal the city’s GDP until the National Bureau of Statistics published the country’s economic figures. Shanghai’s GDP grew 13 percent in the first half from a year earlier, compared with 12.6 percent in the same period of last year. The growth hit a new high in three years because of the following reasons.

In terms of manufacturing, growth in Shanghai’s service sector was accelerated and industrial production was stable, which drove up the city’s economic growth. The detailed figures have been published.

Secondly, in terms of demands–consumption demands, investments demands and export demands all grew evenly. Retail sales grew 14.2 percent, 1.5 percentage points faster from a year earlier. Investments grew 9.6 percent, which was slower than many other regions in China with the country’s macro-control. This means consumption grew faster than investments. The investments led the economy in earlier years, but from last year, consumption began leading the economy, especially this year. Our exports grew 20.9 percent, so the 13-percent growth in the first half was driven by consumption and overseas demand.

In terms of the operation revenue, there are two figures. Our financial revenue grew 26.6 percent in the first half, which was 21.8 percentage points higher from the growth of a year earlier. However, last year’s slow growth was due to the tumbling income in real estate.

Companies’profits grew significantly and the city’s industrial profits jumped 40.7 percent. Among the agriculture, manufacturing and service industries, the service sector accounted for 51.4 percent of total profits, 0.4 percentage points higher from a year earlier. The country issued a string of macro-control policies to secure and promote the economic development in the first half.

The city’s economic growth in the later half of this year will keep pace with the first half if everything goes smoothly. Changes are most likely to happen in the service sector, especially the financial and real estate sectors. The financial sector contributed 18 percent to the city’s first-half growth. If the stock market and real estate market don’t fluctuate greatly in the later half, the city can maintain the pace.

Shanghai’s first-half GDP grew 13 percent, faster than the country’s 11.5-percent growth, but it was not the fastest compared with other regions, especially some provinces in east China which grew 14 percent to 16 percent in the period. We are facing more pressures on concerns that the economy may overheat, but it doesn’t mean the economy is overheated. The concern over the overheated economy is spreading, and we are also studying the problem. We can’t depend on one figure to decide whether the economy is overheated. Many people are sensitive to the CPI and feel the growth is too fast. But since 1990, the economy experienced annual double-digit growth from 1992 to 1995 and 2003 till now. But the CPI was different in the two periods. From 1992 to 1995, the CPI grew 14.5 percent annually on average, and even surged 24 percent in the peak year, but in the recent four years, the average CPI grew below three percent. So we are facing heavier pressures when judged whether the economy is overheated.

4. NIKKEI：I’m from NIKKEI and have several questions. The first one, would you please provide the energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan of GDP in the first half of this year? Secondly, could you tell me the per capita GDP in the first half? Thirdly, which country or region invested the most in China in the first half of this year and how much did they invest? Thanks.

Cai Xuchu: I feel sorry that I can’t tell you the energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan of GDP in the first half of this year now because according to the National Bureau of Statistics and the National Development and Reform Commission, the figure can’t be published until it is verified. We just published the figure of 2006 and the first-half figure may be revealed after the third quarter of this year. We calculate the per capita GDP annually because we haven’t the half-year population. So the annual per capita GDP will be announced in January or February of next year.

Hong Kong invested more than other country or region in the Chinese mainland in the first half, followed by the British Virgin Islands. Japan ranked the fifth, according to the contract investments. Japan’s contract investments totaled US$536 million in the six months, dropping 27.6 percent from a year earlier and its direct investments totaled US$517 million, ranking third among all countries and regions.

5. SMG Broadcasting Center: Thank you. My first question is about real estate. About two million square meters of small apartments will be on the market in the later half of this year, which should be a good thing for the market. But we found many small apartments have been decorated by the developers before selling for a higher price. For example, apartments in Olympic residential area are 2,000-yuan more expensive than nearby apartments. Does the city government have measures to prohibit such phenomenon? Another question is about budget homes. About two-billion-yuan in housing funds will be invested in the construction of budget homes. How much financial funds will be invested in the project? It’s hard to build homes for 100,000 people from the current 20,000 in budget homes by 2010 with two billion yuan. Another problem is about the renovation of facilities of Metro lines. The Metro line operator insisted that the passenger who was killed after being pinned between closed safety shields and train doors was because of his irregular behavior. But why didn’t staff check whether passengers were crunched before the train set out? We want to know how the renovation work is going on the facilities. Has the operator redesigned the process on the trains’setoff?

Jiao Yang：About the prices of small apartments, I suggest the reporter ask a spokesperson or officials of the Shanghai Housing, Land and Resources Administrative Bureau.

The State Council said in the Housing Fund Management Regulation that the value-added income of housing funds should be deposited into a bank account belonging to the housing fund management center, which will be used as mortgage reserve, the center’s management fee and subsidy funds for budge home construction. So the housing fund can be used to set up budget homes, but it’s not the only source of capital. We can make a systematical introduction about budget homes in the future. I can tell you that the public housing fund is not the only capital source for budget home construction.

We felt regret about the accident on the Metro line. The reporter just said the passenger’s irregular behavior was only one reason for the accident. Safety measures will be stepped up by technologies. The Metro operator is arranging experts to study the shields with design companies and producers to map out a renovation plan as soon as possible. Some of the safety shields at the station have now been suspended from use. Trains will be required to stop longer at the station, and drivers and platform staff must make sure that no commuter is trapped between the train doors before restarting. Volunteers will help platform staff evacuate passengers in crowded stations. Alert symbols will be added on the shields to remind passengers. These measures are carried out before the renovation is conducted. Media should help remind commuters of these rules to maintain the safe operation of the subway. Authorities will learn from this tragic accident to improve safety measures and protect passengers.

6. Phoenix：Thank you. I’m a reporter from Phoenix. I noticed that the financial revenue grew fast in the first half of this year. How much did the six leading industries contribute to the total revenue, especially the real estate sector? Another question is about the foreign investment in Shanghai’s real estate market. What is the percentage of foreign investment in the property market? The last question is how the city has handled its idle land since China began its second land survey on July 7 to prevent land from going unused. Has the local government mapped out detailed measures to punish developers who leave land unused? Thanks.

Cai Xuchu：Those figures are not available. We classify these incomes in line with tax items. We will tell you after obtaining the figures.

Jiao Yang: From January 2006 to June 2007, Shanghai approved 2,000 hectares of land zoned for residential use. The city will carry out the following measures after mapping out a three-year plan to regulate the city’s property market according to the city’s economic development, land sources and approved properties to enhance the control of the land supply; offering more lands for the construction of lower-priced apartments and small apartments. About 1,000 hectares of land will be zoned for residential use in the later half of this year; improving the clearance of unused land to promote the construction of new residences.

I introduced the scrutiny on real estate companies in an earlier news release. The city launched a campaign to implement a notice issued by eight government departments under the State Council. The city’s 10 departments -- property, construction, supervision, pricing, industrial, commercial, taxation, audition and planning -- have issued a working plan to jointly conduct the one-year campaign to regulate the real estate market. The campaign is conducted in two aspects: checking and cracking developers who reserve properties for speculation purposes, driving up housing prices on purpose, publishing illegal advertisements and evading taxes; cracking illegal practices involved in approvals of projects, plans, designs, constructions and presales. The campaign has kicked off and we will check under-construction projects and pre-sold properties. The 10 departments have launched a channel to receive public complaints. The results will be announced later.

Cai Xuchu：The Phoenix reporter just mentioned the foreign investments in the real estate market. I have checked the figure. In the first half, foreign contract investments in the real estate market totaled US$1.1 billion, dropping 41.2 percent from a year earlier. Foreign direct investments grew 57 percent to US$890 million.

7. China Labor and Social Security News：I’m a reporter of China Labor and Social Security News. You just mentioned the employment policy will be further implemented this year. Can you tell us the details of the policy? The city created 443,000 new jobs in the first half. Which industries are these jobs involved? The government creates many internship positions for young people every year, but why does the number of participants keep dropping? Thanks.

Cai Xuchu：The new jobs are mainly in the service sector and some are working informally. I can tell you the detailed figures later. I can’t tell you the employment policy because I have no idea about it.

Jiao Yang：Reporters can learn about the employment situation from the Shanghai Labor & Social Security Bureau.

8. Youth Daily：Thank you. I’m a reporter from Youth Daily. I have questions about two figures in the release. Shanghai’s retail sales hit a decade high in the first half of this year. Is it because of the growing prices or the growing sales volume? The consumer price grew 1.8 percent in the six months in Shanghai, while residents’disposable income rose 14.7 percent, which means the income grew at a much faster pace than the consumer price. But we didn’t feel the big gap. What are the government’s measures to control prices? Has the macro-control been effective? Thanks.

Cai Xuchu：You doubted whether the surging prices drove up the retail sales to grow 14.2 percent. Shanghai’s consumer price grew 1.8 percent in the first half of this year, which was mainly spurred by the food prices. The retail sales include people’s spending on food, clothes and other articles. The food price may influence the retail sales most but not significantly. The fast growth of retail sales was mainly due to the growing income, which triggered residents to spend more money. Another important feature is the spending in suburban areas began growing. In the first half, retail sales in suburban areas contributed 46 percent of the total retail sales in Shanghai. Spending on automobiles and apartments also drove up retail sales, as well as construction materials and home appliances. These new spotlights also contributed to the fast growth of the city’s retail sales.