"The focus of the new free-trade zone will be to facilitate investment rather than just achieve good trade figures, as China explores deeper reforms in its investment system."

Yang Xiong, mayor of Shanghai, saying that the pilot free-trade zone will be as important as the Pudong New Area to the world's second-largest economy. On July 3 the State Council approved a plan to set up a free trade zone in Shanghai. The area is expected to be an experimental field for reforms in finance and other sectors.

"As the first natural gas pipeline from Southeast Asia to China, it is completion has strengthened China's natural gas imports and will help to stabilize natural gas prices in southern China."

Ma Ji, a natural gas industry analyst at JYD Online Group commenting after the Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline started deliveries on July 28. The pipeline, which took three years to complete, is expected to curtail China's heavy dependence on importing energy through the Strait of Malacca and help diversify energy import channels.

"The big names' business declined in China seriously in the first half of 2013, for macroeconomic and political reasons."

Zhou Ting, director of the Fortune Character Research Center, saying that after years of fast growth, China's market is becoming saturated with well-known luxury brands. Some major international luxury groups experienced a sales slowdown in China in the first half of the year, even as the European market continued to recover.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/02/2013 page18)