China

Solar Systems, the company that was to develop the world's biggest solar power station in Victoria, has until mid-February to find a buyer or go into liquidation, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. A second meeting of creditors in Melbourne yesterday agreed to adjourn for up to 45 business days to give administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers more time to sell the business as a going concern. BusinessDay believes that the administrator could be close to securing a sale but that details need to be finalised.

General Motors on Monday sold to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding the rights to technology from its Saab unit that will help the Chinese company to lift its profile at home, The New York Times reported. BAIC, as the Chinese company is known, is acquiring “certain Saab 9-3, current 9-5 and powertrain technology and tooling,” the companies said in a statement. “This arrangement is excellent for both parties, now and for the future,” Jan Ake Jonsson, managing director of Saab Automobile, said in the statement.

General Motors Co. will cede a majority stake in its China passenger-car venture to partner SAIC Motor Corp., while forming a new partnership with the Shanghai-based company to sell low-cost vehicles in India, Bloomberg reported. GM agreed to transfer 1 percent of Shanghai General Motors Co. to SAIC, China’s biggest carmaker, the companies said in a joint statement today. That will boost SAIC’s holding to 51 percent. They will also form an equally controlled venture in the first quarter of next year to make and sell small cars and mini-commercial vehicles in India.

The head of China's biggest property developer warned that real-estate bubbles in some of China's biggest cities could spread elsewhere in the country, with potentially damaging consequences for the market, The Wall Street Journal reported. In an interview, Wang Shi, chairman of China Vanke Co., said government stimulus measures enacted a year ago to keep China's economy from being sucked into the global recession have helped to cause a fundamental turnaround in a property market that was severely ailing before the global financial crisis hit.

Chinese banks must beware of the risk of credit card defaults because overdue payments are rising sharply, the People's Bank of China said on Monday. Credit card payments that were more than six months late jumped 126.5 percent in the first three quarters from the same period last year, to 7.4 billion yuan ($1.08 billion), the central bank said on its website, www.pbc.gov.cn. 'The risk of bad debts on credit cards deserves constant attention,' the central bank said.

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. was thwarted again this week in its effort to gain access to advanced foreign technology after a deal involving General Motors Co.'s Saab unit fell through, The Wall Street Journal reported. But analysts expect the Chinese auto maker to try again as it seeks a platform for extending its reach world-wide. Beijing Auto said Wednesday it regrets the collapse of the deal.

China's banking regulator issued a stern warning to banks to strictly comply with capital requirements or face sanctions, the clearest sign yet Beijing is worried about possible risks building in the country's financial system after a year of blow-out lending, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A growing number of global leaders are urging China to look to its long-term interests and allow its tightly controlled currency to rise. But they are encountering reluctance from a government still very much worried about the economy in the short term, The Wall Street Journal reported. stronger yuan, which would make Chinese exports less competitive, is particularly unappealing for China in a year when exports are down about 20% and many manufacturers have closed.

Germany, second only to China as the world's leading exporter of goods, has been particularly hard-hit by the collapse of global markets. But the mass unemployment some had feared has failed to materialize. Labor experts in many countries are wondering how Germany has done it, Spiegel Online reported. Germany currently has 1.1 million workers participating in short-time working programs, known in German as Kurzarbeit. They include people who don't have enough work, but who also are nevertheless not being let go.

China’s stimulus-induced lending binge probably propelled growth in the third quarter to its fastest pace in a year. Now, policy makers have to figure out how to wean the economy off state support, Bloomberg reported. The country’s rebound has been powered by 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) of spending on railways, roads, power plants and public housing. The program ends next year, forcing Premier Wen Jiabao to find new ways to sustain the expansion with increased consumer spending and the financing of small businesses.