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Hainan seeks to boost tourism

The island province of Hainan is seeking a total investment of 260 billion yuan ($38 billion) to further develop its tourism, local officials said on Thursday. Hainan aims to promote 116 tourism projects and the investment will mainly focus on infrastructure construction and tourism development, said Chen Tiejun, vice-president of the Hainan Tourism Development Committee. As part of a development plan, a goal of establishing "A hundred towns and a thousand villages" was set by the provincial government to advance economic development in less developed areas. Thanks to the natural landscapes and the establishment of a special economic zone, Hainan has witnessed a fast growth in its tourism. With annual revenue of over 60 billion yuan and tourists numbering over 60 million in 2016, tourism is still considered the dominant industry in the province.

Cisco plans more staff layoffs

Cisco Systems, Inc, the world's biggest networking gear maker, said on Wednesday it will extend a restructuring plan to lay off another 1,100 employees. The technology giant, headquartered in San Jose, northern California, announced the restructuring plan in August last year to reinvest in "key priority areas" which included dismissing up to 5,500 employees, or 7 percent its workforce. The extended plan was revealed in Cisco's quarterly earnings report released on Wednesday, with the group saying that the additional workforce reduction would be completed in 2018. The company reported revenue of $11.9 billion in the three-month period, a decline of 1 percent over the same period of last year.

GM suspends employee contracts

US automaker General Motors will temporarily suspend the contracts of 1,500 workers at its plant in Sao Jose dos Campos, near Sao Paulo, union sources announced on Wednesday. According to the Metalworkers' Union of Sao Jose dos Campos, the suspension of the contracts will happen between June 5 and Nov 4, with the company and the federal government sharing the costs. However, the union said GM had committed to maintaining all workers in their roles until at least next February. The workers affected by the temporary measures will receive training and attend qualification courses during the period. The GM plant in Sao Jose dos Campos has around 5,000 workers and produces the S10 and Trailblazer SUVs.

Google announces Android milestone

Google Inc said on Wednesday its Android operating system had reached a milestone by powering 2 billion monthly active devices around the world. Dave Burke, Google's vice-president of engineering, said that Android has the largest reach of any computing platform of its kind. Designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices, Android was first unveiled in 2007. It is estimated that it is now the operating system for more than 80 percent of the world's smartphones. With its latest version released in August 2016, Android has been claimed by Google officials to be "across all screens". Its reach includes watches, cars, television sets, internet of things products and additionally it provides many of the chromebooks sold to junior schools in the United States.

Ford Motor mulls workforce cutbacks

With auto sales dropping for four consecutive months, Ford Motor Co is considering workforce cutbacks to reduce the costs, local media reported. News reports said after holding its annual meeting with shareholders on Thursday and meeting with Wall Street analysts, the Dearborn-based automaker sent signals it is willing to make big changes to adapt to tougher market conditions, which may mean cutting its global workforce by 10 percent which numbers some 201,000 employees. The US automaker said in a statement: "We remain focused on the three strategic priorities that will create value and drive profitable growth, which include fortifying the profit pillars in our core business, transforming traditionally underperforming areas of our core business and investing aggressively, but prudently, in emerging opportunities."

Derivatives exchange coming

Vietnam's new derivative market will start operating on June 2, with the futures contract of share indexes set to launch first, according to the Vietnam State Securities Commission. A government bond futures product will be introduced later on, a local newspaper reported on Thursday. The Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade has been appointed the sole financial institution to carry out settlements for derivatives trading. Only Vietnamese firms can become trading members on the derivative stock market, according to the country's regulations. After 17 years of operation, the domestic stock market currently trades stocks, bonds and funds. The establishment of derivatives market is expected to provide new products for investors and boost development of the domestic bourse.

S. Korea reports card boom

Overseas credit and debit cards spending by South Koreans hit a record quarterly high in the first quarter, as more people traveled abroad on holidays, central bank data showed on Thursday. South Korean consumers spent $4.02 billion overseas with credit, debit and check cards in the January-March quarter, according to the Bank of Korea. It was up 7.4 percent from the previous quarter, topping the $4 billion mark for the first time. The previous record high was $3.78 billion tallied in the third quarter of last year. Consumers reportedly refrained from spending money in the domestic market, but were willing to open their wallets in other countries, on the back of strong demand for overseas trips on holidays.

Japan's GDP expands in Q1

Japan's economy grew an annualized real 2.2 percent in the January-March quarter, marking its fifth successive quarter of expansion, the government announced on Thursday. The preliminary reading for the gross domestic product in the first quarter came in ahead of economists estimates for an expansion of 1.7 percent and followed a 1.4 percent annualized rate of expansion logged in the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said. In inflation-adjusted terms, GDP for the three months had a 0.5 percent increase from the previous quarter. Private consumption, a key component of the country's GDP, was up 0.4 percent in the same period. The data showed solid exports also contributed to the expansion. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, GDP rose 0.5 percent in the period, marginally higher than the 0.4 percent average predicted by economists.

Economy set to grow in Spain

Spain's economy is likely to grow by 2.8 percent in 2017, according to projections published on Wednesday by the Spanish employers' organization. The figure meant a 0.3-percentage-point increase, compared with previous forecasts published by the institution. The organization highlighted the good performance of the economy in the first quarter of the year, emphasizing that employment is improving, with a rise in the number of people affiliated to the social security system in April.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily USA 05/19/2017 page18)