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E-commerce giant files IPO document in US

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba has filed initial public offering document on May 7 to the US Securities and Exchange Commission with plans to raise $1 billion, according to SEC information and well-informed sources.

Announcing this in an internal communication to employees, founder and chairman of Alibaba Ma Yun said: "Becoming a listed company has never been our goal. It is a tactic and means to realize our mission."

The huge pile of cash it is expected to raise is likely to help Alibaba find more new growth points as its e-commerce-based business is transformed into a competitive digital platform covering an increasingly broad array of Internet services.

Alibaba's regulatory filing gave a $1 billion placeholder value for the offering, but the actual amount is expected to be far higher, possibly topping the $19.65 billion raised by Visa Inc's offering in 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

Alibaba neither specified the number or price of shares it will offer nor gave a proposed IPO date. It has not revealed whether the IPO will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.

Relationship critical for Africa's growth

Cooperation with China is critical if Africa is to accelerate its economic growth, Elsie Kanza, director, Head of Africa at the World Economic Forum, said in Abuja, Nigeria, on May 5.

Kanza said the continent needs all the partners it can attract to mobilize the investments it needs for its economic transformation.

Themed Forging Inclusive Growth, Creating Jobs, the 2014 World Economic Forum on Africa opened in Abuja on May 7. The three-day meeting brought about 900 international delegates, including political and business leaders and academic experts.

Kanza pointed out that volumes of investments needed for development on the continent were much bigger than the continent could mobilize single-handedly.

Kanza called on China to invest more in trade and economic transformation in Africa.

Housing sales fall over May Day break

Property sales fell by more than 30 percent in major cities during the May Day holiday compared with the same period last year, according to property agency Centaline Group.

This holiday period used to see brisk transactions.

Dragged down by the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, 9,887 apartments were sold in transactions in the country's 54 major cities, a drop of 32.5 percent from last year.

Second-tier cities - mostly provincial capitals - saw housing sales drop by about 35 percent.

The Beijing Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said only 169 apartments were sold from May 1 to 3, down by nearly 80 percent from the same period last year and a record low since 2008.

In Shenzhen, Guangdong province, only 49 apartments were sold during the holiday, compared with 133 last year.

New satellite boosts bright forecast

China is boosting its weather forecast and natural disaster prevention capacity with a new weather satellite delivered to the China Meteorological Administration on May 5.

"FY-3C, a polar orbiting meteorological satellite, marks a milestone for China's meteorological satellite development, making China one of the most advanced countries in this field," said Zheng Guoguang, director of the administration.

The satellite will replace FY-3A, the test satellite launched in 2008, and provide global air temperature, humidity profiles and meteorological parameters such as cloud and surface radiation required for weather forecasts.

The FY-3C satellite, designed to last five years, carries 12 remote sensing instruments, including microwave temperature and humidity sounders and GNSS occultation detectors, a new payload for the global three-dimensional and vertical soundings of the atmosphere.

The satellite, launched in September from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province, will be the country's 13th weather satellite launched since 1988.

Chinese teens not so short after all

The claim that Chinese teenagers' average height falls short of their Japanese and South Korean counterparts surfaced at the National People's Congress in March, prompting public concern that students' fitness levels have plunged.

Specialists at a recent youth sports event shrugged off the comparisons, though they highlighted the importance of adequate exercise and diet as non-genetic factors behind overall health.

A fitness expert also rejected the notion that Chinese youths are shorter than Japanese or South Koreans.

An average 17-year-old Chinese male in 2010 stood 171.4 centimeters in height, while the average female was 159.3 cm, according to figures from the National Fitness Survey released by the State Administration of Sport of China in 2011. That was taller than Japanese youth of either sex.

China Daily-Xinhua

(China Daily Africa Weekly 05/09/2014 page2)