Chinese writer Diane Wei Liang presents her new book in Barcelona

From http://www.casaasia.es/actividad/detalle?id=203306 (in Spanish)

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="La Casa del Espíritu Dorado - Diane Wei Liang - Ediciones Siruela"][/caption]

In the framework of a series of activities related to asian detective fiction literature, Casa Àsia and Ediciones Siruela have organized a meeting with Chinese writer Diane Wei Liang, who has recently released her third novel "The House of Golden Spirit", that has been translated into Spanish as "La Casa del Espíritu Dorado". After the success of "The eye of Jade" and "Paper butterfly", Diane Wei Liang has written a new story for her fictional character, the female detective Mei Wang. The plot on this new book is set on the city of Beijing after the Olympic Games of 2008, where Mei Wang has to deal with a noisy and busy environment, and with people whose only drive in life is money or power. Diane Wei Liang will be giving a talk entitled "Mei Wang's Beijing" ("El Pequín de la detectiu Mei Wang" (catalan) / "El Pequín de la detective Mei Wang" (Spanish)) and presenting her book in Barcelona on September 15th, 2011. The event will take place at the headquarters of Casa Àsia in Barcelona, Tagore Auditorium, Avinguda Diagonal, 373 and she will be introduced by Ofelia Grande, Director of Ediciones Siruela, and Rafael Bueno, Director of Politics and Society of Casa Àsia. One day earlier, a similar activity is scheduled in Madrid's Casa Asia's headquarters. An interview in Spanish with Diane Wei Liang can be dowloaded from Ediciones Siruela website, whereas Casa Àsia website also offers an invitation card to the event, both as pdf files. For further information contact casaasia@casaasia.es.

Chinese holding Hutchison Ports receives credit to enlarge Barcelona port

From http://www.expansion.com/2011/09/08/catalunya/1315477340.html (in Spanish)

Chinese holding Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), owner of the shipping & logistics company Terminal Catalunya S.A. (TerCat), has obtained a credit of 280 million euros to finance the first phase of the enlargment of the Prat pier container terminal, within the Barcelona Port Authority. Catalan bank La Caixa has been the main creditor in an operation that has had other five banks (four asian and one european). Clemence Cheng, General Director of HPH in Europe, said that this loan “shows the trust that the finantial sector has on TerCat and on Barcelona”. Other important personalities assisting to the event were Artur Mas, president of Catalan government, Juan Maria Nin, CEO of CaixaBank (La Caixa bank), and Alejandro Kouruklis, General Director of TerCat, as well as many representatives from the companies operating in the Barcelona Port. The construction of this first enlargment phase is due to be set in operation on 2013, at the time when the second phase is expected to start.

World Economic Forum lists Taiwan as 13th in global competitiveness report

From http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan-business/2011/09/08/315980/Taiwan-listed.htm and http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2011/09/08/2003512706 (in English)

[caption id="attachment_883" align="alignleft" width="211"] The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012[/caption]

Just as it did in the 2010-2011 report, Taiwan has remained in the 13th position of the the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012. Taiwan ranked first in 8 of the 111 factors evaluated. Its prominent position is supported by a strong business innovation and an improvement on its financial market developments, despite the loss of labor market efficiency and the worsening of government finances. In an East Asian context, Taiwan is behind Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong, and in front of Malaysia, South Korea and China. In the global ranking, Switzerland remains at #1, Singapore moves from #3 to #2, Japan loses 3 places, from #6 to #9, Hong Kong and Taiwan remain stable at #11 and #13, respectively, Malaysia moves from #26 to #21 and China improves from #27 to #26. Spain, despite the serious economic and financial crisis, has improved from #42 to #36 during the last year. The full report can be downloaded as pdf from the World Economic Forum website.

China at Barcelona Summit to be held in Barcelona from 19-21 October 2011

From http://www.chinaatbarcelonasummit.com (in English / Chinese)

The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Mazars, La Caixa and ESADE Business School are organizing in Barcelona the first event around China Outbound Foreign Direct Investments (OFDI) in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, simply summarized as China Meets the Mediterranean (中国约见地中海). This China at Barcelona Summit has the support of the Barcelona Town Hall, ACC1Ó-Invest in Catalonia, Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, Port de Barcelona and Casa Asia, and will take place from October 19th to 21st, 2011. This first meeting is designed exclusively for Chinese firms in a globalization process and other related institutions and its aim is to serve as a "business bridge" and to attract Chinese global firms to Catalonia and use it as base for their further expansion in SW Europe and the whole Mediterranean area. The event is structured around one day of keynote conferences and two days of investment platforms especially designed for firms visiting the event from China, which will include site visits, one to one meetings with selected companies, information sessions and private meetings with local institutions, among other activities. For further information, you can download the 17-page dossier in pdf format that the organizers have prepared for the dissemination of the event, or you can contact them at info@chinaatbarcelonasummit.com.

New growth of unemployed people in Catalonia during August 2011

From http://www.expansion.com/2011/09/02/catalunya/1314953451.html (in Spanish)

Catalonia is the Spanish autonomous community with the greatest increase in unemployment during August 2011, with 13,779 new jobless people. Total number is now 584,649 people in Catalonia and 4.13 million in overall Spain. In percentages, Girona has had the greatest increase of the four Catalan provinces (+3.12% in comparison with the July figures), followed by Barcelona (+2.59%), Tarragona (+1.34%) and Lleida (+0.87%). This increase has been caused mainly by the services and construction sectors.

Workshop in Barcelona for IT companies interested on Chinese and Japanese markets

From http://www.barcelonanetactiva.com/barcelonanetactiva/cat/edit.do?codiIdioma=1&id=583155&id_activitat_mestre=583155&dia=23&mes=9&any=2011 (in Catalan)

On September 23rd, 2011, Barcelona NETactiva is organizing a workshop specially addressed to information technology (IT) companies willing to work in China and Japan. Trends and business opportunities in these two East Asian countries will be extensively discussed during this workshop and the new promotional mission ("Pont Tecnològic", Technological Bridge) to China and Japan due in Nov 28 - Dec 9, 2011, will be presented by Barcelona Activa and Barcelona Chamber of Commerce. China is today's leading country on IT exports, its on-line commerce has increased by 48.6% (up to 160.5 million users) and by 22% in sales (511 billion €) in 2010, whereas in Japan this is the most important sector on its economy and despite it is a consolidated market, it offers many opportunities for collaboration on the R+D sector. Expert keynote speakers will explain how to develop the opportunities offered by Chinese and Japanese markets to the technological companies.

• Date: September 23rd, 2011 from 8:45 to 11:00 am


• Venue: Centre per a la Iniciativa Emprenedora - Glòries. Llacuna 162-164, Barcelona 08018


• Phone: 901 55 11 55


• E-mail: barcelonactiva@barcelonactiva.cat

Costa Brava experience on water recycling explained in Taiwan

From http://www.ccbgi.org/activitats.php#id_23 and http://www.ccbgi.org/activitats.php#id_30b (in English)

[caption id="attachment_862" align="alignleft" width="300"] Presentation at the National Taiwan University, Taipei, November 2010[/caption]

Wondering what to post during these days of August of such low activity here, I realized that nothing was more "Sinalunya" than explaining my own adventures in Taiwan, where I gave two presentations about water recycling, one in September 2009 at the National Taipei University of Technology (國立台北科技大學), and the other one in November 2010 at the National Taiwan University (國立台灣大學). Consorci de la Costa Brava, the water agency that I work for, is a pioneering utility on water recycling in Spain and its experience seems to be of interest for a country that, despite the high rainfall -at least compared with Spain-, has a rather low per capita availability of water resources due to the high population, high industrial demand and a limitation on the capacity of building more dams due to the seismic activity of the area. Treated wastewater can be conveniently reclaimed and recycled for non-potable uses, which produces water savings and also reduces discharges into the environment. Consorci de la Costa Brava is collaborating on the organization of the 8th IWA International Conference on Water Reclamation and Reuse, led by Agbar, where the main findings on the area where they will be presented. Taiwanese professor Elliot Chen (陳筱華), Vice President and Chief Researcher at the Environment and Development Foundation (財團法人環境與發展基金會), is serving as member of the conference Scientific Committee.