Posted: Monday, November 6, 2006 6:00 pm
GENEVA — The World Trade Organization formally invited Vietnam on Tuesday to become the commerce body’s 150th member, officials said.
Vietnam completed 11 years of entry talks with the Geneva-based group last month.
The communist country can join 30 days after its National Assembly signs the accord, which it is expected to do swiftly.
Tuesday’s approval from the WTO comes just days before Hanoi will be in the spotlight when it hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, drawing leaders from 21 countries and thousands of business executives from around the world.
Vietnam is Asia’s fastest-growing economy after China, and the Asian Development Bank in August projected its economy would expand by 7.8 percent this year. With a population of 84 million, it is the second most populous country behind Russia still outside the WTO.
Pink Sheets to clarify listings by categories
NEW YORK — The Pink Sheets will start categorizing the tiny stocks listed on its electronic system in an effort to further clarify the nature of the companies behind these thinly traded securities.
Pink Sheets is a venue for the very thinly traded stocks of companies that typically fall short of size or other requirements for listing on exchanges like the Nasdaq Stock Market or American Stock Exchange.
Pink Sheets LLC said stocks will be divided into seven categories ranging from those that have “substantial operating businesses and provide credible disclosure to the public,” to those that have “questionable promotion or other public-interest concerns.”
“Our hope is that by providing a categorization, investors will be better warned in the companies that don’t disclose and better informed on the ones that do,” said R. Cromwell Coulson, chief executive of Pink Sheets.
Chinese province closing 900 unsafe mines
BEIJING — A northern Chinese province accounting for nearly one-third of China’s coal output will shut down 900 more coal mines by mid-2008 due to safety, environmental and energy concerns, state media reported Tuesday.
Shanxi province will close these mines as part of a campaign to reduce the number of coal mines in the province from 3,500 to 2,500 by 2010, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Between July 2005 and June, the province shut down 1,156 coal mines, Xinhua said, citing an unnamed spokesman with the local coal industry authority.
Shanxi’s coal mines have had numerous accidents in recent years, Xinhua said. In the latest mishap, 19 miners were killed and 28 were still missing after a gas blast on Sunday at the Jiaojiazhai coal mine in Xinzhou, a central-northern city of the province.
China is the world’s biggest coal producer and consumer. It also has the world’s deadliest coal mines, with more than 5,000 deaths reported every year in fires, flood and explosions, despite repeated government promises to improve safety.
The government has launched a series of safety campaigns in recent years in an attempt to rein in accidents that kill more than 5,000 Chinese coal miners annually. But death tolls are largely unchanged.
— From news wires