Figures

42,270

The World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO) disclosed that 2011 saw the highest number of international trademark applications ever filed under its Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks. The total amount was 42,270, a 6.5 percent increase over 2010. Applications from EU member states accounted for more than half of all international trademark applications. China, with 2,149 applications, ranked seventh. The largest growth rates among the top ten countries in the system came from the Russian Federation (35.6 percent), followed by the European Union (24.5 percent), the United States of America (15.5 percent) and China (11.5 percent).

26 Billion

In an interview Jia Zhibang, chief of the State Forestry Administration, said that China will organize 6.5 billion person-times of voluntary service to plant 26 billion trees in the coming decade. This will continue the nations green drive that started in the 1980s, which has grown 61.4 billion trees thanks to 13.3 billion person-times of voluntary service. Over the past three decades Chinas wooded areas expanded from 115 million to 195 million hectares, and forest coverage from 12 percent to 20.36 percent. Its planted forests grew from 22 million to 62 million hectares, ranking the largest in the world. The nations forest coverage is expected to reach 223 million hectares by 2020, or 23 percent of Chinas lands, according to Chinas 2011-2020 Afforestation Plan.

US $694.997 Billion

According to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), as of end of 2011, Chinas external debt stood at US $694.997 billion (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), an increase of 86 percent over 2007, when the figure was US $373.618 billion. Experts on International finance cite three reasons for the steep rise — marked appreciation of RMB, an influx of foreign capital drawn by higher interest rates in China and increased borrowing from abroad due to Chinas restrictions on bank loaning in recent years. Of the current gross short-term foreign debt, a gauge of hot money inflow, is valued at US $500.901 billion, or 72.1 percent, in comparison with the international safe zone of 20 to 25 percent. But experts say that, given Chinas gross domestic product of about RMB 45 trillion and foreign exchange reserve of US $3.3 trillion, its debt ratio is far below the warning limit.