Before we go, let's take a quick look at major business stories from around China.

China will make efforts to import more liquefied natural gas or LNG to cope with its supply shortage.

Zhang Guobao, head of China's National Energy Administration made the statement at a press conference in Beijing on Sunday.

Zhang said China would speed up the building of LNG terminals, natural gas pipelines, and storage facilities in the country's coastal areas.

China imported 3.5 million tons of LNG in 2009, equal to five billion square meters of natural gas, accounting for almost six percent of China's total gas consumption in the year.

Zhang also called on domestic enterprises to sign more long-term LNG import agreements.

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China's gross output value of textiles rose by 10.3 percent last year.

According to the vice president of China National Textile and Apparel Council Shen Kunyuan last week, the output of textile enterprises with annual sales exceeding five million yuan or some 730 thousand U.S. dollars reached 3.8 trillion yuan last year.

China has more than 50 thousand textile companies of that size.

He says the council has yet to compile full-year profit figures, but profits in the first 11 months of 2009 saw a year-on-year growth of 25.4 percent to some 130 billion yuan.

Sun Huaibin, a researcher with the council attributes the profit growth to equipment upgrading and relocation of the companies from coastal areas to central China where costs are lower.

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China's Ministry of Commerce or MOC said Friday that it would impose initial anti-dumping measures on chicken imports from the United States.

According to a statement on the MOC website, the preliminary ruling requires importers of chicken products from the United States to place deposits at Chinese customs starting from Feb. 13.

The statement said investigations showed the U.S. producers had dumped chicken products on the Chinese market, causing substantial damage to China's domestic industry.

The statement also listed dumping margins for chicken products from producers who responded to the anti-dumping investigations from some 43 percent to 80 percent and for those who did not respond to the investigations at some 105 percent.

The investigations were launched last September.

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East China's Shanghai will provide high-quality financial services for the upcoming World Expo.

Fang Xinghai, director of the Financial Service Office of Shanghai, said on Thursday that all preparations were in place to support the financial needs of visitors and participants.

Fang said there are two main parts for the Expo's financial services.

One is to ensure convenient and swift credit card payment for ticket purchases, food and boarding, while the other is to provide insurance for participants and items on display.

More than 70 million people are estimated to visit the event, which will open on May 1.

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In corporate news.

Bank of Beijing, China's leading city commercial bank by market value, has been approved to buy 50 percent of the shares of ING Capital Life Insurance Co., Ltd., becoming the first bank of its kind to enter the Chinese insurance industry.

In a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday, the bank said that the purchase will cost 680 million yuan or nearly 100 million U.S. dollars.

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The world's largest Chinese search engine Baidu.com signed an agreement last week with Shenzhen city government to build its international headquarters in this boomtown of southern Guangdong province.

Baidu's president Li Yanhong says timetable and budgets are to be drawn up after the municipal government, which is very supportive to online service enterprises, specifies land allotment for the project.

Baidu accounts for 70 percent of China's search engine market.