In My Dreams

　　A China Construction Bank booth at a financial exhibition in Beijing. [photo provided to China Daily]

　　China Construction Bank Corporation announced on Tuesday its net profit grew by 6.08 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year.

　　While profitability continued to maintain a good momentum, the bank's asset quality has been steadily improving. As of the end of June, its non-performing loan balance was 198.75 billion yuan ($29 billion), and the NpL ratio dropped by 1 basis point from the end of last year to 1.48 percent.

　　The bank's net interest margin - the difference between interest paid and interest earned - increased by 20 basis points year-on-year to 2.34 percent, thanks to targeted reserve requirement ratio cuts by China's central bank, improved returns on assets, and a consistent optimization of the asset and liability structure, said CCB in an announcement of its 2018 interim results.

　　The second-largest State-owned commercial lender by assets in China constantly optimized its credit structure so that the asset quality remained stable.

　　It strictly implemented the list management, with a loan balance of 127.98 billion yuan for serious overcapacity industries and a loan balance of 360.12 billion yuan for real estate development, mainly supporting high-quality real estate clients and ordinary commodity housing projects.

　　To support the development of the real economy - the part of the economy that produces goods and services - the net amount of loans and advances to CCB customers increased by 494.01 billion yuan, or 3.93 percent, since the end of last year.

　　Housing leasing is one of the major strategies that CCB's operations and innovation focused on in the first half of 2018, in addition to fintech and inclusive finance.

　　The bank took the lead to introduce comprehensive housing rental solutions in the banking sector. So far, the bank has signed housing leasing cooperation agreements with more than 300 cities at prefecture level and above. It has cooperated with 1,500 enterprises in the leasing market, and its housing rental service platform has accumulated more than 350,000 apartments online and rented nearly 90,000.

　　Iraq's Baghdad University entered an international global rankings for 2019, in a sign of post-war improvement.

　　A statement by Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education on Thursday said "Baghdad University appeared in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in the 801 to 1,000 band."

　　The Times Higher tables included the ranks of 1,250 universities around the world.

　　"Baghdad University achieved a new accomplishment by entering the Times Ranking, after its researchers submitted more than 7,000 researches to Scopus international data base," the statement said.

　　"The result of the British Times Rankings shows University of Baghdad was among the world universities that have been contested and evaluated in accordance with 2019 Times Rankings criteria, which is considered as the second best global ranking after Academic Shanghai Ranking," the statement said.

　　According to data published on Wednesday by the British rankings, the United Kingdom universities of Oxford and Cambridge were in the first and second places.

　　It also showed that China is now home to the best university in Asia, while France's Sorbonne University came in the highest-ranked in the table.

　　Higher education in Iraq was badly affected by conflicts, insecurity and chaos that engulfed the country after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

　　Chinese investment group Tus-Holdings and the Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) announced a number of major technology and innovation joint investment projects on Tuesday, with one of these worth more than 90 billion roubles ($1.28 billion).

　　According to a statement from the RCIF, the two groups, along with other international investors, will invest a total of $1.28 billion in building a technology park in former Tushino airfield, northwestern Moscow, which will include the largest-ever innovation park in the nation.

　　China and Russia have been increasing their economic relations amid the current China-US trade tensions.

　　Chinese direct investment in Russia soared 72 percent to reach $2.22 billion last year, while bilateral trade rose 20.8 percent to $84 billion.

　　Tus-Holdings and the RCIF are also looking at building a 70,000 square meter high-tech innovation park, which will see an investment of over $100 million. The park aims to attract leading high-tech companies from both China and Russia.

　　"Joint Russian-Chinese investment in venture projects is not only attractive from the point of view of profitability, but also promotes scientific and technical cooperation between Russia and China," said Kirill Dmitriev, co-CEO of the RCIF.

　　In addition, a venture fund, the Russia-China Venture Fund, was established on Tuesday. It is expected to seek high-tech investment opportunities in both Russia and China.

　　Wang Jiwu, chairman of Tus-Holdings, noted that a dozen potential investment institutions and investors had expressed their willingness to participate in the future investments of the RCVF.

　　All these agreements were signed on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum held in Vladivostok, Russia. At the forum, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and China's Alibaba Group also announced to form a new joint venture on e-commerce.