Day: August 4, 2019

(Xinhua)15:17, August 03, 2019

KIEV, August 2 (Xinhua) — Chinese tech giant Huawei announced Friday that it has won the tender to build 4G network for the metro in Ukraines capital city Kiev.

It will be Huaweis largest subway telecom system project among the 27 Central, Eastern European and Scandinavian countries, reads the companys statement.

Currently, there is only 2G coverage in Kiev subway, except for the Teremki station whose data is not available.

Huawei has experience in implementing mobile communication system projects subways such as those in Paris and Hong Kong, said Alexander Serbin, Huawei Ukraines business development director.

I hope that residents and visitors of the capital will soon be able to enjoy all the benefits of modern mobile technologies, he said.

The tender for the 4G network construction in the Kiev metro was launched in October 2018 and completed in late July.

(China Daily)10:20, July 31, 2019

Political Bureau meeting decides to avoid real estate market stimulus

China will not change its real estate policies to provide short-term stimulus to the economy, but instead will make fiscal policy more effective and keep liquidity reasonably ample in the second half of this year, participants in a top leadership meeting said on Tuesday.

The long-term management mechanism of the real estate sector should be implemented and the industry will not be used as means to stimulate the economy in the short term, Xinhua News Agency reported on the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

Proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy should be well implemented, the report said. Fiscal policy should be strengthened and made more effective, and the tax and fee reduction policy should be implemented more thoroughly.

Participants agreed that monetary policy should be neither too tight nor too loose, and liquidity should be kept reasonably ample, the report said.

Analysts said the meeting signaled an important policy direction by showing that the government is shunning stimulation through boosting the property market, which is the right way to deal with economic weakening.

It is a very correct decision, said Qu Tianshi, China economist for Bloomberg Economics. The country should not blindly use the property market to stimulate the economy just because the economy is slowing down. Such practices … exacerbate the risk of asset bubbles.

The political bureau meeting said liquidity should be kept ample, meaning the banks reserve requirement ratio (cash required as reserves) and the interest rate may be cut in the second half, said Liang Haiming, dean of Hainan University Belt and Road Research Institute.

Fiscal policy will be tilted toward small and mini-businesses and startups, with more tax and fee cuts tailored to their needs, said Liang, who is also chairman of the China Silk Road iValley Research Institute.

Robin Xing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley, said there is further room for fiscal easing on infrastructure investment to stabilize growth in the coming two quarters.

As prevailing uncertainty around trade will still weigh on private sector confidence, we continue to expect policy efforts to boost direct public spending. On the fiscal front, the pace of government bond issuance will likely remain relatively fast at around Junes level in the coming couple of months to support infrastructure spending, he said.

The Political Bureau meeting said Chinas economy is facing new risks and challenges and the country will continue to carry out supply-side structural reform, boost domestic consumption, further open up the economy and stabilize foreign trade and employment.

On Monday, Xi said that while difficulties and challenges in economic operations should be noticed, the economys long-term improving trend remains unchanged.

(China will) unswervingly deepen supply-side structural reform and foster new growth engines to push high-quality economic development in a down-to-earth manner, he said.

(Peoples Daily Online)14:37, July 31, 2019

Shanghai city (Photo/Xinhua)

China’s per capita consumer spending increased by 7.5 percent year-on-year to reach 10,330 yuan ($1,500) in the first half of 2019. Nine provinces and cities exceeded the level, including Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Zhejiang and Guangdong, official data showed.

Shanghai outperformed other regions with per capita consumer spending of 22,513 yuan. Beijing ranked second with 21,134 yuan.

Five of the nine cities and provinces are located in the southeastern region of the country, which has a relatively large consumer market. They have taken various measures to stimulate consumption.

For instance, Guangdong has released an implementation plan, which relaxed policies regarding public auctions and the lottery system to grant car license plates for those who want to buy cars in the provincial capital Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Consumers from the above provinces and cities spent money more on services such as catering and tourism. In the first half of the year, service consumption contributed to 70.4 percent of Beijing’s economic growth.

The strong purchasing power is related to the increasing per capita disposable income of the residents in these provinces. Chinas per capita disposable income stood at 15,294 yuan ($4,165) in the first half of the year.

(Peoples Daily Online)14:50, July 31, 2019

92 percent of the Chinese born in the 1990s have a balance at the end of every month, and 80 percent of them use the balance to purchase wealth management products, said a report jointly issued by Chinese mobile payment platform Alipay and Chinese institute of new economy.

According to the report, the money saved in the Alipay accounts of this group is 4.5 times what they consumed.

90 percent of this group said they would assess their economic conditions before making purchases of non-basic needs, and the report indicated that their consumption of education-related products and services surged 87 percent in 2018 from a year ago.

90 percent of the post-90s generation said they used Huabei, a virtual credit card of Alipay, to enjoy discounts rather than spending money ahead, as the service often provides various special offers.

The post-90s generation starts managing their wealth at around 23 years old on average, 10 years earlier than their parents did, and most of them would purchase their first related products in college or within two years after graduation.

He Jianhua, former deputy president of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, attributed the early exposure to consumption and wealth management of this generation to the popularity of the internet and the economic boom of the Chinese economy, saying they have advanced ideas in this area.

(Peoples Daily Online)15:30, July 31, 2019

Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivers a keynote speech at the Belt and Road China-Philippines Forum on People-to-People Exchanges and Economic Cooperation held in Manila. (Photo/Huanqiu.com)

It鈥檚 fitting that today scholars describe the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as 鈥淕lobalization 2.0鈥? former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in her keynote speech at Belt and Road China-Philippines Forum on People-to-People Exchanges and Economic Cooperation, which kicked off on July 26 in Manila, capital of the Philippines.

鈥淚 appreciate that China is now developing into a powerful advocate for safeguarding and developing an open world economy. This is significant in the face of the rise of anti-globalization in favor of old-style nationalism,鈥?Arroyo said at the forum, which attracted over 200 dignitaries, experts and industry leaders from China and the Philippines.

鈥淪cholars point out that 鈥楪lobalization 2.0鈥?is more about investment, infrastructure and development rather than just trade in the old times鈥? noted Arroyo, who said that the BRI is 鈥淐hina鈥檚 broadest platform for collaboration and cooperation鈥?

鈥淔rom the point of view of the Philippines, as an economist and former president, I dare say that we would greatly appreciate and benefit from increased flows of capital and technology from China, in areas ranging from agriculture to digital advancements,鈥?said Arroyo.

Aiming to promote people-to-people as well as economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between China and the Philippines, the Belt and Road China-Philippines Forum on People-to-People Exchanges and Economic Cooperation consisted of a main forum and three sub-forums on think tank and media dialogue, infrastructure cooperation, and culture and health industry cooperation respectively.

The forum was jointly hosted by China Public Diplomacy Association and Presidential Communications Operations Office of the Philippines, co-organized by Global Times Online and Confucius Institute at the Ateneo De Manila University, and supported by the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc., Philippine Silk Road International Chamber of Commerce, and LKK Health Products Group, while the Embassy of China in the Republic of the Philippines also offered special support for the forum.

The forum held in Manila was the first stop of the Belt and Road-themed forum series on people-to-people exchanges and economic cooperation between China and Southeast Asian countries. Each of the forums comprises of a main forum and several sub-forums on different subjects.