Day: December 21, 2020

(Xinhua)17:05, November 24, 2020

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) — China will step up efforts to expand the free trade area network across the world to enlarge its circle of friends, according to Chinas Commerce Minister Zhong Shan.

After signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), China will see the China-Cambodia free trade agreement take effect at the earliest and accelerate investment agreement negotiations with Europe, Zhong said in a signed article published Tuesday in the Peoples Daily.

Zhong also urged efforts to upgrade the existing trade pacts with ASEAN, Singapore, Republic of Korea (ROK) and New Zealand, and facilitate China-Japan-ROK, China-Gulf Cooperation Council, China-Norway and China-Israel free trade agreement negotiations.

With the RCEP reaching a higher level in fields including customs procedures and trade facilitation, intellectual property protection, e-commerce and trade remedies, China will actively engage in dialogue and communication with more major economies and regional trade mechanisms, he said.

Covering a market of 2.27 billion people and a combined GDP of 26.2 trillion U.S. dollars, the RCEP signatories, which account for about one-third of the worlds economy, will become a large integrated market.

Calling the signing of the RCEP a milestone in Chinas pursuit of opening-up, Zhong said the agreement manifests the countrys sincerity and commitment to opening its market.

The import and export of goods between China and other RCEP members, exceeding 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars in value annually, will be subject to preferential tariffs following the RCEP implementation.

Meanwhile, China also promised to open more than 120 service sectors, including RD and elderly care, 22 more than the number of sectors the country had agreed to open upon accession to the World Trade Organization.

(Xinhua)08:22, September 16, 2020

BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday said China is set to achieve its main annual targets and register positive GDP growth in 2020.

Li made the remarks when addressing the Special Virtual Dialogue with Global Business Leaders hosted by the World Economic Forum, attended by more than 500 business leaders.

China has managed to quickly bring COVID-19 under effective control while ensuring peoples basic living needs, Li said, stressing that this has not been easy for a developing country with 1.4 billion people.

Such achievements have been made possible by the extraordinary efforts and sacrifices of the Chinese people, Li said.

As things stand, the economy has been on the upturn, with more than seven million new jobs created in urban and rural areas since the beginning of the year, he noted, calling for more hard work to overcome risks and challenges.

(Xinhua)11:09, September 17, 2020

BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) — The Chinese yuan strengthened against the greenback Wednesday, extending gains to hit a 16-month high and notching the largest daily surge since April 8 this year.

The central parity rate of the yuan strengthened 397 pips to 6.7825 against the U.S. dollar Wednesday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS).

The yuan surged in both onshore and offshore trading. The offshore yuan strengthened to its highest level in 16 months, rising more than 5 percent since the end of May.

Market optimism, building on the resilience and long-term prospects of the Chinese economy, has fueled the yuans rally to gain steam over the months, analysts said.

Latest data showed Chinas industrial output expanded at a faster pace in August, while retail sales, a main gauge of consumption, rose for the first time this year.

Other leading indicators, including the purchasing managers index, electricity consumption and excavator sales, all pointed to further recovery in economic activities after the country brought the COVID-19 epidemic under control.

The countrys economic performance has been quite convincing, with the turnaround in the second quarter of the year and a likely momentum gain in the third quarter, reinforcing investors expectations of a stronger yuan, said Zhao Qingming, a specialist in international finance.

The countrys economy expanded 3.2 percent year on year in the second quarter, bouncing back from a contraction of 6.8 percent in the first quarter.

Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics, said the countrys economic growth is likely to undergo an evident acceleration in the third quarter if recovery momentum continues in September.

The countrys exports posted the first increase this year from January to August, indicating the impact of COVID-19 on economic growth, especially on foreign trade, has been contained, adding to market confidence in the economy and fueling expectation of a stronger yuan, said Tu Yonghong, deputy chief of the International Monetary Institute of Renmin University of China.

The CFETS yuan exchange rate composite index, which measures the yuans strength relative to a basket of currencies, came in at 93.6 on Sept. 11, up from 91.39 at the end of 2019.

A weak U.S. dollar and a widening spread between the two economies interest rates have driven the yuan to appreciate, said Xu Gao, chief economist at Bank of China International.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.01 percent at 93.0501 overnight. It has declined more than 9 percent from this years peak in March.

Chinas continued efforts in opening up its financial markets also made international investors upbeat about the economic outlook and yuan-denominated assets, leading to inflow of international capital and support in strengthening the yuan, analysts said.

In the short run, factors including Chinas economic recovery and increasing capital inflows will continue to push up the yuan exchange rate, said Wen Bin, chief analyst at China Minsheng Bank.

In the longer term, however, as the formation mechanism of the yuans exchange rate becomes more market-oriented, it will maintain two-way movement within a balanced and reasonable range, Wen said.

In Chinas spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate every trading day.

The central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market on each business day.

(Xinhua)09:06, September 18, 2020

ROME, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — Analysts and observers expect tourists from China to play an over-sized role when the beleaguered Italian tourism sector starts to recover.

In recent years, tourism has accounted for nearly 15 percent of Italys gross domestic product. But the sector was among the first and hardest-affected parts of the economy when the coronavirus pandemic hit Italy in February.

International tourists began to trickle into Italy starting in early June when the country lifted restrictions on international travelers from most parts of Europe, but tourists from lots of non-EU countries still face travel restrictions. In the end, this year is shaping up to be one to forget about for tourist-oriented restaurants, hotels, shops, airlines, and tour companies.

Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism Dario Franceschini said the sector is unlikely to see a full recovery before 2023. Key analysts and observers said that as the sector does recover, China will play a major role.

Of all the foreign tourists who visited Italy last year, those from China represented a relatively small number, around 2.4 percent, Gianfranco Lorenzo, the head of the research department for the Center for Touristic Studies, a not-for-profit organization that monitors the sector, told Xinhua. That may sound unimportant compared to the number of arrivals from other countries, but their impact has been significant.

Lorenzo said that one reason for that is because, according to data from the Bank of Italy, Chinese travelers have a larger-than-average economic impact when measured on a per-capita basis.

He said the data show that Chinese travelers are often more interested in what he called Italian style — luxury fashion and design — as in the countrys cultural attractions. He also noted that the number of Chinese travelers has increased at a faster rate than the sector as a whole and that the potential for growth was almost unimaginable.

He added: Once this crisis is over, I expect the role of Chinese tourists to be bigger than it was before the crisis.

Riccarda Saggese, an author and self-employed shopping consultant who splits her time between Rome and Florence, echoed some of Lorenzos points. Her job involves helping travelers navigate thousands of shops to find the items they are looking for.

Ten years ago, it was unusual to have a client from China, Saggese said in an interview. But over the last couple of years, the number of clients I have had from China has been one out of every five or six, and growing.

Saggese said the impacts of tourists from a specific place, like China, go beyond the immediate impacts of their visit.

I like to think about the cultural exchanges: believe that the more Chinese tourists come to Italy and the more Italians travel to China the closer the two countries become on a human level, she said. Also, when travelers return from a trip they found enjoyable they speak about it with their friends, and thats the best kind of advertising.

(Xinhua)09:19, September 18, 2020

HELSINKI, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — The Oneplus Nord 5G smartphone produced by Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology topped the sale list in Finland in August, reported Helsingin Sanomat (HS), the largest subscription newspaper in Finland, on Thursday.

Oneplus Nord 5G became the most purchased phone in both Elisa and Telia, two of the three mobile network operators in Finland, in August 2020. The phone is also the second best seller in the overall statistics of DNA, the third mobile network operator in the country.

According to the report, all the above mentioned three operators believe sales of Oneplus Nord 5G have continued at a rapid pace in September.

The newspaper, therefore, described the phone as the first really popular smartphone operating on the 5G network on the market in Finland. It also said that it is one of the first cheaper smartphones to operate on the 5G network than the flagship models in the country.

The test result of the phone on Thursday morning showed that the download speed of Oneplus Nord 5G in Elisas 5G network was 634.8 megabits per second at the Citizens Square in downtown Helsinki. At the same time, the download speeds in Elisas 4G network were only between 20 and 50 megabits per second in the same place.

Other advantages of the phone also include the resolution of its screen, which is based on Fluid AMOLED technology, a main camera with a high resolution and quick charging speed.

Currently, there are a total of 27 models of 5G smartphones on the Finnish market, including five models of Huawei, three models of OnePlus, four models of Xiaomi and one model of ZTE, which are all produced by Chinese smartphone manufacturers, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

Perhaps in the coming months we will see a moment when 5G phones will make up the majority of the phones sold, Jussi Vuorinen, equipment business director of Telia, was quoted by the newspaper as saying. However, he admitted that switching all phones to 5G will take a long time, as seen in the transition from 3G phones to 4G.

Founded in 2013, OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer headquartered in Shenzhen in south China. The company officially serves more than 30 countries and regions around the world. OnePlus Nord 5G, an Android-based smartphone, was launched on July 21, 2020. It has been available in Europe, India, Chinas Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Malaysia.

(Xinhua)09:58, September 18, 2020

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — Chinas market will continue to open further for U.S. companies in areas where the United States is most competitive such as energy, agriculture and finance, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said.

The answer is certainly yes, said Cui when former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson raised the question in a recent interview with the ambassador during the podcast program Straight Talk with Hank Paulson.

Were still making our best efforts to have further reform and opening-up. We will not give up. For American companies and other foreign companies operating in China, there will be better access, better opportunities and certainly greater predictability, said Cui.

For the last four decades, China has implemented the policy of reform and opening-up, and it remains a basic state policy. It will not change. Even at the time of the global pandemic, we have initiated new measures for reform and opening-up in the last few months, he said.

For instance, he said, the new Foreign Investment Law took effect on Jan. 1 this year. There is certainly better predictability for foreign investors, who will have better confidence in China. China still attracts a lot of foreign investment, Cui said.

Whats more, the ambassador said that China announced the 2020 version of the negative list for the access of foreign investment and the negative list for pilot free trade zones, and the negative lists are getting shorter and shorter.

Also last June, China came up with a master plan for the development of Hainan Free Trade Port. Its the first time in an official Chinese government document that the idea of zero tariff and zero barrier is used.

But at the same time, what is very challenging for us is that while we are trying to be more open to the rest of the world, some people in other parts of the world are trying to raise barriers to us, he said. They are raising barriers for TikTok, Wechat and Huawei, etc. This is a real challenge for us. We are trying to open our door wider, but they are building walls. Theyre raising barriers. What should we do?

Actually, we have opened our financial sector more in the last couple of years. We have removed some of the restrictions on foreign investment in the financial sector, he said.

For many very good high-tech American companies, theyre increasing their investment or their operation in China. Companies like Tesla are a good example because they see the market potential. They want to be part of Chinas economic growth. They want to contribute to it and they certainly want to benefit from it. So we welcome them all and will create a much better environment for foreign investment, better rule of law, etc., he said.

As for the concept of self-reliance, the Chinese diplomat noted, there has always been self-reliance throughout the 70 years and more since the Peoples Republic of China was founded in 1949, including the four decades of reform and opening-up.

In this regard, its extremely unfair to say that China has become the second largest economy in the world just by taking advantage of others or even by stealing things from others, he said, calling it extremely unfair to the Chinese people.

You know China and Chinese so well. We have very hard-working people, very creative people. And we understand, for such a big country, for 1.4 billion people, you must have the spirit of self-reliance to develop. Otherwise, you cannot have achieved development, he said.

The self-reliance is always there, but its not to close the doors. We will open our door even wider because our real aim is to give full play to the potential of the domestic market, to make the domestic market function more effectively and much better, so that the two cycles could really reinforce each other, he said.