China’s State Council has unveiled this year’s priorities for economic reforms. The reforms – to streamline administration and deregulate power to lower levels, promote the yuan’s convertibility under the capital account, and launch a trial scheme to connect the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges – aim to add new impetus to the country’s development. China’s economic growth in the first quarter of this year slowed to 7%, the lowest level since the financial crisis, which prompted policy-makers to accelerate an economic overhaul. In the statement, the government vowed to cut red tape, loosen controls on market access and investment, and improve pricing mechanisms for public services including medicine and natural gas. The government said it will promote public-private partnerships (PPP) to attract private capital into infrastructure construction and public enterprises. The government will push reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in key industries including electricity by reorganizing and consolidating them to improve efficiency, and it will support private firms to make the market less monopolistic. A mechanism will be set up for local authorities to raise funds and assess their debt risks. Taxation reform, expanding value-added tax (VAT) to the construction, property and finance sectors and adjusting resource tax, personal income tax and environmental protection tax will be continued. In the financial sector, China will speed up the development of private banks and small financial institutions, and issue a guideline to ensure healthy development of internet finance. The country will also further open up its financial sector. The government will further liberalize interest rates, make the yuan more flexible against other currencies and promote the use of the yuan in cross-border settlement, the Shanghai Daily reports.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced an ambitious plan to encourage innovation and boost the competitiveness of China’s manufacturing sector. The plan, “Made in China 2025”, will have a far-reaching influence on the nation’s manufacturing strategy over the next decade by shaping the technology development path and future strengths of Chinese companies. Ten sectors, including machinery manufacturing, biotech and information technology, will be the first to benefit from the plan, which includes setting up several innovation centers and IT facilities to boost manufacturing. “We are trying to push China from being the largest to being one of the strongest,” MIIT Minister Miao Wei said, adding the “low-end” tag attached to most of the products made in the country does not bode well for long-term development. “’Made in China 2025′ is designed to make some breakthroughs in bottleneck areas so that the country can play an even more important role in the global manufacturing chain,” he added. One of the key bottlenecks the industry is facing is in the manufacture of high-end microchips. China spent USD210 billion last year on importing integrated circuits, more than was spent on buying oil, the China Daily reports. Other industry bottlenecks that the strategy aims to correct include the production of gas turbines for oil tankers, engines for aircraft, joints used for robots and batteries for new-energy vehicles. “Breakthroughs in these technologies will lead to a new round of manufacturing growth,” Minister Miao said.

The builder and operator of the world’s largest dam, China Three Gorges Corp (CTG), is seeking merger and acquisition opportunities globally to bolster its presence overseas. “Our last purchase involving a Portuguese utility company has performed well,” Executive Vice President Lin Chuxue told China Daily on the sidelines of the 2015 World Hydropower Congress, a three-day event held by the International Hydropower Association in Beijing. In 2011, CTG took a 21.35% stake in Energias de Portugal for €2.69 billion and became its single largest shareholder. It was the first acquisition of this type for the Chinese company. The total installed capacity of the projects involving overseas investment by CTG is about 6,000 megawatt (MW), but the company plans to raise that figure to 25,000 MW over the next several years, about equal to the full capacity of the Three Gorges Dam project. As of the end of 2014, the company had invested in and signed contracts to build 81 overseas projects.

More Chinese cities reported house price increases in April, adding to hopes that a property downturn which is weighing heavily on the economy is beginning to bottom out. Increases in new home prices were recorded in 18 cities last month, compared to 12 in March. Prices remained unchanged in four and dropped in the other 48, compared to eight and 50 in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which monitors prices in 70 major cities, said. But analysts said that any recovery will take some time given a huge inventory of unsold homes. The property sector remains the biggest risk to the nation’s economy, which looks set for its worst year in 25 years. Policy-makers are expected to roll out more interest rate cuts and other stimulus measures later this year to boost activity. “Nationwide, prices of new homes climbed an average 0.3% in April as buying momentum continued to rebound,” said Liu Jianwei, Senior Statistician at the NBS. “However, price increases were mainly confined to first-tier and a limited number of second-tier cities whereas the rest still suffered declines.” Shenzhen continued to lead gainers among the country’s four first-tier cities with a month-on-month increase of 1.8%, followed by Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, where new home prices climbed 0.8%, 0.7% and 0.4%, respectively, from March. On an annual basis, however, prices dropped in all cities except Shenzhen, where a 0.7% annual rise was recorded for new homes. In the existing home market, 28 cities recorded price increases from a month earlier, compared to 12 in March, the Shanghai Daily reports.

China Daily’s calculation based on NBS data showed sales of residential property rose 16% in April from a year ago in value terms and 7.7% in floor space terms. The market recovery was mostly reflected in the first-tier cities. Official data showed home sales fell 5% in the first four months from a year earlier in terms of floor space, and inventories increased by 3.3 million square meters in April. Real estate investment grew 6% in the January-April period from a year earlier, slowing from a rise of 8.5% in the first quarter. The mortgage rate now is at the lowest since at least 1991 after three rate cuts since November last year, and more are expected. Such strong policy impetus has boosted property shares, led by Evergrande Real Estate Group with a surge of more than 40% over the past month. The boom market has also opened a window for developers to raise funds through new share placements, the South China Morning Post reports.

At their peak in 2011, Shanghai shopping malls generated a total revenue of CNY165 billion, with restaurants only representing 15% of the total. But shops are losing ground to e-commerce, and restaurants at malls are becoming more important to generate revenue. Last year, shopping mall income dropped to CNY90 billion while contribution from the restaurant business rose to 28%, according to Charlie Chen, Analyst at BNP Paribas. Competition between restaurants at malls is expected to intensify.