China aims to have 5 of the world’s 10 free ports
Jan-30-2018 By : fcccadmin
A dozen Chinese municipalities and provinces hope to develop free ports, in an effort to advance higher-quality liberalization and to facilitate trade and investment. The provincial government of Liaoning has officially reported its free port plan to the central government for approval, while Qingdao in Shandong province also hopes to build a free port.
“A free port is not simply an upgraded version of a free trade zone (FTZ),” said Wei Jianguo, Vice President of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. “The biggest difference between them is that an FTZ mainly focuses on improving commodity flow, while a free port fully opens up, ranging from the free flow of commodities and currency, to personnel and information.” China’s process of opening-up would leap forward with the introduction of free ports, said Wei, who is a former Vice Minister of Commerce. “If China were to own more than half of the world’s free ports, meaning it had five of the 10 worldwide, it would become a country with the best business environment and a leader in promoting trade facilitation and liberalization.”
The process would still take time and involve systemic changes, such as the formulation of policies of market access, financial systems and taxation. More than 10 coastal locations, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhejiang province, and Sichuan province, are racing to secure approval for free port construction. The plans would make the Chinese mainland more competitive with other major shipping hubs, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, the China Daily reports.
Industry clusters in Yangtze River Economic Belt to be promoted
By : fcccadmin
China will implement guidelines this year to promote the development of world-class industry clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, with five emerging industries – digital information, high-end equipment, automobiles, home appliances, textiles and garments – being top priorities. Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei has confirmed that setting up world-class industry clusters for advanced manufacturing would be a key task for this year. The five key clusters will be centered in the 11 core provinces and municipalities with favorable industrial conditions, including Shanghai, and Jiangsu, Anhui and Guizhou provinces.
The Yangtze River Economic Belt involves nine provinces and two municipalities that make up roughly one-fifth of the country’s land area, with a population of around 600 million and generating more than 40% of the country’s GDP. These clusters will also unite with some national and provincial level development zones and industrial parks along the river to build trans-regional clusters with well-formed industry chains. For a long time, China has put a premium on the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in a bid to boost development in the riverside regions. More than 100 development zones and industrial parks are involved in the development of industry clusters. Among them, 82 are specialized in high-end equipment manufacturing, 52 in the digital information sector, and 20 in the automotive sector. Others focus on the home appliances as well as textiles and garments industries.
In the digital information sector, the cluster will join Jiangsu, Hubei and Sichuan provinces as well as Shanghai and Chongqing to improve integrated circuits, develop core universal chips and promote new material applications, the China Daily reports.
WeChat Pay now allows linking with foreign credit cards, and launches services in Italy
By : fcccadmin
Tencent’s WeChat Pay, one of China’s major mobile payment services, announced that international credit cards can now be linked to the mobile payment platform. Expats living in China and travelers can now bind and activate WeChat Pay accounts with credit card services provided by MasterCard, Visa, and JCB. This is the first time users are able to use WeChat Pay without having a Chinese bank account or credit card, the Technote website reports.
As China is going cashless, WeChat Pay, Alipay, and UnionPay all offer mobile payment solutions, allowing for payment in stores and restaurants using a mobile phone and a QR code. Chinese consumers are also increasingly using mobile payments for online shopping, ride-hailing, ticket purchasing, bike renting, food delivery, and hotel booking.
Released in August 2013, WeChat Pay has expanded to 25 countries, serving the large number of Chinese tourists traveling abroad. WeChat Pay is also popular among expats living in China. According to Tencent, over 64% of expats in China are using WeChat Pay. In order the replenish the mobile wallet with funds, it had to be linked to a Chinese bank account, but now linking with a foreign credit card has become possible, making the process much easier.
WeChat Pay will become available in Italy for the first time after the payment service clinched an agreement with Docomo Digital to offer the service to the country’s retailers, allowing customers to use WeChat Pay for payments. The digital marketing company Digital Retex will help partnered retailers host an official WeChat account that will be used to promote their goods and services. Digital Retex maintains the official WeChat accounts of more than 70 European brands, including Valentino and Ermenegildo Zegna. WeChat Pay is already available in the UK and also in France through a partnership with BNP Paribas. WeChat has 980 million active users per month. In 2017, WeChat Pay was used by Chinese consumers at an average rate of 1 million transactions per minute.
Meanwhile Huawei Technologies and China UnionPay have formed a partnership to launch a mobile payment service in Russia and later in other markets along the “Belt and Road Initiative”. Huawei Pay uses biometrics and near-field communication technology to enable in-store payments through Huawei phones. In Russia, UnionPay has 400,000 point-of-sale terminals that can accept the Quickpass payment modes including Huawei Pay. China processed 11 times more mobile payments than the U.S. last year, according to consultancy firm McKinsey & Company.
According to Zion Market Research, the global mobile wallet market was valued at USD594 billion in 2016 and is expected to hit USD3.14 trillion by 2022, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 32%.
China publishes ‘Polar Silk Road’ white paper
By : fcccadmin
The Chinese government released its first official Arctic policy white paper, outlining its ambition for a “Polar Silk Road”. Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said China would encourage companies to build infrastructure and conduct commercial trial voyages that would “bring opportunities to the Arctic”. He added that China is an important stakeholder in the Arctic, a region that mattered to the entire international community. “Regarding the role China will play in Arctic affairs, I want to emphasize two points. One is that we will not interfere, second is that we will not to be absent,” Kong told reporters in Beijing.
In the white paper, Beijing calls for more scientific research and environmental protection for the Arctic Circle, and it also reveals its ambition to tap resources and take part in governance. It suggests exploration of a potential shipping route across the Arctic – which it dubs the “Polar Silk Road” – as well as development of oil, gas, mineral resources and other non-renewable energy sources, fishing and tourism in the region. The distance from China to Europe through the Northeast Passage in the Arctic is about one-third shorter than traditional routes.
The Arctic has 30% of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 13% of its undiscovered oil reserves. As rising temperatures result in sea ice melting across the Arctic, there are new opportunities for ships to travel through previously inaccessible, resource-rich areas. Chinese President Xi Jinping first raised the idea of the “Polar Silk Road” in Moscow last year, unveiling a series of plans with Russia in the Arctic that would be incorporated into the ever expanding “Belt and Road Initiative”, a trade and infrastructure strategy spanning Asia, Africa, Europe and that now also has been extended to Latin America.
China has stepped up its engagement in the Arctic in recent years and was granted observer status on the Arctic Council in 2013, which gives a role in the governance of the region. The council comprises eight member countries bordering the Arctic – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, the United States and Iceland, the South China Morning Post reports.
China aims world leadership in telecom, railway and electric power equipment
By : fcccadmin
China aims to become the world’s leading manufacturer of telecommunication, railway and electrical power equipment by 2025, as the country ramps up its implementation of the Made in China 2025 strategy, according to a new roadmap. Qu Xianming, an expert involved in drafting the updated version of the Made in China 2025 technology roadmap, said China has already made great strides in the above three areas, but more efforts are needed to crack the bottlenecks of key components in order to achieve global supremacy.
“It is not just about production capacity. Instead, we aim to become No 1 in research and development, as well as the application of these products,” said Qu, an expert with the National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee, an organization that advises the government on plans to upgrade the manufacturing sector. Home appliances, petroleum refining equipment and construction machinery are also likely to be added to the key areas of Made in China 2025.
“It is still under discussion. But if they are added to the list, the central government will roll out measures to assist their development,” Qu added. The first version of the Made in China 2025 technology roadmap was published in 2015. It was designed to guide local governments and enterprises in their manufacturing investment and other business decisions. But the past two years have witnessed new ideas and technologies pop up, demanding an updated technology roadmap to reflect the new trends and problems in the manufacturing industry. China has already become one of the world’s largest producers of more than 220 types of products, the China Daily reports.
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