Asia-Business

News from China

Small Chinese firms see green objective

28th December 2017

LMOST a third of medium-sized Chinese companies consider having a sustainable impact on the community and environment as one of their top three long-term objectives, an HSBC survey has found.

The proportion is slightly above the global average of 30 percent, HSBC said in a report yesterday.

More than half of the surveyed Chinese firms said sustainable business practices will improve their growth and profitability, while 34 percent of the companies believed becoming a more sustainable business would contribute to improving their financial performance over the next three years, the survey found.

The survey covered more than 1,400 decision-makers at companies with between 200 and 2,000 employees across 14 countries and regions.

The growing green awareness of companies echoes with Chinese authorities’ determination to protect environment.

China’s economic development has entered a new era and the basic feature is that the economy has shifted from high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, according to a statement issued last week after the annual Central Economic Work Conference

Source: Shanghai Daily, December 28, 2017

China eyes 9 areas to upgrade manufacturing capability

27th December 2017

CHINA will enhance key manufacturing technologies in nine areas as the government aims to drive the country to be a top manufacturer in the world by accelerating technology upgrading.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner, has made three-year (2018-20) targets for railway transport, advanced shipping and maritime engineering, intelligent robots, smart cars, modern agricultural machines, advanced medical devices and medicines, new materials, smart manufacturing and key equipment. The targets are aimed at catapulting China into the top league of manufacturing.

China expects to succeed in producing maglev trains that can run at 600 kilometers per hour and automating the operations of railways in the next three years. It also expects to “realize significant achievements in producing large cruise ships” and building a vessel capable of carrying 22,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), which will be the world’s largest container ship.

China is expected to expand its global market share in advanced agricultural machines.

The NDRC aims to cut domestic medical expenses by introducing at least 10 new medicines to the domestic market and has plans to sell them abroad.

The targets also include intensifying the development of key components for smart manufacturing, such as programmable logic controllers and robots. Development of artificial intelligence and augmented reality will also be vital under the plan.

New materials such as graphene, specialty steel, advanced organic and composite materials are identified to help the development of advanced machines, save energy and cut carbon emissions.

China needs to deepen efforts on technology upgrading to enhance its manufacturing capability, the NDRC said, adding that the country hopes to rapidly integrate Big Data and AI with manufacturing.

Source: Shanghai Daily, December 27, 2017

Transport investment to be steady

26th December 2017

CHINA will invest steadily in transport development in 2018, flat with this year, Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng said yesterday.

In 2017, fixed-asset investment in railways and highways was targeted to reach 800 billion yuan (US$122 billion) and 1.65 trillion yuan respectively.

Citing the main transport target for next year, Li said around 5,000 kilometers of highways would be built and put into use.

The country will also renovate about 200,000km of roads in rural areas and increase over 600km of inland waterways.

China will continue to support the construction of roads in poor regions, so as to ensure these areas are connected by highways by 2020.

Over the past five years, China has made remarkable progress in transport development with total length of roads increasing by 534,000km and railways in operation by 27,000km.

In particular, over 7 billion trips have been made through high-speed railways in the 2012-2017 period.

In the following three years, transport will play a bigger role in eradicating poverty and achieving greener, safer development, according to Li.

He also said China will continue to push supply-side structural reform in the transport industry and further lower logistics costs in 2018.

China reduced logistics costs by more than 88 billion yuan in 2017, according to the ministry.

The cuts were made through measures such as the removal of some road tolls in provincial regions and streamlined traffic services, according to the ministry.

The country will expand pilot programs in highway toll collection and streamline some charges in ports, Li said.

Statistics from the National Development and Reform Commission showed the cost of logistics in China took up about 14.9 percent of GDP in 2016, down by 1.1 percentage points from the previous year.

Although the ratio had dropped for four years in a row by 2016, it is still higher than some developing economies.

Authorities have stepped up reform in the transport sector this year to reduce the logistics burden of companies. Rail freight charges were canceled or lowered, while more means of financing were made available to companies in the logistics sector.

Source: Shanghai Daily, December 26,2017

Adapting policies to home needs

25th December 2017

Different policies on different housing will support first-home buyers and upgraders in China and curb speculation in 2018, an official has said.

“We should stick to the principle that housing is for living in, not for speculation, and improve the long-term mechanism to promote a steady, healthy housing market,” Wang Menghui, minister of housing and urban-rural development, said at a meeting.

Market monitoring and analysis should be improved to ensure the accuracy of policies, he added.

“We should move faster to put in place a housing system that ensures supply from multiple sources, provides housing support through multiple channels, and encourages both house purchases and rental,” he said.

Large and medium-sized cities with net population inflow should step up the development of the housing rental market and set up state-owned home renting companies, Wang said.

China will support home renting companies and build government-led rental management and service platforms.

Third and fourth-tier cities and counties should continue to reduce unsold housing, according to the minister.

Source: Shanghai Daily, December 25, 2017

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