level, and supported by diverse interest groups will prevent conflicts among stakeholders in the South China Sea,” Santarita said.
he premier attached great importance to such measur
asures as reducing the rate of the value-added tax, increasing the
tax exemption for research costs and reforming individual income tax.
The measures should not only ease the tax burden for manufacturing com
panies but also reduce taxes for construction enterprises, which provide a great num
ber of jobs, Li said, adding that all industries should be covered by the benefits of tax cuts.
Li pledged more efforts to urge government departments and State-owned e
nterprises to pay off their debts so that the effects of tax reduction are not diminished.
The government will take further measures to deepen reform and opening-up, en
courage innovation and entrepreneurship and promote fair competition, Li said, adding that com
panies should also seize the opportunity to promote high-quality growth.
Regarding the second Belt and Road Forum for Intern
ational Cooperation, to be held in Beijing on Thursday through Saturday, S
ong said the ministry will help deepen economic and trade cooperation with other coun
tries. “China will build more free trade zones with countries that are willing to do so,” Song added.
“As for the existing free trade zones, we will reduce administrative barriers in trade
and investment and push the formation of a big Belt and Road marketplace.”
While some critics have argued that the initiative will lead countries i
nto debt traps, Song said debt can be solved through joint efforts to promote the devel
opment of BRI economies. “Even though some countries may have high debt levels, as their pace of indus
trialization, urbanization and modernization accelerates, their debts will gradually decrease.”
Joe Kaeser, president and CEO of Siemens AG, said, “If an initiative like the BRI unifies more than two-thirds of the global
population, it will create massive infrastructure and economic movement that will build its own rules.”
China’s foreign direct investment up 6.5% in Q1
China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) totaled 242.28 billion yuan in the first quarter of t
his year, up 6.5 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.
FDI in China from non-financial sectors reached $35.8 billio
n in the first three months, up 3.7 percent year-on-year.
Investment from South Korea, the United States and Germany in China m
eanwhile increased 79.6 percent, 71.3 percent and 86.1 percent year-on-year, respectively.
Foreign capital flowing to the country’s high-tech manufacturing s
ector surged 14.8 percent year-on-year to 25.97 billion yuan during the same period.
March’s FDI amounted to 95.17 billion yuan, up eight percent year-on-year.
Fiscal spending can directly influence fixed-asset inves
tment, and it could also leverage on more bank lending and attract private funds to increase investment, said Xu.
In the meantime, allowing retail access to local government bonds will help diversify the
investor base and increase market liquidity, said Amanda Du, an analyst at Moody’s Investors Service.
The analyst expected access for retail investors to widen to encompass all local government bonds in 2020.
hina’s economy grew at a faster-than-expected 6.4 percent year-on-year in the first qua
rter, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.
The growth was unchanged from that registered in the fourth quarter of last year.
The country’s industrial output posted steady growth in the same period, up by 6.5 percent
year-on-year, compared with 5.7 percent in the previous quarter, official data showed.
Fixed-asset investment growth was 6.3 percent in the first quarte
r, compared with 6.1 percent in the first two months, according to the NBS.
Retail sales increased by 8.3 percent year-on-year in the same pe
riod, compared with 8.2 percent in the first two months, the data showed.
Kim Jong-un says 3rd summit with Trump possible
PYONGYANG – Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People’s Repub
lic of Korea (DPRK), said he is willing to meet the US president again on certain cond
itions, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Saturday.
Kim made the remarks in his policy speech marking the First Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) on Frid
ay, a day after he was re-elected as chairman of the DPRK’s State Affairs Commission (SAC).
“If the United States adopts a correct posture and comes to the third DPRK-US summit with a certain methodology that can be shar
ed with us, we can think of holding one more (round of) talks,” Kim said. “It is necessary for both sides not to table t
heir unilateral demands but find out a constructive solution to meet each other’s interests.”
The top leader said he will “wait for a bold decision” from Trump “with patience till the end of this year.”
In his speech, Kim blamed the United States for only considering
its own interests during the second DPRK-US Summit in Vietnam’s Hanoi this Febru
ary. This has led the DPRK to question Trump’s willingness to improve relations with the DPRK.
Shanghai aims to rev up car sales with trade-in subsidies
The city of Shanghai has become the first local government to answer the call of the central gove
rnment to promote automobile consumption by providing subsidies, since 10 mi
nistries and commissions of the country released six major methods of promoting car sales in January.
The official WeChat account of the Shanghai Municipal Government announced yesterday it will launch a car trade-i
n program, encouraging car owners to trade in their vehicles for new gas-powered cars complying with State-VI emi
ssions standards or new energy vehicles, according to a report by the 21st Century Business Herald.
The government will provide a subsidy of 10,000 yuan ($1,489) for a trade-in gas-powered
vehicle and 15,000 yuan for a trade-in new energy vehicle, the announcement said.
China’s automobile market saw a sales decline in 2018 for the first time
in 28 years, with passenger vehicle sales slumping for 10 consecutive months from last y
ear to March, according to the China Passenger Car Association. As the central government halved subsidies for new energy
vehicles this year, the promotion of car consumption depends more on local governments and enterprises.
IMF upbeat on China’s 2019 growth in Zhuhai, Guangdong
The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that it expects China’s economy to grow 6.3 percent in 2019－up 0.1 perce
ntage point from its prediction in January. Analysts said the world’s second-large
st economy is set to remain stable as authorities continue to implement supportive policies.
The latest World Economic Outlook, released at the start of the sp
ring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington, also predicted the United States e
conomy would grow 2.3 percent this year, 0.2 percentage point lower than the IMF’s earlier forecast.
The outlook for China falls within the range of the country’s targeted goal of securing between 6 p
ercent and 6.5 percent growth for this year, and is very close to that of Chinese researchers.
On April 1, Zhang Ping, a researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Acad
emy of Social Sciences, said China’s GDP growth should remain at 6.2 percent in the fir
st half, and average 6.3 percent for the whole year, thanks to incentives including tax and fee cuts.
Bolstering high-end sectors part of capital’s plan to see
After 40 years of high-speed growth, China’s economy ha
s entered a high-quality development phase. Starting today, China Daily will feature a series of reports to sh
ow the new landscape across the country. This is the first installment of the series.
Beijing’s municipal government has been making efforts to develop high-end industries suc
h as 5G, artificial intelligence and the industrial internet in order to build the city into the nation’s scientific and innova
tion center, which is a core strategy of the capital’s high-quality growth plan, a senior officials said recently.
Lin Keqing, executive vice-mayor of Beijing, said the city is aimin
g to make new information technology and medical health twin drivers of the municipality’s growth.
“Beijing will make better use of resources to develop the biomedical indus
try and extend its value chain,” Lin said. “We have unveiled an international medical-use ro
botics innovation center in Zhongguancun, China’s Silicon Valley, and a group of companies in the sector.”
Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the International Trad
The trouble that Boeing has encountered, albeit because of its own irresponsible practices tow
