By Xinhuanet| 2021-07-02 21:12:16
A green finance evaluation scheme for financial institutions and an updated green bond projects catalogue have come into effect as part of China's latest efforts to facilitate its goal of carbon neutrality.Starting from Thursday, the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, will conduct a quarterly evaluation on financial institutions' green finance business and implement incentives and constraints based on the evaluation results.Businesses that comply with green finance standards and relevant regulations, including green loans and green securities, will be evaluated.The evaluation by the central bank would provide incentives for financial institutions to optimize business structures and put more weight on green finance, said Lu Zhengwei, chief economist at Industrial Bank.The 2021 green bond projects catalogue, which took effect on Thursday, provides a standard definition of green bond projects for the first time.Unifying different standards across different regulators in China will effectively reduce the costs of issuing, trading and managing green bonds, and improve the pricing efficiency of the green bond market, according to a statement on the website of the central bank.The catalogue also aligns better with international standards as high carbon emission projects such as clean use of coal are removed, and carbon reduction constraints are made more stringent.The catalogue will steer China's green bonds to focus more on green and low-carbon development strategies, better support the development of green finance in China and promote international cooperation in the field of green finance, said the statement.As a major underwriter of green bonds, the Industrial Bank has pledged to double its offering of green finance by 2025 as compared with the end of 2020.The evaluation scheme and the updated catalogue are part of China's ongoing efforts to strive to realize the goal of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.By the end of 2020, green loans and green bonds in China totaled 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars and 125 billion U.S. dollars, respectively, ranking as the world's largest and second-largest. More than 40 carbon-neutral bonds have been issued, with a total volume of over 10 billion U.S. dollars.Analysts have pointed to huge potential for China's green bond market going forward.To achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, China's green investment needs to reach 2.2 trillion yuan (about 340 billion U.S. dollars) per year in the current decade, and the amount will grow to 3.9 trillion yuan in the period from 2031 to 2060, according to a report from French bank Societe Generale.The report estimates that China's green bond market will grow to 7 trillion yuan by 2030. Enditem
By Xinhuanet| 2021-07-01 21:42:07
As China's push to reach carbon neutrality by 2060 draws increased attention toward wind power, experts say moving wind farms to deeper waters could eliminate some of the challenges to offshore wind power and help expand the fleet of turbines.A new plant operated by LM Wind Power, a Danish wind turbine blade manufacturer, last Friday began manufacturing 107-meter blades -- among the longest blades worldwide -- in east China's Fujian Province. The blades are expected to roll off the production line this October and will add to the variety of Chinese-made wind turbine components available for wind farms at home and abroad.The plant is situated at the 1,000-mu (about 66.7 hectares) offshore wind power industrial park run by the Fujian division of the China Three Gorges Corporation, the developer of China's largest hydropower project, which broke ground in 1994 in central China's Hubei Province.Before LM, domestic companies like Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co., Ltd. and Dongfang Electric Corporation Limited had settled in the industrial park and produced electrical generators, blades and other components.The bay next to the industrial park houses 59 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of over 357.4 megawatts and annual electricity output of 1.4 billion kWh.Offshore wind farms of a similar size and scale are now prevalent in China's coastal provinces. The country's total installed capacity of offshore wind power was 9 gigawatts by the end of 2020, ranking second globally.China's goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 demand greater reliance on clean energy sources like photovoltaic power and wind power, experts say, and offshore wind power is gaining particular traction as the technologies mature."Offshore wind power is ready for scale development in China, with the help of supportive policies and costs being driven down by an improving domestic industrial chain," said Wang Zhongyao, vice president of China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute, at a clean energy summit in Fujian's Zhangzhou City in June.Official data shows that China's new offshore wind capacity was 3.06 gigawatts in 2020, approximately half the global total. However, costs are still too hefty and near-shore resources are too limited for offshore wind to become a more prominent contributor to China's energy structure.Close to shore, environmental red lines have been drawn for wind farms for the protection of mangroves, coral reefs, important estuaries, tidal flats, endangered species, and fishery resources. Bird migration routes are void of wind turbines as mandated by the State Oceanic Administration.The future of offshore wind farms, experts suggest, lies in waters farther into the ocean with depths of over 50 meters or over 70 kilometers off the coast.Offshore wind power is expected to account for 10 percent of total power generation in 2050, and 70 percent of the technical potential is in deeper waters suited to wind farms floating on the ocean surface rather than digging into the ocean bed, said Dolf Gielen, director of the International Renewable Energy Agency Innovation and Technology Center.Investments are already flowing in that direction. Zhangzhou, for instance, is building a world-class offshore wind power industrial base in deeper waters. The total installed capacity of potential wind farms in the waters near the city is as high as 50 gigawatts."We invested another 10 billion yuan (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the production of hydrogen from seawater," said Jin Yunshan, senior vice president of a Guangdong-based clean energy firm.Power generated from wind turbines in deeper waters can be used to produce hydrogen for petrochemical enterprises nearby, and can help local communities pursue a zero-carbon economy, Jin added."With future breakthroughs in large-capacity wind turbines and floating foundations, China's offshore wind power will venture farther out to sea and become a significant driver to realize carbon goals," said Wang. Enditem
By Xinhuanet| 2021-06-30 21:40:30
China's manufacturing activity expanded for the 16th consecutive month in June but at a slower pace due to chip and power supply shortages and minor resurgence of COVID-19 in certain areas, official data showed.The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 50.9 this month, slightly down from 51 in May, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday.A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below reflects contraction.China's manufacturing sector continued to expand steadily with the PMI still in the expansion zone, said NBS senior statistician Zhao Qinghe.The sub-index for production stood at 51.9, down 0.8 percentage points from a month earlier, indicating a slowdown in the expansion of production.Zhao has attributed the ease in production at some companies to constraining factors such as the chip shortage, inadequate supply of coal and power, and the maintenance of equipment."The production and new order indexes of the vehicle manufacturers have contracted for two months," said Zhao, adding that factors, including the chip shortage, have brought negative effects to industry development.Despite the moderation of PMI in June, Nomura Securities said that the country's PMI prints were still solid in the second quarter of the year, which shows the resilience of China's economy.In its latest report, the World Bank noted that China's recovery has broadened and forecasted China's economic growth to be 8.5 percent in 2021.Growth in new orders picked up, with the new order sub-index up by 0.2 percentage points to 51.5 in June, which shows that domestic demand in the manufacturing sector continued to grow.Driven by market demand and mid-year consumption promotion campaigns, the PMI for consumer goods manufacturing rose to the highest point in almost five months.A sub-index of the June PMI has shown that the quick price rise of some raw materials in China has initially been curbed.The purchasing price index of major raw materials has declined to 61.2 this month, down by 11.6 percentage points from May, as China has taken a slew of measures to guarantee the supply of raw materials and stabilize the price.The Nomura expects the manufacturing PMI to rebound in July considering the release of pent-up demand following the containment of the latest resurgence of epidemic and the recovery of some ports in southern China.Wednesday's data also showed that the PMI for China's non-manufacturing sector came in at 53.5 in June, down from 55.2 in May.Zhao said that epidemic situations in some parts of the country have weighed on the services sector, but the above-expansion-zone reading still pointed to steadily reviving business activities in the sector. Enditem
By Xinhuanet| 2021-06-29 21:38:46
People's Republic of China, the country could not even manufacture a tractor, said Han Wenxiu, an official with the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs.China has become the only country in the world to have all the industrial categories listed in the United Nations industrial classification, Han said. Enditem
By Xinhuanet| 2021-06-28 20:05:29
People traveling from Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan Province can now check in their baggage from their hotels and board their flights using facial recognition at the new Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, which opened for operations on Sunday.Located some 50 km from downtown Chengdu, the Tianfu airport is the largest civil transport airport built during China's 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) and the second international airport in the provincial capital, Chengdu.With first-phase investment exceeding 75 billion yuan (about 11.7 billion U.S. dollars), the airport has two terminals totaling 710,000 square meters, roughly the size of 100 football pitches, and is capable of dealing with an annual passenger throughput of 60 million.According to long-term plans, the airport will eventually house terminals totaling 1.4 million square meters, capable of handling 120 million passengers annually.The opening of the airport, which enables Chengdu to become an integrated international transport hub, demonstrates the country's increasing infrastructure spending in its western regions in recent years.China's vast western regions once had the weakest infrastructure in the country. Statistics show that by the end of 2000, the number of townships and villages without access to roads in the western regions respectively accounted for 94 percent and 57.6 percent of the nation's total.Highways were often damaged or blocked, and traffic accidents were frequent. "It's easier to climb to heaven than take the roads in Sichuan," according to an old Chinese poem.CHANGESThanks to China's Western Development Strategy launched in 2000, infrastructure development in the regions has undergone earth-shaking change.Sichuan's total highway length led the country by the end of 2020, reaching 347,000 km, while completed expressways in the province totaled more than 8,000 km. All townships and villages have now been equipped with hardened roads.China-Europe freight trains from Chengdu have made 8,000 trips so far, linking Chengdu with 61 cities overseas.The western international aviation hub has taken its basic shape. Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport has long ranked fourth in China in terms of passenger throughput. It was also the first airport in central or western China to handle more than 50 million passengers a year.Even when the COVID-19 pandemic struck last year, Chengdu maintained 10 regular international all-cargo air routes to cities including Chicago, Frankfurt, Brussels and Tokyo. Last May, the Shuangliu airport became the world's busiest in terms of take-offs and landings.OPPORTUNITIES"The upgrading of transportation infrastructure can help the western regions build a highland for opening-up, promising a new engine for economic growth in central and western China," said Hu Guoping, an associate professor at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.The foreign trade volume in China's central and western regions registered a 45.1 percent increase in the first quarter of this year, hitting 1.5 trillion yuan. The growth rate was 15.9 percentage points higher than that of the country's overall foreign trade, according to Li Kuiwen, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs.The new airport has also brought new opportunities. Chengdu's science and technology-oriented "Future City," which spans more than 60 square km and is located 2 km away from the Tianfu airport, has accelerated the introduction of industries in fields such as aerospace, electronic information and high-end manufacturing. It has 12 registered projects with a total investment of over 100 billion yuan.In the Eastern New Area District, the construction of a demonstration zone for innovation in civil aviation science and technology is in full swing, with investment exceeding 10 billion yuan.The construction of the Tianfu campus of the Civil Aviation Flight University of China has also been accelerated. The campus is expected to accommodate 25,000 full-time students."The western regions have the greatest potential for domestic demand. Only by activating this market of 400 million people can the country's high-quality development be promoted," said Tang Jiqiang, a researcher at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Enditem
By Xinhuanet| 2021-06-25 21:07:07
Yantian Port, a major foreign-trade port in south China's Shenzhen City, resumed 100 percent operation Thursday as the epidemic in the port area is effectively under control.The activities of the 20 berths in the port's central and western sections all resumed, reaching a total turnover of 33,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, the Yantian International Container Terminals company said.Ships of 13 international routes docked on Thursday morning.The port reduced operational berths from 20 to five after an asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier was reported in the international cargo-ship handling zone on May 21. Enditem
By Xinhuanet| 2021-06-24 22:13:06
China will accelerate the development of new forms and models of foreign trade to push forward its upgrading and foster new competitive strengths, the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang decided on Tuesday.Recent years have seen rapid development of new forms and models of foreign trade. Such development has propelled the transformation and upgrading of the country's foreign trade as a whole, and played a vital role in stabilizing foreign trade against the COVID-19 pandemic."New business forms and models, especially cross-border e-commerce, have become a vibrant force driving China's foreign trade. They also represent an important trend in the development of international trade," Li said, "China's cross-border e-commerce has grown by nearly 10 times over the past five years. By both exports and imports, cross-border e-commerce has been expanding much faster than overall foreign trade, and its share in overall foreign trade has gone up significantly."Policies to support cross-border e-commerce development will be improved. Integrated pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce will be piloted in more areas. The list of goods in cross-border e-commerce retail import will be finetuned. Management of cross-border e-commerce import and export returns and exchanges will be made more convenient. Guidelines on protecting intellectual property rights in cross-border e-commerce will be drafted, to deter counterfeit and substandard goods.The meeting required vigorous efforts to advance the development of overseas warehouses. Traditional foreign trade companies, cross-border e-commerce platforms and logistics firms will be encouraged to participate in developing overseas warehouses and make them more standardized, digitized and intelligent. Such efforts will promote micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises to go global via overseas warehouses, and drive Chinese brands and products from startups and innovation firms to expand international market."We will support businesses in establishing overseas warehouses. This is an important way for facilitating Chinese brands going global, and has played an important role in opening overseas retail channels," Li said, "For 'made-in-China' products to go global, it takes new business models and solid steps for steady progress."Market procurement trade will be actively developed. Integrated foreign trade service firms will be guided to improve efficiency and risk control when handling export tax rebate on behalf of manufacturers. Enterprises in integrated bonded areas and pilot free trade zones will be supported to offer bonded repair services. Places with permitting conditions will be supported to develop offshore trade. International cooperation in intellectual property protection, transnational logistics and other areas will be stepped up."We need to further promote international exchange and cooperation, take an active part in making international rules and standards of new business forms and models of foreign trade and proactively align with the global logistics industry," Li said. Enditem
By Xinhuanet| 2021-06-23 20:48:10
Manufacturers in China's Greater Bay Area are expected to see their orders and sales rebound in 2021, Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao reported Tuesday citing a survey by Standard Chartered.Respondents who participated in the survey said the manufacturers' performance in orders, sales, employment, wages and capital expenditure will improve this year, reflecting China's nationwide steady recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.According to the survey, the respondents seemed less enthusiastic about moving factories overseas, compared to one year ago. The reasons may include weaker labour cost pressures, China's rapid economic recovery, and the recent pandemic resurgence in some potential relocation destinations.Lianhe Zaobao quoted Standard Chartered as saying that it believes the Greater Bay Area will be able to meet the high expectations of enterprises, as it has a wide range of growth drivers beyond manufacturing, which are a large population, strong policy support and accelerated financial opening-up as well as RMB internationalization. Enditem
By Xinhuanet| 2021-06-21 22:39:50
The China-Europe freight-train service has recorded more than 40,000 trips, with the transported goods valued at over 200 billion U.S. dollars, official data shows.Since the first China-Europe freight train left southwest China's Chongqing Municipality in March 2011, the service has reached more than 160 cities in 22 European countries, according to a work conference of the office of the leading group on advancing Belt and Road development.The intercontinental rail route is considered a significant part of the Belt and Road Initiative to boost trade between China and countries participating in the initiative.When the COVID-19 pandemic impeded sea and air transport, the freight-train service emerged as a reliable choice in global logistics thanks to its safety, stability and efficiency.Around 94,000 tonnes of anti-pandemic supplies was sent through the route, which helped to stabilize the global industrial and supply chains, according to the office.The conference called for further efforts to step up transportation capacity and enhance transportation efficiency, stressing the strengthening of international cooperation.The trains made 12,406 trips last year, up 50 percent year on year, the data shows. Enditem
By Xinhuanet| 2021-06-18 21:34:51
Jiangsu Province in east China saw robust foreign trade growth in the first five months of 2021, according to local customs.Total import and export value of Jiangsu, one of the country's major foreign trade hubs, hit over 1.96 trillion yuan (about 304 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-May period, up 20.8 percent year on year, according to data by Nanjing Customs.Exports soared to over 1.21 trillion yuan, marking a 23.4 percent increase from the same period last year, while imports reached nearly 749 billion yuan, up 16.7 percent year on year.The province's trade volume with the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the United States increased 22.3 percent, 27.1 percent and 22.4 percent, respectively, in the first five months of 2021. Enditem
