Environmental industries growing in China: analysts

Environmental industries are growing fast in China as the government attaches great importance to environmental protection, managers and analysts said. At an environment services industry expo in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, companies exhumed great confidence in the industry. Li Maolin, vice president of Guandong Dongri Environmental Protection Co. Ltd., said the company had strong sales in recent years after its founding in 2003. "Previously we mainly sold water treatment facilities for factories and cities, now as the public environmental awareness grows, there is a great market potential for the general use of these facilities," he said. Last year, the company sold 80 million yuan (about 12 million U.S. dollars) worth of waste water treatment facilities to rural households. This year sales volume is expected to exceed 100 million yuan, he said. "If the industrial market is red sea, the market for general users is blue sea, full of market potential," he said. Qingdao Dongyang Technology Co. Ltd. also eyes the potential for garbage processing equipment in the vast countryside, said sales manager Yang Tao. "We have sold many garbage processing facilities to Henan Province. I expect strong growth for our sales in the immediate future," he said. Analysts said investment in the environmental industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, from 2016 to 2020, is expected to reach 17 trillion yuan. Annual growth rate will reach 20 percent. "The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has set new target for environmental protection. China's environmental protection is really expanding and going deep," said Liu Qifeng, deputy head of the China Association of Environmental Protection Industry.

China, Europe see busiest rail traffic

Record number shows growing trade ties The number of freight trains traveling between China and Europe hit record levels, data from China's rail operator showed on Saturday, signaling growing economic ties between China and economies participating in the Belt and Road(B&R) initiative where the trains are purring along. Nevertheless, market observers still call for sober minds to address concerns over the actual benefits of the rail routes for B&R economies that have yet to make full use of the trains to ship their products into the booming Chinese market. The number of the trains hit a new annual record this year after initially being put into operation in 2011, according to the Xinhua News Agency, citing China Railway Corporation (CRC). This year, over 3,000 freight trains have traveled on 57 lines from China to European cities, topping the combined numbers reached in 2011-16 and pushing the aggregate to more than 6,000, per the CRC data. The cargo service, considered a significant component of the B&R, now serves as a bridge between 35 Chinese cities and 34 cities in 12 European countries. The freight rail routes help cut logistics costs and improve trade efficiency between China and Europe - its largest trading partner - and more importantly serve to prove the viability of the B&R initiative as an enabler of trade connectivity, experts said. In the first 10 months of the year, trade between China and Europe denominated in the Chinese currency grew 16.2 percent year-on-year, according to Chinese customs data. There are other projects such as the yet-to-be-finished transcontinental expressway linking Lianyungang in East China's Jiangsu Province and St. Petersburg in Russia that are envisioned to build closer economic ties between China and B&R countries. China has been making particular headway to create a more efficient transport network. The Chinese section of the transcontinental expressway recently opened to traffic. But along with applause for the growing trade connectivity have come concerns that the cargo trains and expressways might aggravate imbalances of trade between China and some B&R economies. The volume of cargo is still unbalanced with still a significant number of China-bound cargo trains carrying empty or partially loaded containers on the return journey, observers pointed out. Ma Bin, an assistant researcher at the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies, Fudan University, told the Global Times that to address bottlenecks for the development of China-Europe railway service, resources and networks need to be optimized to save costs and achieve efficiency. "It is particularly urgent to create domestic distribution centers and regional ones along the route to coordinate the flow of goods," Since the Harbin-Europe line was launched in June 2015, now there are four lines from Harbin to European cities, with 642 trains carrying a total of 37,268 containers. Among the trains, 311 were Europe bound and 331 China bound, according to Yan Hong, deputy general manager of Hao International Logistics Co, which operates a direct train between Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and several European cities . Europe bound trains mostly carry vehicles and components, machinery, electronics and daily necessities. China bound trains mostly carry autos and components and paper pulp, Yan told the Global Times on Sunday. A total of 264 cargo trains have traveled through the Yixin'ou cargo line, carrying 21,536 containers by the end of October, Yixin'ou (Yiwu-Xinjiang-Madrid) service line said in a statement sent to the Global Times. Yan noted that the biggest challenge facing the China-Europe railway service is high transportation cost as well as vicious competition among different lines. Furthermore, as Ma put it, to strike a balance of cargo flows between China and Europe is not the only benchmark to assess the success of the China-Europe railway service. To achieve long-term sustainable development of the China-Europe express service, a transnational coordination platform should be established to optimize efficiency of the services and bond countries and regions along the route and allow them to share the mutual benefits, he suggested.

China to maintain 40% growth in sharing economy: top economic planning body

China will maintain a 40% growth rate in its sharing economy in the next few years, said Meng Wei, a spokesperson for China’s National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference. According to Meng, the sector’s transaction volume is expected to reach 4.5 trillion RMB ($670 billion) at the end of 2017. China’s sharing economy had a total transaction of 3.45 trillion RMB last year, increasing 103% year on year. More than 1,000 enterprises and over 600 million people are involved in the sector, and about 60 million of the people are service providers. As a promoter of the sharing economy, the commission will make more efforts to accelerate the development of the sector, Meng said. She noted that more importance will be placed on mechanism building, institutional improvement, integrated development, and experience promotion.

China’s listed companies in “happiness industry” see rapid rise this year

China’s listed companies in the “happiness industry” saw a rapid rise, with gross revenue reaching 624.67 billion yuan ($94.6 billion) in the first three quarters of this year, up 13.91 percent on a year-on-year basis, ycwb.com reported on Nov. 16. Statistics shows that nearly 90 percent of China’s listed companies in the happiness industry, as well as tourism, culture, sports, health, education and training, and elderly care industries, achieved profitability, and 65.74 percent of the companies increased their net margin in the first nine months of this year. The health industry performed the best among all industries during the period. The revenue and net margin of 45 companies in this industry increased by 21.7 percent and 35.2 percent, respectively, compared with the last year, indicating 241 million yuan in net profit on average for each of them. In addition, statistics show that total revenue of three listed companies in the education industry grew by 64.75 percent on a year-on-year basis, and average net profit of 132 million yuan for each of them. The sports industry showed the strongest profitability among all industries. A total of 27 listed companies in this industry achieved net profit of 14.19 billion yuan during the period, and the net margin for each of them reached 526 million yuan. Moreover, listed companies in China’s tourism industry increased their revenue during the period, and demand in the elderly care industry also grew steadily, although it is still in the primary stage of development. Analysts say that Chinese people’s rising aspirations to live a better life provides a sound development environment for China’s happiness industry, which, in turn, will further improve China’s happiness index.

China’s largest automatic parcel distribution system comes into service in Wuhan

China’s largest automatic parcel distribution system recently started service at a logistics center in Wuhan, Hubei province, Wuhan Evening news reported. In addition to the optimized dispatching ability, the automatic distribution of robots system also contributed to the high efficiency of the logistics industry during China’s online shopping festival on Nov. 11. The robots are able to sort more than 20,000 parcels each hour, saving 50% to 70% of human resources. The robots use high-speed cameras to scan the codes of parcels on a conveyor belt and then automatically plan the optimal routes. In addition, the robots can return to a charging dock and recharge automatically. The system, developed by China Post, includes 80 robots for sorting large parcels and 240 for small ones. These intelligent machines can help the logistics center handle 300,000 parcels each day.

Business license reform sees increase in market

Previously the reform only involved 116 approval items but the list has expanded to all of the 548 items at ministry, municipal and district levels. Amid the launch of the reform, all kinds of new market entities in Pudong increased by 17.4 percent in 2016, compared with the end of 2015. After the cancellation of the approval for agencies dealing with private entry and exit business, the number of registered agencies of such kind in Pudong has increased from 10 before the reform to 241 at present. At the same time, the State Council, or China’s cabinet, has decided to promote Pudong’s reform of separating business licenses and administrative approvals in 10 pilot free trade zones around the country. A recent circular by the State Council said that the trial in the 10 zones, including Tianjin, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Fujian, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, Chongqing, Sichuan and Shaanxi, will last until December 21, 2018. The circular required separating business licenses from affiliated permits, except for permits concerning national security, public safety, ecological safety and public health. For the canceled or separated approvals, the document proposed new management approaches, such as self-discipline management, record filing or an enterprises’ commitment system. Catalogue and procedure of administrative approvals can improve approvals’ transparency and provide standardized services, said the document. Efforts should also be made to urge enterprises to file records and fulfill their promises in accordance with industry standards. The FTZs should strengthen routine regulation aimed at the above management approaches, and speed up sharing of basic information of individuals, enterprises and social organizations, to avoid repeated applications and reviews. Besides, efforts should be made to improve the national credit information sharing platform and national enterprise credit information publicity system. Enterprise-related licenses should be integrated, simplified, or canceled as much as possible, the circular said. The pilot reform was led by provincial-level governments, and the reform plans were submitted to the State Commission Office of Public Sectors Reform before the end of October 2017, according to the circular. The Jinqiao section of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Apart from the successful experience Pudong made in market access, the Shanghai FTZ in the new area reported an increase of 18,000 enterprises with customs registration since the establishment of the Shanghai FTZ four years ago. Qualcomm Communication Technologies (Shanghai) Co was established last July in Waigaoqiao, as an American multinational semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company — Qualcomm’s only manufacturer in China and one of the Shanghai FTZ’s new settlers with customs registration. “It was a series of reform and innovation initiatives and advanced management concepts of Shanghai Free Trade Zone which attract us to settle down here,” said a senior executive with Qualcomm (Shanghai). At present, the total number of enterprises with customs registration in the Shanghai FTZ has reached 27,000. Most of the newly registered companies are in the bonded areas of Waigaoqiao, Yangshan and Pudong International Airport, while the rest are in Lujiazui, Jinqiao and Zhangjiang. Private companies accounted for 76 percent of them and the rest are foreign invested firms and joint ventures. The newly registered enterprises cover 54 business sectors, while most of them engage in trade and retail. Around 5 percent of them, or more than 1,000 companies, engage in finance, transport, warehousing, postal, leasing and manufacturing, according to Shanghai Customs. Transportation services, terminal business, warehousing services and freight forwarding business all reported double digits growth, while the total industrial output of process manufacturing increased by 5 percent from a year ago. Shanghai Customs canceled administrative approvals in enterprises registration in July 2014 and shortened the entire process from 40 workdays to only three. It also established online and offline channels to better serve enterprises and help them solve problems immediately. An all-in-one counter offers enterprises an inquiry and paperless declaration service. Most enterprises may complete their customs declaration through just one visit. Shanghai became home to China’s first pilot free trade zone in 2013, the test bed of new economic and financial policies, such as the negative list for foreign capital management, which defines sectors in which foreign entities can invest, and the wider convertibility of yuan and its cross border payment. China expects Shanghai to build the city’s free trade zone into a world-class one with liberalized trade and investment, no hidden or opaque rules, fair and efficient supervision, as well as convenient business environment by 2020. The next phase in the Shanghai FTZ development will further relax regulations on commercial transactions and foreign investment. The negative list for foreign investment in the free trade zone will be further shortened and management will comply better with international practices in the finance, foreign exchange, investment, and entry and exit areas. Enterprises within Shanghai FTZ reported more than 30 percent of increase in their total profit, compared with the same period a year ago. Moreover, headquarters economy plays a leading role in the zone. Three more multinational companies’ regional headquarters have been established in the Shanghai FTZ since the beginning of the year, putting the total number within the zone to 81, accounting for 13 percent of the total number around the city or 30 percent in Pudong New Area. More than 320 regional headquarters, Asia-Pacific business centers and business operations centers within the zone reported 18 percent of year-on-year increases in business revenue in the first half.