Belt and Road Initiative benefits city’s financial services sector

As a bridgehead of China’s reform and opening up, Shanghai has firmly grasped the historical opportunity of the Belt and Road Initiative and has recorded substantial progress especially in its financial sectors. It is now going at full steam to build the city into an investment and financing hub. Among a slew of stimulus packages, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) is promoting yuan-denominated financial products in the local bourse to attract overseas investors. “Shanghai FTZ plans to attract sovereign funds from countries along the Belt and Road to invest in onshore yuan-denominated assets,” Li Jun, vice director of the Shanghai Financial Service Office, told Shanghai Daily during a media briefing. “It supports qualified foreign companies to develop and expand its business by making use of China’s capital market,” Li added. Encouraged by the policy, Russian aluminum giant UC Rusalan offered 1 billion yuan (US$145.3 million) worth of seven-year yuan-denominated onshore bonds earlier this year to fund its locally-purchased equipment. It thus became the first company along the Belt and Road route to issue panda bonds on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Since then, more international organizations have made similar arrangements. Foreign federal and state governments and overseas non-financial enterprises have issued bonds totaling over 200 billion yuan. Thanks to its competitive edges, Shanghai has managed to lure a number of foreign banks along the route to set up branches. As of August 31, five banks, 13 foreign bank branches and 11 representative offices from 15 countries were set up in Shanghai with total assets of almost 212 billion yuan. With the opening of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect for equities and gold as well as the Bond Connect, interconnectivity between the onshore and offshore financial markets has been enhanced. By the end of August, the Shanghai Gold Exchange had attracted 12 members from the Belt and Road countries and regions, which account for about 18 percent of its total international membership. To expand its financial market, the Shanghai government says it will strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation with nations along the region.

Sharing economy in China sees more rational moves

Just as almost everything in life is becoming sharable in China, the booming sharing economy is starting to see signs of slowdown and more rational thinking amid the frenzy. The latest one to give up its sharing goal was EZZY, a luxurious car sharing platform that halted operations on Oct.25. The company no longer exists. Since October, EZZY users began to notice the shrinking number of cars available and problems retrieving their 2,000 yuan deposit. Launched in March 2016, EZZY once boasted its ambition to become “The Hulk” in the car sharing business. It indeed caught many eyes – some 100,000 users, with fancy cars such as BMW and Audi. However, the company only rolled out some 500 cars for sharing, and users soon complained that the service was inconvenient because the number of cars was inadequate, Beijing Daily reported. Of course, shared cars can never cover as many users as shared bikes. The latter witnessed the first ever merger case in its exploding development on the same day of the collapse of EZZY, when Hellobike was purchased by Youon, a deal that is expected to provide Hellobike with more capital and stronger support. The merger aroused another round of gloomy pessimism over the bike sharing industry, especially after a series of dropouts of shared bikes companies including Wukong bike, which announced its bankruptcy in June as the first quitter in this new business. Quitters are also withdrawing on other fronts, from shared chargers to shared umbrellas. On Oct. 11, shared charger company Ledian announced the end of its charger sharing operation after only six months. But experts and observers remain optimistic about the sharing industry and see the slowdown as a move toward more rationality. The crises facing some sharing companies are not a result of poor market performance, but because they are unable to profit under their own management and operational problems, said Cheng Shidong, director of urban traffic at the Institute of Comprehensive Transportation of National Development and Reform Commission. “The massive market demand for the sharing economy still exists, especially in major cities like Beijing, since it fits the future consumption trend,” Cheng was quoted as saying by Beijing Daily. China currently leads the world in sharing economy. In 2016, the sharing economy topped 3.45 trillion yuan, up 103 percent year on year. The number of people involved in it exceeded 600 million. In transportation alone, the market reached over 200 billion yuan in 2016, doubling that of 2015, according to a February report by the State Information Center. The report also estimated that China’s sharing economy will maintain a fast 40 percent growth rate every year in the coming years. By 2020, the scale of economic transactions is expected to take up 10 percent of the nation’s GDP.

Tianjin ranked Top 10 Chinese cities for entrepreneurship and innovation in 2017

Tianjin has been China's top 10 leading cities for mass entrepreneurship and innovation in 2017, according to a ranking released by big data company Youedata and National Business Daily. The entrepreneurial conditions and climate are relatively mature in Tianjin, the report said. The index for mass entrepreneurship and innovation of 17 Chinese cities, in which China's first batch of 28 demonstration bases for mass entrepreneurship and innovation approved by the General Office of the State Council last year are located, was measured in the ranking. It reviewed the mass entrepreneurship and innovation situation and trend in the 17 cities, taking four major factors: the environment, vitality, capability and effectiveness into evaluation. The mass entrepreneurship and innovation program has been in full swing in China since it was initiated by Premier Li Keqiang at the 2014 Summer Davos in Tianjin. This year's National Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week will run from Sep 15 to 21 in Beijing.

18,000 firms registered in Shanghai FTZ since establishment

Nearly 18,000 firms have registered with the customs authorities in the Shanghai free trade zone (FTZ) since it was launched four years ago, Shanghai Customs said. The figure doubled the number of companies that were already operating in the four bonded zones that merged to become the Shanghai FTZ in September 2013, bringing the total now operating within the zone to more than 27,000, the customs said. Of the newly-registered companies, 13,600 are privately owned, more than 3,200 are wholly foreign-funded businesses, and 940 are Chinese-foreign joint ventures. The companies cover 54 industries. Some 94 percent are wholesale or retail firms, while 5 percent are financial enterprises. The rest mainly concern transportation, storage and postal businesses. The surge in company registrations has helped boost trade in Shanghai despite trade gloom nationwide. In the first three quarters this year, foreign trade in the Shanghai FTZ rose 16.2 percent year on year to 997.6 billion yuan (150.2 billion U.S. dollars). When the Shanghai FTZ was launched it streamlined procedures for business registration. Companies can obtain licenses to operate in the zone in three working days of applying, compared with 40 working days in the previous bonded zones.

Cargo train services connect China with 34 European cities

A working meeting on deepened international cooperation of China-Europe freight trains was recently held in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan Province. The event came as data showed that the trains have connected China with 34 cities in 12 European countries after six years of operation. During the three-day meeting starting on Tuesday, more than 70 railway representatives from China, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Poland and Russia discussed their collaboration roadmap as well as working plans for the joint working group they set up. It was also their first meeting as members of the group. The conference marked an intensified cooperation on China-Europe cargo train services. China-Europe freight train, or China Railway Express to Europe, is a cargo train service between China and Europe, as well as Belt and Road countries that runs on fixed routes and schedules. More than 5,000 cargo train trips have been made between China and Europe since the start of the direct rail freight services six years ago, half of which were made in 2017, showed statistics from China Railway Corporation (CRC). A total of 57 routes have been opened, linking 34 Chinese cities with 34 European cities in 12 countries. In 2016, the number of China-Europe freight trains surpassed 1,700, including 1,130 outbound trains and 572 inbound trains, an increase of 109 percent year on year. The 13,052-kilometer rail from eastern China’s city of Yiwu to Madrid via Alataw Pass in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has been in operation for more than 1,000 days since it set off for the first time on November 18, 2014. Currently, nine routes from Yiwu to Europe have been opened, including the ones to Madrid, London and Prague. With 5 logistics centers and eight overseas warehouses, these routes radiate 34 countries. The freight train service transports goods from eight Chinese provinces and municipalities including Zhejiang, Guangdong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai, covering nearly 2,000 items of China-made products such as small commodities, clothes, bags and tools. Overseas projects, including the China-Belarus Industrial Park, and a wholesale market for small commodities set up by China in Warsaw, also benefited from the service. Railway authorities of China, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Poland and Russia, inked an agreement to deepen cooperation on China-Europe freight rail services this April, said CRC, adding that this meeting held at its call aims to ensure a better implementation of the agreement. During the three-day meeting, representatives also discussed next year’s plans, specific operation of the broad-gauge sections, time and place for the team's next meeting and procedures for new member enrollment.

The strategic cooperation between Hebei Luquan Economic Development Zone and Tanikawa

Recently, Tanikawa signed a cooperation agreement with the Hebei Luquan Economic Development Zone, the two sides will focus on project excavation, investment information and other aspects to develop deep cooperation. It has great significance  that enhance inviting investment strength and promote regional industrial transformation and upgrading for the Luquan Economic Development Zone.Hebei Luquan Economic Development Zone is committed to create a new city with functional, rational layout, distinctive characteristics, beautiful environment, the total economic and comprehensive development level ranks the forefront in Hebei provincial-level development zones. At the same time, relying on innovation-driven and technology support, the development zone formed five small and medium-sized science and technology industry cluster, to build a good platform for relevant enterprises investing in the development zone. Luquan Economic Development Zone has been formed it's industrial system in terms of electronic information, green food, intelligent manufacturing and modern service. Now, there are 363 enterprises started their business operation in the development zone,  the existing 363 enterprises into the zone, of which 92 enterprises' turnover is more that ¥2,000 million.