China’s gaming industry revenue expected to top 200 billion yuan in 2017

With an estimated revenue of over 210 billion yuan in 2017, China’s gaming industry has sped up its pace to go overseas, the latest report indicated. The report, issued by China Culture & Entertainment Industry Association in Beijing, pointed out that the improved quality of Chinese games and especially mobile games has accelerated its pace to go overseas. It has gone beyond the Southeast Asian market to reach markets in West Asia and Africa and even some in the US and Europe. “The gaming industry is becoming a key output for spreading Chinese culture around the world,” it added, predicting that more Chinese game companies would join the competition in the overseas market. Meanwhile, China has yet to tap into its full potential in the gaming market, which will grow along with the market development and changing consumption habits of younger generations. The estimated revenue of 2017 will see a 23.1 percent growth compared to that of 2016, added the report. Specifically, a large proportion of the revenue will be made by online games, which take up some 92 percent of the total revenue. In the first three quarters of 2017, market revenue of online games was 151.3 billion yuan. The annual data is estimated to reach 201 billion yuan. Some 51 percent of the online games’ revenue came from mobile games. In spite of the growing popularity of VR games, the newcomer in the industry remains at a low percentage rate, with an estimated annual revenue of 400 million yuan, up 28.2 percent year on year.

Hop aboard the Belt and Road “express train”

Three years after the first cargo train embarked on its adventure from Yiwu, China’s most famous commodities center, to Madrid, nine routes to Europe have been established for the intercontinental rail freights, which have become a carrier of Sino-European trade and communication. Linking Zhejiang’s Yiwu, the world’s largest wholesale market for small consumer goods, with the European commodity center of Madrid, the Yiwu-Madrid freight route was launched in 2014. It has seen 264 intercontinental trips so far, carrying 21,536 twenty-foot equivalent units. As of press time, the route has covered 8 countries, including Russia, Poland and France, boosting foreign trade in east China’s export powerhouse of Zhejiang. The booming intercontinental transportation has led to strong economic growth in Yiwu. The city’s total value of imports and exports has reached 48.88 billion yuan ($7.08 billion) in the first quarter of 2017, growing 23.72 percent year on year. Over 1.8 million kinds of commodities have been exported from Yiwu to 219 countries and regions in the world.

Lower tariffs expected to boost domestic consumer market: Industry insiders

Tariff cuts on a wide range of consumer goods will expand imports and further open up domestic consumer markets, financial news outlet Yicai reported on Nov 28. From next month, tariffs on 187 product categories such as baby formula, diapers, and Japanese toilet seats will be reduced from 17.3 percent to 7.7 percent on average, according to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council. The reduction will meet increasing domestic demand, as it allows Chinese consumers to buy cheaper and high-quality products that cannot be currently produced at home. Lower tariffs will also boost domestic consumption as it encourages people to buy imported products at home instead of overseas, analysts say. Tariffs have been cut four times on imported consumer goods since 2015. It is hoped that lower tariffs will encourage more foreign brands to invest and open branches in China, said Wang Wei, a researcher with the Institute for Market Economy, Development Research Center of the State Council. The tariff reduction also reflects that Chinese companies are narrowing the gap with their foreign counterparts in terms of middle-and high-end consumer goods manufacturing. “There is no need to protect the Chinese producers, who have already addressed their weakness through the supply-side structural reform,” said Zhang Jun, an economist with Morgan Stanley Huaxin Securities.

China's growing business travel market draws global attention

China's business travel market is expanding rapidly, creating opportunities for travel companies worldwide. AirPlus International, a German travel payment company, said its accumulated turnover in China reached over 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) this month, making China its third largest overseas market. "China's business travel market, which is the largest in the world, is leading the change in the global travel management industry," said Lucy Wang, managing director of AirPlus International China. The company allows businesses to pay for employee travel expenses using a centralized corporate account, reducing paperwork and creating cost efficiencies. China overtook the United States as the top business travel market in the world in 2015, according the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), In 2017, Chinese business travel spending is expected to hit $344.6 billion, up 8.4 percent year on year, $51.5 billion more than the estimated US business travel spending, according to the GBTA. Wang said the fast growth was likely to continue as initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative were boosting international demand. As Chinese companies expand their global footprint, they are also bringing in new technologies such as mobile payment to boost efficiency. China leads the world in mobile payments for business travel, according to a 2017 AirPlus study. "These trends create challenges and opportunities for travel management firms, which are striving to create a 'fusion management' model that allows all paperwork and payment to be done in a single mobile app," Wang said.

Cooperation memorandum aims to promote Shanghai FTZ development

China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Shanghai Free Trade Zone Administration signed a cooperation memorandum to promote the FTZ development. The cooperation includes building a service platform of financial and commercial law support, investment and trade; accelerating the construction of Shanghai Intellectual Property Center and Shanghai International Shipping Service Center; building an investment information service platform; and deepening the international trade transformation, and international exchanges. CCPIT will also set up a mediation center in the zone to carry out speedy arbitration of IP ownership disputes. Meanwhile, the zone administration will support CCPIT to set up Shanghai IP Center. CCPIT will also strengthen the Maritime Average Adjustment Center, stipulating international law-abiding maritime transportation contracts and make the average adjustments in Shanghai, in order to improve China’s maritime laws. The FTZ will support CCPIT to set up Investment Environment Monitoring Office in the zone to collect investment information and suggestions from companies in the zone, and present them to the government. CCPIT will support the FTZ to build international trade platform based on the National Pavilion in the zone, and also build an importing platform. CCPIT will take advantage of its domestic and international networking, its recourses of investment and trade, and its talents in financial and commercial law to enhance the development of the zone, said Ma Hao, director of CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office.

China’s financial opening-up picks up momentum

According to an official at the Ministry of Finance, China decided to raise the limits on direct and indirect foreign investment to 51 percent in the futures, securities, and funds sectors. Additionally, the cap will be lifted after three years. China’s persistence in jointly facilitating the opening-up in its financial sector, improving the exchange rate forming mechanism for RMB, and loosening regulations on capital circulation laid a solid financial foundation for China’s economic growth, said Zhu Juan, director-general of the International Department at the People’s Bank of China. Increasingly opening up institutions The flourishing Chinese-funded financial institutions have steadily improved their level of international operations. Meanwhile, a growing number of foreign financial institutions further expanded the coverage of their services on a larger scale. Against this positive backdrop, overseas insurance agencies headquartered in 16 nations and regions established 57 institutions in China. “The inbound overseas investment helped uphold a steady and thriving insurance market, and the introduction of foreign competitors further optimized market structure,” said an official at the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. Less regulation on capital circulation China’s capital account liberalization reform has seen many accomplishments. By the end of 2016, 37 out of 40 capital and financial account transactions were completed, covering convertible, basically convertible, and partially convertible accounts, all of which represented 92.5 percent of the total. These reforms advanced the free flow of capital and vitalized the market. The bond market saw ever-expanding overseas issuing bodies and investment subjects; the stock market witnessed the successful launch and operation of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, a continuing improvement in the systems of Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) and RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII). Renminbi has a bigger say Renminbi has made an official entry into the reserve basket of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), introducing its new identity as an international reserve currency. This momentous event led China’s economy into the global financial system, marking a milestone for IMF as well as the global economy, said Markus Rodlauer, the IMF’s mission chief for China.