Tianjin selected as tourism sample city

Tianjin has been listed among the Global 15 Best Tourism Sample Cities by the UNWTO. The selection of global tourism sample cities began in December, 2016. The concept was to investigate, evaluate and select 15 sample cities from 193 member countries, and then promote them to the world. The project set five civic fields in any city for review: economy, environmental condition, urban management, cultural depth, travel technology and new business models; each city was free to choose one strong field as a basis for application for consideration. Three cities in China, Beijing, Tianjin and Hangzhou, were selected. Tianjin, a city combining Chinese and western elements, is the host city of the Summer Davos meetings. It also has a free trade zone. In recent years, Tianjin's tourism has maintained a good development momentum. Its slogan for tourism, "Tiantianledao, jinjinyouwei", was selected as the best tourism slogan in China. And with the holding of the 13th National Games, Tianjin is attracting more and more visitors. Other countries listed include Antwerp of Belgium, Berlin of Germany, Buenos Aires of Argentina, Bogota of Columbia, Capetown of South Africa, Copenhagen of Denmark, Linz of Austria, Seoul of Korea, Sapporo of Japan, Turin of Italy, and Tokyo of Japan.

Shanghai Pudong sets up 3b yuan funds for culture

The Pudong New Area announced it will set up a 1.5 billion yuan (US$226 million) fund in the next five years to “support and stimulate cultural undertakings” in the district. Pudong will also establish an industrial fund with People.com.cn and put in another 1.5 billion yuan to invest in high quality cultural enterprises in the district. Pudong government signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Shanghai municipal administration of culture, radio film and TV yesterday, aiming to promote cultural prosperity in the area. The district is striving to “bring more cultural vibes across Huangpu River,” said Wang Hongzhou, head of Pudong’s publicity department. “We will promote a public service system of culture as well as cultural industry and cultural heritage protection,” said Wu Xiaoming, art director of the administration. Meanwhile, the district will also engage in cooperation efforts that will focus on market reform in Shanghai’s free trade zone with regard to cultural business,” Wu added. “We will also strengthen talent development and international communication.” Wu emphasized that Pudong must build its own cultural confidence. In order to do so, the district will bring in different artistic activities, such as live music galleries and child play areas, to business districts to enrich the cultural character of malls and plazas. The administration and Pudong government is planning to launch artifact auctions and movie making in Shanghai Free Trade Zone. The fund will annually allocate 300 million yuan to support cultural undertakings such as public-interest performances, cultural activities, refined arts and museums. According to Huang Wei, vice-minister of Pudong’s publicity department, Shanghai Oriental Art Center has already started a concession tickets project. “All theaters in Pudong will follow from 2018,” said Huang. He cited President Xi Jinping pointing out that China faces a contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. The Pudong fund will focus on creative cultural industry and show business, with 100 million yuan allocated to promote movie making. According to the plan, 13 percent of total GDP in Pudong will be generated from cultural industry in 2020.

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.