Foreign investment is significant to China's manufacturing upgrades and integration into global industrial and supply chains, the ministry said. The ministry recently published policy documents that contain 15 specific measures to encourage foreign manufacturing investment, including post-establishment national treatment and better financial services and financing support. The new catalog of industries where foreign investment will be encouraged has 1,474 items of sectors, up nearly 20 percent from that of 2020. Some processing trade sectors in the country's central and western regions and high-tech manufacturing sectors are also added to the list.

It is a second cut this year of its reserve requirement ratio (RRR). The People's Bank of China (PBOC) confirmed the widely expected 0.25 percentage point reduction will take place on December 5 in a bid to help coronavirus-hit sectors. In confirming the change, which lowers the weighted average ratio for financial institutions to 7.8%, the PBOC said that it will step up implementation of prudent monetary policy, while also keeping liquidity reasonable ample. Business and consumer confidence in China remains weak as coronavirus disruptions have worsened and export orders remain under pressure.

China's financial authorities rolled out 16 steps in the country's latest move to facilitate the stable and healthy development of the real-estate market. Efforts will be made to stabilize the supply of loans for real-estate development, and support the reasonable demand for individual housing loans, according to a guideline released by the People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. Support will be given to two policy banks on issuing specific loans to qualified borrowers to ensure the delivery of housing projects. Commercial banks are encouraged to carry out loans for the acquisition of real-estate projects in a prudent and orderly manner, while house buyers might enjoy repayment extensions on their housing loans under certain circumstances.

The State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang noted the solid efforts made by local governments and competent departments in delivering the policy package for stabilizing the economy and the follow-up measures, which have provided effective underpinning for reversing the economic slide early in the second quarter and keeping overall economic stability. The fourth quarter is crucial for the economic performance of the whole year, and now is a critical moment for consolidating the foundation for economic recovery and growth. "The economic situation is complicated this year. Shocks from COVID-19 and other factors have turned out to be greater than expected," Li said. The meeting urged expediting the construction of key projects.

Domestic and overseas supermarket brands are speeding up the opening of members-only supermarkets in China following the business success of leading members-only supermarkets like Sam's Club and Costco, undeterred by the ongoing coronavirus situation which has cast a shadow on China's consumption sector. Alibaba's supermarket chain Hema Fresh has announced it will open its eighth Hema X members-only outlet.

European Union Council president Charles Michel will travel to China next week for talks with President Xi Jinping to address the economic imbalance between the two trading giants and the Asian nation's relations with Russia and neigboring Taiwan. The one-day visit on Dec. 1 will seek to find a balance between the EU's wish for more exports to China and the need to be firm with Beijing in the defense of democracy and fundamental freedoms, officials said. It will also be an opportunity to show a united face of the 27-nation bloc, after German Chancellor OIaf Scholz made a solo visit to China early this month. During that visit, Scholz urged China to exert its influence on Russia and raised human rights concerns. Michel will try to build on that trip as the EU seeks to stand its ground against an increasingly assertive and authoritarian China.

With new materials and techniques being used in food packaging, the standards aim to enhance quality control for metal containers and fill the quality assessment gap, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation. China has published 23 national standards for food safety and related products this year. A number of national standards covering food, consumer goods, industrial products, work safety and cross-border e-commerce were also released at the conference.

Subsidies for newborn babies have contributed to the birth of second and third children in the city of Panzhihua, Sichuan province. In July 2021, Panzhihua became the first city in the country to offer a monthly 500-yuan ($71) subsidy to a family with a newborn second or third child. According to the city government, each second or third child born after June 11, 2021, and whose parents have permanent residence permits in the city and are entitled to the city's social insurance program, will receive the monthly subsidy for three years. According to Tang Zhongzhu, a vice-mayor of Panzhihua, subsidies amounting to 950,000 yuan were given for 650 newborn babies in 648 families in 2021. About 10 million yuan is expected to be given to about 2,000 families this year.

The State Council has agreed to establish integrated pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce in 33 cities and areas, including Langfang, Yuncheng, Baotou, Anshan, Lhasa, and the Kazak autonomous prefecture of Ili, according to a reply sent to provincial governments and the Ministry of Commerce on Nov 24. Detailed plans will be issued by relevant provincial authorities, and names of the pilot zones should include the name of the city or area, according to the letter. It stressed borrowing experiences and methods from six previous batches of integrated pilot zones to upgrade and transform traditional industries with cross-border e-commerce, and promote industrial digitalization and foreign trade.

According to a statement released by the US Trade Representative (USTR), the exclusions were scheduled to expire on November 30. In light of the continuing efforts to combat COVID-19, they have been extended for an additional 90 days, through February 28, 2023. The exclusions cover 81 medical-care products, which were initially granted on December 29, 2020. According to the statement of the USTR, the exemptions were extended once in November 2021 and again in June. Items on the list for tariff extensions included pump bottles for hand sanitizer, plastic containers for sanitizing wipes, blood pressure monitors and X-ray tables.

According to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, the city will focus on the development of future health, intelligence, energy, space, and materials industries, considering global technological and industrial changes and Shanghai's advantages in industrial innovation and development. An action plan for promoting future industries was also released, which proposed building five future industrial clusters. In the field of hydrogen energy, it is planned to build about 70 hydrogen refueling stations and three to five innovative R&D platforms by 2025. The number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will exceed 10,000, and the industrial scale of the hydrogen energy industry chain will exceed 100 billion yuan, the action plan said.

China has almost completed all preparations for a private pension program and will soon start implementing the project. The country has rolled out supportive policies such as implementation measures, tax policies and rules for financial products in this regard after the General Office of the State Council issued its opinions on promoting the development of private pensions in April. System docking tests on the private pension information management platform have been progressing smoothly. The platform is almost capable of going live. The first batch of financial institutions that will participate in the private pension program have been decided, and they will launch private pension products one after another, said the ministry of human resources and social security.

During January to October 2022, some 240 million twenty-foot equivalent units of containers were handled at the country's ports, up 4 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Transport shows. The year-on-year growth rate is the same as that recorded in the first three quarters of this year. Cargo throughput at China's ports edged up 0.5 percent year on year to 12.93 billion tonnes. This growth rate is higher than the 0.1 percent growth rate in the first three quarters of 2022.

Their first project will be launched in Saudi Arabia, according to the agreement. Based on Kunlun Digital and eWTPA's industrial expertise and comprehensive research on the region, the joint venture is expected to grow its revenue to 2 billion U.S. dollars within the next 8-10 years. According to the MOC, the joint venture will utilize both Kunlun Digital's technological capabilities and eWTPA's resourceful network in MENA to import and localize cutting-edge technical solutions, and enable technological upgrading in Saudi Arabia's energy industry and production process in oilfields. Affiliated to China National Petroleum Corporation, Kunlun Digital is an IT solution provider with more than 20 years of experience in the petroleum and gas industry. The eWTPA is a venture fund based in Saudi Arabia and China backed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia -- the Public Investment Fund.

According to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the level of China's foreign economic activities has remained high since the beginning of this year. In the first three quarters, the balance of payments maintained a basic equilibrium, and the current account surplus stood at a record $310.4 billion, up 56% year on year. In addition, the country posted a net inflow of direct investment, while cross-border capital flows were steady and orderly. The foreign exchange authorities had improved the integrated management framework of "macro-prudential policy and micro supervision" to safeguard the forex market's steady operation and national economic and financial security.

During the 2022 Financial Street Forum annual conference, which concluded on 23 Nov., China's financial policymakers sent new opening-up signals, saying that investors from all over the world are welcome to explore the Chinese market and collaborate with China in accelerating global economic recovery. "Opening-up has remained China's fundamental strategy, and our financial industry is ushering in a phase of high-level opening-up," Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said while addressing the forum. "We will, as always, welcome foreign financial institutions with sound operations, good qualifications and outstanding specialization to participate in the Chinese market and share the growth opportunities of the century," the chairman said.

The country will expand the pilot scheme for REITs to cover the spheres of new energy, water conservation and new types of infrastructure facilities, according to sources at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). China currently allows REITs listings of infrastructure projects such as highways, industrial parks, sewage treatment, storage and logistics, clean energy, and affordable rental housing. Steadily expanding the scope of REITs will maintain the healthy development of the market, channel more incremental capital into the infrastructure sector, and provide more options for investors. Besides the expansion to new spheres, the CSRC also plans to increase placements of existing infrastructure REITs.

The move, coming after South Korea's reported emphasis on not ruining exports to China as a precondition for joining the US-led "Chip 4" alliance. Dutch Foreign Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher told lawmakers that the Netherlands will make its own decision regarding ASML's chip gear sales to China amid trade rule talks with the US. "It is important that we defend our own interests - our national safety, but also our economic interests," Bloomberg quoted Schreinemacher as saying. Schreinemacher noted that the Netherlands would be "worse off" if the country "put that (interests) in an EU basket and negotiates with the US, and in the end it turns out we give away deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) machines to the US."

Beijing granted the latest autonomous driving permits to two robotaxi operators, Baidu Inc and Pony.ai, that for the first time allow for the absence of a human safety operator from the front seat on public roads in the capital, marking a significant step toward the commercialization of fully self-driving technology. With the permits issued by the head office of the Beijing High-Level Automated Driving Demonstration Area, the two companies will provide up to 10 autonomous vehicles each in a designated area of 60 square kilometers in Yizhuang, a southern suburb of Beijing. A human safety operator will now sit in back seats in such vehicles to ensure safety.

Chinese regulators likely to fine Ant in the second quarter of next year for 'disorderly expansion of capital', once the fintech giant nears the end of a major two-year-long overhaul. Ant's fine would be the largest regulatory penalty imposed on a Chinese internet company since ride-hailing major Didi Global was fined $1.2 billion by China's cybersecurity regulator in July. A fine on Ant could help pave the way for the company to secure a long-awaited financial holding company licence, seek growth again, and eventually revive its plans for a public market listing.

According to Refinitiv data, Chinese companies have raised $71.2 billion through initial public offerings (IPOs) in the domestic and overseas markets this year, which is lower than the $98.48 billion raised in the same period last year. The increase in mainland IPOs comes as companies and dealmakers await final rules from the China Securities Regulatory Commission and Cyberspace Administration of China that will govern overseas listings, especially for firms that handle data. The data showed that IPO issuances on the mainland fell just 11%, while Chinese listings in U.S. and Europe slumped 97% and 81%, respectively. The declines in overseas listings are due to concerns over China's COVID-19 lockdowns, growth worries, ongoing audit disputes with the United States, and uncertainties over offshore listing rules.

Efforts should be made to grasp the logic of valuation for different types of listed companies, and to explore ways to build a valuation system with Chinese characteristics so that the market plays a better role in resource allocation, Yi Huiman, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at this year's Financial Street Forum annual conference. He called on listed companies to boost their core competencies while strengthening investor relations management. Yi said the proportion of institutional investors in both shareholding and trading has been increasing steadily, while the proportion of individual investors in trading has gradually declined to around 60 percent, which is a positive trend. Yi also pledged efforts to promote the reform of and innovation in the National Equities Exchange and Quotations, also known as the "new third board," and to push for the high-quality expansion of the Beijing Stock Exchange.

According to a notice issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation on Tuesday, the revision comes amid rapid development of the new economy along with various new industrial forms, resulting in the need to rein in new types of unfair competition involving data, algorithms and platform rules. The draft also outlined detailed rules for violations, while also enhancing the predictability of the system and the standardization of law enforcement. Meanwhile, the draft noted that it listed the relevant responsibilities of platform operators to strengthen competition compliance management. The new forms of unfair competition include damaging trade practices, which strengthens the legal protection for small and medium-sized market participants.

Industry, region and enterprise-specific measures will be adopted to secure the sound development of key industries, boost coordinated regional development, and inject vitality into industrial enterprises, per the document jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. Efforts will be made to tackle key issues facing the industrial economy, including accelerating the construction of major projects to generate increased physical gains, tapping into market potential to grow consumer demand, stabilizing exports of industrial products, improving the resilience and security of industrial and supply chains, and fostering new growth drivers, the circular said.

China announced a framework plan to build more pilot financial reform zones for scientific and technological innovation in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Hefei and Jiaxing — all major cities in the Yangtze River Delta region. The larger goal is to better connect finance, technology and industries so as to facilitate high-quality development. Comprising 19 detailed measures, the framework plan aims at further optimizing the overall structural system in the zones and rolling out more innovative products to facilitate technological innovation. China's first pilot financial reform zone for scientific and technological innovation was launched in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong province, in November 2021.

As the Chinese economy is faced with challenges and downward pressure this year, authorities have adjusted the monetary policy in a timely fashion to provide greater support to the real economy, said Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC). While providing significant support to the real economy, the PBOC has not substantially expanded its balance sheet that its size has remained relatively stable over the past five years, with an average growth rate of 2.6 percent. The central bank also leveraged structural monetary policy tools to enhance support for agriculture, small and medium-sized enterprises, private companies and other structural weak links on the supply side, making finance more accessible, available and affordable.

China's national commercial banks have been urged to step up credit support for key areas, weak links, and sectors and groups hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic in an effort to stabilize the economy. The People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission called on the major lenders to take the leading role and make good use of policy-backed and development-oriented financial instruments to expand medium and long-term loans. The loan demand from the manufacturing and service sectors should be actively met, the meeting urged, citing policy tools of the special re-lending facility for equipment upgrading and renovation and government-funded interest subsidies.

The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage, has opened 78 new freight routes so far in 2022. The newly established routes include those connecting China's Chongqing, Guizhou, Ningxia, Gansu and Hunan with Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, according to Liu. With southwest China's Chongqing Municipality as its transportation hub, the corridor has expanded the number of destinations to 338 ports in 113 countries and regions. Chongqing had in the first three quarters of this year transported 105,000 TEUs of cargo with a value of 19.1 billion yuan (about $2.68 billion) via the corridor, up 29% and 46% year-on-year, respectively.

China has clarified and optimized the fundraising, use and administration of the insurance security fund to strengthen the risk management of insurance companies, guide insurers to establish a better risk prevention mechanism and maintain the steady operation of the insurance sector. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission recently announced it has revised measures for the administration of the insurance security fund together with the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China. The new measures will come into effect on Dec. 12. It will give further play to the role of the insurance security fund in preventing and mitigating financial risks to promote the stable and high-quality development of the insurance sector.

The one-year loan prime rate (LPR), which influences most new and outstanding loans in China, stayed at 3.65%. The over-five-year LPR, on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, stood at 4.3%. This year, the one-year LPR was cut by 15 basis points, and the over-five-year LPR was lowered by 35 basis points.

China will strive to eliminate heavy air pollution events in 70 percent of its major cities by 2025. Jointly issued by 15 central government bodies, including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the National Development and Reform Commission, the plan vowed to reduce the country's average annual proportion of days with heavy air pollution to less than 1 percent. The action plan was drafted against the backdrop of a "grim" air pollution control situation despite "remarkable" improvement to air quality.

As China aims to train more high-caliber technical and vocational professionals, governments have been tasked with improving the condition and infrastructure of vocational schools. More than 80 percent must reach the standards set by the end of next year, and more than 90 percent must meet the same standards by the end of 2025. Low-quality schools with limited social recognition that fail to meet standards should be merged or closed, said the notice, which was released by the Ministry of Education and four other departments. Governments are encouraged to work with schools to deal with shortfalls such as shortages of land, dormitories, classrooms or laboratories. The notice included detailed standards to be met, such as the student-teacher ratio, coverage area of the school, and the number of books and amount of equipment.

Under the theme of "cooperation for win-win," the World Conference on Integrated Circuits 2022 in Hefei, from Nov. 16 to 18, aimed at advancing global cooperation and exchanges in integrated circuits (IC), industrial and supply chains, exhibiting the latest achievements in IC, and promoting the development and innovation of China's IC industry. Nearly 200 guests from over 20 countries and regions, including the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, attended the conference either on the site or via video link. A wide range of events were organized during the three-day conference, including 14 forums and the 20th China International Semiconductor Expo, chip designing and testing contests, business matchmaking events, and more.

The output totaled 17.22 million tonnes in October, rising 2.5% year on year and 1.1 percentage points higher than that of September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Last month, China imported 43.14 million tonnes of crude oil, climbing 14.1% year on year and reversing the 1.6% decline in September. From January to October, China's crude oil output amounted to about 171 million tonnes, representing a 3% increase from a year ago.

China's natural gas output logged robust growth last month, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. The country produced 18.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in October, up 12.3 percent from a year ago and the growth pace was 7.7 percentage points faster than that in September. In the first 10 months of this year, China's natural gas output rose 6 percent year on year to 178.5 billion cubic meters. The country imported 88.74 million tonnes of natural gas in the same period, down 10.4 percent year on year.

As chilly weather started to grip a vast part of north China, sending temperatures plunging, natural gas production and supplies have been running in full swing in the Changqing oilfield to ensure residents a warm room temperature in winter. The oilfield, located in northwest China's Erdos basin, is China's largest oil-and-gas field that supplies natural gas to more than 40 major cities, including Beijing and Tianjin. To ensure sufficient natural gas for this year's winter heating, the oilfield planned seven months ahead to arrange the production. Besides the Changqing oilfield, other key energy suppliers in northern regions, such as the Daqing oilfield and Tarim oilfield, have all kicked into high gear to meet the heating needs of households as winter comes.

The central SOEs raked in 32.3 trillion yuan (about 4.54 trillion U.S. dollars) in combined revenue in the Jan.-Oct. period, up 9.9 percent from the same period last year, said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. The net profits of central SOEs reached 1.7 trillion yuan during the period, up 3.9 percent year on year.