China to take measures for expanding imports -- The State Council, China's cabinet, said on June 13 that the country will further expand imports to promote the mutually beneficial and win-win open-up strategy and safeguard free trade. The move will also force the upgrading of domestic industries and better meet people's diverse demands, said a statement released after a State Council executive meeting. The meeting also stressed the need to stabilize exports. In response to consumption upgrades and supply quality improvement, China supports the imports of daily consumer goods, medicine, and equipment for rehabilitation and old-age care, the statement said. China will implement measures on lowering import tariffs, reduce intermediate links of distribution and clear unreasonable price markups to let the people enjoy the benefits from lower tariffs, the statement said.
China’s banking and insurance regulator to facilitate foreign investment -- China plans to cancel restrictions on foreign ownership of Chinese banks and financial asset management companies and implement the consistent rules on equity investment ratio for domestic and foreign investors in an effort to facilitate the foreign investment, according to a document to be unveiled by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, reported by the People's Daily. Under the document to be released soon to solicit public opinions, both Chinese and foreign investors apply unified market access and administrative licensing measures. Previously, the proportion of investment by an individual overseas financial institution and its related party as sponsors or strategic investors into the individual Chinese commercial banks, rural commercial banks, or their role as strategic investors into the individual financial asset management company shall be no more than 20 percent, and proportion of investment by multiple overseas financial institutions and their related parties into the above domestic institutions shall be no more than 25 percent in total. China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission noted that the above restrictions will be removed under the upcoming document.
China encourages more foreign investments in central, western regions -- China will guide more foreign investments into central and western regions, the Ministry of Commerce said on June 7. Central and western regions should replicate the successes of the country's pilot free trade zones, said Gao Feng, spokesperson for the ministry. There will be favorable tax, land, and credit policies and new infrastructure connecting with neighboring countries, according to Gao. A recent State Council executive meeting decided that more needed to be done to attract foreign investors. China will create a fair, transparent, and convenient environment for foreign investors through broader market access and better protection of investor interests, according to Gao.
E China Anhui releases a new-generation AI industry plan -- East China's Anhui Province has recently released a plan for development of the new-generation artificial intelligence industry, eying 150 billion yuan of the AI industry output in 2030. Under the plan, Anhui plans to build China (Hefei) intelligent voice and artificial intelligence industry base (China's Sound Valley) into the core area for the development of the AI industry in the province. It will rely on the strategic emerging industry bases in the Province's Wuhu and Ma'anshan cities to build smart industrial robots and special robots industrial clusters. It also will give play to advantages of the cities such as Suzhou, Huainan and Bengbu in cloud computing and big data to promote AI application on a much larger scale. Meanwhile, Anhui also strives to bring the AI industry scale to be 15 billion yuan in 2020 and 150 billion yuan in 2030, said the plan.
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