【Key Focus】
•Li Qiang had a discussion with representatives of overseas buyers at the 135th China Import and Export Fair
•The People's Bank of China and other three departments: focus on improving the multi-level and diversified payment service system
•The spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce issued a statement on the launch of the Section 301 investigation by the United States against China
【Domestic News】
•Premier Li Qiang had a discussion with representatives of overseas buyers attending the 135th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) in Guangzhou on the afternoon of April 17. Li Qiang pointed out that China will speed up the docking of high-standard international economic and trade rules, continue to expand market access, implement the national treatment of foreign-funded enterprises, strengthen the protection of foreign investment services and intellectual property rights, effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign-funded enterprises in China, and provide more support and convenience for international business personnel exchanges and foreigners' work and life in China.
•The People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange jointly issued the Notice on Further Optimizing Payment Services in the Commercial Sector and Enhancing Payment Convenience, focusing on better meeting the diversified payment service needs of the elderly, foreign visitors to China and other groups in the commercial field, strengthening the cooperation between local commerce authorities and branches of the People's Bank of China, from determining the list of key places and key merchants in the commercial field, building an inclusive and diverse payment acceptance environment, optimizing the cash use environment, and enriching mobile payment applications. Strengthen the demonstration and guidance of international consumption center cities, strengthen publicity and promotion, and strive to improve the multi-level and diversified payment service system, and jointly improve the level of payment services in the commercial field.
•A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said on April 17 that on April 17, U.S. time, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced the launch of a Section 301 investigation against China's maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries. China strongly deplores this and resolutely opposes it. The U.S. application is full of false accusations, misinterpreting normal trade and investment activities as harming U.S. national security and corporate interests, and blaming China for its own industrial problems, which lacks factual basis and goes against economic common sense. We urge the US to respect facts and multilateral rules, immediately stop its erroneous practices and return to the rules-based multilateral trading system. China will closely follow the progress of the investigation and will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its rights and interests.
•Liu Sushe, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that all parties are very concerned about ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, and that the National Development and Reform Commission and relevant parties have studied and drafted an action plan to support major national strategies and security capacity building in key areas, and will begin to organize and implement them after approval. The action plan adheres to goal-oriented and precise breakthroughs, concentrates on supporting a number of important and difficult matters that are related to modernization, urgently needed for development, and have not been able to do for many years, and need to be promoted by the central government, adhere to the benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security, and consolidate the foundation for national security and long-term development; adhere to the overall planning of hard investment and soft construction, and use reform methods and innovative ideas to break down deep-seated obstacles; adhere to step-by-step implementation, orderly progress, and issue 1 trillion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2024.
•Nine departments, including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Cyberspace Administration of the CPC Central Committee, and the National Development and Reform Commission, issued the Action Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of Digital Talents to Support the Development of the Digital Economy (2024-2026) It is required to closely follow the needs of digital industrialization and industrial digital development, and take about 3 years to carry out a number of special actions to improve the independent innovation ability of digital talents, stimulate the innovation and entrepreneurship vitality of digital talents, increase the effective supply of digital talents, form a digital talent agglomeration effect, and strive to build a high-level digital talent team with large scale, excellent quality, optimized structure and reasonable distribution, so as to better support the high-quality development of the digital economy.
•Shanghai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) officially announced that SDIC and Science and Technology Venture Capital Group will implement a joint restructuring to build an industry leader with leading and international influence in science and technology innovation in the future. At the Shanghai level, the joint restructuring of the two groups is called the "reform of state-owned capital investment and operation companies", and it is an important part of the deepening and upgrading of Shanghai's state-owned enterprise reform. It was exclusively learned from people familiar with the matter that the name of the company after the joint reorganization is Shanghai State Investment Corporation, and Yuan Guohua, the former chairman of Lingang Group, will serve as the chairman of Shanghai State Investment Corporation.
•The National Energy Administration (NEA) released data on electricity consumption in March. In March, the electricity consumption of the whole society was 794.2 billion kilowatt hours, a year-on-year increase of 7.4%.
【International News】
•The U.S. Federal Reserve released a national economic survey report on the 17th, showing that since the end of February, the U.S. economy has grown slightly, and prices have maintained a moderate upward trend. However, the ability of companies to pass on cost increases to consumers has been greatly reduced, resulting in lower corporate profit margins.
Goldman Sachs expects a very significant supply deficit for refined copper in 2024.
• The Japan Meteorological Agency raised the magnitude of the earthquake that occurred in the sea near Ehime Prefecture on the night of the 17th to 6.6 on the 18th, and the Japanese government said that the earthquake has injured several people.
• Japan's Ministry of Finance released preliminary statistics on the 17th showing that Japan's trade deficit in fiscal year 2023 (April 2023 to March 2024) decreased by about 70% from the previous fiscal year to 5.89 trillion yen (1 US dollar is about 154 yen). This is the third consecutive fiscal year in which Japan has run a trade deficit.
• Russian Minister of Emergency Situations Kulenkov reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the 17th that the flood situation in Kurgan Oblast, Tyumen Oblast and other parts of the Russian Federation is severe, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations is intensively carrying out flood relief work.
【List of domestic and overseas markets】
【Announcement of Listed Companies】
【Economic Data and Dynamics (Beijing Time)】
Editor: Zhang Yao
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