The municipal government of Wuhan, which was seriously hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, said it would invest 45.4 billion yuan (US$6.4 billion) in infrastructure projects this year.
The Wuhan government’s transport department said the progress of the city’s infrastructure projects had been slowed by the epidemic, but it would strive to meet its annual investment target in its 160 infrastructure projects, including the Fourth Ring Line highways, an aviation logistics center, the Changing Shipping Center and the second phase of the Rail-water Transport Channels.
With a population of 11 million, the Central China hub invested about 80.6 billion yuan in its transit network last year, including more than 40 billion yuan on railways. Wuhan also completed the reconstruction of the runway and the terminal one tower of its Tianhe International Airport.
The southern part of the Fourth Ring Line and the Wuhan-Xi’an High-speed Railway started operations last year.
In 2019, Wuhan was operating 63 regional and international flights that served 27.15 million passengers. Trans-Eurasia International Logistics shipped a total of 33,600 containers, while the new port in Jiangxia district in Wuhan handled a total of 1.69 million containers between Wuhan and Japan.
Helmet prices
Since the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security issued a statement on April 21 requiring all motorbike riders to wear helmets, the price of helmets has increased to about 300 yuan each, 10 times the average prices of 30 yuan a month ago.
Apart from this, prices of raw materials for making helmets were also increasing.
The bureau said last month that the new rule of “one helmet, one belt” would take effect on June 1. According to the rule, all riders of motobikes and electric scooters are required to wear helmets, while automobile drivers must fasten their seatbelts.
According to a research report by Sinolink Securities Co Ltd, there are about 250 million electric scooters in China and 50 million unregistered scooters. There could be a shortage of 200 million helmets in China. The market size could be more than 10 billion yuan.
Company news
The Xiamen International Bank said its total assets rose 13.57% to 900 billion yuan at the end of last year from the end of 2018, according to the bank’s 2019 annual report.
The non-performing loan ratio was 0.71%, below 1% for 14 consecutive years. Net profit grew 8.43% to 6.315 billion yuan for the year ended December 31, 2019, from a year earlier.
The bank ranks ninth in total assets among its peers in China, but it has not yet established a long-term capital replenishment mechanism through a listing.
Xiamen International Bank was established in 1985 with its headquarters in Xiamen. It was the first Sino-foreign joint venture bank in China and was transformed from a Sino-foreign joint venture bank to a Chinese commercial bank in 2013. According to the 2018 annual report, Xiamen International Bank is now actively studying and promoting a listing.
Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone maker, said its revenue increased 13.6% year-on-year to 49.7 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year. Adjusted net profit for the period was 2.3 billion yuan, up 10.6% year on year.
Revenue from overseas markets surged 47.8% to 24.8 billion yuan, accounting for half of the company’s total revenue, Xiaomi said. The monthly active users of Xiaomi’s Android-based smartphone operating system MIUI increased 26.7% to 330.7 million.
The story was written by Huang Wanyi and Nadeem Xu and first published at ATimesCN.com.