China unveiled a development plan Monday for its new energy vehicle (NEV) industry from 2021-2035 that aims to accelerate the country into being an automotive powerhouse.
The plan, released by the State Council, China’s cabinet, listed five strategic tasks – to improve technology innovation capacity, build new-type industry ecosystems, advance industrial integration and development, perfect the infrastructure system and deepen opening-up and cooperation.
The specific targets include bringing the average power consumption of new, purely electric passenger cars down to 12 kWh/100 km and raising the proportion of new NEVs in the sales of new vehicles to 20% by 2025.
By 2035, purely electric automobiles are likely to become the mainstream in the sales of new ones, while those used in public transportation will be exclusively electrified, according to the plan.
Boasting the world’s most sizable inventory of NEVs, China accounts for 55% of global NEV sales.
Caixin PMI
Activity in China’s factory sector accelerated at the fastest pace in nearly a decade in October as domestic demand surged, a private business survey showed on Monday, adding further momentum to an economy that is quickly recovering from the coronavirus crisis.
The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 53.6 from September’s 53.0, with the gauge staying above the 50-level that separates growth from contraction for the sixth consecutive month.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast the headline reading would remain steady at 53.0. China’s vast industrial sector is steadily returning to the levels seen before the pandemic paralyzed huge swathes of the economy early this year, though the global outlook is dimming as many Western countries battle still rising Covid-19 infections and go back into virus lockdowns.
October’s PMI reading was the highest since January 2011. Pent-up demand, stimulus-driven infrastructure and surprisingly resilient exports have propelled the manufacturing rebound. Consumption, although hit hard earlier in the year, has also recovered in the third quarter.
New IPO system
Beijing, China’s capital, plans to build a comprehensive demonstration zone to fulfill the country’s initiative to drive innovation-based development and further open up its services sector and digital economy.
The local government has signed new agreements with 26 companies, including Alibaba Health Information Technology, Star Alliance and SF Express. The zone, located in northeast Beijing’s Shunyi district, will utilize the government’s “3+7+N” model.
The “3” refers to the industrial zones: Tianzhu Free Trade Zone, Capital Airport Economic Demonstration Zone and the Sino-German International Cooperation Industrial Park.
These zones are set to serve companies in seven sectors: aviation services, cross-border finance, cultural trade, business exhibition, digital trade, healthcare and international delivery and logistics. The “N” represents the overall goal to improve the business environment and facilitate free investment and trade in the zones.
The Tianzhu Free Trade Zone, operating since July 2009, was the first airport-based free trade zone and the first Special Customs Supervision Zone in China.
Company news
Four of China’s financial regulators on Monday conducted regulatory talks with top executives of Ant Group, the parent company of the country’s leading mobile-payment business Alipay.
The talks were jointly held by the People’s Bank of China, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, according to a statement posted on the website of the CSRC.
The regulators held the talks with the group’s actual controller Jack Ma, executive chairman Eric Jing and executive director Simon Hu, the statement said.
“Honor of Kings,” a fantasy multiplayer role-playing battle title developed by Chinese gaming giant Tencent, has amassed 100 million daily active users worldwide, a landmark number achieved five years after the mobile game’s launch, according to a WeChat post.
The announcement comes after “Honor of Kings” retook the crown in September from the mobile version of “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG Mobile) as the world’s highest-earning mobile game with global revenue of US$240 million.
The stories were compiled by Nadeem Xu and Shan Hui and first published at ATimesCN.com.