CBN丨China unveiled special plan to boost consumption
Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.Coming up on today’s programChina's economy has maintained strong momentum in the first two months, while a comprehensive initiative was unveiled to boost consumption;Guangdong holds high-tech focused job fair.Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hoursChina’s economic growth goal of around 5 percent is not an easy task, said the National Bureau of Statistics, adding that authorities will implement more proactive macro measures.Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the NBS, said that the external environment is becoming more challenging and the effective domestic demand remains inadequate. He also noted that some enterprises have difficulties in production and operations.On Sunday, China issued an action plan to vigorously boost consumption, stimulate domestic demand across the board, and increase households' spending power by increasing their earnings and reducing financial burdens, as well as to establish a childcare subsidy scheme.Analysts believed the 30-point plan is the most comprehensive package of policies for boosting consumer spending that the country has released in over four decades.The plan comes a week after Chinese Premier Li Qiang's work report to the National People's Congress which focused on boosting household spending.The NBS on Monday released data of China's economy in the first two months of 2025, which showed industrial output, fixed asset investment and retail sales all growing at a faster pace than a year earlier. In January and February, the value-added output of major industrial enterprises above the designated size grew by 5.9 percent year-on-year, 0.1 percentage points higher than the full-year growth rate in 2024. Retail sales reached 8.37 trillion yuan in the period, up by 4 percent year-on-year, with online sales rising 7.3 percent to over 2.27 trillion yuan. Fixed assets investment in the first two months reached 5.26 trillion yuan, increasing 4.1 percent than a year earlier. Urban surveyed unemployment rate came in at 5.3 percent. The national economy got off to a steady start with new and positive development momentum, as a combination of existing and new policies has continued to yield results, Fu said.He added there are many favorable conditions for the economy to maintain steady and healthy development in 2025. The emerging economic drivers are reinforcing in themselves, thanks to the country's strong industrial basis, huge consumption and investment potential, and massive market potential, while the comprehensive reform and opening-up will continue to inject more steam to economic development.GBA expressGuangdong Province on Sunday held a job fair that focused on emerging industries such as artificial intelligence. Co-hosted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education and the Guangdong provincial government, the event offered more than 50,000 positions. Notably, nearly 10,000 roles targeted PhDs and postdoctoral researchers across education, healthcare, aerospace, AI and other cutting-edge fields, reflecting surging demand for high-end talent in innovation-driven industries. Major players in AI and aerospace, such as the southern branch of iFlytek and China Southern Air Holding Co, offered positions with annual salaries ranging from 500,000 yuan to 1 million yuan. China Southern Power Grid provided more than 1,000 mid-to-high-level positions, with annual salaries between 200,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan, in fields such as battery design and materials development. The job fair also featured opportunities in biopharmaceuticals, embodied intelligence, cell and gene technology, and deep-sea and space exploration. Shenzhen raises the maximum housing provident fund loan to 2.31 million yuan for families and 1.3 million yuan for individuals, according to a new policy the city released yesterday. Shenzhen also cut the minimal down payment ratio for all home purchases to 20 percent.Hong Kong registered 8.4 million visitor arrivals in the first two months of 2025, up 7 percent year-on-year, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) said. Among them, approximately 6.5 million visitor arrivals were from the mainland, up 4 percent from last year. Visitor arrivals from elsewhere jumped significantly, hitting 1.91 million and representing a 20 percent increase from last year.Hong Kong's veteran actor Sean Lau Ching-wan won the Best Actor award for the family drama film “Papa” at the Asian Film Awards on Sunday night.Industry and Company newsNvidia’s artificial intelligence event will kick off on Monday in the United States, with the China session set to be attended by various Chinese tech giants. The China AI Day gathers tech giants ByteDance, Volcano Engine, Alibaba Cloud, Baidu, Ant Group, JD.com, Meituan, Kuaishou Technology and Great Wall Motor as well as startups BioMap and Galbot, covering trending topics such as cloud computing and internet, design and simulation, automotive and autonomous driving, robotics, finance, healthcare, retail and more.Baidu released its new multimodal foundation model Ernie 4.5 and deep-thinking reasoning model Ernie X1 yesterday, two years after the Chinese search engine giant unveiled the LLM Ernie Bot. Ernie X1 costs 28 US cents per million tokens for input, half that of DeepSeek-R1.IM Motors announced yesterday it will ally with Alibaba-backed intelligent mobility firm Banma and food delivery giant Ele.me to co-launch an AI-oriented smart cockpit featuring a “no touch, no app” interactive function today.BMW China announced today it reached an agreement with Huawei to integrate the Chinese tech giant’s HarmonyOS into the German automaker’s digital ecosystem and introduce services, such as the BMW Digital Key, Huawei HiCar, and the My BMW App.Baiya Sanitary Products and Winner Medical tumbled today after receiving regulatory letters from the Shenzhen bourse regarding their supply relations with a Shandong manufacturer exposed on the annual 315 gala's name-and-shame list for recycling discarded materials and making refurbished sanitary pads and diapers.US entertainment firm Stars Collective today announced at the Hong Kong FilMart plans for an ambitious animation trilogy based on classic Chinese mythological novel “Journey to the West,” media reported. Titled “Bajie,” “Monkey King,” and “Nezha,” the trilogy aims to bring Eastern mythology to a global audience.Asia-Pacific highlightsTo commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Thailand, the Xiamen Culture and Tourism Bureau launched business promotion fair in Bangkok Sunday. Under the theme of "Maritime Garden · Music Moves Xiamen," the event organized by the bureau in Southeast China's Fujian province aims to enhance communication and cooperation between China and Thailand in the terms of culture and tourism.China and Laos signed a memorandum of understanding on jointly promoting cooperation on the Global Security Initiative on Thursday, vowing to step up the building of a community with a shared future. Chinese coffee giant Luckin Coffee has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Banggai Islands Regency, Indonesia, designating the region as the exclusive premium origin for coconut milk used in its signature Coconut Latte, the company announced. The islands will be named "Luckin Exclusive Coconut Island."Voices of ASEANIn an interview with 21st Century Business Herald, Loh Wee Keng, President of the Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, highlighted China's advancements in high-tech fields like AI and renewable energy, urging Malaysian businesses to closely monitor these sectors. Loh said China’s 2025 government work report emphasized accelerating the "Digital China" initiative, aiming to raise the core digital economy’s contribution to 10 percent of GDP. Loh noted that under the RCEP framework, cross-border e-commerce and digital services between China and ASEAN could see significant growth. Loh emphasized the strategic role of the Greater Bay Area for Southeast Asian companies entering China, citing cultural affinity and proximity as advantages. With Malaysia set to chair ASEAN in 2025, Loh urged deeper cooperation in green energy, smart manufacturing, and digital transformation, leveraging China’s policy continuity and growth momentum to drive regional prosperity.
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