Sunday, July 23 2017 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
BEIJING - China will establish national-level demonstration areas for its “Made in China 2025” plan, a blueprint to upgrade the country’s manufacturing sector. The national demonstration areas will be established in cities and city clusters in the eastern, central and western regions, according to a decision made at a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.
WASHINGTON – China’s Vice Premier, Wang Yang, has called on the United States to relax export barriers against China and allow the two sides to tap the huge market potential in bilateral trade, the State newsagency, Xinhua, reports.
SINGAPORE - S&P Global Ratings has assigned its 'AAA/A-1+' long- and short-term issuer credit ratings to Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and says the outlook is stable.
GUJARAT – Australia’s Woolmark Company has announced the second phase of its successful "Grown In Australia, Made In India" initiative. The key campaign will continue to highlight the farm-to-fashion journey of Merino wool grown in Australia before being transformed into fashion pieces in India, championing both the woolgrowers of Australia and the handloom sector of India.
HO CHI MINH CITY - After disappointing GDP growth in the first quarter of 5.15% YoY, Vietnam achieved 6.17% YoY for the second quarter, taking the figure for the first half to 5.73% YoY. Sector-wise, solid growth continued to be seen in the manufacturing and construction sectors (+10.5% YoY and +8.5% YoY in 1H, respectively), but the mining sector was still weak (-8.2% YoY) due to low oil prices.
SHANGHAI - China’s nonfinancial outbound direct investment (ODI) dropped significantly during the first half of this year as companies spent less on overseas mergers and acquisitions. Caixin reports that Chinese companies spent US$48.2 billion as ODI from January through June, a decline of 45.8% from the same period in 2016, Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng told a news conference.
BEIJING – Around 20 Chinese and U.S. enterprises on Thursday signed agricultural transaction contracts worth US$5.012 billion, under which Chinese enterprises will import 12.53 million metric tonnes of soybean and 371 tonnes of pork and beef from the U.S, companies.
BEIJING - China’s central bank yesterday announced lending worth RMB360 billion (USD 53 billion) via the medium-term lending facility to keep liquidity stable. The loans will mature in one year with an interest rate of 3.2%, according to the People’s Bank of China.
The MLF was first introduced in 2014 to help commercial and policy banks maintain liquidity by allowing them to borrow from the central bank by using securities as collateral.
HONG KONG - OTC Clearing Hong Kong Limited (OTC Clear), a subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) that was set up in 2013 to provide clearing services for over-the-counter derivatives, has welcomed Australia’s ANZ Bank as a clearing member. ANZ’s membership took effect from July 10.
MUMBAI – ANZ Bank is tipping an interest rate cut of 0.25% for India at the Central Bank meeting in August, with inflation dipping to a series low of 1.54j% y/y in June. ANZ says that apart from the benefit of a favourable base effect, a key reason for the moderation is benign food prices.
HO CHI MINH CITY – After disappointing GDP growth in the first quarter (5.15% YoY), Vietnam achieved impressive growth of 6.17% in Q2, bringing the figure of the first half (1H) at 5.73%. Sector-wise, solid growth continued to be seen in the manufacturing and construction sectors (+10.5% YoY and +8.5% YoY in 1H, respectively), but the mining sector was still weak (-8.2% YoY) due to low oil prices.
SINGAPORE - The number of negative outlooks in Asia-Pacific economies remains elevated as global and regional uncertainties weigh on credit metrics, says ratings agency Standard and Poor’s. “Following the upgrade of the Indonesian sovereign credit rating to investment grade, none of the 21 ratings in the region currently record a positive outlook,” S&P says.
SEOUL - The Bank of Korea has maintained its policy rate at 1.25% but upgraded its 2017 growth forecast to 2.8% from 2.6% previously. ANZ Bank says the upgrade considers the strength of exports and facilities investment over the first half of the year.
HONG KONG - China trade data came in stronger in June, and higher than market expectations. In dollar terms, export growth was 11.3% y-o-y while imports lifted 17.2%. Machinery and electronics and high-tech products continued to be the main drivers for exports, while resilient demand for capital goods and crude oil were behind the strength in imports.
BEIJING - China has vowed to beef up construction of a cybersecurity system-where Government, enterprises and industry associations strengthen their co-operation, and laws and regulations related to cybersecurity are improved-the top industry regulator said on Tuesday.
HAMBURG – South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have released a joint statement out of the G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, outlining measures to deal with threats posed by the nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes in North Korea.