1. To facilitate key industries as major role players

 

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in April China's industrial economy has maintained faster growth, in which the key industries play a significant role in driving the economy. It is important to keep the momentum of the industrial economy, and facilitate key industries and industrial provinces as major role players in stabilizing growth, changing development modes, increasing growth momentum, and consolidate the role of the industrial economy as "ballast stone".

 

2. To polish the golden signboards of specialized and sophisticated SMEs that produce novel and unique products

 

Specialized and sophisticated enterprises that produce novel and unique products are representatives of the capable SMEs, featuring specialization, refinement and innovation. These enterprises become an important force for promoting new industrialization and developing new quality productive forces. Continuously improving their innovation ability is an inevitable requirement for polishing their golden signboards.

 

 

1. The People's Bank of China announced on May 17 the establishment of a 300 billion yuan relending facility for affordable housing to encourage and guide financial institutions to support local State-owned enterprises in acquiring unsold completed commercial housing at appropriate prices to be used as either sale-oriented or rental-oriented affordable housing in accordance with market-oriented and law-based principles.

 

2. The National Development and Reform Commission, the National Data Administration and other two departments recently issued guidelines on deepening the development of smart cities and promoting city-wide digital transformation. According to the guidelines, by 2027 a number of smart cities will be built to be connected digitally as well as through developed transportation network, so as to make them livable and sustainable while also obtaining their distinctive features. 

 

3. Starting from this year, China will implement nationwide both the full-cost and the income insurance for the three main grain crops－rice, wheat and corn, according to the notice issued by the  Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the National Financial Regulatory Administration on May 21.

 

 

1. China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, recorded robust expansion in April 2024, official data showed on April 17. Power use climbed 7 percent year on year to 741.2 billion kilowatt-hours in April, according to the National Energy Administration. In the first four months of 2024, the country's power use climbed 9 percent to nearly 3.08 trillion kilowatt-hours. 

 

2. Museums in China logged 1.29 billion visits in 2023, surpassing the figures of previous years, according to the National Cultural Heritage Administration. The figures were unveiled on May 18 at an event marking International Museum Day in Xi'an. The administration said that throughout 2023, museums in China hosted more than 40,000 exhibitions.

 

3. During the first four months of the year, railway passenger trips amounted to 1.37 billion, surging 22.9 percent from a year ago, indicating safe, stable and orderly transportation, the National Railway Administration said.

 

4. According to Shanghai Customs, in the first four months, the total import and export value of foreign trade in the Yangtze River Delta region registered 5.04 trillion yuan, reaching a historic high with a year-on-year increase of 5.6 percent, accounting for 36.5 percent of the total imports and exports of the country.

 

5. The total output value of China's satellite navigation and positioning service industry reached 536.2 billion yuan (about 74.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, up 7.09 percent year on year, according to a white paper published by the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Location Based Services (LBS) Association of China on the development of China's satellite navigation and positioning service industry on May 18.

   

6. China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) came in at 343.47 billion yuan (48.3 billion U.S. dollars) from January to April, up 18.7 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

 

7. The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing released a report on May 23 showing that the consumption scale of catering ingredients in China reached 2.12 trillion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 20.45 percent.

 

8. China's service outsourcing industry saw robust expansion in the first four months of this year, the Ministry of Commerce said. In the January-April period, the industry welcomed about 301,000 new hires. As of the end of April, China's service outsourcing industry has absorbed a total of 16.172 million employees, with 65.3 percent of these individuals holding a university degree or above. 

 

9. As an important transportation channel connecting China and Southeast Asian countries, China-Laos Railway has run 50,187 passenger trains and handled more than 34.05 million passenger trips as of May 21, according to the Kunming Bureau of the National Railway Administration.

 

10. China's total installed power generation capacity reached around 3.01 billion kilowatts at the end of April, up 14.1 percent from a year earlier, data from the National Energy Administration showed on May 23.