Opinion

1. Important steps to enhance coal-fired power plants' core competitiveness

The majority of carbon emissions produced by electricity industry comes from coal-fired power plants. Achieving the targets for peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality and advancing low-carbon energy transformation requires reducing the carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. The coal-fired power sector will undoubtedly discover a new path of high-quality development that is reliable, technologically mature, and cost-effective with everyone's efforts.

2. Urban-rural integration opens up new spaces for rural development

The integrated development of urban and rural areas is not only a need for rural areas to fix up their shortcomings and revitalize their development, but also an inevitable trend for cities to connect with rural areas and promote agriculture through industry. In the past, agricultural and rural reforms were more focused on the aspects of farmers, agriculture, and rural areas. Nowadays, we need to find more ways to integrate urban and rural areas.

Policy

1. According to the Progress Report of China's National Carbon Market (2024), China will work to expand the coverage of key sectors through the National Carbon Emission Trading System (ETS) in stages, and promote the application of low-carbon, zero-carbon, as well as negative-carbon technologies.

2. China aims to attract more foreign and private capital to the water conservation industry, setting an ambitious goal of expanding the sector to a trillion yuan scale by 2027, as outlined in a guideline released on July 22 by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and other ministerial departments.

3. China Ocean Economy Stock Price Index was jointly released by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) on July 23, marking the first index of the kind in the country to cover companies with ocean-related business trading at the Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing and Hong Kong exchanges.

Data

1. The Chinese yuan has ranked as the world's fourth-most active payment currency for the eighth month in a row, accounting for 4.61 percent of global payments by value, according to the data released by the global financial messaging platform Swift on July 18.

2. Online retail sales in China during the first half of 2024 surged 9.8 percent year-on-year to RMB 7.1 trillion, of which retail sales of goods reached RMB 5.96 trillion, marking an increase of 8.8 percent, accounting for 25.3 percent of the total retail sales, fueling momentum for consumption recovery, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce.

3. A total of 10.24 million charging piles have been built in China by the end of June. In the first half of the year, the total charging amount by electric vehicles reached 24.29 billion kilowatt-hours, up 54.6 percent year-on-year, and the year-on-year growth rate has been above 50 percent for three consecutive years.

4. Shenzhen saw its foreign trade edge up 31.7 percent year-on-year to RMB 2.2 trillion in the first half of the year, marking a historical high, according to Shenzhen customs.

5. China’s total education expenditure in 2023 amounted to RMB 6.46 trillion, with a year-on-year increase of 5.3 percent, while funds channeled into education using the national budget were RMB 5.04 trillion, with a year-on-year increase of 4.0 percent, according to the Ministry of Education.

6. The value added of wholesale and retail grew by 5.7 percent year-on-year to RMB 6.1 trillion in the first half of the year, accounting for 9.87 percent of GDP. China’s wholesale and retail market was generally stable with steady progress.

7. The contribution rate of China's agricultural science and technology progress reached 63.2 percent in 2023, roughly 10 percentage points higher than that of 2012, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

8. Bonds worth RMB 55 billion were issued with a term of 30 years by the Ministry of Finance, and the interest rate is set to be 2.47 percent according to competitive bidding.

9. China’s non-financial outbound direct investment rose 16.6 percent year-on-year to USD 72.62 billion. Among them, non-financial investment into countries along the Belt and Road increased 9.2 percent year-on-year to USD 15.46 billion.

10. In the first half of the year, China’s state-owned (or controlled) enterprises reported a total business revenues of RMB 40.8 trillion, up 1.9 percent year-on-year.

(Source: Economic Daily)