Floral Trade
A vendor loads a van with roses at the Dounan Flower Market in Kunming, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, on February 12. Dounan, China’s largest fresh flower wholesale market, exports more than 500 varieties and 40 categories of flowers to more than 50 countries and regions every day, among which 20 to 30 percent are sold to South and Southeast Asian countries.
Rules were issued in early December 2018 for commercial banks’ wealth management branches to strengthen their risk management and support the real economy.
The CBIRC has received applications from several commercial banks, with more banks to follow suit.
The establishment of wealth management units will enrich the mix of institutional investors, bring more funds to the real economy and the finance market, and meet consumers’ diversified needs, the CBIRC said.
The hi-tech sector reported a robust FDI inflow by growing 40.9 percent, with the hi-tech service subsector using 15.77 billion yuan ($2.36 billion), a year-on-year expansion of 113.4 percent.
FDI in central China reached 7.04 billion yuan ($1.05 billion), rising 11.6 percent year on year.
MOFCOM data showed that FDI from the United States surged 124.6 percent compared with January 2018, while that from countries along the Belt and Road increased 10.1 percent.
A total of 4,646 new foreigninvested firms were set up in the first month of 2019, down 10.6 percent year on year.
Ant, operator of the leading payment platform Alipay, said in a statement that Alipay will work with Worldfirst to better serve global small businesses, promote inclusive finance and contribute to sustainable development.
Worldfirst, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ant, will continue to be headed by co-founder and
CEO Jonathan Quin. The UKheadquartered company will continue its regulated business with global operations, including on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong.
Quin said the products and services of Alipay and Worldfirst are highly complementary and Worldfirst will be able to offer better products and services by becoming part of a larger group.
“By combining Worldfirst’s award-winning currency account, international payments and currency exchange products with Ant Financial’s range of financial technology solutions, we will advance our shared aim of building the best global platform for international trade and bring fast and affordable services to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses and online merchants around the world,” Quin said.