Officials upbeat, turn focus to work ahead
A group of ministerial-level officials gave interviews on Monday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the sidelines of the second session of the 14th National People’s Congress. The five officials are in charge of tourism, customs, financial admi
The tourism market will continue to flourish in China because of the growing demand from people for a higher-quality life, said a senior official.
“It is estimated that domestic destinations received nearly 4.9 billion tourist visits last year, with tourismrelated revenue touching about 5 trillion yuan ($695.97 billion). The tourism boom has promoted domestic consumption and employment, and given greater confidence to people involved in the industry,” said Sun Yeli, minister of culture and tourism, in Beijing on Monday.
Highlighting the success of winter tourism in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, Sun said, “The snow and ice are shining like gold.” The city received about 120 million tourist visits from November to February, with a total revenue of around 170 billion yuan, according to local authorities.
He said the ministry will also urge governments at all levels to enhance supervision of the domestic tourism market and improve services to ensure a better tourism economy.
The nation is also taking measures to improve payment facilities for foreign travelers to offer them a better traveling experience.
“China has seen rapid development in information technology and the digital economy in recent years, which has driven the popularity of mobile payment,” Sun said.
The State Council, China’s Cabinet, released a guideline earlier this month to help facilitate payments by foreign travelers, he noted, adding that many hotels, airports and shopping malls in Shanghai have upgraded their point of sales services, and Beijing is also stepping up efforts in this regard.
The government is cooperating with e-payment platforms and companies to streamline authentication procedures so that foreign travelers can link their bank cards and raise e-payment limits.
China’s foreign trade is expected to maintain an upward trend in the first half of 2024, laying a solid foundation and creating favorable conditions for achieving the annual goal of improving quality while keeping volume stable, said the head of the General Administration of Customs.
Yu Jianhua, head of the administration, said on Monday that since the start of the year, China’s import and export activities have continued their upward trend.
The value of China’s foreign trade surged to 6.6 trillion yuan ($918.5 billion) during the January-February period, setting a record for that period, GAC data showed.
Yu said that, in the meantime, the quality and value of foreign trade have been consistently on the rise. The growth rate of imports and exports with economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative is noticeable, while emerging trends and formats in foreign trade, such as cross-border e-commerce and market procurement, are gaining strong momentum, he added.
“Looking at the trend, favorable factors are accumulating,” Yu added.
Apart from strengthening policies and introducing more targeted measures to boost border trade this year, Yu said the administration will continue to keep a close eye on foreign trade conditions and conduct surveys on economic indicators to help exporters secure orders.
China plans to launch more pilot projects for equity investment through financial asset investment companies in order to provide stronger support for sci-tech, innovation-based enterprises, a senior official said on Monday.
Li Yunze, head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, said China will spare no efforts to promote sci-tech innovation, with measures already put in place to help innovative enterprises gain better access to financial services.
In accordance with this year’s Government Work Report, China will also continue to deepen supplyside reforms in the financial sector and help cultivate more new quality productive forces, thereby further contributing to high-quality economic development, Li said.
When it comes to the prevention and resolving of financial risks, Li said China will make its policies and moves more forward-looking, precise and effective. The consistency of policies will also be improved.
“Currently, the country’s financial risks are controllable,” said Li. “Development, especially high-quality development, remains the fundamental solution to minimizing risks.”
Li also mentioned that China has been mulling lower down payment ratio for car loans and improving the pricing mechanism for new energy vehicle insurance.
A senior sports official has highlighted the ongoing fight against corruption, promotion of mass fitness and reforms in the sports industry, among other efforts, as key to realizing the goal of building China into a sporting power by 2035.
“With 11 years to go, we still have a lot of catching up to do. We need to stay cool-headed as despite the many progresses we’ve made, there are long-running issues hampering the development of the sports sector,” said Gao Zhidan, director of the General Administration of Sport of China, on Monday.
Citing the lack of international competitiveness in China’s men’s national soccer program, Gao called for stronger anti-graft efforts within the sport’s governing bodies at all levels.
“The international performances of our ‘big-ball’ team sports squads have suffered continuous decline over the past few years,” Gao said, referring to the failed qualification campaigns of the country’s men’s soccer and basketball teams for their respective major tournaments.
With such poor performances triggering concern nationwide, the country’s development system, especially for the three collective ball sports of soccer, basketball and volleyball, needs an overhaul, Gao said, adding that the emphasis is on transparent management and the core focus on youth promotion.
To get more people involved in a more active and healthier lifestyle, Gao also pledged more efforts to improve and expand the mass fitness campaign by making exercise facilities, training guidance and fitness services more accessible and affordable at the grassroots.
China’s top intellectual property regulator vowed to enhance communications with private and foreign enterprises to learn more about their opinions and demands regarding intellectual property-related affairs, and said greater efforts would be made to help them solve issues they could be facing.
The pledge was made on Monday by Shen Changyu, head of the National Intellectual Property Administration.
Highlighting equal protection to enterprises, regardless of whether they are State-owned, private or foreign, Shen said the administration will listen to their IP-related demands regularly and solve their problems in a timely manner.
“We’ll optimize legal documents involving IP rights, such as accelerating steps to revise the Trademark Law and fully implementing the newly amended Patent Law,” he said. “At the same time, we’re exploring ways to formulate intellectual property protection rules in the field of data.”
In addition, he revealed that the administration will improve the efficiency of the process of reviewing patents and trademarks, with better services for enterprises to obtain authorization in this regard.
“What we want is to provide a more efficient, convenient and lowcost channel for enterprises to protect their IP rights, so as to facilitate their healthy development and offer them a better innovation and business environment,” he added.