China sharing economy market to exceed 9 trillion yuan: report

BEIJING: The market size of China's sharing economy is expected to exceed 9 trillion yuan (about $1.28 trillion) in 2020, according to a consultancy report. Currently, the market size stood at 7.36 trillion yuan, said the report from iiMedia Research. Over the past few years, China has witnessed the rise of the sharing economy -- one where people use the internet and mobile technologies to access goods and resources provided by their peers, rather than a traditional corporate vendor.

In 2018, more than 760 million people in China participated in the sharing economy, of which about 75 million were service providers, the report showed. China's sharing economy covers a wide range of fields, from life services such as travel and accommodation to industrial production, agriculture and other production. Chinese netizens generally had higher satisfaction with the use of shared economic products in 2019. The proportion of users who are very satisfied and satisfied is more than 50 percent, according to the report. In the future, with the gradual maturity of the sharing economy model, the enterprise service and the application of 5G technology will become a new development direction, the report added.

Meanwhile, China's non-financial investment in countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) stood at $10.04 billion in the first three quarters, down 6.9 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The investment took up 12.4 percent of China's total non-financial outbound investment in the same period, and it went mainly to Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Kazakhstan. In terms of foreign contracted projects, Chinese enterprises have signed 4,906 new contracts worth $86.8 billion in countries along the B&R in the first nine months, up 18.4 percent over the same period last year.

The new contract value accounts for 59.2 percent of China's foreign contracted projects in the same period.

The completed turnover of foreign contracted projects in B&R countries was $55.89 billion, down 4.4 percent from the same period last year, accounting for 54.7 percent of the country's total completed turnover of foreign contracted projects.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the opening ceremony of the second China International Import Expo and make a state visit to China from Nov 4 to 6, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced on Wednesday. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic will also attend the opening ceremony, Hua said. Sixty-three foreign countries are set to attend the expo in Shanghai, as well as more than 3,000 companies from around 150 countries and regions, including 192 companies from the United States - 18 percent more US companies than last year.

That shows that foreign companies, including those from the US, are optimistic about China's economic prospects and market potential, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Wednesday. "They want to continue to invest in and deepen cooperation with China," he said at a daily news briefing. China's reform will only get faster, and the country will only become more open, Geng said, citing a recent report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The report says in this year's first half, global foreign direct investment flows dropped by 20 percent from the second half of last year. Investment inflows to the US dropped by more than 25 percent, while those to China increased by about 5 percent, the report indicates.

The decline in FDI worldwide reflects the worsening of the global investment environment, caused primarily by protectionism and unilateralism, Geng said. Less investment in the US and more investment in China "shows clearly who is becoming more and more open, and who more and more conservative", he added. Geng urged countries to uphold free global trade and an open world economy. "We call for the international community to work together against unilateralism and protectionism and provide a more fair, just and predictable environment for investors from all countries," he said.