SwedCham China Insights for the Week of September 25 - September 28 , 2023

Top news of the week:

President Xi Jinping opens Hangzhou Asian Games

September 25, 2023

President Xi Jinping opened the 19th Asian Games in the Eastern city of Hangzhou on September 23, which organisers hope will lift the mood in a nation struggling with an economic slump. The Games, delayed by a year due to China’s measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, will be the country’s biggest sporting event in over a decade in several metrics.
 

China and Europe try to dial down trade tension

September 26, 2023

European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis visited China from September 23 to September 26. China and the European Union agreed to exchange information on export controls as part of efforts to dial down tension over trade imbalances and geopolitical issues. The two sides also agreed to improve transparency on supply chains for raw materials and are considering a new “mechanism” to do so, the European Commission said in the statement.
 

PBOC to boost support for economic recovery

September 27, 2023

China’s central bank said it would step up policy adjustments and implement monetary policy in a “precise and forceful” manner to support an economy whose recovery was improving with “increasing momentum”.

China stresses need for WTO reform, high-level opening-up

September 28, 2023

President Xi Jinping stressed efforts to actively participate in the reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and improve the ability to handle high-level opening-up. Xi made the remarks while presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on September 27.
 

Insight of the week:

President Xi Jinping has called for efforts to build higher-level pilot free trade zones with an emphasis on institutional innovation to further promote institutional opening-up on par with advanced international standards and rules. He made the remarks in a recent instruction on advancing the construction of pilot FTZs.

In the instruction, Xi pointed out that building pilot FTZs is an important strategic step that the CPC Central Committee has taken to promote reform and opening-up in the new era. He spoke highly of the role of the pilot FTZs in China’s development in the past decade, and emphasized that on the new journey, the nation should implement the strategy of upgrading the pilot zones based on a comprehensive summary of experience in building the pilot FTZs over the past 10 years. Efforts should be made to conduct explorations in a broader range of fields and at a deeper level, and strive to build pilot FTZs at a higher level, he added. Xi called for efforts to focus on institutional innovation, coordinate development and security, align with advanced international economic and trade rules and promote innovative development of the entire industrial chain, in order to enable the pilot FTZs to better play an exemplary role.

Since China’s first pilot FTZ was established in Shanghai in 2013, the nation has built 21 FTZs nationwide. Up to 302 institutional innovations have been nurtured in these areas and promoted nationwide, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
 

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