economy

Fiscal and Financial Policy to Bolster Real Economy

China will continue with stable macroeconomic policies and adopt a combination of fiscal and financial measures in an effort to boost domestic demand and bolster support for real economy， the State Councils executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang decided in the end of July.

The government will implement targeted and well-timed regulation in the face of external uncertainties and ensure that the economy performs within a reasonable range， adding that it will firmly refrain from resorting to a deluge of strong stimulus policies.

The Chinese government puts developing the real economy high on its agenda. President Xi Jinping underlined the importance of improving the fiscal spending structure by prioritizing funding in key areas and projects.

In the first half of 2018， the government made tremendous efforts to cut costs for the real economy， including maintaining robust public spending and scaling up tax and fee cuts. The government also introduced tax incentives and other measures to make financing more accessible and affordable for small and micro enterprises.

A more proactive fiscal policy will be pursued. The government will focus on introducing deeper tax and non-tax fee cuts， and more companies will be eligible for the preferential policies of the additional deduction of R&D; spending in taxable income， a policy which is expected to cut another RMB 65 billion of tax within this year on top of an initial goal of cutting taxes and fees by RMB 1.1 trillion this year.

China Green-lights Virtual Telecom Operator Businesses

China has officially green-lit virtual telecom operator businesses after almost five years of pilot implementations.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued official licenses to 15 private virtual telecoms to resell Internet access in the end of July.

These virtual operators， including Alibaba and Xiaomi， do not maintain the network infrastructure but rent wholesale services like roaming and text messages from the countrys three major telecom infrastructure operators— China Mobile， China Unicom， and China Telecom.

China started to issue pilot licenses in 2013 to private companies to allow them to offer repackaged mobile services to users. A total of 42 Chinese enterprises received pilot licenses to operate virtual telecom businesses.

Granting virtual telecom operators official licenses is aimed at encouraging mobile telecom business innovation and improving the sectors overall service quality， said the ministry.

Fast Growth in Industrial Robot Production and Usage

The industrial scale of Chinas domestically made robots has seen 20 percent annual growth in the past five years， according to the data released by China Robot Industry Alliance（CRIA）.

In 2017， 131，000 industrial robots were domestically made. By the end of 2017， there were more than 6，500 enterprises engaged in robotics production.

China has also employed the largest amount of industrial robots since 2013， according to CRIA.

With the development and integration of information technology and artificial intelligence（AI）， robots could be used both in the manufacturing industry and peoples daily lives， president of Siasun Robot Qu Daokui said.

With the assistance of AI， robots would be able to cooperate and coordinate more effectively with people in the future. Wen Zhongmeng， president of Asage Robots， said visual and audio technologies could make robots useful in the education and medical services industries.

Social E-Commerce to Reach US $170 Billion in 2018

Chinas social e-commerce will reach RMB 1.14 trillion （about US $170 billion） in 2018， with a year-on-year increase of 66.7 percent， according to a report released at the 2018 China Internet Conference in July.

Social e-commerce， which emerged in 2013 in China， combines social media with e-commerce. Ecommerce platforms Xiaohongshu is a typical example.

Xiaohongshu users post their purchases， others who like the items can directly go to the product page by clicking tags.

The report predicted that more than 30 million people are involved in the social e-commerce industry in 2018， about 50.2 percent more than 2017.

China has the worlds largest ecommerce market， with online retail sales growing 32.2 percent year on year in 2017 to reach RMB 7.2 trillion.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that， by 2020， online retail sales will reach RMB 9.6 trillion， while social e-commerce sales are expected to account for 31.3 percent to hit RMB 3 trillion.