RCEP poised to facilitate trade, investment in Asia-Pacific region By Target Language Translation Services | Updated: 2021-11-22 11:00 The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will boost trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region, facilitate post-pandemic economic recovery and set an example for regional and multilateral cooperation, analysts said. The world's largest trade deal is to take effect in January. The RCEP will cover a market of 2.2 billion people and more than $25 trillion of global output. The partnership will create a trade grouping that covers about 30 percent of the world's population and of the global economy. The trade deal, which is designed to remove tariffs on about 90 percent of goods, will facilitate trade and investment in the region, especially as it will follow the past two years, a time when the cross-border transit of people and goods has been disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Song Qingrun, an associate professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University's School of Asian Studies. RCEP countries will hugely benefit from this trade pact and be able to diversify their production and markets, said Song, adding that it will be a driving force of foreign direct investment to all RCEP countries. "The RCEP will help countries in the region to unite and withstand the negative impact brought by the pandemic, which is still haunting the world," he said. A recent Asian Development Bank study predicted that the RCEP will significantly contribute to post-pandemic economic recovery in the Asia-Pacific region and worldwide. "By 2030, if its implementation is on track, we estimate that it will increase members' incomes by 0.6 percent, adding $245 billion annually to regional income and 2.8 million jobs to regional employment," the study said. Though the region experienced the most dynamic economic growth globally in recent years, it has not had a high level of integration, despite having the greatest potential for development. Jia Duqiang, an associate researcher at the National Institute of International Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the RCEP will greatly enhance regional economic integration and promote social and cultural exchanges among the countries. This will accelerate the pace of building a regional community with a shared future, Jia said. The RCEP was signed last year by 15 Asia-Pacific countries－the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their five largest trading partners: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Song said the RCEP will contribute to globalization and multilateralism, as the partnership will no doubt set a good example for promoting global cooperation and recovery by working together. The free trade deal is a product of globalization and regional integration, which is complementary to other regional trading blocs, such as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the European Union, the researcher said. Meng Yueming, a res...

CNOOC attempts innovation for more green progress By Target Language Translation Services | Updated: 2021-11-19 15:00 China National Offshore Oil Corp, the country's top offshore oil and gas driller, said it has successfully converted a drilling platform into an offshore wind power construction and installation platform for the first time, offering more experience for future offshore wind projects. The device, namely the Huwei Offshore Wind Power Construction and Installation Platform, has for the first time facilitated its offshore wind turbine installation on Nov 7. This was jointly conducted by the China Oilfield Services Ltd (COSL), a subsidiary of CNOOC, and China Energy Engineering Group Guangdong Power Engineering Co Ltd. The drilling platform's wind turbine installation is in 50-meter-deep waters and can generate 8 megawatts, it said. An analyst said the attempt is an innovation by the State-owned enterprise in the new energy sector. CNOOC's effort in developing offshore wind power is in accordance with government efforts to promote renewable energy, said Wang Ziyue, an analyst at research firm BloombergNEF. The China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute, a think tank linked to China's National Energy Administration, said the domestic wind and solar sector will experience strong growth between 2020 and 2030 because of declining costs and government policy. CNOOC, with big plans of its own in wind and solar power, aims to invest 5 to 10 percent of its total investment in the solar and wind business every year to make sure the wind and solar sectors can achieve major breakthroughs during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), said Wang Dongjin, chairman of CNOOC. As the offshore wind sector aligns with the company's overall business, and CNOOC can apply its resources in offshore engineering and experience in offshore operations, the company plans to step up its new energy business with a focus on offshore wind power. CNOOC saw its first batch of wind turbines, located off the coast of Jiangsu province with a total installed capacity of 300 MW, come into on-grid production by the end of last year. It first entered the offshore wind business in 2006 but pulled out soon after. One year later, the company started operating the Chinese mainland's first offshore wind power plant, located in Liaodong Bay in the Bohai Sea, with an installed capacity of 1.5 MW for each turbine. It revived activities in offshore wind power in 2019 and the Jiangsu project is the first offshore wind project it has worked on since that time. The company has been shifting its focus from fossil fuel to the new energy business as China said it would peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Wang said the company will earmark up to 10 percent of its annual budget for green energy toward the end of the current Five-Year Plan period, up from 5 percent this year. It is also targeting its renewable energy business to generate half of total annual...

Italy and France set to enhance cooperation By Target Language Translation Services | Updated: 2021-11-18 11:00 The leaders of Italy and France are reported to be close to signing a deal that intends to strengthen cooperation between the two countries and shift the balance of power in Europe. Neither side has officially disclosed details of the treaty, though Reuters news agency cited an Italian government official as saying the deal will enhance cooperation between the countries in areas such as trade, tourism and culture. With the forthcoming departure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel after 16 years, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and French President Emmanuel Macron have an opportunity to exert more impact over European Union policy, said Bloomberg News. Bloomberg noted relations have improved between the nations that previously argued over everything from migration to culture. Reuters pointed out that France even briefly recalled its ambassador in 2019, over a row involving immigration. Mutual respect between the two men, familiar since the Italian premier headed the European Central Bank, has deepened over the past nine months, allowing disputes to be put to rest, said Bloomberg. It noted that the two leaders have spent almost 10 hours in bilateral meetings since Draghi became prime minister in February. Their most recent meeting was in Paris last week, where they discussed the political transition in Libya, and ways of stabilizing the North African country that has strategic significance for both. Reports say the treaty will be similar to the so-called Elysee Accord between France and Germany, ratified in 1963. Reuters' source said Italy's intention is that the treaty will be named after the Italian president's Quirinale palace, where it will be signed. "Macron wants a stronger bond with Italy and Italy wants to insert itself in the traditional partnership between France and Germany," said a second Italian official, quoted anonymously by Reuters. Nathalie Tocci, a director of Rome's Institute of International Affairs, told Bloomberg that "Draghi and Macron really see eye-to-eye on European integration, including fiscal union". She added: "That's their baseline; it feeds the convergence between them. On this, they could be the new power-center post-Merkel, and it could extend to other fields related to the economy like the green agenda and digital. "The way Draghi sees the world is more economic than foreign policy-oriented. For Macron, here is someone who not only wants to rebuild the relationship but also has the credentials." This article is reprinted from China Daily. If there is a copyright, please inform us in time, we will delete it right the first time.

NYC concert resonated with connections between East and West By Target Language Translation Services | Updated: 2021-11-17 11:00 A concert that connected music, people of East and West inspired musicians and the audience at Lincoln Center on Saturday night. About 2,000 people attended the concert, East/West: A Symphonic Celebration. Featuring conductor Cai Jindong from Bard College and performances by the New York City Ballet Orchestra and other artists, the concert presented several traditional Chinese musical pieces and one American musical piece, including Butterfly Lovers, Great Wall Capriccio, three songs with lyrics from Chinese ancient poems, and Appalachian Spring Suite. "If the concert tonight can be illustrated as a picture, then this picture is from the Appalachian Mountains to the Great Wall. Through this picture, everyone can feel the connections between cultures," conductor Cai said. "Music is in indeed a very good art form to communicate. Putting aside some politics, economy and idealism, communication between people is the most important. And music is the best way to communicate," he added. The concert, which included performances by many American musicians, provided them the opportunity to get to know Chinese traditional music, Cai said. By performing Chinese traditional music, those musicians will probably like it, and then they will try to interpret it by themselves, he said. "During our rehearsals, I already heard someone said, 'Whoa, Chinese traditional music is so beautiful,'" Cai said. Many American audience members Saturday said they were impressed by how different Chinese traditional music is. "It's very different from Western music, absolutely. Especially when you listen to how the soloists play; you can hear a lot of different inflections and styles of playing that are not traditionally done in Western music, which I thought is really interesting," audience member Wesley Michalski said. Shenghua Hu, the violinist who played the Butterfly Lovers violin concerto, said he felt very proud to play Easter music in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, an iconic venue in New York City and one of the world's leading performing arts centers. It is a kind of patriotism, he said. "Music is the universal language of mankind. Music helps peoples and nations communicate through means that are more efficient than words because it touches the core of humanity by awakening empathy and compassion," Hu said. "Holly Flack, a coloratura soprano who sang Singing of Goose and Song of Snow with lyrics derived from Chinese ancient poems, and From Jasmine to Turabdot, said the concert brought hope to people in China and the US, as the world is still battling COVID-19." "The concert is very reflective of hope. Everybody everywhere went through an unquestionably difficult time that was very unprecedented. But it's like the crocus coming up for spring out of the snowy winter; we can come back slowly as long as we all cooperate together, and m...

An all-out trade war over Northern Ireland By Target Language Translation Services | Updated: 2021-11-16 11:00 Now that COP 26 is over, the British political spotlight has returned to Brexit, with the likelihood of tensions between the United Kingdom and the European Union turning into an all-out trade war over Northern Ireland. The province, which is politically a part of the UK but geographically separate, is currently subject to a deal called the Northern Ireland Protocol, agreed as part of last year's Brexit deal. Unlike the rest of the UK, it remained in the European single market for goods, so as to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state. This means Northern Ireland avoided problems like shortages caused by a lack of EU haulage drivers that recently afflicted the rest of the UK. But part of the UK still being subject to EU regulations is unacceptable to many Brexit supporters, hence the desire to change the rules. Article 16 of the protocol is an emergency brake, allowing either side, unilaterally, to implement "safeguards" if the protocol leads to persistent "serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties" or to "diversion of trade". That is what David Frost, the British minister who negotiated the treaty last December, is threatening to do, despite having tweeted at the time that he was "very pleased and proud to have led a great UK team to secure today's excellent deal with the EU". However, this is in contrast to the language used by European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic after their most recent meeting. He spoke of a "change in tone of discussion with (Frost)", which he hoped might "lead to tangible results for the people in Northern Ireland". Frost insists "significant gaps "remain and that there are a "full range of issues" being raised by Britain that Brussels must address at talks this week. In a recent BBC interview, former Conservative prime minister John Major said invoking Article 16 would be "colossally stupid", and accused the government of negotiating with "all the subtlety of a brick". Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met United States President Joe Biden, who has made it clear he regards peace in Ireland as a major international priority. And in a clear message to Downing Street, he said the EU and US were in agreement of this. "President Biden and I, we share the assessment that it is important for peace and stability on the island of Ireland to keep the withdrawal agreement and to stick to the protocol. This protocol has managed to square the difficult circle that Brexit caused," she told reporters in Washington. This article is reprinted from China Daily. If there is a copyright, please inform us in time, we will delete it right the first time.

Unusual gains reported as companies suspend trading on BSE debut By Target Language Translation Services | Updated: 2021-11-15 14:00 Ten companies had to suspend trading twice in the first 30 minutes of Beijing Stock Exchange's launch on Monday, Nov 15, as they have seeing their prices up by more than 60 percent. The daily price fluctuation of BSE-listed companies is set at 30 percent and no limit will be set on the first trading day. But trading will be suspended for 10 minutes if the company's price is up by 30 percent from the opening quotation and paused for another 10 minutes if the price is by up 60 percent in total. Among the first batch of 81 companies listed on the new bourse, Henan Tongxin Chuandong, a leading Chinese auto parts provider, instantly saw its price soared by nearly 400 percent in the first few trading minutes. About 60 companies reported gains in the first 10 trading minutes. Individual investors holding at least 500,000 yuan ($78,352) worth of assets in their personal securities accounts will be allowed to trade on the exchange. The number of qualified investors will exceed 4 million, as the BSE estimated. The BSE, which is seen nurturing more technologically advanced small and medium-sized enterprises, has been initiated by the central regulators in early September. It is initially built upon the NEEQ Select, the highest tier of the eight-year-old National Equities Exchange and Quotations system. Companies trading on the NEEQ Innovation -- the NEEQ's second-highest tier -- can apply to be listed on the BSE as long as they remain listed on the NEEQ Innovation for 12 consecutive months. Eugene Qian, chairman of UBS Securities Co Ltd, said that the launch of the BSE is a vital step forward to build a multi-level capital market in China. The threshold setting at 200 million yuan of market cap for BSE-listed companies and no stress laid on net profit will better serve innovative SMEs. High hopes have been given to the BSE to differentiate itself from the other boards in China and grow into the Chinese version of Nasdaq where technology startups can scale up, he said. This article is reprinted from China Daily. If there is a copyright, please inform us in time, we will delete it right the first time.

Cross-border trade in services grows fast By Target Language Translation Services | Updated: 2021-11-12 14:00 China has been proactively advancing the completion and release of a negative list for cross-border trade in services in the pilot free trade zones, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday, Nov 11. The goal is to conduct stress tests for the further opening-up of cross-border trade in services through pilot works covering more places, the MOC said. "The move targets further promoting liberalization of services trade and higher-level institutional opening-up," said Shu Jueting, spokeswoman of the ministry, at a news conference in Beijing. A negative list refers to special administrative measures for access of foreign investors to specific fields as stipulated. China introduced a negative list for cross-border trade in services at the Hainan Free Trade Port earlier this year. On Nov 4, President Xi Jinping said via video link at the opening ceremony of the fourth China International Import Expo and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum that China will conduct stress tests for high-standard opening-up in pilot free trade zones and the Hainan FTP, and will release a negative list for cross-border trade in services in the pilot free trade zones. The nation's services trade has been growing fast this year, and Shu attributed that to China's continuous opening-up, the stable recovery of the services sector and digitalization in services trade. In the first three quarters of this year, China's trade in services was worth 3.78 trillion yuan ($590 billion), up 11.6 percent year-on-year. Services exports surged by 27.3 percent year-on-year to 1.78 trillion yuan, while imports increased by 0.5 percent year-on-year to 2 trillion yuan, registering a positive growth for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19. A series of policies and measures, such as the progress in pilot works for innovation and development of trade in services, and the implementation of a negative list on cross-border services trade in Hainan FTP, have been injecting new impetus into trade in services, Shu said. "Among the 12 subsectors of services trade, seven have registered growth rates higher than 10 percent during the first nine months, which offset the negative impact from the decline in tourism services imports, to shore up the growth in overall services imports," she said. Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the rapid development of the digital economy, the facilitation measures for digital economic cooperation in international agreements and the upgrades in some of China's manufacturing sectors to provide manufacturing-related services, have all created new dynamics in China's trade in services, helping it to grow fast. This article is reprinted from China Daily. If there is a copyright, please inform us in time, we will delete it right the first time.

Leaders' letters a good sign for China-US ties By Target Language Translation Services | Updated: 2021-11-11 15:00 In a move to motivate supporters of China-US friendship, the leaders of both countries have sent congratulatory letters to a gala dinner in New York and stressed the global significance of the relationship. More positive gestures and actions are expected from both sides, particularly Washington, to help repair the tense relationship between the countries, experts and officials said. China-US ties are "at a critical historical juncture", President Xi Jinping said in his letter to the annual National Committee on US-China Relations dinner on Tuesday evening. Xi highlighted Beijing's readiness to follow the principles of "mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation" and work with Washington to "enhance exchanges and cooperation across the board". Beijing stands ready to jointly address regional and international issues as well as global challenges and to properly manage differences, he added. According to Xi, the goal is to bring China-US ties, "one of the world's most important bilateral relationships", back on the right track of sound and steady development. When reaffirming the significance of the ties, Xi said both countries will gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. His letter was read by Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang at the gala dinner. In his own speech, Qin said that some people have said the relationship cannot return to the past, but "we reject this view". China's policy toward the US is "highly" consistent and stable, and the Chinese side always deals with the relationship from a strategic and long-term perspective, Qin added. US President Joe Biden said in his letter that the relationship has global significance, from tackling the pandemic to addressing the climate crisis. "Solving these challenges and seizing opportunities will require the broader international community to come together as we each do our part to build a safe, peaceful, and resilient future," Biden added. The letters came as the two sides have engaged one another through several key contacts and meetings. Senior diplomats from both sides met in Anchorage, Alaska, in March, in Tianjin in July, and in Zurich and Rome separately in October. Xi and Biden have had two phone conversations this year－one in February and another in September. Diao Daming, an associate professor of US studies at Renmin University of China, said Xi's letter shows that Beijing "is willing to further tap into friendly figures and organizations' roles and to further stabilize relations." The committee has played an important role in contact between the two countries since the 1960s, well ahead of the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1979, and its members are indispensable for the growth of ties, Diao said. Biden's letter represents the "calm, reasonable views" in the US toward China ties, and "is helpful for potential greater contacts between the ...