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Govt and policies

Major cities see slower housing price growth

Home prices in China's 100 major cities continued to rise in October, but at a slower pace, as both demand and supply decreased in the real estate market. Average new home prices in the cities increased 3.23 percent year-on-year in October, with the pace of growth decelerating 0.33 percentage point from September, according to a survey conducted by the China Index Academy, a property research institution. On a monthly basis, the cities saw average new home prices climb 0.15 percent, down 0.16 percentage point from September. Of the 100 cities surveyed, 62 saw month-on-month growth in new home prices while 32 reported falling prices, according to the survey.

Shenzhen offers land to attract investors

China's southern tech hub Shenzhen is earmarking 30 square km of land to attract investors and facilitate industrial development, local authorities said on Tuesday. Shenzhen has become a high-tech incubator and fostered a batch of influential innovative enterprises. The city will continue to boost the development of technological infrastructure. It is also preparing to establish national laboratories and speed up the construction of laboratories and research institutions.

Global macadamia nut conference in Yunnan

An international macadamia nut conference kicked off on Tuesday in Lincang, a border city in Yunnan province. The three-day academic conference has brought together about 300 industry experts and entrepreneurs from 12 countries and regions including Australia and the United States to discuss the development of the global macadamia nut industry. The macadamia nut, indigenous to Australia, was first introduced to Lincang in the early 1990s. The city on the China-Myanmar border has grown into one of the world's largest macadamia nut production base over the years, boasting a planting area of more than 175,000 hectares this year, according to the city's forestry and grassland bureau.

Companies and markets

Tencent targets global credit card users

Tencent is exploring collaboration opportunities with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover Global Network and JCB to offer mobile payment services to international credit card users by allowing them to bind their cards issued overseas with WeChat Pay. Although international consumers are already allowed to bind their credit cards issued in the Chinese mainland with WeChat Pay, it is still quite inconvenient for them to make mobile payments both online and offline during their visit to the mainland, considering that they use credit cards issued overseas more often. Under the guidance of the People's Bank of China, Tencent will launch a pilot program to steadily open up more scenarios of consumption to international credit cardholders, such as supporting them to use credit cards issued overseas to buy train tickets on 12306.cn and pay for Didi Chuxing, a Chinese ride-hailing service provider.

New cruise link to boost tourism sector in Sanya

Italian cruise liner Costa Cruises will launch new trips linking Sanya, a coastal city in South China's Hainan province to tourist destinations in Vietnam and the Philippines in January 2020, the company said. The Costa cruise liner will depart from Sanya on Jan 4 and carry passengers from Sanya to cities including Da Nang, Ha Long Bay, Nha Trang in Vietnam and Manila and Subic in the Philippines. Sanya is actively exploring ways to promote cruise tourism in the South China Sea and the new cruise lines will further facilitate the development of the city's cruise tourism.

Rental platform lists shares on Nasdaq

Q&K International Group, a long-term apartment rental company in China, listed its initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market on Tuesday under the ticker symbol QK. The company has priced its IPO of 2.7 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at $17 per ADS for a total offering size of approximately $45.9 million, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs, Q&K International Group said in a statement.

Around the world

US crude oil inventories go up on weekly basis

The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a build of 4.26 million barrels in the US crude oil inventories for the week ending Nov 1. API reported a drop of 708,000 barrels of crude oil inventories for the previous week ending Oct 25, and the US Energy Information Administration reported an increase of 5.7 million barrels. Oil prices rose on Tuesday, buoyed by an improved outlook for crude demand as investors were more optimistic about global trade prospects.

Malaysia maintains key policy rate at 3%

The Malaysian central bank maintained the Overnight Policy Rate at 3 percent on its Tuesday meeting. Bank Negara said in a statement, at the current level of the OPR, the stance of monetary policy remained accommodative and supportive of economic activity. "The Monetary Policy Committee will continue to assess the balance of risks to domestic growth and inflation, to ensure that the monetary policy stance remains conducive to sustainable growth amid price stability," it added.

Numbers of unsalaried workers fall in S. Korea

The number of South Korea's non-wage workers such as the self-employed reduced for the past year amid the falling number of the self-employed hiring employees, statistical office data showed. The number of unsalaried workers, which include one-man self-employed, self-employed hiring employees and family-run businesses, was 6,799,000 as of August, down 0.9 percent, or 62,000, from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. The figure continued to slide for the second consecutive year as the self-employed hiring workers declined for the past year. The number of the self-employed hiring employees was 1,535,000 as of August, down 7.0 percent, or 116,000, from the same month of last year.

Vietnam's garment exports rise by 10.4%

Vietnam earned nearly $27.4 billion from exporting garments and textiles in the first 10 months of this year, posting a year-on-year rise of 8.7 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office. Its largest export markets included the United States, the European Union, Japan, South Korea and China. In October, Vietnam's garment and textile export turnover totaled $2.8 billion, up 9 percent year-on-year. Despite the export growth, many local firms have reported a decrease in long-term orders due to importers' concerns over the global situation, said the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily Global 11/07/2019 page9)