ChinaBusiness

Weekly12 November 2019

FCCC/EUCBA ACTIVITIES

Exclusive China Briefing – 28 November 2019 from 15:30 – Brussels The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce and The Conference Board are organizing the annual China Briefing, which will take place on 28th of November 2019 from 15:30 at Fosbury & Sons, Chaussee de la Hulpe 185, 1170 Brussels.

We would be delighted if you would attend this year’s event:

How Global is the Global economy?&

The US-China Trade War – Implications, Impacts and Opportunities for Europe”.

During the Briefing, a select group of senior executives will discuss:

• The current state of the global economy: How risky are the risks?• The status of the U.S.-China “trade war”: How is it impacting trade and investment for Eurozone economies?• The probable medium-term outcome of the U.S.-China conflict: What changes in the business environment are

foreseeable? • How are global value chains changing in response to trade conflicts, geo-politics and market considerations: What

will “globalization” mean looking forward?• What strategic responses are required from European companies and policy makers?

The meeting will include short presentations of our latest research and thinking by Dr. Bart van Ark, Executive Vice President and Chief Economist and Leo Austin, Senior Advisor to our China Center for Economics & Business.

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Bart van Ark is Executive Vice President, Chief Economist, and Chief Strategy Officer at The Conference Board. Heleads a team of almost two dozen economists in New York, Brussels, and Beijing who produce a range of widelywatched economic indicators and growth forecasts as well asin-depth global economic research. A Dutch national, he is the first non-U.S. Chief Economist in the history of The Conference Board. Van Ark also holds the University of Groningen’s Chair in economic development, technological change, and growth.

Leo Austin has lived and worked in China for twenty-two years. He is one of few foreigners to have led a large Chinese-owned corporation. He has separately completed twelve major investment and restructuring transactions and served on the board of two U.S.-listed Chinese corporations. He is a Trustee of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, having worked as Assistant to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Leo has a BA and MA in Modern History and Economics from Brasenose College, Oxford University. He speaks, reads and writes Mandarin Chinese. He has traveled to over half the counties in China.

Practical Information

Date and time: Thursday 28 November 2019 from 15:30Location: Fosbury & Sons, Chaussee de la Hulpe 185, 1170 Brussels

Participation fee: • Members: 75€ (+ 15,75 VAT)• Non-Members: 95 € + (+ 19,95€ VAT)

Attendance is complimentary, and strictly by invitation only. The meeting will be conducted according to Chatham House Rules.

S UBSCRIBE HERE

Contact: VCKK: info@flanders-china.be

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Information session: Update on the EuropeanImmigration landscape and on managing

international assignments – 26 November –Brussels

The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce and Flanders Investment & Trade are organizing an information session focused on the European immigration landscape and on managing international assignments. This event will take place at 12h00 on Tuesday 26 November 2019 at Flanders Investment & Trade, Avenue Roi Albert 37, 1000 Brussels.

Mr Alexis Pirotte, Senior Manager, Deloitte, will providean update on the European immigration landscape and will take a deep-dive into the Single permit process, which has entered into force beginning of this year. He will provide the audience with practicalities to better manage the process especially in view of the long processing times and regional differences.

Mrs Pauline Six, Career Coach & Managing Partner, Bright Expats, will share her expertise on managing international assignments. While global mobility is common practice in companies, being aware of the challenges experienced by expatriates and having solutions ready allows everyone to work more efficiently. A new professional assignment can have a huge impact on one's personal and family life. What is happening at home influences performance at work – she’ll share solutions proven to help solve some of the key challenges.

Your value in participating:1. Understand the background of the legislative changes;2. Impact on current files;3. Tips and tricks on streamlining your immigration processes;4. Managing international assignments.

Programme:12h00 Registration and buffet lunch12h30 Welcome and Introduction by Ms Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce and by Ms Yiwei Zhang, Deputy Director InwardInvestment Greater China, Coordinator AMEA, Flanders Investment & Trade12h40 “Update on the European immigration landscape” byMr Alex Pirotte, Senior Manager, Deloitte13h15 “Managing international assignments, the human factor” by Mrs Pauline Six, Career Coach & Managing Partner, Bright Expats13h35 Practical considerations14h05 Conclusion

Practical Information:Date and time: Tuesday, 26 November 2019 from 12h00Location: Flanders Investment & Trade, Avenue Roi Albert37, 1000 BrusselsPrice for members: €30 (excl. 21% VAT)Price for non-members: €60 (excl. 21% VAT)

SUBSCRIBE HERE

FOREIGN TRADE

President Trump denies he agreed to phasedrollback of extra tariffs

“They’d like to have a rollback but I’ve not agreed toanything,” Donald Trump told reporters

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U.S. President Donald Trump denied that he agreed to a phased rollback of tariffs, days after China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said the two countries had agreed to remove additional tariffs in phases, with both sides working to wrap up an interim trade agreement. In what will be seen as an attempt to extract fresh concessions from President Xi Jinping, Trump told reporters there was not a deal in place to reduce any levies on Chinese goods. Ministry Spokesman Gao Feng said China and the U.S. had extensive and serious discussions over the past two weeks to try to end their trade war, and the agreement would help stabilize the world economy. Theproportion of tariffs canceled for both sides to reach a “phase one” deal must be the same, but the number to be canceled can be negotiated, he added. Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, a U.S. anti-tariff advocacy group, said that U.S. consumers and businesses paid an additional USD38 billion in tariffs from February 2018 to September 2019 due to the trade conflict.

“They’d like to have a rollback but I’ve not agreed to anything,” Trump said. “China would like to get somewhat of a rollback, not a complete rollback because they know I won’t do it. We’re getting along very well with China. They want to make a deal, frankly they want to make a deal a lot more than I do. I’m very happy right now, we’re taking in billions of dollars,” according to Trump as reported by the Guardian. He added that trade talks with China were moving along “very nicely,” but the United States would only make a deal with Beijing if it was the right deal for America. Trump's denial cast doubts on the possibility of reaching a phase one deal, as MOFCOM Spokesman Gao had said: “If China and the U.S. reach a phase one deal, both sides should roll back existing additional tariffs in the same proportion simultaneously. The trade war started withtariffs, and should end with the cancellation of tariffs”.

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said that the U.S. has ‘legitimate concerns’ about technology and China should be willing to address them. A partial deal by the United States and China to de-escalate the 16-month trade war will reduce the uncertainty weighing on global business sentiment, even if it will not resolve the underlying issues that drove the world’s two largest economies into a tariff battle, he added. The deal, dubbed “phase one” by U.S. .President Donald Trump, and expected to be sealed before a 15% tariff on USD160 billion of Chinese import kicks in on December 15, would “probably act as a spur to growth”, said Summers, who wasTreasury Secretary during the Bill Clinton administration, and Director of Barack Obama’s National Economic Council. The comment by Summers underscores how a

“grand deal” to solve the disputes between the two countries is probably not to be expected. Instead, tensions will remain high “as long as China remains a substantial economic success” story, Summers said.

In related trade news, negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership are advancing. Addressing the 22nd ASEAN -China, Japan and South Korea (10+3) leaders’ meeting, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang noted that the 15 member states of the RCEP have concluded all negotiations on the text and on market access. However, “India has significant outstanding issues, which remain unresolved,” according to a joint statement issued after the summit. Leaders attending the meeting pledged to sign the RCEP agreement in 2020. Premier Li Keqiang also said that China was willing to accelerate negotiations on the China-Japan-Republic of Korea free trade area. Initiated in 2012 by ASEAN, RCEP is a regional free trade agreement between the 10 member states of ASEAN and its six partners – China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India. Once in operation, it will become the world’s largest free trade agreement, covering 32.2% of global GDP and 3.5 billion people, or almost half of the world’s population. RCEP economies account for 29.1% of global trade and about one-third of global investment inflows.

Meanwhile, China and New Zealand concluded negotiations to upgrade their bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as Premier Li Keqiang met his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern. Li said the upgrade showed that the two countries support free trade with concrete actions. Prime Minister Ardern congratulated China on the considerable improvement of its global ranking in the ease of doing business, adding that the conclusion of negotiations to upgrade the bilateral FTA withChina would bring more opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation, the Shanghai Daily reports.

China's exports fell by 0.9% in October, better than the 3.2% drop in September, and better than analysts had expected. To some it was a sign of a possible ‘stabilization’,but most analysts remained cautious, suggesting that it wasstill “hard to be optimistic about the outlook”. “There are some signs of stabilization for exporters. And with the possible rollback of tariffs, next year is very likely to stage arecovery for exports,” said Gai Xinzhe, Senior Analyst at Sino-Ocean Capital in Beijing. Exports to the U.S. dropped 11.3% in the January to October period, while exports to the European Union rose 5.1% and those to the 10-member ASEAN bloc jumped 10.4%. Imports continued to struggle, falling for the ninth time in the last 10 months.

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Second CIIE concludes with USD71 billionworth of deals

The second China International Import Expo (CIIE) concluded with a total of USD71.13 billion in intended deals signed, up 23% from the first expo last year. The Expo attracted more than 3,800 enterprises from almost every country in the world and over 500,000 buyers, including 7,000 foreign buyers. Over 900,000 people visitedthe expo over six days. As many as 400 new products, technologies or services made their debuts at the expo. At supply-demand matchmaking fairs, 1,400 exhibitors and 3,300 buyers met for one-on-one talks and reached agreements on 2,200 transactions, figures all higher than last year’s. The expo was warmly received by the international community with 126 foreign government delegations attending. the Shanghai Daily reports.

At the opening ceremony, Chinese President Xi Jinpingsaid: “We must all put the common good of humanity first rather than place one’s own interest above the common interest of all. We need to join hands with each other instead of letting go of each others hands. We need to tear down walls, not to erect walls. We need to stand firm against protectionism and unilateralism. We need to continually bring down trade barriers, optimize global value and supply chains, and jointly foster market demand”. President Xi called for joint efforts to uphold the core valuesand basic principles of the multilateral trading system, and promote trade and investment liberalization. A total of 155 countries and regions as well as 26 international organizations attended the Expo under the theme of “New Era, Shared Future.” The total exhibition area increased to 360,000 square meters from 300,000 sq m last year.

New products, technologies and services from 53 renowned foreign brands made their debuts at the CIIE.Samsung took to the stage to present Galaxy Fold, the first foldable smartphone by the South Korean company, which marks the product's debut in the Chinese market. Feng En, Chief Marketing Officer of Samsung Electronics China,

announced that the product will be available in stores in China at a price of CNY15,999. Genavant, a London-basedluxury fashion brand, put on a fashion show "Step to the Mirage, Step to Elegance" on the stage and announced it will open its first store on the Bund in Shanghai next month.Its new luxury high-heels design "Step on the Snow" draws inspiration from shoes worn by imperial concubines in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Besides Samsung and Genavant, companies including Lego, Exxon Mobil and Decathlon, also launched new products.

French President Emmanuel Macron was one of the foreign leaders attending the opening ceremony, and France is one of the guest countries of honor. China and France signed contracts totaling USD15 billion in the fields of aeronautics, energy and agriculture, including approval for 20 French companies to export poultry, beef and pork toChina. They also agreed to expand a protocol for poultry exports reached this year to include duck and geese as wellas foie gras, and to work on a protocol allowing France to export pig semen to China. Among other deals, France’s Total will set up a joint venture with China’s Shenergy Group to distribute LNG by truck in the Yangtze River Delta. The two countries also plan to reach an agreement by the end of January on the cost and location of a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility to be built by Orano, formerly known as Areva. Bilateral trade reached USD62.9 billion in 2018, up 15.5% year-on-year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said. By the end of last year, France's investment in China was over USD17.5 billion in more than 5,600 projects.

Companies from the United States are showing greater enthusiasm for the CIIE this year, with the number of participants surging by 18% from the first expo in 2018. Despite the China-U.S. trade dispute, 192 U.S. companies, including Qualcomm, Boeing and General Motors, have 47,500 square meters in exhibition space at the second CIIE, according to MOFCOM. During the first CIIE, deals worth USD57.83 billion for one-year purchases of goods and services were reached, and more than 90% of the contracts were completed in the past year.

Next year, the exhibition will be divided into four major sections: technology and equipment; consumer goods andsmart life; food and agricultural products; and services and health care. Trade in services, automobiles, consumer goods, technical equipment, medical equipment and products will each have their own exhibition areas. More than 230 enterprises have already signed up for the third edition of the expo, with their combined exhibition area exceeding 84,000 square meters

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FINANCE

Alipay launches international e-wallet, givingaccess to foreigners for the first time

Ant Financial Services Group, which operates one of China’s two dominant e-payment platforms, will give foreign visitors to China access to its service known asAlipay, removing one of the biggest hurdles that have prevented foreigners from taking part in China’s growing cashless economy. Ant Financial, an associate of Alibaba Group Holding, will allow visitors up to 90 days’ usage of itsAlipay smartphone application without requiring it to be tied to a Chinese bank account. The company will introduce an application that will enable short-term visitors to China to make payments for online purchases through its so-called international e-wallet for the first time ever, a statement from the company said. Until now, foreign visitors could not use any of China’s mobile payment systems unless their e-wallets were linked to a local phone number and Chinese bank account.

The move will open the door for Ant Financial to tap into thegrowing visitors market. China received 30.5 million of foreign visitors in 2018, an increase of 4.7% from the previous year. Tourists spending in areas such as hotels, shopping and food rose 5.1% to USD73.1 billion last year, Ant Financial said.

Starting immediately, visitors can download Alipay for both iOS and Android devices and register for the international version of the app with their overseas mobile phone numbers. Visitors can use their international debit or credit cards to load funds onto a prepaid card provided by Bank of Shanghai, it said. The minimum top-upfor each card is CNY100, with the balance capped at CNY2,000. The card is valid for 90 days, after which the

balance will be refunded, the South China Morning Post reports.

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CHINA NEWS ROUND-UP

European businesspeople concerned aboutlack of progress on EU-China investment

agreement

The cancellation of Chinese Vice Premier Liu He’s Brusselstrip in September underscores China’s all-consuming focus on sealing a U.S. trade deal, raising the risk of Europe being pushed “off a cliff”, according to Joerg Wuttke, President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. He said that concerns were mounting among European businesses and leaders over the lack of progress on an investment treaty between Beijing and Brussels, which had already taken seven years of talks. “My observation is that there’s such intensity between China and the U.S. that Europe fell off the cliff and is not seen on the radar of Beijing any more,” Wuttke said during a forum hosted by the Center for China and Globalization, aBeijing-based think tank.

“China seems to be totally absorbed by the U.S., canceling meetings with Europe all the time. So we’re lacking a little bit off face-to-face engagement between them,” he said on the forum’s sidelines, adding that one of those canceled meetings was Chinese Vice Premier Liu He’s planned trip to Brussels to meet European leaders in September. Wuttke said that while European businesses were encouraged by the progress made in the U.S.-China trade negotiations, they were also worried that a deal could be struck at the expense of European interests. “What we don’t like is if they make a fixed deal about certain amounts of products and services, and that will not be subject to an open bidding process, because it might exclude European business or other countries,” he said.

To help safeguard European interests, French President Emmanuel Macron and incoming EU Trade Commissioner

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Phil Hogan visited China last week. Hogan was in Beijing tofinalize a deal on “geographical indication” to protect regional food names of European products such as French Cognac, Bordeaux wine and Comté cheese. Wuttke described the deal as “a small but important step” and said he hoped it could add momentum to reach a wider EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment by the end of next year. He said progress had stalled over “a lack of flexibility and political courage in China to move forward and permit European business to do in China what Chinesebusiness can do in Europe. We’ve heard so many good words about China opening up and so forth. But we have seen only little progress, a little bit more recently than before,” Wuttke said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

Last year’s Singles’ Day record broken withCNY268.4 billion in sales

Chinese consumers collectively spent CNY268.4 billionon Alibaba’s Singles’ Day on November 11, setting a new record for the 24 hour shopping extravaganza. Thefinal tally for this year's Singles' Day was up nearly 26% compared to last year's figure of CNY213.5 billion, as consumption during the festival remained robust despite theprotracted U.S.-China trade war, now in its 17th month, and a slowdown in the Chinese economy. Alibaba’s shopping festival is the world’s largest of its kind, where shoppers scoop up everything from consumer electronics to luxury items and even cars.

“Singles’ Day is becoming more recognized worldwide, but since it is still very much a domestic holiday and event, it is a true test of Chinese consumer power,” said Benson Ng, EY Greater China digital advisory leader. While Alibaba’s e-commerce marketplaces Tmall and Taobao are traditionallythe mainstays of the annual shopping extravaganza, this year’s festival included business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platforms like AliExpress as well as Lazada, Alibaba’s Southeast Asian e-commerce subsidiary, as the company taps international consumers. Hong Kong, the U.S., Taiwan, Australia and Japan were the top five overseas buyers 12 hours in. “The digital consumption among Chinese consumers is still very high,” said Ng, adding that the demand for imported goods in the country isstill strong despite the U.S.-China trade war.

Opening sales were brisk, hitting USD10 billion in just under 30 minutes, half the time from the previous year.Gross merchandise value (GMV) is the total value of orderssettled through Alipay on Alibaba’s consumer-facing core

commerce platforms, as well as Lazada and AliExpress, within a 24-hour period on November 11. It is reported on a real-time basis and includes shipping charges paid, according to Alibaba. Apart from Alibaba, rival sites such as JD.com and Pinduoduo have also launched their own Singles’ Day campaigns, to entice buyers to spend on their platforms. JD.com reported that its sales, which started on November 1, had reached CNY165.8 billion by 9 am on November 11.

Singles’ Day got its name from its date. Written numerically as 11/11, the date looks like “bare branches”, a Chinese expression for single and unattached people. As a kind of antidote to the societal pressures of being in a relationship, many of China’s singles began splurging on themselves on Singles’ Day, which became seen as a type of anti-Valentine’s Day. Alibaba held its first Singles’ Day shoppingevent in 2009 as a promotional campaign, but these days it has morphed into a show of China’s collective consumer spending power. Last year, consumers spent 4,000 times more than they did during the first Singles’ Day event. It hasalso evolved from a day of massive sales to one that merges both consumption and entertainment. Each year, Alibaba holds a massive concert the day before Singles’ Day, this year featuring Taylor Swift, the South China Morning Post reports.

Green groups raise alarm over China’s growinge-commerce waste

The amount of waste accumulated by China’s e-commerce and express delivery sectors could more than quadruple by 2025 unless action is taken to reduce it, environmental groups said, as the online shopping spree known as Singles’ Day set sales records. The volume of packaging material used was 9.4 million tons last year, andwas on course to reach 41.3 million tons by 2025 if they kept up the rate of increase, Greenpeace and other non-governmental organizations said in a report. “The e-commerce giants have barely offered even superficial responses,” Tang Damin, a plastics campaigner with Greenpeace in Beijing, said. “They’re biding their time for regulations to come out.”

As e-commerce companies work to extend their reach into rural regions, 1.88 billion packages were delivered from November 11 to November 16 last year, an annual increaseof almost 26%, the State Post Bureau said. There was no official figure for the amount of waste generated, but Greenpeace estimated that it exceeded 250,000 tons. China had tried to turn recycling into a profitable business

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as space for landfills became scarcer and environmental concern about plastic waste grew, but it had yet to tackle e-commerce waste, recycling only about 5% of plastic packaging, the green groups said in their report. Last month, China’s market regulator published draft packaging standards that will restrict courier firms to a list of approved recyclable material.

In October, Alibaba said it was now “greener than ever” andhad provided incentives for customers to recycle, adding that its delivery subsidiary Cainiao would mark November 20 as a special cardboard recycling day. Another online retailer, JD.com, also announced it had cut back on adhesive tape and paper used at its warehouses and had adopted more recyclable materials. China is building 100 “comprehensive resource utilization bases”, creating pilot “zero-waste” cities and pushing for mandatory trash sorting rules in major hubs, such as its commercial capital of Shanghai. “We cannot say China is not recycling,” said Antoine Grange, Chief Executive for recycling at waste management company Suez Asia, who estimated such rates could be as high as 25% overall, the South China Morning Post reports.

U.S.-China trade war has impact on Shenzhen

The growth rate of Shenzhen, China's high-tech hub and the home city of Huawei and Tencent, slowed to 6.6% in the first nine months of 2019 from 7.4% in the first half of the year. Exports dropped 9.3% while the privatesector investment rate plummeted to only 0.3%, underliningthe impact of the U.S. trade and tech wars. The growth rateslid to the lowest level in 40 years during the first nine months of the year. The city’s growth rate is seen as a key indicator for the overall economy, given it is home to some of the nation’s biggest hi-tech champions.

Shenzhen’s economy grew 6.6% between January and September compared to a year earlier, the lowest growth rate since the city became a special economic zone (SEZ) in 1979, according to official data. This indicated a sharp deceleration in the third quarter with the growth rate for the January to September period falling from the 7.4% rate in the first half of the year. The city did not publish a growth rate for the third quarter alone. Shenzhen’s growth is now below its full-year target of 7.0% this year, which in turn was higher than the national target range of 6% to 6.5%. The slowdown in Shenzhen follows China’s overall growth rate sinking to a new low of 6.0% in the third quarter, its lowest since records began in March 1992. Shenzhen’s growth slowdown is particularly troublesome for the central government, which is planning to turn it into a “socialist

model city” for China and the world. Shenzhen is also the largest economy in the Greater Bay Area, which is comprised of eight other mainland Chinese cities as well asHong Kong and Macao.

Overall, more than one-third of China’s provinces failedto meet this year’s growth targets during the first three quarters, with official data showing traditionally poorer regions suffering the most, while the wealthier coastal provinces were more resilient. Guangdong, China’s most prosperous province last year that includes the city of Shenzhen, grew 6.4% in the first three quarters of 2019, meeting its growth target and marginally surpassing the national rate of 6.2%, the South China Morning Post reports.

Landmark agreement will protect 100 Europeangeographical indications in China

The EU and China concluded negotiations on a bilateral agreement to protect 100 European Geographical Indications (GI) in China and 100 ChineseGI in the EU against imitations and usurpation. This landmark agreement is expected to result in reciprocal trade benefits and demand for high-quality products on bothsides. The agreement is the result of a commitment made at the last EU-China Summit in April 2019.

Agriculture and rural development Commissioner Phil Hogan said: “European geographical indication products are renowned across the world for their quality. Consumers are willing to pay a higher price, trusting the origin and authenticity of these products, while further rewarding farmers. This agreement shows our commitment to workingclosely with our global trading partners such as China. It is a win for both parties, strengthening our trading relationship, benefitting our agricultural and food sectors, and consumers on both sides.”

China is the second destination for EU agri-food exports, reaching €12.8 billion in the 12-month period between September 2018 and August 2019. It is also the second destination of EU exports of products protected as Geographical Indications, accounting for 9% of its value, including wines, agri-food products and spirit drinks. The Chinese market is a potential high-growth market for European food and drinks, with a growing middle class witha taste for iconic, high-quality and genuine European products. It also has a well-established geographical indication system of its own, with specialties that European

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consumers could now further discover thanks to this agreement.

The EU list of GI to be protected in China include products such as Cava, Champagne, Feta, Irish whiskey, MünchenerBier, Ouzo, Polska Wódka, Porto, Prosciutto di Parma and Queso Manchego. Among the Chinese products, the list includes for example Pixian Dou Ban (Pixian Bean Paste), Anji Bai Cha (Anji White Tea), Panjin Da Mi (Panjin rice) and Anqiu Da Jiang (Anqiu Ginger). Following the conclusion of the negotiations, the agreement will now go through legal scrutiny. On the EU side, the European Parliament and the Council will then be asked to give their approval. The agreement is expected to enter into force before the end of 2020. Four years after its entry into force, the scope of the agreement will expand to cover an additional 175 GI names from both sides. EU-China cooperation on Geographical Indications began over 10 years ago in 2006, resulting in the registration and protection of 10 Geographical Indication names on both sides in 2012, the starting block for today's cooperation, theEU Commission said in a press release.

President Xi encourages the listing of high-techfirms

The STAR market, the science and technology innovation board on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, hasgained further endorsement from the top leadership for its role in nurturing the country's innovative power as President Xi Jinping called for greater support to facilitate high-tech companies to go public. Xi stressed during an inspection tour of Shanghai that the science and technologyinnovation board and the pilot registration system should continue, and the quality of listed firms should be improved.The president underscored more measures to encourage high-tech companies to float their shares, strengthen information disclosure and step up market regulation.

"Xi's remark is of much significance, as it revealed that the top leadership attaches great importance and has high expectations of the board," said Li Daxiao, Chief Economistwith Shenzhen-based Yingda Securities. "The role of the board should be to elevate the country's capacity of scienceand technology, not merely support the financing of tech startups," Li said. The STAR Market officially began trading on July 22. Li expected that the market scale of the new board will rapidly expand to accommodate tech giants, with a fast pace of initial public offerings (IPOs) and listed firms of larger market capitalization and business revenue, such as those comparable to Ant Financial and ByteDance.

Dong Dengxin, Director of the Finance and Securities Institute at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, said Xi's remark boosted investor confidence as it reiteratedthe nation's determination of registration-based reform and support of high-tech and innovative enterprises. "Promotingan innovation-driven economy is an important mission of the science and technology innovation board," said Yi Huiman, Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). Companies listed on the board reported a total revenue of CNY69.19 billion in the first three quarters and net profit of CNY8.6 billion, up by 41% year-on-year, the China Daily reports.

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Organisation and founding members of the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce

Chairman: Mr. Stefaan Vanhooren, President Agfa Graphics, Member of the Executive Committee of the Agfa Gevaert Group, NV THE AGFA-GEVAERT GROUP SAVice-Chairmen: Mr. Bart De Smet, Chief Executive Officer, NV AGEAS SAMr. Philippe Van der Donckt, Director Government Affairs Asia, NV UMICORE SASecretary and Treasurer: Wim Eraly, Senior General Manager, NV KBC Bank SAExecutive Director: Ms. Gwenn Sonck

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Members of the Board of Directors and Founding Members:Mr. Stefaan Vanhooren, President Agfa Graphics, Member of the Executive Committee of the Agfa Gevaert Group, NV THE AGFA-GEVAERT GROUP SAMr. Christian Leysen, Executive Chairman, NV AHLERS SAMr. Filip Pintelon, Senior Vice President, GM Healthcare, NV BARCO SAMr. Philip Eyskens, Senior Vice President Legal, IT and M&A, NV BEKAERT SAMr. Philip Hermans, General Manager, NV DEME SAMr. Bart De Smet, Chief Executive Officer, NV AGEAS SAMr. Wim Eraly, Senior General Manager, KBC Bank SAMr. Johan Verstraete, Vice-President Marketing, Sales & Services Weaving Solutions, NV PICANOL SAMr. Philippe Van der Donckt, Director Government Affairs Asia, NV UMICORE SA

Membership rates for 2019 (excl. VAT)

● SMEs: €405 (€490.05 incl. VAT)

● Large enterprises: €1,025 (€1,240.25 incl. VAT)

Contact

Flanders-China Chamber of CommerceOffice: Ajuinlei 1, B-9000 Gent – Belgium New telephone and fax numbers: Tel.: +32/9/269.52.46 – Fax: ++32/9/269.52.99E-mail: info@flanders-china.be Website: www.flanders-china.be

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The FCCC Newsletters are edited by Michel Lens, who is based in Beijing and can be contacted by e-mail michel.jc.lens@gmail.com . Disclaimer: the views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the FCCC or its Board of Directors.