CBN丨Chinese major localities roll out 2025 plans, focusing on new quality pr...

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

• Chinese localities roll out 2025 plans, with new quality productive forces in focus to fuel economic growth;
• China's trade-in program boosts consumer goods sales by over 1.3 trillion yuan.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

Chinese provinces and cities, especially economic powerhouses, have rolled out their economic work plans for 2025, with new quality productive forces, as well as scientific and technological innovation, in focus to boost high-quality growth.

South China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday released its 2025 Government Work Plan, focusing on 12 major tasks. These include the consolidation and enhancement of Guangdong's leading position in manufacturing, the building of a modern industrial system and the development of new quality productive forces, in accordance with local conditions.

According to the Government Work Plan, Guangdong will accelerate the development of emerging and future industries, as well as the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.

Efforts will be put into emerging industries such as ICs, new-energy vehicles (NEVs), AI, the low-altitude economy, new materials and biopharmaceuticals. Guangdong will cultivate future industries such as bio-manufacturing, quantum technology, embodied intelligence and 6G.

The province also vowed to advance the construction of pilot cities for intelligent connected vehicles, while improving the systems for low-altitude smart logistics, urban air transportation and emergency air rescue.

Guangdong's leading position in manufacturing is evident from signs of progress in 2024. The added value of advanced manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing accounted for 56.7 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively, of the industrial output of enterprises above a designated size.

The production of NEVs grew by 43 percent, that of industrial robots by 31.2 percent and that of ICs by 21 percent, according to Guangdong's Government Work Report.

Guangdong's GDP in 2024 is estimated to have surpassed 14 trillion yuan, marking a new milestone as it becomes the first province in China to achieve this.

Shanghai, which delivered its Government Work Report on Wednesday, said it will strengthen scientific and technological innovation capabilities in frontier fields such as cell and gene therapy, brain-computer interfaces, 6G, quantum computing and fusion energy.

Shanghai's Government Work Report revealed that the scale of the municipality's three leading industries - integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence - reached 1.8 trillion yuan in 2024. Expenditure on research and development accounted for 4.4 percent of the city's GDP, which hit 5 trillion yuan last year.

Beijing on Tuesday rolled out its 2025 work plan, proposing to focus on developing and expanding high-tech industries.To achieve this goal, Beijing will accelerate the construction of a global benchmark city for the digital economy, promote deep coverage of 5G networks, and establish a comprehensive pilot zone for the market-oriented allocation reform of data elements.

Next on industry and company news

• The sales revenue of consumer goods under China's policy-backed trade-in program has surpassed 1.3 trillion yuan, data from China's Ministry of Commerce showed on Wednesday. Green and smart products are in high demand, with retail sales of new energy vehicles increasing more than 40 percent in 2024. The ministry said that the central government had earmarked 81 billion yuan for the consumer goods trade-in programs this year. On Wednesday night, the ministry released an announcement on trade-in programs for home appliances, which detailed 12 types of products, including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, air conditioners and computers. Each subsidy should not exceed 2,000 yuan.
• Tencent dismissed over 100 employees and handed more than 20 to authorities for alleged crimes, including commercial bribery, embezzlement, or other serious illegal acts last year, according to the Chinese tech giant's annual anti-fraud report released today.
• Douyin denied rumor that it has opened registration to international users, media reported. Douyin complies with relevant laws and regulations and requires real-name identity verification for registration, according to informed sources. Douyin’s sister app TikTok is expected to be banned in the US from Jan. 19 if its owner ByteDance does not sell the short-video platform. As a result, many users with IP locations overseas recently started turning to Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform known as RedNote overseas.
• China's smartphone market rebounded last year after two years of falling shipments. Annual shipments increased 4 percent to 285 million units from 2023, driven by manufacturers' strategic investments and technological innovations, according to analyst firm Canalys today. Domestic brand Vivo led the market with 49.3 million shipments, up 11 percent year-over-year, capturing a 17 percent market share. Huawei ranked second with 46 million shipped units, a 37 percent year-over-year increase, representing a 16 percent market share. Apple secured third place, followed by Oppo and Honor in fourth and fifth positions, each of them holding a 15 percent market share.

Earnings reports express

• China Merchants Bank and China Industrial Bank, two of China’s leading commercial banks, posted positive results for 2024 on Wednesday after major Wall Street banks reported second-highest profits in history. CMB expects its annual net profit to be 148.4 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 1.2 percent, while revenue stood at 337.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 0.47 percent. Notably, the bank’s fourth quarter revenue was 84.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 7.6 percent, reversing a five-quarter decline in revenue growth. CIB achieved a total profit of 87.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.31 percent. Its net profit stood at 77.2 billion yuan, up 0.12 percent.

Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market

• Chinese stocks rose on Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite added 0.3 percent and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.4 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and the TECH index both climbed 1.2 percent.

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

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