Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

• China’s foreign trade grows 1.2% in November, led by rising exports;

• China is set to expand investment options for social security funds.

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

China's foreign trade amounted to 37.96 trillion yuan from January to November 2023, remaining consistent with the corresponding period from the previous year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Thursday.

The country's exports grew by 0.3 percent year-on-year to 21.6 trillion yuan during the 11-month-period, while imports stood at 16.36 trillion yuan, experiencing a 0.5 percent fall on a yearly basis. Its trade surplus reached 5.24 trillion yuan, expanding by 2.8 percent year-on-year.

In November alone, China's import and export value reached 3.7 trillion yuan, showing a 1.2 percent growth year-on-year, according to customs statistics.

In US dollars terms, overseas shipments edged up 0.5 percent on-year to USD291 billion, marking their first increase since April. However, imports slipped back into contraction, falling 0.6 percent to USD224 billion.

"Entering the fourth quarter, China's foreign trade is seeing increasing positive factors, with imports and exports growing on annualized basis for two consecutive months and the stable and positive development trend continuing to consolidate," Lü Daliang, spokesperson from the GAC said on Thursday.

The growth for two straight months reflected the positive trend of the domestic economic recovery and a market demand rebound, according to Lü.

Among the main trading partners, ASEAN remained China's largest trading partner, with total imports and exports up 0.1 percent in the first 11 months. Imports from the EU, China's second-largest trading partner, grew 5 percent, while exports to the bloc dropped 5.8 percent. Exports to the US fell 8.5 percent, while imports from the US went up by 1.6 percent.

Notably, China's imports and exports with countries participating in the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative expanded by 2.6 percent in January-November, with exports to these countries jumping 6.9 percent.

Also significantly, imports and exports of private enterprises increased by 6.1 percent, accounting for 53.3 percent of China's total imports and exports.

Exports of mechanical and electronic products, which grew 2.8 percent in the first 11 months, led the way, accounting for nearly 60 percent of China's total exports. Exports of smartphones grew 3.3 percent, while auto exports jumped 79.6 percent.

• Singapore and China will put in place a 30-day mutual visa exemption agreement early next year, the Singapore foreign ministry said on Thursday. The new visa arrangement wasannouncedby Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong at the 19th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) forum held in Tianjin, China, on Thursday. Currently, Singaporeans entering China for business, tourism, family visits, and transit purposes are entitled to a 15-day visa-free entry policy, while Chinese citizens holding ordinary passports are required to obtain a valid visa to travel and seek entry into Singapore.

Moving on to regional highlights

• A 2,400-meter-deep physics laboratory in southwest China's Sichuan Province became operational on Thursday, making it the deepest and largest underground lab in the world. Scientists believe the lab provides a "clean" space for them to pursue the invisible substance known as dark matter. The Deep Underground and Ultra-low Radiation Background Facility for Frontier Physics Experiments (DURF) is located beneath Jinping Mountain in Sichuan, with a total room capacity of 330,000 cubic meters.

• The Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant in Rongcheng, East China's Shandong Province, which uses a high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (HTGR), entered commercial service on Wednesday following a 168-hour trial, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA). It is the world's first fourth-generation (4G) nuclear power plant and uses China's fully independent intellectual property rights, reflecting the nation's global leading position in 4G nuclear power technology.

Greater Bay Area, Greater Future

• Guangzhou has recently kicked off a pilot program to integrate local financial institutions into the credit reporting system of the People’s Bank of China to better supervise local small-sized financial institutions. The pilot project will lower the fees and shorten procedures for local financial institutions to join the PBOC’s credit reporting system and require financial institutions to carry out financial activities only with specific licenses and that all types of such activities should be thoroughly supervised, said an official with the Guangdong province’s association of small loan companies.

• Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said on Thursday the city and Saudi Arabia had deepening ties and both economies were negotiating an investment protection agreement during his keynote speech at the FII Priority Hong Kong conference. Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” governing principle has enabled the city to play a key role in collaborating with others and shaping global trends, the city’s leader said, adding that the number of fintech companies in the financial hub has risen by 25 percent in just a year.

• As the manager of the Exchange Fund, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority aims to attain net-zero emissions for its investment portfolio by 2050, chief executive Eddie Yue said. The focus will be on environmental, social and governance or ESG as it is known, and green assets. Yue said the HKMA plans to establish a platform in the private equity sector to foster the green transformation through capital circulation in Asia. Additionally, there are plans to take further initiatives in the bond market, aiming to construct a green financial ecosystem for Hong Kong in the future.

• Chinese battery giant CATL will reportedly establish a research and development center and its international headquarters in the Hong Kong Science Park. CATL will ink a deal with Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks today to set up the CATL Hong Kong Technology Innovation R&D Center and its global HQ, local media reported on the same day. The pair will jointly promote the development of the local green technology ecosystem and the achievement of the zero carbon emissions goal.

Next on industry and company news

• China will strive to realize the commercialization of 6G technology by 2030, and it is expected that standard-setting for the technology will be achieved around 2025, said Wang Zhiqin, the leader of China's 6G promotion team and vice president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. Wang noted that China began 6G technological experiments last year, and has successively carried out research on 6G system architecture and technical solutions this year, which all lay the foundations for the next step of 6G advancement. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced on Tuesday that China has allocated the 6GHz spectrum for 5G and 6G systems.

• China’s largest unicorn ByteDance will reportedly repurchase USD5 billion worth of shares from investors.The firm has not yet released any plan to go public. ByteDance plans to buy back shares for USD160 apiece, the same price at which the company repurchased some employee stock options in October, media reported yesterday, citing an insider at the firm.

• Real estate magnate Wang Jianlin, whose conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group faces mounting debt repayment pressure, plans to sell more stakes of China’s biggest cinema operator, handing control of Wanda Film Holding to a Tencent-backed television and movie producer. Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management, a subsidiary of China Ruyi Holdings, will buy 51 percent of Beijing Wanda Investment, which controls Wanda Film, Wang’s film unit said in a stock exchange filing yesterday, without revealing the value of the deal. Ruyi Investment bought a 49 percent stake in Wanda Investment for 2.3 billion yuan in July.

Switching gears to financial news

• China will allow its social security funds to be invested in new areas including stock index and treasury bond futures, but only for hedging and with strict risk control, the finance ministry said in a document. It says that corporate bonds, non-financial corporate debt financing instruments, and pension and other products will also be included in the new scope of investment. The fund's custody fee rate will also be lowered to no more than 0.05 percent from up to 0.25 percent previously. As much as 40 percent will be allowed to be invested in stocks and up to 30 percent in equities, thereby improving investment flexibility for the country’s social security funds, as well as boosting the growth of China’s capital market.

• China's foreign-exchange reserves rose more than expected in November as capital outflow pressure eased amid a strengthening yuan. The country's foreign-exchange reserves rose USD70.58 billion from a month earlier to USD3.172 trillion in November, according to data released Thursday by the People's Bank of China.

• International investors have been buyers of Chinese yuan-denominated bonds for nine straight months this year, with a cumulative net purchase of nearly 1 trillion yuan, as the country’s rebounding economy proves to be a strong draw for foreign capital, according to central bank data. Foreign investors raised their holdings by 40 billion yuan in October and they are expected to hike their holdings by 250 billion yuan in November, according to the central bank. Foreign institutions held 3.3 trillion yuan of Chinese bonds as of the end of October, triple the amount at the end of 2017.

• The Beijing Stock Exchange reportedly denied rumors claiming the bourse would tighten the review process of initial public offerings. The review standards and regulatory requirements of the BSE have not changed, a manager at the exchange told media today. Seventy-one companies went public on the BSE so far this year.

Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market

• Chinese stocks ended lower on Thursday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component both dipping 0.1 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and TECH index both sank0.7 percent.

Biz Word of the Day

• The 6GHz spectrum is the only high-quality resource with large bandwidth in the mid-band, taking into account its coverage and capacity advantages, the ministry said, noting that the 6GHz range is particularly suitable for the deployment of 5G or 6G systems in the future.

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.

Presented by SFC

编委: 于晓娜

策划、编辑：李艳霞

播音：李莹亮

撰稿：李莹亮

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