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Recently, the final of the first Anhui Entrepreneurship Competition in Wuhu City was held in Wuhu Youth Entrepreneurship Center. After a day of fierce competition,three projects, namely the third generation of semiconductor power devices, RF high-precision positioning products and application solutions and metal composite pipe research and development and industrialization based on heterogeneous materials will represent our city to participate in the first Entrepreneurship Anhui Provincial Competition.

This selection contest was carefully organized and promoted by our city, and actively promoted by the human resources and social affairs bureaus of counties and urban areas, entrepreneurial carriers and universities. A total of 466 online and offline entries were received, which set a new high for the number of similar municipal events in years. After the preliminary examination and review, 10 projects are selected into the final.

This year, the provincial Party Committee and provincial government have made great efforts to build the brand of “Entrepreneurship Anhui”, and steadily carried out the action of entrepreneurship Anhui, making entrepreneurship become the fashionable vitality and image name card of Anhui, and making Anhui become a hot land for all kinds of talents to start businesses.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

According to the press conference on IPR protection in Wuhu on November 25, the indicators of IPR creation, protection and application in Wuhu ranked among the best in the assessment of the province’s business environment in the first three quarters of this year.

Since the beginning of this year, our city has made remarkable achievements in the protection of the source of intellectual property rights, and the quantity and quality of patent and trademark registrations have increased. From January to September this year, there were 12863 patents granted in Wuhu, including 2302 invention patents and 84 PCT (international application), ranking the second in the province. Up to now, Wuhu has 21,643 valid invention patents and 138,876 valid registered trademarks, ranking the second in the province. The number of effective invention patents reached 58.9, ranking first in the province for 11 consecutive years.

In recent years, our city has strengthened the cooperation between departments and regions, and focused on building the “great protection” pattern of intellectual property rights. The Municipal Market Supervision Bureau established a cooperation mechanism for intellectual property protection in Wuhu with six units, including the Municipal Middle Court and the Municipal Procuratorate. It also established a working mechanism for connecting administrative mediation and judicial confirmation of intellectual property disputes and another for connecting litigation and mediation of intellectual property disputes with the court of Wuhu Economic Development Zone, taking the lead in realizing the interconnection of mediation organizations, mediators and case notifications on the “People’s Court mediation platform” in Wuhu. Municipal Bureau of Justice and Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision built the first intellectual property notarization service center in Anhui Province, which has handled more than 130 cases of intellectual property notarization since its operation. The Municipal Procuratorate and the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau implemented the mechanism of “linkage between government and procuratorate”, established a joint meeting system, and set up an intellectual property protection center in Wuhu Area of Free Trade Zone.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

Overseas funding seen as key to high-quality national development

China’s latest move to open its market to foreign investment in the manufacturing sector will contribute to high — quality development, and ensure the stability and security of global industrial and supply chains, market watchers and business leaders said.

Right after the conclusion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last month, the National Development and Reform Commission, which is the country’s top economic planner, and five other central government departments jointly released a notice to encourage foreign investment in high-end equipment, basic components and key parts for advanced manufacturing, as well as high-tech industries.

The government will take further steps to facilitate the border entry and exit of executives and technicians of multinational companies and their families in accordance with national COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control policies, according to the notice.

China will also encourage foreign investment in research and development, design and modern logistics in the service industry, as well as in innovation and applications related to new energy, green and low-carbon technologies, the notice said.

Wang Wen, executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of the Renmin University of China in Beijing, said these policy measures reflect China’s unwavering determination to expand high-level opening-up, optimize foreign investment structure and attract more global stakeholders to invest and develop in the country.

Reiterating that high-end manufacturing is crucial for growing the real economy and advancing new industrialization, he said that the high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing needs the participation of foreign companies, and that their investment will in turn generate decent financial returns.

As China continues to focus on supporting the real economy and expanding the use of foreign investment in key sectors for innovation-driven development — for instance, high-tech manufacturing and other strategic and emerging industries — it will accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and bring growth opportunities to small and medium-sized businesses in the years ahead, said Zhao Ping, deputy head of the Academy of Beijing-based China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

“The policies aimed at facilitating the exchange of workers from foreign companies are also conducive to further shoring up the confidence of multinationals and speeding up the implementation of major foreign investment projects,” she said.

Thanks to its social stability, tremendous economic potential, complete industrial chain and preferential policies, China’s attractiveness as a destination for foreign direct investment remained strong in the third quarter of 2022, according to a survey released by the CCPIT.

Attracted by opportunities in areas such as carbon neutrality, high-end manufacturing and innovation-driven development, foreign direct investment in China expanded 15.6 percent year-on-year to more than 1 trillion yuan ($136.7 billion) in the first nine months of the year, statistics from China’s Ministry of Commerce show.

The ministry data showed that the FDI growth rate in the high-tech sector was 32.3 percent between January and September. The figures for high-tech manufacturing and high-tech services were 48.6 percent and 27.9 percent, respectively.

“China is playing an ever-greater role in the world,” said Chen Yudong, president of Bosch China — a branch of Germany’s Robert Bosch GmbH-and a five-time participant at the annual China International Import Expo, which concluded on Nov 10. “Take the automotive industry as an example. This market is leading the transformation towards electrified and connected mobility.”

Bosch operates four business divisions in China: mobility solutions, industrial technology, consumer goods, and energy and building technology. The most significant sector, mobility solutions, accounts for 75 percent of its total business.

Under its plan, Bosch’s cross-domain computing solutions research and development center will be inaugurated in Shanghai later this month. Phase II of the company’s united automotive electronic systems plant in Taicang, Jiangsu province, is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2023.

Danish engineering company Danfoss Group is upbeat about the development of the green sector in China after seeing its sales revenue jump from 4 billion yuan in 2015 to over 10 billion yuan last year.

“Danfoss is committed to investing in China, which is the company’s second home market,” said Arthur Xu, president of Danfoss China.

“We are committed to long-term investment in China. Our recent announcement of 100 million euros ($103 million) to build a power module plant in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, is a clear sign of our continued positive outlook for the Chinese market,” he said.

As it further unleashes the potential of foreign investment for driving high-quality development, the country is expected to better align its domestic economic agendas with the concerns and interests of foreign investors, said Sun Xiao, secretary-general of the China Chamber of International Commerce.

Moreover, China’s advantages — including a complete industrial system, fast-growing 5G technology, the tangible growth of China-Europe freight train services, its huge market and positive long-term economic fundamentals, as well as participation in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership — will continue to contribute to the growth of overseas companies in the country, he added.

Tamas Hajba, the representative of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in China, said, “Foreign investment has long played an important role in driving the growth of China’s economy.”

Even though China is a major draw for FDI, its accumulated stock relative to GDP is still low. This means there is still room for improvement and more opportunities to expand and attract foreign capital, he added.

President Xi Jinping meets with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Bali, Indonesia, Nov 16, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]

China will work with the United Nations to push for concrete progress in implementing the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative in order to bring more stability and certainty into a volatile world, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday.

Xi made the remark while meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the 17th G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia.

At a time when important changes have taken place across the global, Xi said all countries must put mankind’s future and destiny above everything else and work together to overcome difficulties.

“In particular, major countries should lead by example, instead of creating divisions or confrontations, or even profiting from others’ misfortunes,” he said.

Xi expressed China’s willingness to push for mankind’s progress with Chinese modernization and to bring new opportunities for the world through the country’s own development.

Noting that developing countries, especially vulnerable ones, have been severely affected by the unprecedented challenges facing global development, Xi said development must be put at the center of the international agenda and efforts must be made to enable the fruits of development to better benefit every country and every person in a fairer way.

To this end, all countries should act on what they say and present their achievements to the world instead of speaking empty words, he said.

Xi also said that to achieve world peace, the purposes and principles of the UN Charter must be observed and the legitimate security concerns of all countries must be taken seriously.

China is a staunch supporter of the international system with the UN at its core and will continue to uphold true multilateralism and support the UN’s work, he added.

“I’m convinced that the historical trend of peace, development, cooperation and win-win results is irresistible and that mankind has a bright future,” Xi said.

This is the second meeting between Xi and the UN chief this year. In February, Xi met with Guterres when he traveled to China to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

In their meeting on Wednesday, Guterres again congratulated Xi on his reelection as general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Guterres said developing countries are facing one crisis after another regarding food, energy and climate change, and there still remains great inequality in global development.

The UN highly commends China for upholding multilateralism, he said, noting that China has played an incomparable role in helping developing countries.

Guterres also said the UN firmly supports the one-China principle, which is a red line that cannot be crossed and must be respected.

Visitors walk through an attraction in a park in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, on Oct 8, 2022. [Photo by HONG XIAODONG/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Restrictions on tour groups traveling between provinces have been eased to strike a better balance between COVID-19 control and prevention work and the recovery of the domestic tourism industry.

Travelers with negative nucleic acid test results within 48 hours of departure, can take all transportation for travel between provinces, said a Ministry of Culture and Tourism notice issued on Tuesday.

However, travel agencies and online travel platforms should maintain their suspension of services — including flight and hotel bookings — for international tour groups, the notice said.

A “circuit-breaker” mechanism for cross-provincial group tours was implemented in August 2021 that suspended domestic group tours traveling to destinations designated as having “medium” or “high” COVID risks.

There were no restrictions on individual travelers, however, they were discouraged from cross-provincial trips.

The ministry said that the latest adjustments for travelers and tour operators were part of a more precise and scientific approach to tackling the virus.

The measures will help reduce the side effects the epidemic has had on the culture and tourism industries, while strengthening the protection of people’s health.

The positive responses to the changes to the travel policy were quickly reflected by a surge in travel bookings.

Figures from travel portal Tuniu showed that as of 3 pm Wednesday, searches for cross-provincial tours had risen by 149 percent from Tuesday and 132 percent from Monday.

Another travel portal, Tongcheng Travel, said within an hour of the information being released to the public, searches for group tours surged by over 600 percent from the previous day. Searches for flight and train tickets also increased by 182 percent and 97 percent respectively.

Qunar, also an online travel agency, said train ticket reservations doubled the day after the new policy was announced.

Yang Guanghui, Qunar’s director for leisure products, said the burst of train ticket reservations reflected people’s greater confidence in traveling to outside provinces.

Yang added that the adjusted policy will help drive the recovery of domestic group tours, as well as the entire tourism industry.

On Friday, the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism released 20 measures to optimize the COVID-19 epidemic control.

Recently, the “2022 China Auto Forum” sponsored by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers was held in Shanghai. During the forum, the 2022 Excellent Cases of Practicing Corporate Social Responsibility in China’s Automobile Industry were officially released, and two cases of Chery Holding Group won the “Green Development Award” and “Employee Development Award” respectively, which contributed to the exemplary innovative practice solutions for Chinese automobile enterprises to fulfill their social responsibility.

The case themed “building a green industrial chain, drawing the blueprint of Made in China” initiated by Chery Group comprehensively demonstrates the act of producing safer, more energy-saving and more environmentally friendly automobiles, achieving the green and low–carbon development in the full-life cycle and the whole industrial chain through green design, green procurement, green manufacturing, green products, green marketing and recycling, and realizing the overall improvement of social, environmental and economic benefits.

Another case of “innovating the global competition platform and creating the cradle of Major Country Craftsmen” shows that Chery has established a good mechanism of “discovering, respecting and cultivating craftsmen” by building a global skill competition platform, thus opening up a green channel for the growth of high-skilled talent in the new era. The Global Manufacturing Skill Competition has been held for 7 consecutive sessions by Chery Group, with a total number of more than 50,000 participants, and 42 skilled talent, champions and over 500 outstanding craftsmen have been selected. By further recommending the winners to participate in external competitions, 40 champions, runners-up, second runners-up stand out in national vocational skill competitions, cultivating a number of cutting-edge talent for the high-quality development of China’s automobile industry.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

On November 7th, during the 5th China International Import Expo, the 2022 Wuhu (Shanghai) “Investment Promotion and Talent Attraction” Conference sponsored by Wuhu municipal government and organized by Wuhu Municipal Investment Promotion Center was held. Ning Bo, deputy secretary of the CPC Wuhu municipal committee and mayor, delivered a speech. Zhu Di’e, vice mayor, introduced the investment environment of Wuhu, and Wang Zhipeng, secretary general of Wuhu municipal government attended the conference.

On behalf of the CPC Wuhu municipal committee and the municipal government, Ning Bo extended a warm welcome to foreign guests and business elites present at the conference. He said that Wuhu, as the second largest economy in Anhui Province, has seized the opportunity of national strategies, continued to deepen reform and opening up, accelerated the transformation of geographical, traveling, industrial and ecological advantages into the core competitiveness of the city, and ushered in a period of rapid development. Wuhu supports enterprises to make new breakthroughs in expanding scale, listing and financing, cross-border integration, building brands and improving supporting facilities. The city has actively implemented the Milk Vetch Talent Plan, which takes the market as the mainstay and deeply stimulates the market factors, building an excellent city that young people enjoy entrepreneurship. Wuhu will consistently take promoting entrepreneurship and respecting entrepreneurs as the fundamental principles of creating a first-class business environment, and entrepreneurs can take the “Wuhu Takeoff” flight to fly high their dreams. We eagerly expect more entrepreneurs to pay attention to, understand and invest in Wuhu, and to work hard and realize their dreams in this livable city that is desirable to work in.

The video of “Investment Promotion and Talent Attraction” of Wuhu was played at the conference, comprehensively promoting the investment environment of Wuhu, and giving a detailed introduction of Wuhu Area of China (Anhui) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Wuhu Sino-foreign Cooperation Park, with the theme of “Gathering at CIIE, Sharing Wuhu’s Future”. Representatives of foreign-funded enterprises that have settled in Wuhu were invited to deliver speeches. Before the conference, Ning Bo met with senior executives of 13 key foreign-funded enterprises, including Cooper Standard Auto Parts, Nidec International Trade, Rockwell Automation, etc.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

President Xi Jinping meets with US President Joe Biden in Bali, Indonesia, Nov 14, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]

The first face-to-face meeting between the leaders of China and the United States in years is being viewed as significant for people around the world, according to officials and analysts in Bali, Indonesia.

President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met in Bali on Monday on the sidelines of the 17th Group of 20 Summit and talked for about three hours. Xi said he looked forward to working together with Biden “in bringing China-US relations back to a track of healthy and stable growth to the benefit of our two countries and the world as a whole”.

The meeting of the two leaders has been noticed by people in Indonesia and around the world, and may have been a surprise to many, said Usman Kansong, director-general of information and public communication at the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Informatics.

Their bilateral meeting was “a symbol of how to solve our problems in the world together”, he said.

Michael Vatikiotis, a summit attendee and a senior advisor at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a private foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, said the meeting itself was an achievement.

“It was an extremely important meeting, and probably the main outcome of the summit, in a sense that everyone is hoping for them to meet and address issues of concern,” said Vatikiotis, a writer, broadcaster and journalist in Asia for more than 35 years. “The main achievement is they agreed to engage on different issues at the senior official level.”

Hong Kong legislator Edward Leung Hei said that the meeting will allow Biden to gain a better understanding of China, and the Chinese path to modernization and peaceful development.

As history shows, Western countries realized modernization by the path of war, colonization and plunder, thus the Western world is seriously concerned that the development of China might threaten other countries’ interests, based on a zero-sum mentality, Leung said. “It’s of utmost importance for the world to learn that Chinese modernization is the modernization of ‘peaceful development’.”

Xi told the Biden team that China-US relations should not be a zero-sum game where one side outcompetes or thrives at the expense of the other, and the success of both nations should be seen as opportunities, instead of challenges, for each other.

Jameel Al Theyabi, editor of Saudi Gazette, said the Xi-Biden meeting is important and possibly everyone in the world is looking for a result. “It is very good for world peace,” he said.

“Everyone if you ask now in Bali, Indonesia or Saudi, or anywhere in the world will give you the same answer: It’s a right decision to shake hands, to talk and to negotiate, to have dialogue,” he said.

China and the US should lead the world in these initiatives and the US should rethink and withdraw its financial, trade and technology wars it started against China, said Hong Kong legislator Kennedy Wong Ying-ho in Bali.

Moreover, the US should “stop stirring up cross-Straits tension as it would be a futile effort to derail China’s peaceful development, which has contributed so much to the world’s growth in the past decades”.

Arsjad Rasjid, the host of B20 Indonesia and chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Indonesia is proud to welcome Xi to Bali for the G20 Summit.

“As we approach the Asian century, I believe that Indonesia, China and everyone around us will begin to see the world from a new perspective,” Rasjid said on Monday. “We will shift from a world driven by profit to a world driven by the need to create common prosperity.”

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Bureau of Rural Revitalization announced the list of demonstration counties for national rural revitalization in 2022. Fanchang District is on the list, which is the only county (district) selected in Wuhu. 

In recent years, Fanchang has strove to find a unique road to rural revitalization. The district is building a series of national and provincial pilot demonstration areas, including the first batch of national agricultural modernization demonstration areas and the provincial digital rural pilot counties. In the provincial performance appraisal of implementing the rural revitalization strategy, Fanchang ranked first in the province in 2021. There are two national leading agricultural industrialization enterprises, eight provincial leading enterprises, 51 municipal leading enterprises, and 38 agricultural product processing enterprises above the designated size. The whole district has achieved the integration of water supply, power supply, gas supply, environmental sanitation and communication between urban and rural areas. It is the national pilot area for high-quality and balanced compulsory education. It has been rated as the national advanced village clean action county, the national comprehensive demonstration county for e-commerce into rural areas, and the improvement of rural environment has been supervised and encouraged by the provincial government. The district also has 3 national civilized villages and towns, 4 provincial civilized villages and towns, 75% of which are at or above the municipal level. The implementation rate of village rules and regulations is 100%. New features have been explored in rural governance. The per capita disposable income of rural residents in the region has increased by 9.6% in the past three years, reaching 29361 yuan in 2021, reaching the average level of the Yangtze River Delta.

According to reports, in the process of implementing the establishment of the National Demonstration County for Rural Revitalization, Fanchang District plans to initially implement 44 projects in three years, with a total investment of about 14.2 billion yuan, to ensure that the central government’s decisions on rural revitalization are fully implemented in Fanchang, and to establish a top promotion mechanism to achieve full coverage of rural revitalization instructors in 74 villages (agricultural communities), and select a group of secretaries who stick to their mission and shoulder their responsibilities with dedication.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

From October 11 to 12, Wu Jinsong, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of Anhui Provincial Department of Science and Technology, led a delegation to Wuhu to inspect technological innovation and held a meeting. Vice Mayor Zhu Di‘e presided over the meeting.

After listening to the establishment of technological innovation system in Wuhu and the speeches of entrepreneurs’ representatives, Wu Jinsong emphasized that technological activities are economic activities, and only by highlighting the dominant position of enterprises can we speed up the construction of a higher level of technological innovation system. We should further change our thoughts and the working mode, focus on key links of technological innovation, and roll out policies on the allocation of innovation elements to stimulate the innovation vitality of enterprises. Technological innovation should be accompanied by institutional innovation. Efforts should be made to strengthen enterprises’ dominant position in technological innovation. We should boost the principal role of enterprises in innovation decision-making, innovation investment, talent introduction and achievement transformation, helping enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Science and technology departments at provincial and municipal levels should make joint efforts and facilitate technological innovation as the new driver and contributor for the high-quality development.

During his stay in Wuhu, Wu Jinsong came to Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and the Institute of International Engineering Education of Anhui Polytechnic University to learn about the improvement of enterprise innovation capability and the implementation of the pilot reform of scientific and research findings in colleges and universities, and visited Xidian–Wuhu Research Institute, CETC Diamond Aircraft, Huaming Aviation, Haery Aviation and other enterprises.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government