BANGKOK (AP) – China is fine-tuning policies to rev up its economy as it braces for uncertain relations with the United States (US) under President-elect Donald Trump, giving manufacturers a 20 per cent made-in-China price advantage in sales to the Chinese government.
The moves come ahead of a top-level annual economic planning conference scheduled for next week that will help set China’s strategy for the coming year. The Ministry of Finance announced it is seeking public comment on the made-in-China plan until January 4.
To qualify, products have to be made entirely in China, from the raw materials stage to the finished products, it said, although some components must just meet standards for a share of domestic-based production.
Farm, forestry, minerals and fisheries products are excluded, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.
Government procurement generally amounts to about 10 per cent or more of business activity in major economies.
Under the programme, companies will be given a 20 per cent price advantage, with the government making up the difference, part of a series of moves to underpin stronger sales that also includes promoting insurance underwriting and easier access to financing for e-commerce and small and mid-sized “little giants” and “hidden champions”.
Shares in China have surged this week on expectations that the planning meeting will yield more support for the slowing economy as a revival in exports helps to compensate for a sluggish property market and subdued consumer spending. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong and the Shanghai Composite index both gained more than two per cent this week.
Before that closed-door meeting convenes in Beijing, Premier Li Qiang is due to hold a conference with heads of 10 major international organisations including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization, the Foreign Ministry said in a notice on its website.
The themes of the gathering focus on promoting “global common prosperity,” “upholding multilateralism” and making advances in China’s own reforms and modernisation, it said.
China’s leaders set a target for economic growth of “about five per cent” for this year.
In the first three quarters, growth averaged 4.8 per cent, and has gradually slowed.
Over the past few months, regulators have rolled out a slew of policies meant to help reverse the downturn in the housing market and encourage more spending by Chinese households that have been tightening purse strings since the pandemic.
