GOVT AND POLICIES

Enthusiasm for savings up on quarterly basis

China's urban residents are more enthusiastic about depositing more savings in the fourth quarter (Q4) of this year, said a central bank survey. Among the 20,000 urban bank depositors surveyed in 50 cities across China, 45.7 percent responded with a willingness toward more savings in Q4, 1.2 percentage points up from the previous quarter, according to a survey conducted by the People's Bank of China. Meanwhile, their willingness toward investment shrank, with 26.3 percent of the respondents planning for more investment in Q4, down by 1.5 percentage points from a quarter ago. Respondents who are willing to increase consumption in Q4 accounted for 28 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from Q3.

Alcohol firms see stable growth in first 10 months

China's alcohol enterprises above designated size saw a total revenue of 681.98 billion yuan ($97.4 billion) in the first 10 months, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The reading was up 8.7 percent compared with the same period last year, the ministry said. During the period, the profits of 2,126 alcohol makers with an annual revenue of over 20 million yuan grew 17.9 percent year-on-year to reach 130.88 billion yuan, the ministry said.

COMPANIES AND MARKETS

Smart sensor industrial park starts in Jiading

Shanghai on Tuesday launched a smart sensor industrial park in Jiading district, which has been striving to develop intelligent internet of things (IoT). The industrial park contains a core industry cluster exploring IoT-oriented applications of smart sensors, as well as two others that focus on intelligent manufacturing and automotive electronics. A total of 32 enterprises signed to settle in the park, investing 24.8 billion yuan ($3.5 billion) on projects ranging from the design, testing, packaging and massive production of sensor chips.

Cargo throughput increases in Qinzhou

The port of Qinzhou, a major link between southern China and Southeast Asia, saw its cargo throughput rise 17.9 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of the year thanks to increased traffic on a new land-sea trade route. The port handled 108.6 million metric tons of cargo in the January-November period, according to the publicity department of the city of Qinzhou in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Meanwhile, the port handled 2.69 million standard containers, an annual increase of 33.2 percent. Since a new land-sea freight route was launched in 2017, an increasing number of trains have carried goods to and from the Qinzhou port, connecting many western Chinese regions with Southeast Asia.

Crowdfunding used to promote more brands

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi's premium e-commerce platform Youpin has teamed up with global crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to promote Chinese products and brands overseas in its latest move to expand globalization. The two platforms announced a strategic cooperation on Monday, leveraging their crowdfunding services and other resources to cooperate on the introduction and promotion of products and market development, among others. The two sides also plan to establish a project dedicated to promoting Chinese brands via crowdfunding. The two parties have made several successful attempts before the official announcement. Youpin has introduced Pamu Slide, a popular wireless earbuds product on Indiegogo, to China, while launching Walking-Pad, a foldable treadmill, and an electric toothbrush on Indiegogo.

Kweichow Moutai eyes high-quality progress

China's top liquor brand Kweichow Moutai on Tuesday launched 12 new projects with a total investment of 15.8 billion yuan ($2.25 billion) for high-quality development. The projects include a packing plant with a capacity of 80,000 metric tons of Moutai liquor, a warehouse that can store up to 30,000 tons of alcohol, and an organic sorghum planting base in Guizhou province. "We aim to build a batch of infrastructure projects with long-term benefits, boost the growth of Moutai and achieve high-quality development," said Li Jingren, general manager of Kweichow Moutai Group.

Alibaba pilots nonprofit elderly care service

Alibaba Group is testing a new model of elderly care through its "time bank," which makes every hour people spend advancing public welfare exchangeable for services for seniors, the company said on Tuesday. According to a memorandum of understanding on cooperation signed between Alibaba Foundation and the bureau of civil affairs of Binjiang district in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, online Alibaba users will have a unified quantitative standard to evaluate their public welfare acts. Alibaba also unveiled a set of criteria, the first in China to measure the value of voluntary service hours and philanthropic behaviors, with its basic unit named "public welfare hours."

Spanish firm to invest in Australian company

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola has announced that it will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy in South Australia. Xabier Viteri, Iberdrola's head of renewables, said that the company will invest A$500 million ($344.9 million) in the Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park (PAREP), a proposed wind and solar farm, according to Guardian Australia. He said that Australia was an ideal renewable investment opportunity because of its high consumption and stable energy market. "It's a place where renewables are going to play a much more relevant position in the coming years, clearly," he said.

Kalanick severs ties with ride-hailing giant

Travis Kalanick, who built Uber into a ride-hailing giant, is cashing out. Kalanick disclosed on Tuesday that he has sold off all his Uber stock－estimated at more than $2.5 billion－and is resigning from the board of directors, severing ties to the company he co-founded a decade ago. "Uber has been a part of my life for the past 10 years. At the close of the decade, and with the company now public, it seems like the right moment for me to focus on my current business and philanthropic pursuits," the 43-year-old entrepreneur said in a statement.

AROUND THE WORLD

South Korea's retail shipments rise in Nov

Retail sales in South Korea grew last month as a year-end shopping festival buoyed both online and offline sales, a government report said on Wednesday. The combined sales of 26 major online and offline retailers increased 7.5 percent in November from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It came as the Korea Sale FESTA, a South Korean version of Black Friday, ran for three weeks from Nov 1. Consumers raised the purchase of discount products during the country's biggest shopping season. Offline sales rose 2.4 percent in the month, marking the first increase in three months. Online sales advanced 14.8 percent, keeping a double-digit expansion for four straight months.

Supermarket sales in Japan fall by 1.4%

Japan's supermarket sales in November decreased 1.4 percent from a year earlier on a same-store basis, down for the second straight month, continuing to be affected by a consumption tax increase on Oct 1, the Japan Chain Stores Association said on Tuesday. According to the association's figures, sales at 10,538 supermarkets operated by 55 companies totaled 996.8 billion yen ($9.1 billion). The industry body's figures also showed that sales of food items, which were generally exempted from the 2-percentage-point tax hike from 8 percent, dipped 0.2 percent, with demand for alcohol subject to a 10-percent tax not recovering after being pushed up in September on last-minute demand.