Sichuan Economy and Trade TrendsFebruary ,2017

                        Published by CCPIT Sichuan Council

Contents

Macro Economy

 Scale Increment of Social Financing Reaches RMB 665.1 Billion Last Year

According to the social financing scale increment statistical data of last year released by the People's Bank of China a few days ago, the social financing scale increment of Sichuan in 2016 reached RMB 665.1 billion with a year-on-year growth of 14.43%, ranking the 8^th nationwide, the same as last year.
From the incremental structure, the loan growth is still the primary cause. The RMB loan financing increment of Sichuan in 2016 hit RMB 481 billion, increasing by RMB 70 billion than last year, which facilitated the incremental threshold breakthrough of RMB 600 billion, whilst the direct financing increment (bond financing and corporate stock financing) reached RMB 76.8 billion last year, showing a receding trend unlike that of last year. As planned, the ratio of direct financing is to be increased substantially in future to take the bond financing as a primary growth point. (January 29^th, Sichuan Daily/Li Longjun)

Loan Balance of Petty Loan Company Exceeds RMB 64.5 Billion

According to the data released by the People's Bank of China on January 25^th, up to the end of 2016, the number of petty loan companies in Sichuan reached 341, ranking the 6^th nationwide with loan balance of RMB 64.57 billion, being the 5^th throughout the country. The funds are mainly spent in small and micro-businesses, “the agriculture, farmer and rural area” and urban and rural residents’ consumption.
The data in general show that there are 8673 petty loan companies across the country with total loan balance of RMB 927.3 billion and average loan balance of the company of RMB 107 million. The average loan balance of petty loan company in Sichuan has reached RMB 189 million. The average capital fund and loan balance of petty loan company in Sichuan are both higher than the national average. (January 29^th, Sichuan Daily/Li Longjun)

Sichuan “13^th Five-year” Water Resource Development Planning Firstly Emphasizes “Double Controls” on Total Water Consumption and Consumption Intensity

The Sichuan “13^th Five-year” Water Resource Development Planning printed and distributed by the General Office of Sichuan Provincial People’s Government puts an emphasis on “three for-the-first-time”: the regional water resources development layout is set forth for the first time, requiring water-based city expansion and pinpointing water-oriented industry; the “double controls” on total water consumption and consumption intensity are required for the first time and building drinking water assurance system for the areas the municipal and county governments stationed in is also proposed for the first time. (February 7^th, Sichuan Daily/Chen Yan)

“Four-new” Program Applies for Provincial Key Program and Is Not Subject to Investment Scale Restriction in Principle

On February 6^th, the 142^nd provincial government Ｅxecutive meeting themed by studying on and deploying provincial key program management, general airport planning and construction and state property management system reform was held. At the meeting, Sichuan Provincial Key Program Management Methods was reviewed and approved = with application scope and standards introduced, emphasizing the new technology, new product, new business activity and new business pattern not being subject to the investment scale restriction and the project not in compliance with industrial environmental protection and land use policies should not be classified as provincial key project. Furthermore, the meeting also approved the Sichuan General Airport Layout Planning (2016-2030), elaborating the five general airports to be built in the five economic zones - Chengdu Plain, the South Sichuan, the Northeast Sichuan, the Panxi Area and the Northwest Sichuan based on the development orientation, resource endowment and industrial basis. (February 7^th, Sichuan Daily/Chen Yan)

450 Key Industrial Projects to Commence in the First Quarter

The General Office of Sichuan Provincial People’s Government printed and distributed Opinions on Positive Opening of Industry-based Economy in the 1^st Quarter of 2017 a few days ago to set “four higher goals” for the industry-based economy of Sichuan province in the 1^st quarter; namely, the increase rate of above-scale industrial added value is to be higher than provincial yearly expected goal of 8% and higher than municipal assigned yearly expected goal; industrial investment and technological renovation investment are to be higher than the goals set by the provincial government and higher than the expected goals set by municipal government; besides, over RMB190 billion and RMB140 billion have been funded for provincial Q1 industrial investment and technological renovation. (February 7^th, Sichuan Daily/Chen Yan)

Steady Growth of Construction Industry in Sichuan in 2016

In 2016, the construction industry grew steadily, turning into a major drive for local economic development and migrated population employment. This year, gross output value of construction industry reached RMB 995.96 billion with a year-on-year growth of 13.6%; over 5.3 million people got employed by 19,800 construction and building companies, among which about 80% of employed population were rural-urban migrated labor force. (February 7^th, Sichuan Daily/Luo Zhiyang)

Sichuan CPI of January Increases by 2.6% Year-on-year

The Sichuan CPI of January increased by 0.8% compared to the same period last year with a year-on-year increase of 2.6%, and the commodity price showed a generally steady trend on the contrary. What else were released in the corresponding period included the Sichuan PPI of January which increased by 4.4% year-on-year, 0.9% higher than last month. (February 17^th, Sichuan Daily/Chen Yan)

Chengdu GDP Increases by 7.7% Year-on-year

The Chengdu gross regional domestic product of 2016 hit RMB 1.21702 trillion which increased by 7.7% in comparable price on a year-on-year basis, 1% higher than the national average and leveled off with provincial ratio. As for industries, the added value of primary industry reached RMB 47.49 billion, increasing by 4% year-on-year; the added value of secondary industry hit RMB523.2 billion, increasing by 6.7% year-on-year; the added value of tertiary industry amounted to RMB 646.33 billion, increasing by 9% year-on-year. The structural ratio of the three industries is 3.9:43.0:53.1. The yearly fixed-asset investment reached RMB 837.05 billion, increasing by 14.3% on year-on-year basis with growth rate of 8.5% compared to last year. The aggregate investment continued ranking the first among sub-provincial cities nationwide. (February 22^nd, Sichuan Daily/Zhang Hongxia)

Foreign Trade

321 Fortune Global 500 Companies Settled in Sichuan

By the end of 2016, 321 Fortune Global 500 companies have settled in Sichuan, among which 232 are overseas companies and another 22 are newly settled ones this year.

Apart from the approval obtained for the Sichuan free trade trial zone with 159 pilot reform projects granted in 2016, 460 China-Europe express trains were scheduled for operation, ranking the first in China; 95 international (regional) air routes have been opened at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, transporting inbound and outbound passengers of nearly 5 million person-time. The number of international sister city and friendly partnership has reached 218, and 16 countries have established their consulates in Sichuan. Moreover, the imports and exports have increased by 2.8% on a year-on-year basis with growth rate higher than the national average. (January 25^th, Sichuan Daily/Yuan Jing)

100-day Business Promotion Arouses Province-wide Investment Boom

The year 2017 marks the year of “pinpointed business attraction” by Sichuan Government. From February to April, key areas and major industries will be targeted for the “100-day Business Promotion” program to boost the “having a good beginning” of provincial economy. 1,000 key contracted projects are encouraged to be launched this year to facilitate the transition from introduced project to effective investment with the least delay possible. The “100-day Business Promotion” will be carried out by cities and prefectures based on their own industrial advantages by giving full play to activities such as 2017 Renowned Domestic and Overseas Companies' Trip to Sichuan and special events to promote business and collective inception of major projects. (February 10^th, Sichuan Daily/Zeng Xiaoqing)

GLOBALFOUNDRIES 12-inch Wafer Project Settled in Chengdu

The GLOBALFOUNDRIES 12-inch wafer project with an investment totaled about USD 9.053 billion was signed at the founding ceremony held in the West Hi-tech Zone on the morning of February 10^th. The GLOBALFOUNDRIES Semiconductor, founded in March 2009 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, is a world leading integrated circuit enterprise and the second largest wafer foundry in the world with operation revenue of about USD 5 billion earned in the Fiscal Year 2016. The company has three production bases (9 wafer production plants) in Germany, the US and Singapore and the R&D centers established in Beijing and Shanghai. The 12-inch wafer production base in Chengdu will be equipped with the most advanced technology and the largest investment scale deployed by GLOBALFOUNDRIES in the world. The first 22-nanometer FD-SOI 12-inch wafer OEM production line will be introduced into this project to reduce more power consumption and comprehensive cost than that of in current mainstream chip production. The products of GLOBALFOUNDRIES are extensively applied to mobile terminal, IoT, smart device and automotive electronics with broad market space. (February 11^th, Sichuan Daily/Zhang Hongping, Chen Bihong, Xiong Xiaowei)

Value of Foreign Exports of January Increases by Half Year-on-year

The gross value of imports and exports of Sichuan of January 2017 hit RMB 31.71 billion, increasing by 76.2% compared to the same period last year and 57% higher than the national average, among which the export value reached RMB 15.6 billion, increasing by 53.9%, 38% higher than the national average; the import value was doubled and amounted to RMB 16.11 billion which was 75% higher than the national average.
As for the market, the values of imports and exports between Sichuan and the first 5 trade partners have been increasing to varying degrees; specifically, the values of imports and exports with the US have increased by 59.6%, such values have also increased by over 80% in imports and exports with the ASEAN, the EU, Korea and Japan; the growing rate of values of imports and exports with countries and regions along “the Belt and Road” such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Israel, Egypt and Poland have doubled on year-on-year basis. The electromechanical products export takes up nearly 80% of provincial gross export value, including the export of laptop with value increased by over sevenfold, integrated circuit export value increased by 4.8 times, and doubled automobile export value. Traditional labor intensive products export is also being normalized, the value of export of 7 kinds of products including the garment and shoes has increased by 12.2%. The electromechanical products import value increased by 1.3 times, taking up about 90% of the gross import value in the corresponding period. Integrated circuit, laptop parts and components, printed circuit, testing instrument and automotive components are imported to Sichuan through the processing trade. (February 18^th, Sichuan Daily/Zeng Xiaoqing)

Key Projects

Number of Provincial Key Projects Breaks the Historical Record

A few days ago, Sichuan officially finalized the 2017 provincial key project list covering 700 projects in total, which broke the historical record.
The year 2016 was the first “project year” with province-wide key projects totaling 631. This year, Sichuan will continue implementing the “project year” program to introduce more key projects of up to record-breaking 700 with planned investment totaled RMB 3.99 trillion and annual intended investment of RMB 460 billion. In particular, 433 are continued projects with planned investment amounted to RMB 2.59 trillion and annual intended investment of RMB 343.4 billion; 267 are newly-commenced projects with planned investment totaled RMB 1.4 trillion. It is projected that 60 investment projects will be completed within the year.
Industrial project still takes up the largest share of all projects. More than half of all is industrial project (361) with planned total investment of RMB 1.78 trillion. As for the investment amounts, infrastructural project is the biggest spender as RMB 1.79 trillion and annual intended investment of over RMB200 billion are planned to be invested in such 247 projects. (February 4^th, Sichuan Daily/Liang Xianrui, Zhu Xueli)

“Quick Commencement” of 116 Projects

In 2017, 116 projects of 31 central enterprises in Sichuan and 11 provincial state-owned enterprises will be included into the provincial key project list with annual intended investment of RMB 114.9 billion which takes 24.7% of total planned investment amount of provincial key projects. 116 are aerospace and aviation, electronic information, energy and materials and transportation facilities related projects. In addition, 7 projects including the Chengdu-Kunming Railway Chengdu-E’mei Section capacity expansion project, Chengdu-Anyue-Chongqing Expressway Sichuan section project and China Mobile data center base project are to be completed and put into production within the year as planned. 67 continued projects like the Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, CEC Gen. 8.6 LCD panel production line, Changning shale gas field phase I project and the Shuangjiangkou Hydropower Station are planned to be completed by overfulfilling the annual investment plan. 42 new projects (equal split of central enterprises’ projects and provincial state-owned enterprises’ projects) are planned to be kicked off, including Chengdu-Xining Railway, Minjiang River Longxikou navigation-power junction project, and Bazhong-Wanyuan Expressway. (February 9^th, Sichuan Daily/Zhu Xueli)

Cultural and Tourism Program Worthy of RMB 18.3 Billion Introduced to Dujiangyan

On February 14^th, 6 projects with investment amount totaled RMB18.3 billion were collectively signed and settled in Dujiangyan. Within the ensuing 5 years, Dujiangyan will develop and introduce 1000 tourist industry-related large-scale companies, creating a tourism industrialized investment scale worthy of RMB100 billion and building a 1000km² region-based tourism demonstration zone. (February 15^th, Sichuan Daily/Luo Xiangming)

Collective Signing and Commencement of Key Projects in Chengdu

On February 17^th, 73 key projects with total investment of RMB35.303 billion were kicked off collectively in Jintang. The Xinxing Heavy Industries Group Co., Ltd. intelligent manufacturing industrial park project was the largest single investment project with intended investment of RMB10 billion. The project covers emergency rescue equipment industrial park, national public security emergency experiencing base, southwest regional headquarters and application demonstration residential quarters. The annual sales revenue to be generated from the project after completion is estimated to be RMB12 billion. 
Among the 73key projects, 33 are industrial projects with planned investment totaled RMB23.213 billion, taking up over 60% of the aggregate investment. Such percentage and ratio again indicate that the industrial investment will still be the mainstay of the investment basis of Chengdu this year. Last year, the industrial investment reached RMB224.62 billion, increasing by 41% on year-on-year basis with the growing rate ranking the first among sub-provincial cities. This year, Chengdu has already set the goal of hitting the industrial investment of RMB300 billion. In fact, RMB50 billion will be invested in the first quarter during which 25 projects including the China Mobile Chengdu Data Center are expected to be completed and put into operation. (February 18^th, Sichuan Daily/Jiang Junfang)

Industries

Sichuan E-commerce Transaction Scale Ranks the 6^th Nationwide

In 2016, the E-commerce transaction amount hit RMB2.122857 trillion, increasing by 26% on year-on-year basis with growing rate ranking the 5^th and transaction scale at 6^th nationwide. Last year, the online retail sales throughout the province reached RMB246.24 billion, increasing by 28.2% on year-on-year basis with the ratio of total retail sales of consumer goods climbed from 14% in the past year to nearly 16%. The contribution rate of online retail sales to the increase of total retail sales of consumer goods hit 33%, driving the growth of total retail sales of consumer goods by nearly 3.9%.
As of now, there have been 270,000 online merchants throughout the province, among which 85% of them are online commerce and trade merchants and 55% of above-scale industrial companies with over 350 platforms available. There are 388,800 E-commerce companies and online merchants which are 73300 more than that of in 2015, which means over 200 online merchants are registered every day equivalently. At present, the province has 17 platform listed companies, more than 10 preparing for market listing and over 30 companies with online sales volume exceeding RMB100 million. (January 27^th, Sichuan Daily/Zeng Xiaoqing)

Chengdu Hi-tech Zone Rise to the 3^rd Place in the Comprehensive Ranking of State-level Hi-tech Zones

According to the 2016 State-level Hi-tech Zones evaluation results by the Torch Center of Ministry of Science & Technology, Chengdu Hi-tech Zone is risen to the 3^rd right behind the Zhongguancun National Demonstration Zone and the Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone in the comprehensive ranking of State-level Hi-tech Zones other than the 4^th in the year before.
Last year, the industrial added value of Chengdu Hi-tech Zone reached RMB143.65 billion, increasing by 8.5% on year-on-year basis with, GDP/km² exceeding RMB1.1 billion; the completed fixed-asset investment hit RMB63.67 billion, increasing by 15.3% on year-on-year basis; total export-import volume soared to RMB171.19 billion, increasing by 19.2% on year-on-year basis, among which the total export-import volume of Chengdu Hi-tech Comprehensive Bonded Zone hit RMB157.3 billion, ranking the 3^rd among all bonded zones nationwide. Thanks to the further improvement of economic quality and benefit, 5200 scientific and technological enterprises are newly registered, making the total number of incubated enterprise up to 12700, standing the front row among the hi-tech zones across the country. 4 key projects with investment amount exceeding RMB10 billion are introduced, and 55 “three new boards” listed companies have made their debut with number of such company ranking the 2^nd among all hi-tech zones nationwide.
In 2017, Chengdu Hi-tech Zone, by centering on integrated circuit and new-type display industrial eco-system, will introduce critical materials companies to guide enterprises to develop network communication, digital audio and video and industrial application-oriented IC products.  In addition, the bio-industrial scale is strived to be over RMB30 billion by the end of the year with investment in bio-industry exceeding RMB4 billion. Besides, more efforts will be put in the aerospace and aviation equipment, UAV, rail transit and artificial intelligence. (February 5^th, Sichuan Daily/Xiong Xiaowei)

Sichuan Tea Industry Is Approaching the Annual Comprehensive Yield Goal of RMB 60 Billion

In recent years, measures and initiatives have been taken to boost Sichuan’s tea industry. In 2014, the provincial government initiated the RMB 100-billion Sichuan tea industry goal (expanding Sichuan tea plantation area of 5 million mu with total yield of 300,000 tons and comprehensive output value of RMB 60 billion) to be achieved in 2020 in the No. 1 document. At the end of 2016, the “1+6 action plan” for agricultural supply-side structural reform designed for the tea industry was unveiled, claiming that the tea leaves mechanical plucking rate shall be over 50% (increasing by 30%) by 2020 with mechanical processing rate risen by 5%. The high-quality tea processing rate shall be increased by 10% and the “Tianfu Longya” regional tea brand shall be promoted as a priority. This year, Sichuan will hold the 6^th Sichuan International Tea Fair and Chinese Tea Industry International Forum. (February 14^th, Sichuan Daily/Li Miao)

Chengdu Jingrong Innovation and Startup Service Center

On February 15^th, Chengdu Hi-tech Zone and UESTC held the signing ceremony and foundation stone laying ceremony in Chengdu for co-building the Jingrong Innovation and Startup Service Center. As agreed, both parties will the center with joint effort and strive to establish a RMB one-hundred-billion-level new-gen. information technology industrial zone around the UESTC by the year 2022.
The Jingrong Innovation and Startup Service Center, with the goal of building the globally influential innovation and startup highland for new-gen. information technology development, has 6 international cooperative projects such as the international neural information joint research center and the international advanced wireless communication technology joint research center as well as 20 interdisciplinary research centers like the big data research center, robot research center and integrated circuit research center, which will serve as catalysts to generate more scientific and technological achievements with independent intellectual property rights and cultivate a batch of hi-new tech companies, steering the development of strategic emerging industries and transforming and upgrading conventional industries. It is predicted that by the year 2022, the center will attract over 200 high-level personnel including the academicians and develop more than 100 generic technologies, key technologies and futuristic technologies with at least 500 hi-tech companies incubated accumulatively. (February 16^th, Sichuan Daily/Xiong Xiaowei)

Chengdu Becomes One of the First “Made in China 2025” Pilot Cities in Western China

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approved and granted the Implementation Plan of Developing Chengdu into the Pilot City of “Made in China 2025” a few days ago, Chengdu since then has become the “Made in China 2025” Pilot City granted in the second batch of candidate cities nationwide and in the first batch of candidate cities in Western China.

According to the official approval, Chengdu is to be developed into a national center for advanced manufacturing industry and to become an advanced manufacturing base grounded upon the state’s global strategy, setting a model of city of manufacturing in western China and playing a leading role with referential experiences in the Made in China 2025 deployment throughout the country. The experimental path of Chengdu is also clarified that the city shall center on facilitating the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry and quality and efficiency improvement in line with the supply-side structural reform to create an ecological environment which will benefit the innovative development and transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry; moreover, the government-industry-university-research institute collaborative innovation and military-civilian integrated system shall be deployed in the form of opening and cooperation to realize the transitions of traditional manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing, production-oriented manufacturing to service-oriented manufacturing and resource consumption-oriented manufacturing to green manufacturing. (February 17^th, Sichuan Daily/Zhang Hongxia)

Sichuan Tourism Industry Revitalized with “Packaged Projects” and “Double Billion Projects”

In 2017, Sichuan will continue its tourist investment and financing “Double Billion-Valued Projects” which will be turned into “Packaged Projects” this year, covering public toilet, gasoline station, parking lot, campsite, viewing deck, commercial outlet and postbox projects for the purpose of attracting more social capitals in the PPP mode.
The province this year will facilitate the building of 364 villages for poverty alleviation through tourism, which will be built by standard with financial support. Moreover, 6 counties including Qingchuan County and Peng’an County will be encouraged and supported to build provincial-level demonstration zones for poverty alleviation through tourism to drive the peripheral development. 112 provincial-level demonstration villages for poverty alleviation through tourism will be built to implement the tourism livelihood program and create the interest bonded mechanisms between tourism development and poverty alleviation. As for the “Double Billion-Valued Projects”, the Sichuan tourism investment group will be founded this year to encourage a batch of specialized and advantageous tourist companies to get listed at Chengdu (Sichuan-Tibet) Equity Exchange Center; qualified tourist enterprises will be supported to get listed at the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In addition, eligible county-level governments will be allowed to establish tourism development zones and project funds. (February 17^th, Sichuan Daily/Feng Chaoying, Liu Xing)

The General Association of Sichuan Entrepreneurs Invests RMB 100 Billion in Sichuan

Since its founding, the General Association of Sichuan Entrepreneurs attracted 15,000 regular members and 75 directors in less than a year. Now, the association has gathered a number of large-scale state-owned enterprises, outstanding private companies and established instant liaison mechanisms with 31 provinces, districts and cities in China as well as Singapore, New York, Sydney and Paris. This year, it will expedite the preparation of RMB 10 billion-scale PPP foundation and RMB 5 billion-scale cross-border e-commerce foundation with proactive exploration made on “General Association plus Industrial Park” operation pattern, striving for a substantial progress of the Sichuan entrepreneurs innovation and creativity industrial park within the year. (February 18^th, Sichuan Daily/Li Xinyi)

Convention & Exhibition Economy

CCPIT Sichuan Council

Vice-chairman Li Li Held Met with Consul General of Ethiopia in Chongqing

On February 21^st 2017, the vice-chairman of CCPIT Sichuan Council- Li Li held meeting with Kebede Abella, the Consul General of Ethiopia in Chongqing. Mr. Li warmly received the Consul General - Kebede Abella at the CCPIT Sichuan Council and expressed the hope that communications with Ethiopia would be strengthened constantly to deepen our mutually-beneficial cooperation. Abella in response extended gratitude to the CCPIT Sichuan Council for unswerving support rendered to the consulate-general and said that the economy of Ethiopia had been growing for 12 consecutive years and five Sichuan companies had invested in Ethiopia. As expected, cooperation in manufacturing industry, infrastructure construction, technical industry, energy and tourism are to be strengthened to attract more Sichuan companies to establish Sichuan Industrial Park in Ethiopia.