CBN丨Most Chinese provinces aim to achieve at least 5% GDP growth in 2025

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.Coming up on today’s programMost Chinese provinces set GDP growth targets of above 5% for 2025;Over 200 million train tickets have been sold for 2025 Spring Festival travel rush.Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours Almost all of China’s 31 provincial-level regions have given economic growth goals of 5 percent or higher for this year, and some economically developed provinces are even aiming for more than 5.5 percent, according to their government work reports released during the regional Two Sessions recently convened across the country.Xizang is the most ambitious with a growth target set above 7 percent. The western region will even strive to reach 8 percent, it said in the work report published during its Two Sessions, which are annual meetings of the region's political and legislative advisory bodies.Hainan province in the south, Chongqing municipality in the southwest, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the west, Hubei province in central China and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north have all fixed goals of 6 percent or higher.Only Qinghai province in the west has set its growth target at around 4.5 percent.Guangdong, the province with the largest economy, is aiming for growth of around 5 percent, which is consistent with the target set last year. The southern province’s GDP is expected to rank first in the country for the 36th consecutive year in 2024, topping 14 trillion yuan, according to its recent government work report.Eastern Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, which are the country’s second and third largest economies, are aiming for growth of more than 5 percent, same as last year. While other provinces with big economies, including Zhejiang in the southeast, Sichuan in the southwest and Henan and Hunan in the center of the country, have all given growth forecasts of 5.5 percent.When it comes to how to achieve these targets, local governments have put expanding investment and bolstering consumption as their main focus this year.The Guangdong provincial government, for example, is proposing boosting demand on all fronts, effectively unleashing the potential of consumption and investment, expanding the scope of the consumer goods trade-in and large equipment upgrade policies and spurring infrastructure construction projects in key areas, according to its work report.Members of the Shenzhou-19 crew aboard China's orbiting space station completed their mission's second series of extravehicular activities at 1.12 a.m. today, according to the China Manned Space Agency. Taikonauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze worked for 8.5 hours to complete multiple tasks. Greater Bay Area, Greater futureThe London Metal Exchange has approved the Hong Kong SAR as a warehouse location for the first time as the bourse seeks a stronger link to the Chinese mainland, the world’s biggest metals market. The Hong Kong storage site will be permitted to hold the LME’s main base metals, including copper, zinc and aluminum, the LME said on Monday. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Monetary Authority of Macao have jointly launched a direct linkage for bonds between the two SARs, demonstrating the synergistic development of the Greater Bay Area. The connection between bond market infrastructures will provide a cross-border investment and financing channel, enabling investors from one market to participate in the other with greater ease and efficiency, the two regulators said in a joint statement.The total trade volume of Guangzhou hit 1.12 trillion yuan in 2024, up year-on-year by 3 percent. The city sold products valued at 700.55 billion yuan abroad, up 7.8 percent year-on-year.Hong Kong will host a range of cultural and sports events to mark the upcoming Chinese New Year, with a pair of locally-born panda twins set to make their public debut on Feb 16, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Tuesday. Events such as night parade, fireworks display, horse racing and the Chinese New Year Cup football match are scheduled during the holidays. An estimated 1.4 million mainland tourists are expected to visit Hong Kong, a 14-percent increase over that of the previous year.Next on industry and company newsChina had sold 214 million train tickets for the Chinese New Year travel rush as of 9.00 a.m. yesterday, with 13.45 million trips expected nationwide, according to the country's railway operator. Additional 862 trains will be put into operation to accommodate the growing demand.China's manufacturing industry has maintained the top position in the world in terms of overall scale for 15 consecutive years in 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Tuesday. In 2024, China's total value-added industrial output reached 40.5 trillion yuan.Over 60,000 urban renewal projects were launched in China in 2024 as part of its ongoing efforts to transform cities into more resilient and intelligent areas that are desirable to live in, drawing a total investment of 2.9 trillion yuan, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on Tuesday.China created 12.56 million new urban jobs in 2024, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Tuesday. In 2024, China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.1 percent, 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous year.China's installed capacity of solar power and wind power climbed by 45.2 percent and 18 percent respectively in 2024, the National Energy Administration said, as the country seeks to ramp up renewable energy use and upgrade its power system. As of the end of December, China's total installed power generation capacity reached 3.35 billion kilowatts, up 14.6 percent year-on-year.China's national artificial intelligence industry investment fund partnership was recently set up, billed at 60.06 billion yuan, media reported on Monday, citing company information inquiry app Qichacha. The business scope of the limited partnership covers private equity investment, investment management, and asset management.Beijing will distribute 33 million yuan in cinema vouchers from Jan. 29 to Feb. 16 to boost the movie industry, the Beijing Municipal Film Administration announced. The China Film Administration recently launched a consumption promotion campaign with subsidies of 600 million yuan.Xiaomi will offer free roadside assistance and provide a 500 yuan car-hailing voucher valid for five days to SU7 car owners facing breakdowns or accidents during the Chinese New Year holiday, founder and CEO Lei Jun said today. During the holiday, Xiaomi's car service stores will operate normally. Meanwhile, XiaomiAuto reportedly saw strong growth in orders in January, with estimates ranging from 37,000 to 40,000 units.Sales of Apple iPhones dived 18.2 percent in China during the December quarter, according toCounterpoint Research. The company’s flagship handsets, China’s top sellers a year earlier, relinquished the top spot to Huawei, whose sales jumped 15.5 percent year-on-year. Earnings reports expressShares of Suning rose after the Chinese electrical appliances retailer said it expects to have swung into the black last year and post a first profit since 2020, mainly thanks to the government-backed home appliances trade-in program. Net profit was likely between 500 million and 700 million yuan last year, the company announced yesterday. That compared with a net loss of 4.1 billion yuan in 2023. After deducting non-recurring gains and losses, Suning expects its net loss to have narrowed 72 percent to 77 percent to between 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion yuan. Thanks to the home appliance trade-in program, sales surged 65 percent last quarter from a year earlier. Home appliance sales in China jumped more than 12 percent to 1.03 trillion yuan in 2024.Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock marketChinese stocks ended mixed on Tuesday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite closed 0.05 percent lower while the Shenzhen Component added 0.5 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.9 percent and the TECH index rallied 2.1 percent.