ECONOMY/SOCIETY

Services Trade up 25.8% in Q1

Despite the impact of COVlD-19 and other negative factors,China’s services trade value kept growing in the first quarter of 2022.

In 2022,the growth of services trade exports outpaced import growth by 9.5 percentage points.

China has taken a slew of measures to expand the opening- up of the services industry.Trade in knowledgeintensive services grew steadily,while the travel-related service sector also recovered.

More Green Data Centers Built

Forty-four data centers in the areas from communications and Internet to energy and finance have been added to the 2021 national green data center list announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and other six departments recently.

Currently,China has established a total of 153 national green data centers.

Data centers are providers of great computing power,but are also big energy consumers.Promoting their green development is not only conducive to the sustainable development of the digital economy,but also key to reducing energy consumption for new infrastructure.

By adjusting the power supply structure,reducing power waste,and using energy consumption monitoring systems,the national green data centers have improved power efficiency.During the next phase,MIIT will encourage data centers to explore such areas as the optimization of their layout,technological innovation,and the direct purchase of green electricity.

25 Goals

China’s central authorities issued a document on promoting urbanization through developing counties recently,setting 25 goals for the development of counties.lt includes cultivating feature industries,improving urban facilities,strengthening public service supplies,and improving living environments.

RMB 15.4 Billion Invested in Rural Water Supply in Q1

During the first quarter of this year,China invested RMB 15.4 billion in rural water supply projects,improving water supply for 4.29 million rural residents.By the end of this year,tap water is expected to be accessible to 85 percent of the rural population,and largescale water supply projects are expected to cover 54 percent of them.

The Ministry of Water Resources requires local governments to make full use of the central subsidy funds,strengthen fund-raising efforts at local levels,and give priority to the maintenance of old,vulnerable pipelines and other facilities.

Foreign Investors Stay Optimistic about Chinese Market

As evaluated by domestic and foreign companies,China’s business environment in 2021 improved,scoring 4.38 points,according toChina’s Business Environment Annual Report(2021) released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).

Among the companies surveyed,over 70 percent have achieved revenue growth,and over 50 percent still see China as one of their main strategic markets,despite challenges to their businesses triggered by COVID-19 resurgences.

Most companies surveyed said the Guideline on Building a Unified Domestic Market,which was officially released on April 10,is beneficial for foreign enterprises investing in China,as it greatly boosts their confidence in maintaining stable operations and expanding investment in the country.

The guideline sets the goals of building a highly efficient,rules-based,fair,and open domestic market through strengthening anti-monopoly efforts,building a modernized circulation network,and improving the exchange channels of market information.

Occupational Diseases in Sharp Decline

At a recent press conference,the National Health Commission said that 15,407 cases of occupational diseases were reported in 2021,marking a sharp fall of 43.8 percent from the 2012 figure.Newly reported pneumoconiosis went down by 51.2 percent during the period.

Following three revisions to the Law on Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases,China has established a complete legal system for protecting workers’ occupational health.In the institutional restructuring of the State Council in 2018,government functions of occupational health supervision were integrated and a four-tier network for coordination in preventing and treating such diseases at the state,provincial,prefectural,and county levels has been established since then.

China has included occupational diseases in its basic public health program,and is closely monitoring workers’ occupational health and hazard factors across more than 95 percent of counties and urban districts.This allows the government to have a clear picture of the prevalence of relevant diseases in each area so as to provide better support to victims.

RMB 127 Million

RMB 127 million has been allocated recently by the Ministry of Finance to support the protection of intangible cultural heritage in 2022.The fund will be used for the management of intangible cultural heritage across the country.

As of mid-April,China’s daily capacity for nucleic acid testing had reached 51.65 million tubes of samples.There were 13,100 testing agencies and close to 150,000 technicians working on the testing across the country.Thirty seven COVID-19 testing reagents had been approved for market use.

Nature Reserves Along the Yellow River Well Managed

The latest assessment by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration shows that 82 national nature reserves along the Yellow River are generally well managed.

According to the results of the assessment,40.2 percent of protected wildlife saw their living conditions markedly improved.Vegetation coverage remained stable or had expanded in more than 89 percent of the areas being assessed.Ecological functions of water and soil conservation and carbon sequestration in these areas were enhanced.Wetland degradation at the lower reaches of the Yellow River is being alleviated.

The assessment also exposed some issues that need to be addressed,such as susceptibility of eco-systems to human impact and flaws with the ecological compensation mechanism.

The 82 nature reserves are home to 24 percent of the country’s wild animal species and 14 percent of plant species under state protection.

China to Ramp up Textile Recycling Capability

China,the world’s largest producer of textile products,has unveiled a guideline as a roadmap to ramp up its capability to recycle textile waste.

The country aims to recycle a quarter of its textile waste and produce two million tonnes of regenerated fiber products annually by 2025,according to a document unveiled by the National Development and Reform Commission,the Ministry of Commerce,and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

By 2030,a relatively complete system for textile waste recycling will have been established,and China will be able to recycle 30 percent of its textile waste and produce three million tonnes of regenerated fiber products annually,said the document.

Incentives will be rolled out to encourage companies to improve product design so that textile products can be more easily dismantled,classified,and recycled after being discarded,said the document.

Only about one-fifth of the roughly 22 million tonnes of textile waste generated in China in 2020 was recycled.The amount of regenerated fiber products recycled from the waste was around 1.5 million tonnes.