Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

• Guangdong plans to boost supply chain cooperation with ASEAN;
• Ant Group plans to file for stablecoins permits in Hong Kong as soon as August.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

Guangdong plans to further strengthen cross-border cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Chinese province’s largest trading partner, to drive two-way trade and investment growth, according to a conference to promote trade and supply chain collaboration between the pair.

In terms of transborder e-commerce cooperation, the two regions enjoy clear advantages in industrial synergy and digital empowerment, effectively driving the deep integration of “Guangdong manufacturing” with “ASEAN demand” and injecting strong momentum into the regional economy, Cui Shuang, vice president of the Guangdong committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said at the conference yesterday.

ASEAN has been Guangdong’s largest trading partner for five consecutive years, Cui noted. Guangdong-ASEAN trade rose 8 percent to 1.5 trillion yuan last year from 2023, accounting for a fifth of China’s foreign trade with the regional bloc.

The pair will hopefully strengthen policy exchange, create an efficient and convenient regional supply chain environment, and promote the coordinated upgrading of key supply chains and further deepen platform cooperation, Pov Somnang, special assistant to the secretary-general of ASEAN and president of the ASEAN Economic and Trade Promotion Association, told the conference.

Going forward, Guangdong and Thailand can deepen cooperation in five areas, according to Li Wenli, president of the Thai Chamber of Commerce in China. They are supply-chain synergy to boost efficiency; smart upgrades to logistics systems; optimized bilateral tax collaboration mechanisms; joint talent and culture promotion; and strengthened, standardized cross-border payments.

Cambodia welcomes enterprises from Guangdong to build production bases in the country and invest in agricultural processing, electronics assembly, garment manufacturing, logistics, and other areas, said Swinali, a deputy secretary of state at Cambodia’s commerce ministry.

Also at the conference, the CCPIT Guangdong inked memoranda of understanding with business organizations from ASEAN member countries, and the Guangdong-ASEAN enterprise service platform was launched, aimed at helping Chinese firms expand in ASEAN countries and vice versa.

Moreover, seven projects were signed, including an Indonesian coal mine investment deal between Guangdong Import and Export and China Qinfa Group, as well as a USD3.1 billion tie-up between Guangdong Provincial Tourism Holdings and New Hua Sheng 2022.

Additionally at the conference, Guangdong’s first five overseas trade and investment service centers were set up in Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

• The United States should resolve trade disputes with China through equal dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng has said, Xinhua reported yesterday. China reiterates that the United States should work with China to honor their words with actions, and demonstrate sincerity in keeping commitments and concrete efforts to implement consensus, so as to jointly safeguard the hard-won outcomes of dialogue, He said. He made the remarks during the first meeting of the China-U.S. economic and trade consultation mechanism held in London from Monday to Tuesday. China hopes U.S. will jointly implement consensus reached in two presidents' phone call, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said on Thursday. 
• Chinese and African government officials and businesses are gathering in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province, for the fourth China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo that kicks off today. Themed "China and Africa: Together Toward Modernization," the event will feature 30 economic and trade activities in fields including China-Africa industrial chain collaboration, green minerals, infrastructure, traditional medicine, cultural industries and youth entrepreneurship, according to the organizer. As of Wednesday, more than 30,000 participants from home and abroad, and more than 4,700 Chinese and African businesses have registered to attend the conference and the exhibition.

GBA express

• Ant International today confirmed media reports that it plans to apply for stablecoin issuer licenses in Hong Kong immediately when the city's Stablecoins Ordinance becomes effective in August. The Singapore-based unit of Ant Group is also targeting permits in Singapore and Luxembourg as part of a broader blockchain expansion strategy, media reported on Tuesday. The move represents a significant entry into the crypto space for Ant International, which processed over USD1 trillion in global transactions last year.
• A new institution for higher learning, the Great Bay University, a key initiative under the Outline Development Plan for the Greater Bay Area, will soon open its doors for undergraduate enrollment. This follows an announcement by the Ministry of Education of a list of 10 newly approved universities, including GBU, on its website on Wednesday. Located in Dongguan, Guangdong province, GBU is a publicly funded university, which will initially offer five undergraduate programs: mathematics and applied mathematics, physics, computer science and technology, materials science and engineering, and industrial engineering.
• Chinese EV startup Leapmotor has opened its first store in Hong Kong, launching the right-hand drive versions of the two main models it uses in global markets, the C10 and the T03, in the city. The two models have been sold in 13 European countries since last September and entered some Middle Eastern, African, Asia-Pacific, and South American markets.

Industry and company news

• China's massive transport system consisting of rail, road, air and water ways handled 640 million inter-regional passenger trips, averaging 180 million trips per day, marking a 5.4 percent growth year-on-year, according to data released by China's Ministry of Transport on Thursday. In 2024, the total passenger volume reached 730 million, an increase of 17.9 percent from a year earlier. The total passenger turnover amounted to 1,291.5 billion person-kilometers, a growth of 25.3 percent. 
• China added around 91,000 public EV charging piles in May, up 34 percent from the same period last year, according to official data released today. The number of public charging piles rose 45 percent to 14 million as of May 31 from a year earlier.
• GAC Toyota announced today a new partnership with Xiaomi, officially joining the Chinese tech giant’s ‘Human x Car x Home’ smart ecosystem. The Bozhi 7 will be GAC Toyota’s first model to feature the integrated system. Going forward, more of the JV’s vehicles will adopt Xiaomi ecosystem devices, such as smart intercoms and phone holders.
• After becoming Henan province's richest person, Wang Ning, founder of Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, was the world's 92nd richest person yesterday, with a net worth of USD22.6 billion, according to Forbes Real Time Billionaire List. Pop Mart's revenue from The Monsters blind box series, including the best-selling Labubu, exceeded 3 billion yuan last year, up 727 percent from the previous year.
• Online quotas of the three-year and five-year electronic Chinese government savings bonds that were launched yesterday sold out instantly on some banks’ mobile apps, media reports. Fifty billion yuan of bonds sold like hot cakes despite interest rates being trimmed 30 bps to 1.63 percent for the three-year bond and 1.7 percent for the five-year one. Yet they still offer a better return than fixed deposits at state-owned banks.

Asia-Pacific highlights

• China today added Indonesia to its 240-hour visa-free transit program, bringing the total number of countries eligible for the policy to 55, immigration authorities announced today. Eligible Indonesian travelers can enter China and stay up to 10 days without a visa before heading to a third destination.
• Growth in the ASEAN region could slip below 4 percent by 2026 as trade policy uncertainty in the United States reaches unprecedented levels, economists warned at a seminar organized by the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office on Wednesday. The bloc, which includes economies in ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea, will see growth slip to 3.8 percent this year and 3.4 percent in 2026 in the worst-case scenario. 

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

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