Tourism fever, booming consumption and strong industry show China’s economic vitality from many angles and fields.

CCTV News:Today (January 27), the National Bureau of Statistics released data showing that in 2023, with the gradual improvement of domestic demand, industrial production steadily picked up, and the benefits of industrial enterprises above designated size continued to recover. Profits of major industrial sectors have improved actively, among which the profit growth of equipment manufacturing industry has accelerated and its supporting role has been further enhanced.

In 2023, the total profits of industrial enterprises above designated size in China reached 7,685.83 billion yuan, down 2.3% from the previous year, with a decrease ratio of 1-mdash; In November, it narrowed by 2.1 percentage points. From the growth rate of that month, since August, the profits of industrial enterprises have achieved positive growth for five consecutive months.

From the perspective of industrial enterprise business, in 2023, industrial enterprises above designated size realized operating income of 133.44 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.1% over the previous year, and the cumulative revenue growth rate rebounded for five consecutive months.

From the perspective of industries, in 2023, among the 41 major industrial sectors, 27 industries’ profits increased over the previous year, with a profit growth rate of 65.9%, an increase of 12.2 percentage points over the previous year, and 29 industries’ annual profit growth rate showed an upward trend, accounting for over 70%.

The profit growth of equipment manufacturing industry has accelerated, and its supporting role has been further enhanced. In 2023, the profit growth rate of the equipment manufacturing industry was 4.1%, 2.4 percentage points faster than the previous year, which boosted the industrial profit growth by 1.4 percentage points. From the perspective of specific industries, the electrical machinery industry was driven by new energy industries such as photovoltaic and lithium-ion batteries, and its profit increased by 15.7%.

China’s foreign exchange market remains active and the foreign-related economy has recovered steadily.

According to the latest data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in December 2023, China’s foreign exchange market totaled 20.54 trillion yuan. In 2023, the cumulative turnover was 252.58 trillion yuan. The foreign exchange market remained active and the market operated smoothly and orderly. In December 2023, the import and export scale of China’s international balance of payments trade in goods and services was 4,339.1 billion yuan, up 2% year-on-year, hitting a monthly high in the year. In 2023, China achieved a trade surplus of 4.2794 trillion yuan, the second highest value in history.

Loans support science and technology enterprises.

On January 26th, the People’s Bank of China released the statistical report on the loan investment of financial institutions in 2023. The report shows that in 2023, medium and long-term loans in China’s industry, service industry and infrastructure industry maintained a relatively high growth rate, and loans supported science and technology enterprises.

The data shows that at the end of 2023, the balance of RMB loans of financial institutions was 237.59 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.6%; In the whole year, RMB loans increased by 22.75 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.31 trillion yuan over the same period of last year.

From the perspective of loan investment, medium and long-term loans in industry, service industry and infrastructure industry maintained a relatively high growth rate, of which the balance of medium and long-term loans in heavy industry was 18.62 trillion yuan, up 28% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 2.5 percentage points higher than that at the end of last year; The balance of medium and long-term loans for light industry was 3.2 trillion yuan, up 27.9% year-on-year.

Green loans grew rapidly. At the end of 2023, the balance of local and foreign currency green loans was 30.08 trillion yuan, up 36.5% year-on-year, 26.4 percentage points higher than the growth rate of various loans, and 8.48 trillion yuan higher than the beginning of the year.

By the end of 2023, there were 212,000 small and medium-sized science and technology enterprises supported by loans, with a loan rate of 46.8%, 2.1 percentage points higher than the end of last year. The balance of local and foreign currency loans of small and medium-sized science and technology enterprises was 2.45 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.9%, which was 11.8 percentage points higher than the growth rate of various loans in the same period. There were 217,500 high-tech enterprises supported by loans, and the loan rate was 54.2%, 0.8 percentage points higher than the end of last year.

This year, a series of measures will be introduced to continue to cultivate cross-border e-commerce

The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that foreign trade achieved positive growth last year, and cross-border e-commerce contributed. This year, a series of measures will be introduced to continue to cultivate cross-border e-commerce.

The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that this year, "Several Measures for Expanding Cross-border E-commerce Exports and Promoting the Development of Overseas Warehouses" will be issued, and "Cross-border E-commerce+Industrial Belt" will be developed to encourage traditional foreign trade enterprises to transform cross-border e-commerce, support head enterprises to promote the coordinated development of upstream and downstream supply chains, and incubate more start-ups relying on cross-border e-commerce industrial parks in various places. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce will also promote the promulgation of the Guide for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights of Cross-border E-commerce. In the process of cross-border e-commerce, it is necessary to ensure that it can protect intellectual property rights in all aspects, including the first journey, the last journey, payment, marketing and overseas warehousing.

The first day of cross-regional personnel flow in Spring Festival travel rush is expected to exceed 182 million person-times.

Today (January 27th) is the second day of Spring Festival travel rush. Let’s take a look at the travel fever in Spring Festival travel rush through a set of data. Yesterday, the first day of Spring Festival travel rush, the cross-regional mobility of the whole society was estimated to be 182.83 million. Specifically, the railway sent 11.063 million passengers; The flow of highway personnel is estimated to be 169.71 million person-times, of which 142.65 million person-times travel by road; The passenger volume of civil aviation was 2,066,100 passengers.

As of yesterday, during the period of Spring Festival travel rush, the number of air tickets booked on domestic routes exceeded 26 million, and Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Kunming, Haikou, Harbin, Hangzhou and Xi ‘an were popular destinations.

Today, the railway is expected to send 12.2 million passengers, of which the Yangtze River Delta Railway is expected to send 2.7 million passengers, and Guangdong will open more trains to popular directions such as Wuhan, Guiyang and Changsha. Today, the national highways are running normally, and the civil aviation is expected to transport 2.03 million passengers, and the waterway passenger traffic is expected to be more than 600,000 passengers.

The cumulative registered users of the National Smart Education Platform exceeded 100 million.

In 2022, the Ministry of Education launched the national education digitalization strategic action, focusing on students’ learning, teachers’ teaching, school governance and educational innovation, and launched the online national wisdom education platform. Up to now, the cumulative number of registered users of the National Smart Education Platform has exceeded 100 million.

Since the launch of the National Smart Education Platform in 2022, its resources have been continuously expanded. It has gathered 88,000 primary and secondary school resources, over 10,000 online quality courses for vocational education and 27,000 high-quality massive open online course courses for higher education, launched special resources such as "2023 Summer Teacher Training", expanded the service items for studying abroad in the service hall, and completed the aging-adapted and barrier-free access transformation.

At present, the national intelligent education platform has become the world’s largest educational digital resource center and service platform, and won the UNESCO Education Informatization Award last year.

China-Singapore mutual visa exemption policy for 30 days landed on New Year’s Eve.

On January 25th, China and Singapore signed a visa waiver agreement. The agreement will be officially implemented on February 9, 2024, that is, on New Year’s Eve this year. At that time, ordinary passport holders of both sides can enter the other country without a visa to engage in private affairs such as tourism, visiting relatives and business, and stay for no more than 30 days. After the news was released, the tourism fever in Singapore also increased rapidly.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin:The entry into force of the visa-free agreement between China and Singapore before the Spring Festival in the Year of the Loong, China, is undoubtedly a new year gift to the two peoples, which will further promote cultural exchanges between China and Singapore and promote the continuous development of China-Singapore relations and cooperation in various fields.

Once the news of visa-free implementation was released, it caused widespread concern among netizens. The search popularity of many domestic tourism platforms about Singapore has also rapidly increased, making it the first choice for more tourists to travel abroad during the Spring Festival.

Many industries in Singapore have begun to make preparations to welcome China tourists.

This year’s Spring Festival may usher in the hottest outbound tour in five years.

In the past year, the domestic inbound and outbound tourism policies have been favorable. On December 1, 2023, Malaysia began to implement visa-free entry measures for tourists from China within 30 days. In 2023, Kazakhstan, Angola, Thailand and other countries also implemented visa-free policies for China tourists to varying degrees. During the Spring Festival holiday this year, the number of reservations to Thailand on a business platform increased by nearly 37 times compared with the Spring Festival in 2023, and the number of reservations to Malaysia increased by 52 times compared with the Spring Festival in 2023. Some industry analysts believe that this year’s Spring Festival tourism market is expected to usher in "the hottest outbound tour in five years".

In 2023, Zhejiang Province received 760 million tourists.

According to the data of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism, in 2023, the province received 760 million tourists and the tourism income was 990.76 billion yuan. There are 3,239 cultural tourism investment projects in the province, with an annual investment of 410.11 billion yuan.