Archive for ‘medical care’

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18/10/2019

China, Mauritius sign free trade agreement

BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) — China and Mauritius signed a free trade agreement (FTA) here Thursday, the first FTA between China and an African country, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The China-Mauritius FTA is the 17th FTA signed by China.

The agreement covers trade in goods and services and investment and economic cooperation.

The FTA will not only provide a more powerful institutional guarantee to deepen bilateral economic and trade relations, but also boost China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, according to the MOC.

Negotiations on the China-Mauritius FTA were officially launched in December 2017. The two sides formally concluded the negotiations on Sept. 2, 2018, after four rounds of intensive negotiations.

In the area of trade in goods, China and Mauritius will eventually achieve zero tariffs on 96.3 percent and 94.2 percent of product tariff items, respectively, involving 92.8 percent of import volume for both countries from each other.

For the remaining tariff items of Mauritius, the tariffs will also be greatly cut, and the maximum tariffs for most of the involved products will not exceed 15 percent.

China’s main exports to Mauritius, such as iron and steel products, textiles and other light industrial products, will benefit from it.

Special sugar produced in Mauritius will also enter the Chinese market gradually.

The two sides also agreed on rules of origin, trade remedies, technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary issues.

In the area of trade in services, China and Mauritius both promised to open up more than 100 sub-sectors.

Mauritius will open up more than 130 sub-sectors in important service fields such as communications, education, finance, tourism, culture, transportation and traditional Chinese medicine to China.

This is the highest level of opening up in the field of services in Mauritius so far.

In the field of investment, the agreement has been greatly upgraded from the 1996 China-Mauritius bilateral investment protection agreement in terms of protection scope, protection level and dispute settlement mechanism.

This is the first time that China has upgraded the previous investment protection agreement with an African country, which will not only provide stronger protection for Chinese enterprises to go to Mauritius, but also help them further boost investment cooperation in Africa through the platform of Mauritius, according to the MOC.

Meanwhile, the two sides also agreed to further deepen economic and technical cooperation in agriculture, finance, medical care, tourism and other fields.

The two sides will undergo respective domestic procedures for the agreement to take effect.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in African country, agreement, agriculture, Beijing, China alert, China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, communications, Culture, Economic, education, Finance, free trade, free trade agreement (FTA), Mauritius, medical care, Ministry of Commerce (MOC)., sign, Tourism, Traditional Chinese medicine, transportation, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

29/09/2019

China expands access to public services for travellers from Hong Kong and Macau

  • New system to enable businesses and government agencies to verify mainland-issued travel permits
The new system is expected to expand access to the public transport system on the mainland. Photo: Roy Issa
The new system is expected to expand access to the public transport system on the mainland. Photo: Roy Issa

Hong Kong and Macau residents and “overseas Chinese” may soon be able to have full access to public services on the mainland using their China-issued travel documents, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Xinhua reported on Wednesday that the National Immigration Administration was putting a platform in place to enable government agencies and businesses to verify mainland-issued travel permits for Hong Kong and Macau residents.

“As soon as the platform becomes operational, these overseas travellers can, from October, have access to 35 public services, ranging from transport, to finance, education, communications, medical care and accommodation,” the report said.

According to the report, “overseas travellers” cover Hong Kong and Macau residents and ethnic Chinese living overseas.

But it did not say why the new measures did not apply to people from Taiwan.

The administration did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Will Hong Kong anti-government protests ruin city’s role in Beijing’s Greater Bay Area plan? Depends on whom you ask

The new measure appears to be part of a long-term strategy by Beijing to foster closer ties between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macau.

In the last few years, the central government has launched a host of incentives for Hong Kong and Macau residents and businesses, including opportunities in the Greater Bay Area development plan in southern China.

Ivan Zhai, executive director of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce in China-Guangdong, welcomed the new measure.

“If such an arrangement can be fully implemented, Hong Kong businesspeople who operate on the mainland will be thrilled,” Zhai said.

The Hong Kong business community has long lobbied for relaxation over areas such as train ticketing and hotel registration.

Zhai said that although Hong Kong and Macau residents could now book high-speed train tickets with their mainland-issued travel permits, there were few ticket machines that could automatically read the permits, complicating the process.

“There are also hotels on the mainland that can only entertain guests with Chinese identity cards and currently Hong Kong travellers can only go to hotels that are authorised to accept the mainland-issued travel permits,” he said.

China’s regulator relaxes currency conversion rules throughout Shenzhen, sharpening city’s edge in Greater Bay Area

According to the report, there will be stiff penalties for departments or businesses misusing information collected through the platform.

Zhai said Hong Kong businesspeople who travelled to the mainland often were more likely to be concerned about convenience than the risk of invasion of privacy.

“If you are a frequent traveller in China, you would have expected that the relevant departments of the Chinese government already have information about you anyway,” he said.

Source: SCMP

Posted in access, accom­mo­dation, automatically, businesses, China alert, China-Guangdong, chinese government, communications, currency conversion, departments, education, ethnic Chinese, expands, Finance, government agencies, Greater Bay Area, Greater Bay Area plan, high-speed train tickets, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, hotel registration, Macau, mainland, medical care, operational, Overseas Chinese, overseas travellers, penalties, platform, Public services, public transport system, residents, Shenzhen, Taiwan, ticket machines, train ticketing, Transport, travel documents, travel permits, travellers, Uncategorized, verify, Xinhua News Agency | Leave a Comment »

15/04/2019

China, Japan hold 5th high-level economic dialogue

CHINA-BEIJING-JAPAN-HIGH-LEVEL ECONOMIC DIALOGUE (CN)

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chairs the fifth high-level economic dialogue between China and Japan with visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono in Beijing, capital of China, April 14, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhua) — Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday co-chaired the fifth high-level economic dialogue between China and Japan with visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono in Beijing.

Hailing that China-Japan relations has returned to the right track and yielded new achievements by the joint efforts of the two countries’ leaders and people of all social circles, Wang said the fourth high-level economic dialogue, which was restarted after an eight-year hiatus last April, facilitated policy communication and pragmatic cooperation effectively.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, while Japan will enter the new era “Reiwa”, Wang said, adding that the two countries should uphold the major consensus reached by the two countries’ leaders and jointly construct bilateral economic relations to meet the needs of the new era.

The two sides should make steady headway in promoting bilateral investments and trade cooperation, jointly build the Belt and Road, and actively explore third party market cooperation as well as local cooperation, Wang said.

He also called for consolidating the cooperation results in such areas as energy conservation and environment protection, science and technology innovation, high-end manufacturing, finance, sharing economy, medical care and elderly care industries.

Wang said that China and Japan should make joint efforts to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, uphold a business environment of fairness, justice and non-discrimination, speed up negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and China-Japan-ROK free trade agreement, and safeguard multilateralism and free trade regime.

Kono said that economic cooperation has been an important foundation and driving force for Japan-China relations.

Facing a global situation of intense uncertainty, the two sides should jointly safeguard the multilateral trade mechanism based on rules, he said.

During the dialogue, senior foreign affairs and economic officials of both countries exchanged views and achieved a series of consensus on macroeconomic policies, bilateral economic cooperation and exchanges, regional economic integration, and global economic governance.

Before the dialogue, Wang and Kono jointly attended the opening ceremony of the “China-Japan Youth Exchange Promotion Year.”

Source: Xinhua

Posted in Beijing, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China alert, China-Japan Youth Exchange Promotion Year, China-Japan-ROK free trade agreement, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, economic dialogue, elderly care industries, Energy conservation, environment protection, Finance, high-end manufacturing, Japan, Japanese Foreign Minister, medical care, People’s Republic of China, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Reiwa, science and technology innovation, sharing economy, Taro Kono, Uncategorized, Wang Yi | Leave a Comment »

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