A mechanic walks past cars at the Anhui Jianghuai Automobile factory in Hefei, Anhui province. [Zhu Lixin/China Daily] Traveling by ship on the Yangtze River, tourists see fewer smoking chimneys in the riverside city of Anqing, Anhui province. Though some of the chimneys remain on the northern bank of the river, where the urban area is located, others have been moved to a zone for petrochemical companies, several kilometers away from the river. Those were replaced by modern office buildings, which offer more space for new industries. Anqing's economy had been dominated by petrochemicals. Data provided by the local government show that the industry contributed more than 46 percent of the city's industrial output value in 2014, when it recorded a value of 73.1 billion yuan ($10.6 billion) and a GDP of 154 billion yuan. In recent years, the city has been increasing its efforts to not only upgrade the traditional petrochemical industry but develop new sectors for more environmentally friendly and sustainable growth, said Cao Jindong, chief economist of the Anqing economic and information technology commission. Cao said the efforts have been well rewarded and offers two examples. In 2014, a machine tools company, Anqing Hongqing Fine Machinery, had more than 200 employees and annual sales revenue of more than 30 million yuan, according to Wang Honggui, assistant to the general manager of the company. In that year, the world's largest contract manufacturer, Foxconn Technology Group, acquired the company, partly thanks to local government support. The government helped build a new 1.3-hectare plant and handed it over to Foxconn, which had never invested in Anhui province before. The plant saw the start of construction in 2015. It was completed in 2017, Wang said, adding that while the company is still paying for the project, things have become much easier. The number of employees has doubled, and annual sales revenue surged to 657 million yuan, almost 20 times higher than the 2014 level, Wang said. The company now provides machinery to Foxconn for producing cellphone components. Other efforts have gone into the new energy vehicle industry, Cao said. In 2014, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile, or JAC, a carmaker based in Hefei, Anhui, started building a major plant in Anqing to produce electric vehicles. The plant started up in 2016, with a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan and a production capacity of 50,000 electric vehicles. The first products were produced in 2016, when each vehicle was able to run for only 170 kilometers or less, while the latest model IEV6E is able to run 310 kilometers, said Long Kaifeng, general manager of JAC's Anqing subsidiary. About 6 kilometers away from the JAC plant, a bigger investment is being made by Yudea New Energy Technology Group to produce electric vehicles. The company, based in Hebei province, expects that the 2.3-billion-yuan first phase will start operating before the end of this year. Public information shows that the first phase will be able to produce 200,000 vehicles a year. The carmakers are based in a new industrial park dedicated to the new energy vehicle industry. Government planners project that the city will see an annual output of 500,000 electric vehicles by 2020. Material provided by the city's development and reform commission showed that the city will produce a total of more than 50,000 electric vehicles this year. The city has been upgrading strategic emergent industries, which include new energy vehicles, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials and new-generation information technology. Over the past five years, the city's strategic industries sector has been growing by an average of 13.2 percent annually in output value, according to the 2018 government report delivered by Chen Bingbing, mayor of Anqing, in January. The sector saw a 21.6 percent growth in output value in the first half of the year, compared with the same period the previous year - 2.8 percentage points higher than the province overall, Cao said. silicone bracelets canadaevent wristbandsrubber band bracelets
Visitors from the Chinese mainland pose for pictures in front of Ruins of St.Paul's Cathedral in Macao, Oct 1, 2018. [Photo/IC] MACAO - The total spending (excluding gaming expenses) of visitors in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) for the whole year in 2018 increased by 13.6 percent year-on-year to 69.69 billion patacas, the SAR's statistics service said on Saturday. Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the total spending of overnight visitors (56.24 billion patacas) and same-day visitors (13.45 billion patacas) recorded respective growth of 13.0 percent and 16.2 percent. The per-capita spending of visitors for the whole year rose by 3.5 percent to 1,946 patacas. Per-capita spending of overnight visitors grew by 5.5 percent year-on-year to 3,041 patacas, and that of same-day visitors rose by 3.1 percent to 777 patacas. Per-capita spending of visitors from the Chinese mainland took the lead in 2018 at 2,242 patacas, up by 1.8 percent year-on-year; spending of those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (2,609 patacas) rose by 4.9 percent year-on-year. In 2018, shopping spending of visitors (916 patacas) rose by 7.2 percent year-on-year and accounted for 47.1 percent of per-capita spending, whereas spending on accommodation (498 patacas), and food and beverage (389 patacas) constituted 25.6 percent and 20.0 percent respectively. (One US dollar equals to 8.08 patacas)
