Market

Asia, China, Market, World

Has investment banking lost its appeal among graduates from China’s elite schools?

In April, six months into an internship at an investment firm in Beijing, 24-year-old Wang Xuan (pseudonym) was told by Human Resources (HR) that he would not be offered a full-time position. Wang was unexpectedly calm when he got the news, remarking: “I anticipated this.” Signs of trouble emerged last year. He had come across reports of job cuts within the sector and got wind of discussions in the pantry regarding unpaid bonuses from the previous year. Senior colleagues openly expressed a desire to “lie flat” and resign themselves to the possibility of being laid off. Wang sighed, “Longtime employees might receive a retrenchment package of up to a million RMB. With that sum, they can afford to take a gap year and recharge. But for fresh graduates like us, it’s all about facing the ...
Asia, China, Market, World

China hands rare death sentence to former senior banker for taking US$151 million in bribes

Former manager Bai Tianhui is the second China Huarong official to receive the ultimate penalty, after his former boss was executed in 2021No mention was made of Bai’s intention to appeal the court’s ruling, which is unusually severe in Chinese corruption cases A court in eastern China delivered a rare death sentence on Tuesday, after finding that a former senior banker accepted bribes worth more than 1.1 billion yuan (US$151 million) in his role with one of the country’s top four state asset managers. Bai Tianhui, former general manager of China Huarong International Holdings (CHIH), took advantage of his position to aid others in the acquisitions and financing of projects in exchange for the huge sums, the court found. A report on the Secondary Intermediate People’s Court of Ti...
Asia, China, Market, World

Georgian Finance Minister, delegation of China’s Export-Import Bank discuss cooperation

Georgian Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili on Wednesday discussed economic and trade cooperation with China with a visiting delegation of the country’s Export and Import Bank state policy bank. The meeting comes as part of intensified ties between the two governments, who signed a strategic partnership agreement in July last year. The Georgian Ministry said the meeting with the delegation also featured Ekaterine Guntsadze, the country’s Deputy Finance Minister.
China, Market, USA

China is defending against the dollar’s dominance

The country is implementing defensive economic strategies, at least for now Financial security has become an indispensable part of China’s national security discourse since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Rising geopolitical tensions with the US since 2018 and the West’s financial sanctions against Russia have further incentivised Chinese policy-makers to fortify the economy by diluting the dollar’s centrality and developing an alternative system. To this end, the Chinese government has pursued three primary strategies. First, China has supported and promoted regional and multilateral currency and financial co-operation through regional or non-western partnerships. In 2000, it supported the launch of the Chiang Mai Initiative in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis and the B...
Asia, China, Market, World

G7 steps up economic and financial war against Russia and China

The three-day meeting of the finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 group of imperialist powers held in Stresa, Italy, concluded on Saturday. Significantly, it stepped up its aggressive stance against Russia and China, as well as giving carte blanche to the Israeli genocide in Gaza. A major item on the agenda was how the $300 billion worth of foreign assets of the Russian central bank, frozen by the US and European powers at the start of the Ukraine war, could be used to finance the Zelensky regime as it prepares to throw thousands more men into the meat-grinder, on top of the hundreds of thousands already killed or wounded. As well, revealing the interconnected character of the imperialist war fronts, the meeting adopted a more strident attitude to China and its so-called ...
China, Market

China’s non-financial outbound investments surge

BEIJING, 24th May, 2024 (WAM) -- China's non-financial outbound direct investment amounted to 343.47 billion yuan ($47.41 billion) in the first four months of 2024, up 18.7 percent year-on-year, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday. China Daily said that Chinese companies' non-financial outbound investment in countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative surged by 20.4 percent year-on-year, reaching 77.77 billion yuan. Chinese businesses' turnover of contracted projects overseas rose 8.8 percent on a yearly basis to 313.42 billion yuan between January and April, while the contract value of newly-signed projects amounted to 444.39 billion yuan, growing 9.3 percent year-on-year.
China, Market, Singapore

Monetary Authority of Singapore and People’s Bank of China Advance Collaboration in Green and Transition Finance

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the People’s Bank of China (PBC) discussed initiatives to advance cooperation in green and transition finance between China and Singapore at the 2nd China-Singapore Green Finance Taskforce (GFTF) meeting held on 20 May 2024. The initiatives discussed covered the alignment of taxonomies, facilitation of green finance flows, and the development of a decarbonisation rating platform. The GFTF was set up in 2023, with three workstreams led by private and public sector players which focus on initiatives to scale up green and transition financing flows between Singapore, China and the region. The 2nd GFTF meeting progressed on the joint initiatives under each workstream and discussed the following: Taxonomies and Definitions: MAS and P...
Asia, Market, USA, World

BMW and Jaguar used banned China parts – US probe

BMW, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Volkswagen (VW) used parts made by a supplier on a list of firms banned over alleged links to Chinese forced labour, a US congressional report has said. At least 8,000 BMW Mini Cooper cars were imported into the US with components from banned Chinese firm Sichuan Jingweida Technology Group (JWD), according to the report by Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden's staff. "Automakers’ self-policing is clearly not doing the job," the Democrat Senator said. BMW said it had "strict standards and policies regarding employment practices, human rights, and working conditions, which all our direct suppliers must follow". It added it had taken steps to "halt the importation of affected products and will be conducting a service action with custo...
Asia, China, Market, World

Assessment of the coupling coordination relationship between the green financial system and the sustainable development system across China

Abstract Green finance (GF) is recognized as a key driver of sustainable development. While existing studies have extensively discussed the relationship between GF and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), few have explored the coupling coordination relationship between GF and SDGs. In this paper, we use data from thirty Chinese provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) from 2008–2021 to examine the degree of coupling coordination development (CCD) between GF and the SDGs systems using the CCD model. We find that most SDGs and their sub-goals exhibit a significant upward trend, except for SDG8, 14–16. GF presents a fluctuating upward trend, with a significant decline in 2010 and 2019. The CCDs between GF and SDGs and their sub-goals generally show an M-shaped upward trend i...
China, Market, World

Financial Cooperation between the Bank of Thailand and the People’s Bank of China

Mr. Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput, Governor of the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and Mr. Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBC), together with their respective delegations met in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China on 21 May 2024. The discussions focused on strengthening banking and financial cooperation, including the promotion of local currency usage as well as cross-border payment and settlement. On this occasion, both governors signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a Framework for Cooperation to Promote Bilateral Transactions in Local Currencies. The MoU is aimed at enhancing accessibility and efficiency in local currency usage to promote its broader adoption. This aligns with the BOT’s continuous efforts to create ecosystems that facilitate trade and inves...