Weekly snapshot of Chinese economic policies

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, May 25, 2019
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BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The following are the key takeaways of the major economic decisions announced by the Chinese authorities in the past week:

-- Guideline unveiled to advance food safety

China unveiled a guideline Monday to enhance the country's food safety with a phased plan to build a modern governance mechanism in the field.

More than 97 percent of the country's major produce should pass quality and food safety test by 2020, while over 98 percent of food should pass spot checks, according to the guideline released by central authorities.

By 2035, China should have a world-leading set of food safety standards, marked drop in illegal practices driven by profit-seeking, and globally advanced risk control capabilities.

-- More central bank bills to be issued in Hong Kong

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced Tuesday that it plans to issue central bank bills again in Hong Kong, following an issuance of central bank bills worth 20 billion yuan (about 2.89 billion U.S. dollars).

The successful consecutive issuance of central bank bills can help expand the range of yuan-denominated financial products of high credit rating in the region, the central bank said, adding that it will also improve the yuan yield curve in the region and push yuan internationalization.

-- Increased support for private hospitals

China will improve the sound development of private hospitals in a bid to increase medical service supplying and improve people's wellbeing, said a statement released Wednesday after a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

China will beef up policy support for private hospitals and treat them equally with public ones in terms of interprovincial on-the-spot settlement of medical bills through basic medical insurance accounts.

Private hospitals will be encouraged to conduct cooperation with public medical institutions in developing Internet Plus Healthcare models and carrying out remote medicare services, according to the statement.

-- Promotion for market-oriented, law-based debt-to-equity swap

China will set up a proper pricing mechanism for the swap, and refine the mechanism of exempting liability in case of due diligence in the state-owned enterprises and implementing agencies, a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang decided Wednesday.

Efforts will also be made to develop new approaches to pursue swaps, and the pilot program of debt-to-preferred stocks swap should be expanded. Quality companies with a high leverage ratio as well as quality business segments will be prioritized in the deb-to-equity swap.

It was decided at the meeting that multi-pronged measures will be implemented to help the financial asset investment firms involved in the swap programs replenish their capital.

-- Tax preferences for IC design, software firms specified

China has rolled out specific tax preferences for integrated circuit (IC) design and software companies, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation said Thursday in an announcement.

IC design and software companies can enjoy the preferential policy from the profit-making year until Dec. 31, 2018, as the country starts tax calculation and collection for 2018.

From the first to the second year, the corporate income tax will be exempted, and the third to fifth year, companies will be levied at half the statutory tax rate of 25 percent, the announcement said. Enditem

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