CBN丨APEC summit concludes with members calling for multilateral cooperation

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

• Asia-Pacific summit closes in Peru with members calling for effective multilateral cooperation;
• Some 285.6 billion yuan worth of deals were signed at Airshow China 2024.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

APEC members on Saturday jointly called for effective multilateral cooperation as areas including trade and investment, environment, food security and energy security are facing challenges.

They made the remarks in the 2024 APEC Leaders' Machu Picchu Declaration released following the conclusion of the 31st APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on Saturday.

Unprecedented and rapid changes continue to shape the world today, it said, adding that in this regard, leaders of APEC economies have noted the significant changes affecting areas such as trade and investment, environment, food security and energy security.

"Effective multilateral cooperation is even more important in this context," it noted.

They also reiterated their commitment to advancing economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, and continuing to foster a regional trade and investment environment in response to emerging global challenges.

The leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing supply chain connectivity to establish secure, resilient, sustainable, inclusive supply chains.

Meanwhile, China announced to host the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in 2026, the third time China will host the gathering since APEC's founding in 1989.

To advance Asia-Pacific cooperation, China took the initiative to shoulder the responsibility by offering to host APEC in 2026, which was welcomed by APEC members and received their endorsement at this year's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said his visit to Peru and participation in the APEC meeting achieved fruitful results. Lee explained that signing a free trade agreement with Peru, which will take effect in about six months, enables Hong Kong to explore new growth areas and market opportunities in South America. Hong Kong and Peru have also commenced negotiations on a separate investment promotion and protection agreement, he added. Furthermore, through joining the APEC sessions, Lee said Hong Kong enhanced connections and relationships with Association of Southeast Asian Nations economies, as well as built connections with other economies.

Greater Bay Area, Greater future

• Around 285.6 billion yuan worth of deals were signed at the Airshow China in Zhuhai, which involve 1,195 aircraft of various models. The six-day event which closed on Sunday attracted nearly 590,000 spectators and participated by 1,022 companies from 47 countries and regions, with 261 aircraft and 248 types of ground equipment exhibited, according to the organizers.
  
• Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the mutual access mechanism connecting capital markets in the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong SAR. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the average daily trading value of mainland investors buying and selling Hong Kong stocks through the programs reached 38 billion yuan in the first three quarters of this year - a 40-fold increase compared with that of the first month after the launch of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect in 2014. Nearly 77 percent of foreign investors got access to mainland stock and over half to bond markets via the programs, HKEX's CEO Bonnie Chan said Monday. The Northbound and Southbound Stock Connect recorded new monthly highs of 510 billion yuan and HKD280 billion in turnover last month, she added.

Next on industry and company news

• Huawei Mate 70 series is live for reservations and the new lineup already exceeded 1 million pre-orders within minutes after the tech giant opened reservation of its new flagship smartphone series at around 12 a.m. on Monday. The page also reveals the colors, storage variants, and models available for pre-order.
  
• China is set to launch electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL)pilot projects in six cities, said an official of China Air Transport Association on Monday. These six pilot cities are Hefei in Anhui province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Shenzhen in Guangdong province, Suzhou in Jiangsu province, Chengdu in Sichuan province and Chongqing.
• Yiwu-Madrid China-Europe freight train service, the world's longest international rail cargo route, marks 10th anniversary on Monday. Over the past decade, the Yiwu-Madrid route completed 1,800 round trips, transporting 145,500 containers of commodities, worth more than USD8 billion in value, according to China Railway Shanghai Group.
• China's National Oil and Gas Pipeline Network Group announced on Monday that the China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline has completed construction and entered its final commissioning phase. The pipeline will supply annually 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China once fully operational.
• China's annual parcels delivery volume surpassed 150 billion on Sunday, marking the first time the parcels hit this number, the State Post Bureau said.

Earnings reports express

• Alibaba Group Holding reported a 63 percent increase in net profit in the fiscal second quarter from a year ago, mainly thanks to the Chinese company's latest strategic adjustments to its core e-commerce and cloud businesses. Net profit was 43.9 billion yuan in the period, while revenue rose 5 percent to 236.5 billion yuan driven by improving monetization of Taobao and Tmall Group. Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group logged 29.6 billion yuan in revenue in the second fiscal quarter, up 7 percent from a year earlier thanks to a double-digit public cloud growth.
• JD.com reported a 48 percent surge in third quarter net profit from a year earlier thanks to a strong performance in its retail and logistics divisions. The Chinese e-commerce giant raked in net profit of 11.7 billion yuan in the third quarter, while revenue advanced 5.1 percent to 260.4 billion yuan.
• Lenovo Group reported a 44 percent profit surge for the second fiscal quarter, mainly thanks to a jump in sales of artificial intelligence-related products such as AI personal computers. Profit was USD359 million in the quarter, while revenue surged 24 percent to USD17.9 billion from a year earlier.
• Chinese video-sharing and gaming platform Bilibili turned a profit for the first time in the third quarter after a surge in revenues from mobile gaming and advertising. Bilibili had an adjusted net profit of 236 million yuan in the period,  as its net loss shrank 94 percent to 79.8 million yuan from a year ago, while revenue jumped 24 percent to 7.31 billion yuan.

Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market

• Chinese stocks fell on Monday as the benchmark Shanghai Composite slid 0.2 percent and the Shenzhen Component lost 1.9 percent. While Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed 0.8 percent higher and the TECH index inched up 0.3 percent.

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

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