China yesterday said industrial output is expected to rise 8 percent in the second quarter and exceed 10 percent in the second half of the year as stimulus measures kick in.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology forecast the second quarter would post a jump from the 15-year low of 5.1 percent growth seen in the first three months of the year.
“The overall situation in both heavy and light industries is turning positive,” the ministry said in a report on its Web site. “The rapid pace of decline in production in some regions and industries has already slowed, while companies become more adaptable to the economic downturn and market fluctuations.”
China’s eastern coastal regions, the powerhouse of the country’s economy, recorded 6.7 percent growth in industrial output last month, 3 percentage points higher than the first quarter, the report said.
“Reversing the downturn in industrial output growth should be placed as the top priority in economic plans ... [We] should continue to boost domestic demand to promote industrial output growth,” the report said.
Chinese officials are also bidding for a five-fold increase in the size of the Shenzhen economic zone, which helped set off the nation’s boom nearly three decades ago, state media reported yesterday.
The Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) desperately needs more space to allow high-technology enterprises to develop, the China Daily reported, citing local officials.
“Legislators are working on the proposal to expand the scope of Shenzhen SEZ to the whole city, but it needs the approval of the State Council [Cabinet],” an unnamed official at the Shenzhen legislature told the paper.
If the plan is approved, it will allow an increase in the size of the zone from its current 396km² to just short of 2,000km², nearly the size of Luxembourg, the paper said.
Shenzhen authorities need to find space not just for businesses, but also for residential areas and therefore the area’s flagship enterprises are being seriously squeezed, the paper reported.
For example, telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies has decided to move its production base out of the zone to neighboring Longgang district, the paper said.
The Shenzhen SEZ was set up in 1980 along with three other zones that all offered lower taxes and less cumbersome bureaucratic procedures in order to attract foreign investors.
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