Supply chain finance

THE country will launch a platform for supply chain finance to facilitate information disclosure for medium-sized, small and micro enterprises, data from an industry association showed.

The platform will collect, organize and process information on these firms comprehensively from related supply chains and industry chains to depict such firms at different levels in a complete business network, the National Internet Finance Association of China (NIFA) said. The platform will provide such firms with low-cost and sustainable financial services, said Yang Bin with NIFA.

Rural e-commerce

THE e-commerce sector grew rapidly in China’s rural areas in the first half of 2019, official data showed.

Online retail sales in rural areas totaled 777.1 billion yuan (US$113.6 billion) in the first half of the year, according to a statement from the Ministry of Commerce. The reading, surging 21 percent year on year, was 3.2 percentage points higher than the nationwide growth rate. Meanwhile, online retail sales of agricultural products also saw a notable increase in the period. The sales hit 187.4 billion yuan, up 25.3 percent from one year earlier.

Hebei emission

CHINA’S biggest steel producing province of Hebei has summoned the leaders of three cities after they failed to control air pollution in the first half of this year, the local environmental protection agency said in a notice.

Hebei, which produces about a quarter of the country’s steel, is set to impose tougher emission requirements on its industrial firms this year, and the province is under more pressure from neighboring Beijing after three of its cities, Handan, Hengshui and Xingtai, failed to meet their smog targets in the first six months of the year.