Xi Jinping had a meeting with prominent entrepreneurs this week... what was his message to them?
India is looking to cut import taxes in response to trump's reciprocal tariffs.
And Singapore has announced vouchers and tax breaks to help with rising costs.
Asia Business Correspondent Peter Lewis joins the show.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Peter Lewis is Asia Business correspondent. He's with us tonight. Hi, Peter,
Good evening. Ryan Hijinpang has had a meeting with some
pretty prominent entrepreneurs this week. What is the message that
he's sending to the business community there.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well, I think he's sending a message that technology and
private the private sector is absolutely essential to growth in
China going forward, and that if they want to counter
Donald Trump and all his various tariffs, the best way
is to be able to rely on the large domestic
economy that China has and to grow that and to
(00:35):
boost consumption. Now, this meeting was very unusual because President
she doesn't normally meet with private sector executives, and in fact,
the last time he did so about four years ago.
That started a clampdown on a lot of private companies
like Ali Barba, like ten Cents, which really hit the
(00:57):
share prices of all these companies. They were subjected to
investigations that went on for years for fines, and he
basically took the view that these companies were only allowed
to exist with the permission of the state, and therefore
they were subservient to the states. And that's what really
led to this big crackdown and the demise of the
(01:18):
Chinese stock market. Well, that seems to have all changed.
President She seems to be delivering a different message now
and it was probably highlighted most of all by the
reappearance of Jack mar the founder of Ali Barba. He's
really been in exile since about twenty twenty when Ali
Barba got clamped on by Beijing after he criticized the
(01:42):
regulators for lack of innovation, and that you may remember
that the Ants Group IPO was suddenly canceled at the
very last minute. It was going to be the biggest
Chinese IPO ever. So he went into exile in Japan. Well,
he reappeared at this meeting, shook hands with President She.
(02:04):
So it really was very symbolic that Jack Marr was back,
that Ali Barba was back, and these companies were going
to be allowed to prosper once again. Excuse me. It's
really boosted the share price of these companies. Ali Barber's
up about eleven percent a day following its results last night.
(02:24):
It's risen about fifty percent in just the last month.
I did about one hundred billion dollars in market cap,
but that's being reflected by a lot of other tech
companies that are listed here in Hong Kong at the
moment as well, that are really surging right now.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
How much of that is to do with the Chinese government,
How much does it do with Beijing needing growth?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh? Absolutely, they really do need to grow their economy.
It is very much in the in the doldrums. People
aren't spending and consumption international compared with international levels is
very low. In China it's about forty percent of GDP.
Well in the US it's more than three quarters of GDP.
(03:11):
So they really need to boost their domestic economy, get
consumers spending and technology is going to be one of
the ways in which that's going to be done, the
adoption of AI and more advanced technology, of green technology.
Really these companies need to boost those areas and that
will feed through to consumption and economic growth. So these
(03:33):
companies are absolutely essential to China meeting its growth targets
and being able to fight back against the Donald Trump's
tariffs which have been put on the country.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Speaking of which, Peter, we've got Trump Beshing has chased
over in the US from the White House about reciprocal
terrorists and then Mode in India is looking at all
of this, and he's actually starting to movee, starting to
cut some import texas.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yes, so well, India's in an testing position. I mean,
it really wants to develop ties, cultivate ties with both
the US and with China. It doesn't want to take sides,
and it's been walking this incredible type rope for about
the last two years now where it's sort of almost
trying to play the two off against each other and
(04:19):
benefit from both sides. But it can't really afford at
this stage in its growth to have sweeping tariffs from
the US, and it does have very high tariffs itself
on international goods going into China, for example, into India
on motorcycles for example, there's one hundred percent tariffs on imports.
(04:41):
So Trump's tariff threats aren't having an impact. Mode has
been over to see him at the White House. They're
talking about a wide ranging trade agreement and cutting India's
tariffs to make it more competitive, not just for the
US but for other countries to be able to walk
there and do business there. Now, that's going to be
(05:02):
good for India. I mean, India is one of the
fastest growing economies in Asia, but it needs to keep
that going because it's got a very large population, a
lot of young people who need jobs, so it's absolutely
essential that growth is maintained at around at least six percent.
We have been seeing eight percent over the last couple
(05:23):
of years, but it has slowed off a bit in
the last few months. So it's probably a sensible response
to actually try and reduce its own tariffs to mitigate
the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Peter Singapore's announced vouchers and tax breaks to help people
with the rising cost of living.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, there's going to be six hundred dollars worth of
Singapore dollars worth of vouchers. Old people are also going
to get an extra I think two hundred dollars each
to try and boost the economy there. There's an election
coming up later this year, so obviously that's part of it,
and these handouts will hopefully help alleviate some of the
(06:08):
cost of living pressures. Singapore is one of the most
expensive cities in the world to live. Housing costs are
extremely expensive, so there is a real cost of living
problem in Singapore that the government needs to address, and
the way it's doing that is through these consumption vouchers.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Fascinating stuff, Peter, thank you very much for that. Peddle Lewis,
Asia Business Correspondent. For more from Hither Duplassy Alan Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Peter Lewis is Asia Business correspondent. He's with us tonight. Hi, Peter,
Good evening. Ryan Hijinpang has had a meeting with some
pretty prominent entrepreneurs this week. What is the message that
he's sending to the business community there.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well, I think he's sending a message that technology and
private the private sector is absolutely essential to growth in
China going forward, and that if they want to counter
Donald Trump and all his various tariffs, the best way
is to be able to rely on the large domestic
economy that China has and to grow that and to
(00:35):
boost consumption. Now, this meeting was very unusual because President
she doesn't normally meet with private sector executives, and in fact,
the last time he did so about four years ago.
That started a clampdown on a lot of private companies
like Ali Barba, like ten Cents, which really hit the
(00:57):
share prices of all these companies. They were subjected to
investigations that went on for years for fines, and he
basically took the view that these companies were only allowed
to exist with the permission of the state, and therefore
they were subservient to the states. And that's what really
led to this big crackdown and the demise of the
(01:18):
Chinese stock market. Well, that seems to have all changed.
President She seems to be delivering a different message now
and it was probably highlighted most of all by the
reappearance of Jack mar the founder of Ali Barba. He's
really been in exile since about twenty twenty when Ali
Barba got clamped on by Beijing after he criticized the
(01:42):
regulators for lack of innovation, and that you may remember
that the Ants Group IPO was suddenly canceled at the
very last minute. It was going to be the biggest
Chinese IPO ever. So he went into exile in Japan. Well,
he reappeared at this meeting, shook hands with President She.
(02:04):
So it really was very symbolic that Jack Marr was back,
that Ali Barba was back, and these companies were going
to be allowed to prosper once again. Excuse me. It's
really boosted the share price of these companies. Ali Barber's
up about eleven percent a day following its results last night.
(02:24):
It's risen about fifty percent in just the last month.
I did about one hundred billion dollars in market cap,
but that's being reflected by a lot of other tech
companies that are listed here in Hong Kong at the
moment as well, that are really surging right now.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
How much of that is to do with the Chinese government,
How much does it do with Beijing needing growth?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh? Absolutely, they really do need to grow their economy.
It is very much in the in the doldrums. People
aren't spending and consumption international compared with international levels is
very low. In China it's about forty percent of GDP.
Well in the US it's more than three quarters of GDP.
(03:11):
So they really need to boost their domestic economy, get
consumers spending and technology is going to be one of
the ways in which that's going to be done, the
adoption of AI and more advanced technology, of green technology.
Really these companies need to boost those areas and that
will feed through to consumption and economic growth. So these
(03:33):
companies are absolutely essential to China meeting its growth targets
and being able to fight back against the Donald Trump's
tariffs which have been put on the country.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Speaking of which, Peter, we've got Trump Beshing has chased
over in the US from the White House about reciprocal
terrorists and then Mode in India is looking at all
of this, and he's actually starting to movee, starting to
cut some import texas.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yes, so well, India's in an testing position. I mean,
it really wants to develop ties, cultivate ties with both
the US and with China. It doesn't want to take sides,
and it's been walking this incredible type rope for about
the last two years now where it's sort of almost
trying to play the two off against each other and
(04:19):
benefit from both sides. But it can't really afford at
this stage in its growth to have sweeping tariffs from
the US, and it does have very high tariffs itself
on international goods going into China, for example, into India
on motorcycles for example, there's one hundred percent tariffs on imports.
(04:41):
So Trump's tariff threats aren't having an impact. Mode has
been over to see him at the White House. They're
talking about a wide ranging trade agreement and cutting India's
tariffs to make it more competitive, not just for the
US but for other countries to be able to walk
there and do business there. Now, that's going to be
(05:02):
good for India. I mean, India is one of the
fastest growing economies in Asia, but it needs to keep
that going because it's got a very large population, a
lot of young people who need jobs, so it's absolutely
essential that growth is maintained at around at least six percent.
We have been seeing eight percent over the last couple
(05:23):
of years, but it has slowed off a bit in
the last few months. So it's probably a sensible response
to actually try and reduce its own tariffs to mitigate
the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Peter Singapore's announced vouchers and tax breaks to help people
with the rising cost of living.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, there's going to be six hundred dollars worth of
Singapore dollars worth of vouchers. Old people are also going
to get an extra I think two hundred dollars each
to try and boost the economy there. There's an election
coming up later this year, so obviously that's part of it,
and these handouts will hopefully help alleviate some of the
(06:08):
cost of living pressures. Singapore is one of the most
expensive cities in the world to live. Housing costs are
extremely expensive, so there is a real cost of living
problem in Singapore that the government needs to address, and
the way it's doing that is through these consumption vouchers.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Fascinating stuff, Peter, thank you very much for that. Peddle Lewis,
Asia Business Correspondent. For more from Hither Duplassy Alan Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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