China supports development of future industries: MIIT

China encourages and supports enterprises to cultivate future industries, unleash new growth momentum and seek first-mover advantages, said Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, at a press conference in Beijing on Friday.

Future industries refer to new industries integrated with advanced technology, such as metaverse, humanoid robots, brain-computer interface and quantum information.

A new guideline, unveiled by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and six other government departments in January, emphasized seizing global trends in sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation, with a particular focus on six key directions: future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space and future health.

At present, China's strategic emerging industries account for 13 percent of GDP, with huge potential for growth.

The guideline set the goals of fostering a batch of leading enterprises in emerging industries such as new materials, artificial intelligence, intelligent connected new-energy vehicles, new energy storage, hydrogen energy, biomanufacturing, commercial spaceflight, and low-altitude economy.

"In the next step, centering around the six directions, we will focus on the fields of humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces, metaverse, next-generation Internet, 6G, quantum technology, atomically precise manufacturing, deep-sea exploration and space development, carry out a batch of projects for sci-tech development, make breakthroughs in a number of key core technologies, come up with a wealth of signature products or outcomes, and set up a group of future industry incubators," said Jin.

China supports development of future industries: MIIT

China supports development of future industries: MIIT

China's futures market maintained stable operation in the first half of 2024, with total business turnover reaching 281.51 trillion yuan (about 38.73 trillion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 7.4 percent, according to the data released by the China Futures Association on Monday.

Wang Peng, chief macro analyst of Galaxy Futures, said that the upward trend of China's futures market was directly related to the substantial growth in the turnover of precious metals futures, non-ferrous metals futures, treasury bonds and stock index futures.

The prices of non-ferrous metals and precious metals have been rising against the backdrop of expectations of supply-side reductions, expectations of interest rate cuts in major Western economies, and geopolitical stimulus, driving the activeness of precious metals and non-ferrous metals futures transactions.

Guided by favorable macro policies, confidence in the new energy industry has been boosted, and industrial silicon futures, which mainly serve the silicon energy industry, have seen active trading, industrial data showed.

Data shows that in the first half of this year, the cumulative trading volume of industrial silicon futures was 37.5322 million lots, and the cumulative trading volume reached 2.33379 trillion yuan (321 billion U.S. dollars), up 325.2 and 255.23 percent year on year respectively.

In the financial derivatives market, the cumulative trading volume in the first half of 2024 totaled 80.36 trillion yuan (11 trillion U.S. dollars), of which the increase mainly came from CSI 500 and CSI 1000 stock index futures. From January to June, the cumulative trading volume of CSI 500 and CSI 1000 stock index futures increased by 23.26 percent and 139.12 percent year on year respectively.

China's futures market maintains smooth operation in H1 2024