The coffee industry has now become a new engine driving economic growth in Yanji, a county-level city in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of northeast China's Jilin Province, thanks to the supportive policies launched by the local government in recent years.
Yanji, with a permanent population of less than 700,000, has seen the number of coffee shops in it steadily increase in recent years. Some coffee practitioners have incorporated local specialties and folk elements into their coffee products and packaging, continuously creating unique coffee products and developing a distinctive coffee culture.
"We often launch innovative coffee products in the form of 'coffee+' combinations, such as Yanbian Asian pear coffee, rice wine coffee, dandelion root tea, and balloon flower root tea, among various other fashionable and folk products that reflect the unique characteristics of Yanbian," said Xu Guangyu, a staff member from a local cafe.
In order to make "coffee" a more prominent city label, Yanji has kept supporting the development of its coffee industry. By leveraging the growing trend in cultural and tourism integration, the city is creating new pathways for this development. It encourages the establishment of coffee shops around tourist attractions, fostering coordinated growth between the coffee industry and local scenic spots.
Accordingly, the local government has managed to accelerate administrative reforms and optimize the business environment for business startups in the city.
"We've launched in an in-depth way a reform of the administrative review and approval procedure, enabling the applicants for business startups to personally complete the filing of the application documentation 'only once', with sustained promotion of whole-process electronized processing of application documentations, reducing the duration of time for completing business startup registration to just one working day," said He Chunyan, deputy director of the Administrative Approval Office of Yanji Municipal Market Supervision Administration.
In the past two years, the number of coffee shops in Yanji has grown from over 500 to more than 1,000.
The rapid development of the coffee industry has attracted many young people to return or stay in their hometowns. Yanji has introduced a package of youth talent policies to offer up to 31 preferential treatments such as subsidies for housing purchases, rentals, and car purchases to attract young people.
"Next, we will comprehensively refine and update the youth talent policies, introducing an upgrade 2.0 edition of the talent policies. This aims to attract more young people to Yanji for employment and business startup, thereby injecting strong momentum into the development of various undertakings in the city," said Liu Qiwen, deputy director of the Yanji Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.
Coffee industry becomes new engine driving economic growth in northeast China city
A potential trade deal between United States and China, the world's two largest economies, could benefit not only the two sides but also the global economy as a whole, said renowned British entrepreneur Martin Sorrell on Tuesday.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on the sideline of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Sorrell, the Founder and Executive Chairman of the digital advertising and marketing services provider S4 Capital, shared his perspective on the evolving global economic landscape.
He said that the world is facing slower economic growth and highlighted the U.S. and China as key players for driving global economic expansion.
"You look at the world in a different way. You focus on where the growth is. So where's the growth going to be? The U.S. is going to be strong. The U.S. economy, S and P 500 Earnings this year will be up 11 percent, that's the forecast; next year, 7 percent. That's the biggest determinant of advertising growth is corporate profitability be strong, so the U.S. will be strong. Asia, very strong. If you're big in China, like Apple or Tesla, or indeed LV, you want to be bigger; If you are small in China or underweight, you probably want to be bigger. So with that one caveat, China is obviously remains really important," said Sorrell.
Donald Trump, who was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, has repeatedly vowed to implement additional tariffs on a broad range of trading partners, including China.
Noting that the combined GDP of the U.S. and China has reached 46 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for over 40 percent of the global total of 106 trillion U.S. dollars, Sorrell suggested that Trump's business instincts could lead him to negotiate a trade deal with China, benefiting both countries and the global economy.
"The U.S. is 28 trillion [U.S. dollars]; China, 18 trillion out of 106 [trillion], so 46 [trillion], by far the biggest part of the world economy. I think Europe is about 18 [trillion] as a whole, but no individual countries like this. So that's the most important issue. There seems to be a bit of delay in relation in considering Chinese tariffs, may be going first on Canada and Mexico rather than China. So maybe we'll see, maybe there is the hope of a deal. And I hope there will be a deal, because I think it will be good for the world, and for obviously, for both economists, they would if it happens. President Trump wrote the book, the Art of the Deal, and he's a negotiator, and he wants to do the best financially for America, and financially for America maybe a deal with China in trade is the best thing," he said.
In terms of China's economic outlook, Sorrell said he expects the Chinese economy to strengthen, adding that he thinks China will shift its trade policy to focus more on the markets that take up nearly 60 percent of the global GDP.
"My view is that it is a multipolar world. And the Americans, I can say this as British, the Americans and indeed the British have got to understand that the plates are shifting, that the Global South, the BRICS, the Next 11 are becoming more important. I look forward to a world which will be not dominated by the West, the hegemonic West, or the U.S., but more balanced and more nuanced. And I think that's what we have to get used to. I expect the Chinese economy to strengthen. China was going to alter its trade policy to emphasize that 60 trillion that is outside China and the U.S. I said it was 46 [trillion]. the world is 106. So there's 60 trillion of GDP in Latin America, in Africa, in Europe, in Asia Pacific that China can develop," said Sorrell.
Potential China-US trade deal could benefit world economy: British entrepreneur