The press centers for the upcoming 9th Asian Winter Games, to be held in northeast China's Harbin City, started trial operation on Tuesday.
The Main Press Center (MPC) in the city of Harbin as the base of journalists and media outlets hosted its first press briefing on Tuesday morning, introducing the latest progresses made in the preparation for the coming Asian Winter Games.
The MPC has two sections respectively for the Main News Center and the International Broadcast Center, which are separated by a road.
The Main News Center has a public media work area to accommodate 156 accredited journalists to work simultaneously.
The International Broadcast Center, with a planned area of over 10,000 square meters, will be the core technical area for official live broadcast agencies and rights-holders of various media outlets.
The 9th Asian Winter Games also has a press center in Yabuli Town in Shangzhi City and the two press centers will work at full capacity to cover the snow and ice events during the Asian Winter Games.
The 9th Asian Winter Games will be held from Feb 7 to 14 in Harbin, reputed as the "Ice City" of China for its extra-low temperatures in winter and the annual tradition of displaying extravagant ice sculptures.
Over the course of the 12 competition days, athletes from various Asian countries and regions will compete in six major events, 11 sub-events, and 64 disciplines.
Press centers for 9th Asian Winter Games start operation
China has allocated 81 billion yuan (about 11.04 billion U.S. dollars) in subsidies for the country's trade-in promotion for 2025, said an official from the Ministry of Finance in Beijing on Wednesday. Fu Jinling, director of the Department of Economic Construction at the Chinese Ministry of Finance, said the ministry has expanded its subsidy program to cover a wider range of sectors and has also raised the funding standards for areas with significant financial needs and high public interest
"For instance, we will expand the support for equipment restoration to more fields like electronic information, production safety, and facility agriculture. We will expand the categories of home appliance products eligible for trade-in subsidies from eight to 12, and introduce new subsidies for purchasing new digital products such as mobile phones. We also raised the standards for subsidies for new energy public buses and power battery renewals, with the average subsidy per bus increased from 60,000 yuan (about 8,183.53 U.S. dollars) to 80,000 yuan (over 10,900 U.S. dollars)," said Fu.
By the end of 2024, China's central government had exhausted its 150 billion yuan (approximately $20.45 billion USD) allocation for trade-in consumption.
The Ministry of Finance also allocated another 150 billion yuan (about 20.45 billion U.S. dollars) for large-scale equipment restoration to local governments across the country, with the use clearly defined for specific projects.
China allocates 81 bln yuan for 2025 trade-in subsidies
