Xi Jinping stresses accelerating the establishment of a new development pattern when presiding over a political bureau group study session

As the new year begins, foreign enterprises are accelerating their development in the Chinese market. Recently, a global flexible packaging plant built by Amcor, a global leader in the packaging industry headquartered in Switzerland, was put into operation in Huizhou, south China's Guangdong province. The factory, with an investment of 1 billion yuan ($147.42 million), is expected to generate an annual output of 800 million yuan in its first phase.

Every October, villagers from Tuntou village in Gaocheng district of Shijiazhuang city, north China's Hebei Province, start to make red lanterns for Spring Festival decorations, as orders roll in one after another.The Gaocheng palace lantern originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), and is an intangible cultural heritage item in Hebei.

China's economy is expected to recover faster thanks to good fundamentals, effective macro-policy response, and optimized pandemic prevention and control policies, which will boost global growth expectations, observers said. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday projected China's economy will grow by 5.2 percent in 2023, 0.8 percentage point higher than October 2022 forecast.

Localities in China that piloted the use of the digital yuan, or e-CNY, launched a number of promotional activities using the innovative version of China's national currency during the Spring Festival, effectively stimulating consumption.Local governments in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces issued e-CNY coupons, whose total value was estimated to exceed 180 million yuan (about $26.69 million).