Ciara Liu

China’s economic rebound gained momentum in November as official purchasing manager indexes for the manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors both reached their highest level so far this year.

The Gross Merchandise Value for 11.11 – Singles Day (an online shopping festival on Nov 11th) exceeded 570 billion across all e-commerce platforms (JD, Tmall, Pinduoduo etc). This year, livestreaming has become a new driving force for sales. Livestreaming is used for a number of promotional purposes, including product releases, VIP sales events, seasonal events, as well as being a great way to engage in conversation with your customers. JD recorded sales volume of 100 million yuan ($14.96 million) in 10 seconds via livestream on the evening of Oct 31 (Single’s Day pre-sales). 

One Kiwi dental care brand based in China – Grin, collaborated with three famous livestreamers over this year’s 11.11 shopping festival. Over 8 minutes, the livestreaming collaboration saw Grin sell over 4,000 toothpastes. Not many foreign brands in China leverage livestreaming, so Kiwi businesses that are considering to market their products on e-commerce platforms should take this buying habit into consideration.

China signed the world’s largest free-trade deal – the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) agreement with 15 countries, including New Zealand. This will usher in fresh opportunities in services and trade and investment between China and New Zealand.

China signed the upgrading protocol of its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with New Zealand (via video link) on Tuesday 26th January. The new commitments show a positive sign of the Sino-NZ partnership to combat the pandemic as well as to support multilateralism and free trade. The New Zealand Ambassador to China, Clare Fearnley stated, “both NZ and Chinese exporters will benefit from the upgraded trade rules through easier processes, reduced compliance costs, and expanded market access in some areas.”

Hainan also issued the industry catalogue for its Free Trade Port (effective starting from 1st Jan 2021), which focuses on tourism, modern services, and new & high-tech industries. This is a clear signal of China’s commitment for opening up the country further and facilitating free trade and investment.

The upgraded FTA gave us a head start to 2021, and we can certainly expect rapid growth in bilateral trade & investment between China and New Zealand this year.