Over 30 major European banks and credit card processors are looking to create a payments giant to challenge US dominance. 40 payment experts in Brussels are tasked with drawing up a blueprint for a pan-European payment service by September. The project, named European Payment Initiative, has so far received more than 30 million euros from its backers. Professor Hans-peter Burghof, Chair of the Banking and Finance Department at Germany’s University of Hohenheim, offers his analysis.

Despite U.S. efforts to block its network gear and shut it out of the supply chain, global tech giant Huawei is still reaping profits with its focus on research and development (R&D).

While the first-quarter revenue of Huawei tumbled by 16.5% compared to a year earlier, its net profit margin rose by 3.8 percentage points to 11.1%, partly due to a royalty payment of $600 million. It's also the first time the company has included 5G patent fees in its financial report.

In March, Huawei announced royalty rates for the use of its 5G phone technology for the first time, capping per-phone with Huawei's 5G technology and capable of working royalties at $2.50, significantly lower than Qualcomm.

Listings on stock markets around the world are running at a record pace, with both deal numbers and values at their highest levels for the start of any year in at least two decades.

This year, 875 IPOs, each raising at least $1m, have been clinched globally, according to data from financial markets platform Dealogic. The figure far outstrips the previous record set in the final months of the dotcom boom in 2000.

The surge stems largely from a spree of flotations of shell companies known as special purpose acquisition companies, or Spacs, which have accounted for almost half of the fundraising haul through IPOs this year.

Official data shows that profits at China's major industrial firms maintained fast growth in the first quarter of this year.

The positive growth comes as China sees rising demand for raw materials and the economy continues its recovery.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that profits rose to 711 billion yuan in March, up 92 percent from last year.

In the first quarter of this year, industrial profits grew 1.8 trillion yuan, up 137 percent from the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the combined profits of China's state-owned enterprises are also up by 190 percent year on year.

China's digital economy grew three times faster than the country's GDP in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a global economic downturn.

A white paper on the country's digital economy development shows the sector grew by 9.7 percent last year.

The scale of China's digital economy reached 39 trillion yuan, or about six trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for nearly 39 percent of the economy.

Officials say the digital economy supported COVID-19 prevention and control efforts, as well as economic development.

The digital economy in Beijing and Shanghai both accounted for more than half of its regional GDP.

China will launch a series of promotional activities in May to boost spending as the retail sector recovers from COVID-19-induced consumer caution.

It will include a new consumer goods expo in South China’s Hainan Province.

Expanding domestic consumption is a priority in China’s “dual circulation” economic strategy.

China’s retail sales surged 34.2% year-on-year in March, stronger than the 33.8% jump in the January-February period.

As China enters a five-day Labor Day break on May 1st, it will kick off a month-long spending campaign.

With China's fast urbanization, more people are flowing into urban areas. According to official data, a total of 93 cities have seen their urban population surpass one million.

The number of such cities increased more than fourfold over the past 40 years.

As the second and third biggest provinces in terms of GDP ranking, both Jiangsu and Shandong each have ten cities with urban populations over one million people. But compared with Jiangsu, no city in Shandong has a population over six million.

Guangdong, the largest economic province, ranks third with eight cities that are all home to one million urban residents. Seven are in the Pearl River Delta, the largest urban area in the world in both size and population, according to the World Bank.

China’s carmakers are stepping up to challenge Tesla’s dominance in the country’s electric vehicle market, using this week’s Shanghai auto show to display a series of new models and technology designed to appeal to younger buyers.

The groups are launching more than a dozen models at the show, which opened on Monday.

Surveys suggest Chinese brands are becoming increasingly popular with younger customers who are more likely to buy domestic models, with leading groups such as Geely, Nio and Xpeng using technology to attract interest.

Chinese domestic tech giants, such as Huawei, Baidu, and Alibaba, are also displaying their cutting-edge technological applications, such as AI, 5G, and big data at the auto show.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Technology says the country has completed its initial achievements in building the world's largest 5G mobile network.

Vice Minister Liu Liehong says China has built more than 790-thousand 5G base stations, with the number of mobile terminals connected to the network reaching 260 million.

The ministry also projected 5G mobile phone shipments in China would account for 80 percent of the total shipments in the second half of this year.

China aims to build more than 600-thousand 5G base stations THIS YEAR, with the ministry pledging to accelerate 5G coverage in major cities.

Despite being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Asia's economies have recovered well compared to the rest of the world.

However, challenges remain in maintaining sustainable development, according to two reports released by the Boao Forum for Asia.

In 2020, the economic growth of Asian economies dropped 1.7 percent. But the Asian economy will experience recovery this year, with a growth rate of more than 6.5 percent.

The report attributed the relatively high growth rate to effective epidemic control and production resumption in China and South Korea, among other factors.

The digital economy has also helped promote production resumption, stabilized the economic situation, and become a new driving force.