Business briefs from the Chinese media — Monday August 22

Huge scope of wealth management products: According to a new report, as of the end of June, the scale of wealth management products (uninsured products sold by banks and other financial institutions) in China amounted to 29.15 trillion yuan ($4.27 trillion), a year-on-year increase of 12.98%, the number of investors reached 91.45 million, and the accumulated income for investors in the first half of the year was 417.2 billion yuan ($69.10 billion). 

The state sector is consolidating: As the three-year reform period (2020–2022) of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) enters the final stretch, as of August 19, there have been 216 mergers and acquisitions involving SOEs so far this year in China, an increase of 80% compared with the 120 SOE mergers and acquisitions in the same period last year.

China wants more yachts and cruise ships: Last Thursday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and three other ministries jointly released a planning document for the yacht and cruise ship industry, proposing the construction of large ocean liners, medium-sized liners, and yachts, and a large expansion in the marine tourism industry.