Geng said China has always valued the concerns and needs of lower Mekong countries and maintained close communication with them. It is committed to water cooperation such as hydrological information sharing, he said.
Given such potential, Chinese companies have been moving rapidly to team up with their counterparts in ASEAN for growth. Internet heavyweights including Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu have all invested in tech startups in ASEAN countries.
Global beauty retailer Sephora is responding to the increasingly sophisticated skincare demands and fast-changing consumer preferences by adding a new omni-channel presence in the Chinese market.
Gast said: "Imperial and Tsinghua have a shared ambition to support groundbreaking research and create successful partnerships. Both universities recognize the importance of bringing people together to exchange ideas and collaborate. This new fund will help our innovative academic staff to pursue ambitious collaborations and explore new areas of research."
George Ren, senior partner at consultancy Roland Berger, said people in third and fourth-tier cities are also becoming new consumers because they have more access to luxury goods both through offline stores and e-commerce.
Geely Holding Group said on Monday its upscale Lynk & Co brand will enter Europe in late 2020 to speed up its globalization campaign.
绝杀蜘蛛池
Global nature
Global market intelligence firm IDC expects the digital economy to account for 60 percent of global GDP by 2022, with the share in China even higher at 65 percent.
Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said Trump is concerned about the adverse financial market consequences, and thus political impact, if he imposes high tariffs ahead of the November midterm elections.
German premium carmaker BMW inked deals in October 2018 with its Chinese partner Brilliance Auto to raise its stake from 50 percent to 75 percent in its passenger car joint venture BMW Brilliance.