South Korea will gradually reduce the rice planting area to cope with the decline in demand. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of South Korea said on Thursday that South Korea will strive to gradually reduce the rice field area to solve the problem of declining demand and adopt environmentally-friendly planting methods. Due to the change of diet structure, the annual rice consumption of Koreans has decreased, and the per capita rice consumption has dropped significantly from 61 kg in 2018 to 56.4 kg in 2023. At present, the total area of rice fields in South Korea is about 698,000 hectares, and the government says it plans to reduce the area of rice fields by 80,000 hectares next year. In addition, by 2029, the planting area of environmentally friendly rice will be expanded from 35,000 hectares this year to 68,000 hectares. The government will also allocate 244 billion won (about 170 million US dollars) to subsidize farms that grow strategic crops other than rice, such as wheat, beans and barley, which is an increase from 186.5 billion won this year.New Zealand plans to modify the "golden visa" to attract wealthy immigrants, and the New Zealand government is planning to modify its so-called "golden visa" program to attract more wealthy immigrants to invest in New Zealand. The active investor PLUS visa has always attracted the rich to New Zealand, bringing an average of NZ $1 billion (US$ 580 million) to New Zealand every year, but it has been sluggish since the rules changed in 2022. According to the data of Immigration New Zealand, in the past two years, only 35 applications were fully approved, equivalent to NZ $352 million in investment funds. In an interview in Wellington on Thursday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said, "We realized that the previous government changed these settings, and we saw a significant drop in the number of investors. You can expect to see our announcement in this regard in the next few weeks. "Spring Festival travel rush's first day train tickets will be sold on 31st of this month. The student booking service was launched today. It was learned from China State Railway Group Co.,Ltd. today (12th) that Spring Festival travel rush will be launched on 14th of January next year in 2025, and Spring Festival travel rush's first day train tickets will be sold on 31st of this month. In view of students booking tickets during Spring Festival travel rush, Railway 12306 launched a new function today.
Thailand's consumer confidence index rose to 56.9 in November, boosted by stimulus measures, and Thailand's consumer confidence index rose from 56.0 to 56.9 in November.Citigroup: Pinduoduo, which operates retail platform Temu, is likely to continue to face short-term disadvantages. Maintain the neutral rating of ADR in Pinduoduo and set the target price of ADR in Pinduoduo at $125.00. Note: The latest ADR report in Pinduoduo is $103.42.This year, the amount of M&A transactions involving listed companies in Hong Kong has reached 38 billion US dollars, which has triggered a rare bidding war. This year is expected to be the busiest year for M&A transactions involving listed companies in Hong Kong in the past decade, with industries ranging from skin care products to logistics real estate, and the bidding war has also warmed up. It is reported that China Mobile's bid for Hongkong Broadband may face competition from American private equity firm I Squared Capital. Bi Hua, chairman of Fenmei Packaging, is negotiating with Qihao Capital to jointly counter the privatization offer of Shandong Xinjufeng. The data shows that the scale of M&A transactions for listed companies in Hong Kong has reached $38 billion this year, the highest level since 2017, including the merger of Guotai Junan Securities and Haitong Securities, a smaller competitor, to become the largest brokerage firm in China.
Extremely Yue insiders: Xia Yiping still stays in the company's on-site office and is seeking financing. I learned from the inside of Extremely Yue Automobile that on the morning of December 12, Extreme Yue CEO Xia Yiping appeared in the company's headquarters office. Xia Yiping said that he appeared first to prove to employees that he had not run away, to tide over the difficulties with the company, and second to communicate with employees face to face. "His main task at present is financing, and he is also actively contacting investors for help." Insiders revealed to reporters. (The Paper)Citigroup slightly lowered South Korea's GDP growth forecast to 1.5% next year. It is expected that the Bank of Korea will cut interest rates next month. Citigroup released a report saying that considering the worse economic sentiment in South Korea this month, it slightly lowered its GDP forecast for this year and next year by 0.1 percentage point to 2.1% and 1.5% respectively. The bank slightly lowered Korea's GDP growth forecast for the last quarter of this year by 0.1 percentage point to rise by 0.3% quarterly, and raised its GDP growth forecast for the first quarter of next year by 0.1 percentage point to rise by 0.6% quarterly. Looking forward to the first quarter of next year, the bank expects South Korea to adopt a combination of expansionary policies, including the Bank of Korea's expected interest rate cut to 2.75% in mid-January, and the government's expected additional budget of 30 trillion won (equivalent to about 1.1% of GDP next year). It is expected that the Bank of Korea will cut interest rates by 25BP each in January, April, July and October next year, and the final interest rate is expected to be 2%.Musk is going to melt the Statue of Liberty? Musk also responded to the rumors of foreign media. Recently, a screenshot appeared on the American network. The content was that CNN published a report saying that Musk, a well-known American entrepreneur, was going to melt the Statue of Liberty in the United States to make a limited edition electric pickup truck. However, Reuters later denied that the CNN report was forged. A spokesman for CNN also told Reuters that the CNN report in the screenshot was forged, and CNN had never published such a report. At present, Musk himself has responded to this matter in a teasing tone on his social platform X. Musk wrote in three posts: "No, I will melt it 1000% (Statue of Liberty)"; "With a laser eye from space"; "and then cast it again before no one notices";
Strategy guide
Strategy guide