The China Media Group (CMG) held a film concert to honor the 80th founding anniversary of the United Nations in New York City on Tuesday evening.
Nearly 700 guests attended the concert themed on "United as One World, Voice of Peace" at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
The UN Symphony Orchestra, the UN Staff Recreation Council Singers, the New York International Symphony Orchestra, and a number of outstanding Chinese and international artists performed classic repertoires, including "Yellow River," "Ode to Peace," and "Schindler's List."
The UN singers, dressed in traditional Chinese costumes, also sang peace-themed songs in Chinese and other languages.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming, CMG President Shen Haixiong, Chinese Ambassador to United States Xie Feng addressed the concert in video speeches.
Attendees said that music and images are the common language of mankind, and the concert has created a harmonious and beautiful vision for future.
"Eighty years since the formation of the United Nations, we're here to celebrate that, and I think it's a wonderful way to do it. Music always brings people together. Congratulations to CMG for arranging such a great event, we sat there, and we were all deeply moved by the music," said Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
Outstanding works from the first phase of CMG's "Bright Future of Humanity" global AI visual works collection campaign was announced and screened at the concert.
CMG holds concert for UN's 80th anniversary in NYC
CMG holds concert for UN's 80th anniversary in NYC
CMG holds concert for UN's 80th anniversary in NYC
The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, announced on Thursday that it would cut certain interest rates and cut the downpayment ratio for commercial property mortgages, among other measures it is taking to support growth and facilitate structural improvements.
"The PBOC will cut the interest rates on all structural monetary policy tools by 0.25 percentage points. The one-year relending rate will be reduced from 1.5 percent to 1.25 percent, with rates for other maturities adjusted accordingly. The central bank will integrate the use of its relending and rediscount quotas to support agriculture and small businesses, with an additional 500 billion yuan (about 71.36 billion U.S. dollars) allocated to the relending facility. Within the total quota, a dedicated relending facility of 1 trillion yuan will be established specifically for private enterprises, prioritizing support for small and medium-sized private firms," said Zou Lan, spokesperson and deputy governor of the PBOC, at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing.
"The central bank has increased the loan quota for sci-tech innovation and tech transformation by 400 billion yuan (about 57.5 billion U.S. dollars) from 800 billion yuan (about 115 billion U.S. dollars to 1.2 trillion yuan (about 172.5 billion U.S. dollars). It has also included private small and medium-sized enterprises with higher levels of research and development investment in the support scope. The central bank will also merge the existing bond financing support tools for private enterprises and the risk-sharing tools for sci-tech innovation bonds, providing a total relending quota of 200 billion yuan (about 29 billion U.S. dollars)," said Zou.
"The PBOC will expand the support areas of the support tools for carbon emission reduction. More projects with carbon emission reduction effects, such as energy renovation, green upgrading, and green energy and low-carbon transformation, will be included to guide banks to support the comprehensive green transformation. The central bank will expand the support scope for service consumption and elderly care relending. Based on the criteria for recognizing the health industry, the health industry will be included in the support scope for service consumption and elderly care relending at an appropriate time," said the deputy governor.
"The central bank will work with the National Financial Regulatory Administration to lower the minimum downpayment ratio for commercial property mortgages to 30 percent, aiming to support the process of reducing inventory in the commercial real estate market. The central bank will encourage financial institutions to enhance their services for hedging against exchange-rate risks by enriching hedging products and providing enterprises with cost-effective, flexible and efficient exchange-rate risk management tools," he said.
Zou said that there is still some room for maneuver this year regarding the reduction of the reserve requirement ratio and interest rates in the banking sector, with the current average reserve requirement ratio for financial institutions at 6.3 percent. As for policy interest rates, he said external constraints for the RMB exchange rate are stable, and the U.S. dollar is in a rate-cutting channel. Internally, banks' net interest margins have shown signs of stabilization, holding at 1.42 percent for two consecutive quarters, he said.
A large number of three-year and five-year long-term deposits will mature in 2026 and need repricing, Zou added. The PBOC has lowered rates on various relending facilities to help reduce banks' interest payment costs, stabilize net interest margins, and create some space for interest rate cuts, Zou said.
China to cut rates, commercial property downpayment to support growth
