特斯拉上海电池超级工厂投产，中国“银发经济”列车计划启动

本文将报道中国在银发经济方面的计划，如为老年游客打造特殊列车网络，还会涉及企业新闻如特斯拉上海工厂投产、腾讯在沙特建数据中心等，以及金融和股市方面的资讯。

Hello, everyone. I'm Stephanie LI.

Today's program has some interesting news to share.

China has the intention to make use of the "silver economy" by designing trains for elderly tourists. Meanwhile, Tesla's battery Megafactory in Shanghai has started production.

Let's see what has happened in China in the past 24 hours.

China is planning to establish a network of tourist trains that are equipped with medical and elder - care facilities. This is part of China's effort to develop a "silver economy" and release the spending power of its aging population.

On Tuesday, the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the Commerce Ministry, along with China State Railway Group, released a guideline action plan to launch trains especially made for retiree tourists. By 2027, a national "silver tourist train" network which features "diversified tourist routes, a wide range of tourism themes and comprehensive services" will be built, as stated in the document.

At the end of 2022, one - fifth of China's 1.4 billion population was 60 years old or above. And in ten years, this ratio is expected to exceed 30 percent according to China's National Health Commission.

Many of these seniors have retired with pensions and substantial savings. So they are one of the few groups that China can target to boost spending.

According to the document, international tourism companies and tourist train operators can also take part in this plan. National and local railway development funds are also encouraged to support this concept.

Medical institutions will also be motivated to cooperate with the railway department to provide medical staff and emergency treatment resources. Medical expenses on this network can be claimed on health insurance.

Last year, China introduced a plan for the silver economy, which is estimated to be worth 30 trillion yuan in the next decade. This plan is designed to meet the needs of a rapidly - aging population that requires customized services from meal delivery to nursing homes and entertainment options.

Many tourism companies are aiming at China's seniors to attract more customers. For example, last year, Viking Cruises based in Switzerland worked with Shanghai's University for the Elderly to launch a program for the elderly. This program combines history and culture courses while traveling in Asia and Europe.

China's large - scale equipment upgrade and consumer goods trade - in programs achieved great results in 2024. Data from the state planner on Monday showed that these programs, which started last March, drove equipment purchases and investment up by 15.7 percent in 2024, contributing 67.6 percent to overall investment growth. They also increased the sales of bulk durable consumer goods by over 1.3 trillion yuan. Moreover, over 37 million consumers bought more than 62 million eligible home appliances, with total sales reaching 270 billion yuan. In the auto sector, more than 6.8 million vehicles were traded in for new ones, driving sales by 920 billion yuan.

Greater Bay Area has a great future.

On Monday, Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee announced that Hong Kong is about to launch an Innovation and Technology Industry - Oriented Fund worth HKD10 billion. This fund aims to direct market investments into specified emerging and future industries of strategic importance.

Next, let's look at some industry and company news.

Tesla, the US carmaker, its new Megafactory in Shanghai, which is dedicated to manufacturing its energy - storage batteries (Megapacks), began production on Tuesday. The initial annual production capacity is 10,000 units, which is approximately 40 gigawatt - hours of energy storage. And in 2025, the yearly increase in energy storage deployments will be 50 percent.

Tencent Cloud said yesterday at LEAP2025 that it will build its first Middle Eastern data center in Saudi Arabia. The Chinese tech giant's cloud unit will invest over USD150 million in the region in the coming years for infrastructure and other projects to promote digital economy innovation.

Leapmotor, the Chinese partner of Stellantis, launched a new electric vehicle model with smart driving technology on Tuesday. The price of this model is under 150,000 yuan. A day before, BYD had reduced the entry price for such smart EVs. The B10 will be Leapmotor's first EV equipped with lidar and urban traffic smart driving capability. On the other hand, BYD launched its new self - driving system, God’s Eye, on Monday. This system will be installed on all of the Chinese NEV giant's cars, including the lower - range Seagull, which is priced at 69,800 yuan.

Chinese mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies and Nubia Technology are using artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek’s large language model R1 in their smartphones to improve users' experience. Also, carmakers including Baojun and IM Motors have announced the integration of DeepSeek into their smart cockpits. Meanwhile, media reported today, citing people familiar with the matter, that DeepSeek's co - founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng will not attend the two - day AIActionSummit in Paris.

McDonald's plans to open 2,200 restaurants globally this year, with about 1,000 in China. The US fast - food chain said this in its latest earnings conference call. McDonald's revenue and net profit both declined last year.

China Vanke received a 2.8 billion yuan loan from its largest shareholder, Shenzhen Metro Group, for debt repayment, according to a Hong Kong bourse filing yesterday. The developer will provide asset collateral of over 4 billion yuan for the three - year loan.

Shanghai announced on Monday that it will allocate 500 million yuan worth of vouchers to support the service sector. Specifically, 360 million yuan for catering, 90 million yuan for tourism, 30 million yuan for cinemas, and 20 million yuan for sports.

Now, let's turn to financial news.

The People’s Bank of China has promoted Zou Lan, director of its monetary policy department, as deputy governor of the central bank. Fifty - two - year - old Zou will become the PBOC’s fifth deputy governor, in charge of areas including financial markets, technology, the Treasury, and credit management, according to a statement released by the State Council yesterday.

Finally, let's take a quick look at the stock market.

Chinese stocks declined on Tuesday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.1 percent, and the Shenzhen Component Index fell 0.7 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also closed 1.1 percent lower, and the TECH index dropped 2.7 percent.

特斯拉上海电池超级工厂投产，中国“银发经济”列车计划启动