There has been a series of regulatory changes in China since 2019, mainly taking place in new economy sectors, first with gaming, then fintech, and now private education. On July 23, Beijing announced new rules barring for-profit tutoring in core school subjects to ease financial pressure on families. These regulatory measures have had a major impact on the equity market especially for the affected industries, though the short-term macro impact has remained limited.

In 2019, DEME together with Econopolis nv, Tractebel Engineering nv/sa and University of Liège joined forces in a study on the potential of energy islands off the Belgian coast. Future energy developments off the coast represent an important driver of the blue growth in Belgium and promotes therefore the energy transition to achieve our ambitious climate goals in 2030 and 2050.

As we had all hoped, Covid-related conditions are generally improving, and quite rapidly in fact as infections and fatalities worldwide continue to decline with the arrival of Covid-19 vaccines.

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, begins celebrations on the eve starting from February 11^th, 2021 and lasts until February 26^th, 2021. According to the Chinese zodiac, 2021 is a Metal Ox year. The most iconic sculpture of a Metal Ox is the Charging Bull on Wall Street, a bronze sculpture right in Manhattan’s Financial District. The Ox occupies the second position in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac and the reason for its placing can be found in a well-known story, The Great Race Story of the Chinese Zodiac.

Founded in 1947, Koo In-Hwoi (founder of LG Corp) established Lucky Chemical Industrial Corp, and launched "Lucky Cream," the very first cosmetics product in Korea. In 1954, the company also launched Korea's first toothpaste brand, ‘Lucky Toothpaste’. In February 1995, the company changed its name to LG Chemical Ltd. In April 2001, LG Household & Health Care (LG H&H) spun off from LG Chemical, and was listed on the Korean Stock Exchange. Since then, it has grown to be Korean’s largest household goods and cosmetics company with currently a market capitalization of $19 billion.

Alibaba-affiliated fintech giant Ant Group has announced its long-awaited public offering with a dual listing on the new Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Board (or the Science and Technology Innovation Board, which is being dubbed “China’s Nasdaq”) and also on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Chinese regulators decided to launch a new Nasdaq-style Shanghai’s Star Board on 13 June 2019. Their vision is to make the Star Board a serious competitor to the Nasdaq - an attractive financing option for dynamic companies while offering investment opportunities. It wants to create a fundraising platform for promising technology firms in key fields such as chip making, artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

LG Chem is the leading South Korean vertically integrated chemicals company that has globally competitive products, including premium grade ABS, specialty polymers, polarisers and energy storage and electric vehicle (EV) battery cells. It holds the largest market share in the global ABS market and is leading the market as a global EV leader on its superior technology. LG Chem is a way to play the increasing penetration of EV and is also poised to benefit from the EU’s Green Energy Deal.

As a leading internet technology company based in China, NetEase is dedicated to providing premium online services centred around innovative and diverse content, community, communication and commerce. NetEase develops and operates some of China’s most popular mobile and PC-client games. As of March 31, NetEase had over 100 mobile games offered in China and mobile games contributed 55% of its total revenues. In more recent years, NetEase has expanded into international markets including Japan and North America. Overseas games revenue presently accounts for approximately 10% of total online games revenue. In addition to its self-developed game content, NetEase partners with other leading game developers, such as Blizzard Entertainment and Mojang AB (a Microsoft subsidiary), to operate globally renowned games in China. Thanks to its digital activities, the company is more or less protected against the coronavirus crisis, and can even thrive on it as more people are obliged to stay at home.

MediaTek is the world’s 4th largest global fabless semiconductor company and powers more than 1.5 billion devices a year. It is a market leader in chipset technology for Smart TVs, Voice Assistant Devices (VAD), Android tablets, feature phones, Optical and Blu-ray DVD players. It’s the number two globally in mobile phones. The company’s products can be found in 20 % of homes globally and nearly 1 of every 3 mobile phones is powered by MediaTek.