The Chinese mainland continues to be favored by international retailers eyeing expansion in the Asia-Pacific region this year while emerging markets in Southeast Asia are also attracting rising attention, global real estate adviser CBRE said in a recent report. The report’s second annual edition found that 64 percent of the retailers plan to open a new store on the mainland this year, ahead of Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore, which came in second with 33 percent seeking new openings, according to CBRE. “Despite a slower growth, the Chinese mainland economy continues to expand at a rapid pace and is luring international retailers looking to tap into booming consumer spending and a growing appetite for Western fashion products and services,” said Jonathan Hsu, director of CBRE Asia-Pacific research. “Retailers continue to view this market as having significant upside potential as the government plans to further boost domestic consumption and double household income by 2020.” Beijing and Shanghai top the list with 36 percent of retailers surveyed planning to open stores in the two cities this year. The report tracks 11 key Asian markets — the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand — as well as Australia and New Zealand in the Pacific region. Half of the retailers surveyed rated prospects to grow as excellent or good as they hoped the Asia-Pacific will outperform other major regions in 2014, the report said. It also found that private consumption demand will grow more slowly. Chinese Consumers Prefer Socially Responsible Firms, Study Finds Chinese consumers are more likely to pay for products and services from companies that are committed to social responsibility than the global average, a recent Nielsen study found. Chinese online consumers said they will pay more for companies that are socially or environmentally active, 14 percentage points higher than the global average, market research firm Nielsen said in a research report. That’s 10 points higher from a year ago in China. “Our findings with Chinese consumers are clearly suggesting that a brand’s social purpose is among the factors that influence their purchasing decisions,” said Patrick Dodd, managing director of Nielsen China. The Nielsen survey polled 30,000 consumers in 60 countries worldwide between February and March. Every six in 10 Chinese respondents said they have purchased at least one product or service in the past six months from a socially responsible firm, compared to the 52 percent global average. Moreover, 81 percent of Chinese respondents said they would prefer to work for a company that is committed to making a positive social and environmental impact. China’s Currency Opens Up to Further Foreign Exchange Trading The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) recently allowed direct trading between the yuan and the British pound and authorized the China Construction Bank to be the clearing bank for RMB business in London. Following the Japanese yen, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and U.S. dollar, the British pound has become another currency that can directly trade with the RMB. Since China launched trials in settling cross-border trade accounts in RMB in 2009, the internationalization of the RMB has continued to accelerate. In tandem with China’s growing economic strength, the RMB is experiencing increasing usage in international markets. According to research on the offshore RMB market conducted by the Bank of China (BOC), in the first quarter of this year the BOC off-shore RMB index grew from 0.91 of the end of last year to 1.07. This represents an increase of 81 percent compared with the first quarter of 2013. The scale of the offshore RMB market continues to expand, and London, the world’s biggest foreign exchange transaction center, has taken two thirds of the total volume of RMB foreign exchange trading outside the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. Huang Bijuan, Vice President of HSBC China, said that direct trading between the yuan and the British pound is an important step toward the internationalization of the RMB, which will further promote the use of RMB in Britain. Financial expert Zhao Qingming points out that previously, the trading procedure between the yuan and the British pound was complicated and costly, requiring the involvement of the U.S. dollar. Direct trading can help lower exchange costs and transaction risks, and facilitate trade between China and Britain, in addition to reducing the reliance on the U.S. dollar and further promoting the internationalization of the RMB.