News related to
research

According to statistics from the China General Administration of Customs, emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have become a key driver of export growth. However, underdeveloped local financial infrastructure, incomplete cross-border payment systems, and shortages of foreign exchange mean buyers often struggle to access U.S. dollars. As a result, exporters in these markets frequently face low settlement efficiency, slow cash recovery, and risks such as account freezes.

To address these collection challenges, XTransfer has developed a comprehensive set of cross-border collection solutions. In 2025, payment collections from emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America rose 106% year-on-year. By region, collections increased 273% in Africa, 82% in Southeast Asia, and 94% in Latin America.

Over the same period, customs statistics show that in 2025, China’s total goods exports to Asia, Africa, and Latin America increased 14.6% year-on-year, with exports to Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America up 26.6%, 14%, and 8%, respectively. XTransfer’s significantly faster growth in collections compared with export growth suggests exporters are accelerating the shift from informal channels to secure, compliant collection methods, and that market recognition of high-quality cross-border payment services continues to rise.

Bill Deng, Founder and CEO of XTransfer, said emerging markets offer long-term opportunities for Chinese exporters, but many are held back by the “last mile” of collections. He added that XTransfer is committed to helping SMEs collect funds safely and quickly through secure, compliant, and efficient cross-border financial services comparable to those used by multinational companies.

Release of XTransfer PMI
At the Canton Fair, XTransfer partnered with the Yicai Research Institute to publish the “China Small and Medium Enterprises (B2B) Merchandise Export Purchasing Manager Index” (XTransfer Export PMI), offering operational guidance and decision-making reference for small and micro export-oriented businesses.

This edition draws on a sample survey of XTransfer’s 800,000 SME users, selecting over 3,000 companies nationwide. It covers the full export process across export orders, pricing, procurement, logistics, staffing, and cash flow. The report shows that the March 2026 XTransfer PMI was 51.56%, indicating export conditions for SMEs are generally improving. Despite a complex external environment, SMEs have remained resilient and steadily strengthened their pricing power in international markets. Meanwhile, demand structures in emerging markets are reshaping, with export focus shifting toward intermediate goods and higher value-added products.

Resilience Amid Geopolitical Disruptions
Customs data show that in the first quarter, China’s goods exports reached RMB 6.85 trillion, up 11.9% year-on-year, marking a strong start to the year and benefiting SMEs. The XTransfer PMI also shows expansion in the export order index (53.85) and the export price index (56.15). While seasonal factors like the Spring Festival affected the short term, the underlying “volume and price rising together” trend suggests SMEs are accelerating their shift from “low-price internal competition,” strengthening pricing power through technology upgrades and improved quality.

Geopolitical disruptions have also extended delivery times, pushing the logistics time PMI down to 37.50. In contrast, the sales collection (receivables) index rose to 68.59, showing a pattern of “goods moving slower, money returning faster”. This suggests overseas buyers remain strongly tied to China’s high-quality supply chain and are willing to raise prepayment ratios or shorten payment terms to secure capacity. One exhibitor, Mr Wang, said, “A Southeast Asian customer increased its deposit from 30% to 70% to lock in production, worried our capacity would be booked by others.“

Emerging Markets Demand Trends Toward “High-End” Upgrading
The report highlights a shift toward higher-end demand in emerging markets. Africa’s export orders index (57.55) points to rising infrastructure-related demand; Latin America’s export orders index (56.47) and price index (57.81) signal opportunities in electromechanical and optical medical equipment; and Southeast Asia is absorbing components and semi-finished goods, calling for SMEs to move from finished-goods suppliers to supply-chain partners.

As industrialisation accelerates in emerging markets, demand for high-quality intermediate goods, complete electromechanical equipment, and technical services is rising. SMEs are moving from “low-end capacity exports” to “exports of technology and supply chain support”.

The composite PMI for the “New Three” (new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, and lithium batteries) was 54.59. The “New Three” sectors continue to hold growth potential, and enterprises need to enhance profit margins by delivering differentiated value.
Hashtag: #XTransfer #PMI #Crossborder #Payment #SMEs

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has cast Amaravati’s quantum push as a test of whether the country can build strategic technology capacity at home rather than remain tied to foreign platforms, using the launch of two indigenous open-access facilities to argue that partnership with global companies need not mean dependence. The remarks came days after the state unveiled Amaravati 1S and Amaravati 1Q on World Quantum Day, presenting the project as both a technology milestone and a political statement about capability.

Speaking in Amaravati, Naidu pushed back on questions over reliance on companies such as IBM, saying the starting point mattered less than whether domestic institutions could absorb, adapt and eventually build. He described the new facility as proof that companies and researchers in the country are capable of producing quantum systems, while acknowledging that the path to scale will involve collaboration. That framing is central to the state government’s pitch: use foreign alliances where useful, but ensure design, testing, skills and manufacturing depth are developed locally.

The immediate trigger for that argument was the April 14 launch of the Amaravati Quantum Reference Facility, or AQRF, spread across SRM University-AP in Amaravati and Medha Towers in Gannavaram. Andhra Pradesh has described the systems as the country’s first indigenously built, open-access quantum computer test beds, intended to let researchers, startups and industry users test hardware under operating conditions rather than rely only on closed imported machines. Officials say the site is designed to validate processors, cryogenic systems, amplifiers and control electronics, with access for hands-on study and benchmarking.

That matters because quantum computing remains a field in which much of the world’s high-end hardware is controlled by a small number of companies and laboratories. Andhra Pradesh officials and syndicated reports on the launch said about 85 per cent of the facility’s components were manufactured domestically, a claim being used to support the government’s assertion that a “sovereign hardware ecosystem” is now possible. The systems were developed with support from institutions including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the Indian Institute of Science and the Defence Research and Development Organisation, alongside younger firms working on hardware integration.

Yet the sovereignty message sits alongside a second reality: Amaravati’s longer-term quantum ambitions still rely on international corporate participation. IBM, Tata Consultancy Services and the Andhra Pradesh government announced in May 2025 that the planned Quantum Valley Tech Park in Amaravati would seek to host an IBM Quantum System Two with a 156-qubit Heron processor, subject to export licences and final agreements, while TCS would work on algorithms and applications. Naidu himself described that project at the time as part of the National Quantum Mission and a route to job creation and industrial use cases.

That leaves Andhra Pradesh trying to strike a careful balance. On one hand, the state wants the credibility, tooling and developer ecosystem that come with IBM and TCS. On the other, Naidu is signalling that strategic depth cannot rest on access alone. His comparison with the telecom sector was meant to make that case: the country did not master mobile and network technologies overnight, but built capability over time through policy support, local firms and institutional confidence. In quantum, he appears to be arguing for the same sequence — collaborate first where necessary, but move steadily towards domestic competence.

The wider national backdrop supports that ambition. The National Quantum Mission, approved in April 2023 with an outlay of Rs 6,003.65 crore running through 2030-31, is meant to seed research, industrial development and applications across computing, communications, sensing and materials. The Department of Science and Technology says the mission aims to develop intermediate-scale quantum computers in the 50 to 1,000 physical qubit range and has already set up four thematic hubs led by IISc Bengaluru, IIT Madras, IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi. Amaravati’s project is therefore not operating in isolation; it is seeking to attach itself to a national push that is still in its build-out phase.

China has launched a new satellite designed to track greenhouse gases with greater precision, adding a fresh layer of space-based monitoring to the country’s climate and environmental data network.

The satellite lifted off aboard a Long March-4C rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north-west China at 12:10 pm Beijing time on April 17. State media said the spacecraft entered its planned orbit successfully, marking the 638th mission of the Long March rocket family. Chinese reports described it as a high-precision greenhouse-gas detection satellite intended to strengthen observation of atmospheric conditions from orbit.

Chinese broadcaster CGTN reported that the satellite carries five instruments, including an atmospheric detection lidar, a broad-spectrum hyperspectral greenhouse-gas monitor, ultraviolet and infrared hyperspectral sensors for atmospheric composition, and a cloud-and-aerosol imager. Together, those tools are intended to improve detection of carbon dioxide, methane and related atmospheric variables, while helping scientists separate emissions signals from interference caused by clouds, aerosols and other background conditions. The spacecraft and launcher were developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, according to CGTN and other Chinese reports.

The launch gives Beijing a more advanced platform for a task that has become politically and economically important: measuring what is actually entering the atmosphere. Satellite-based observation has become a key part of climate governance because it can provide independent, repeated coverage across large industrial zones, energy corridors and remote terrain where ground-based monitoring is patchier or harder to verify. Methane, in particular, has come under sharper scrutiny because it traps far more heat than carbon dioxide over the short term, while carbon dioxide remains the dominant driver of long-term warming.

For China, the mission also carries strategic weight. The country has pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality before 2060, goals that require more dependable measurement of emissions trends and sector-by-sector performance. Yet that transition remains uneven. Reuters reported in February 2025 that China cut carbon intensity by 3.4 per cent in 2024, but still lagged behind its five-year target, underscoring the tension between climate pledges, industrial growth and energy security. More precise atmospheric data can help narrow that gap between policy targets and real-world measurement.

The new mission also builds on a longer Chinese effort to monitor greenhouse gases from space. In 2016, China launched TanSat, a carbon-tracking satellite aimed at taking global carbon dioxide readings roughly every 16 days, with accuracy of at least four parts per million, according to Reuters and the China National Space Administration. That earlier satellite was presented as a step towards giving policymakers more independent climate data. The new spacecraft appears to signal a move from pioneering measurement capability towards a more operational and higher-resolution system.

That matters beyond China. Space-based emissions tracking has gained prominence as governments, investors and campaigners press for more transparent climate accounting. The loss last year of MethaneSAT, a privately backed satellite funded in part by Jeff Bezos and operated by the Environmental Defense Fund, highlighted both the promise and fragility of this new monitoring architecture. At the same time, political pressure on some United States climate-observation programmes has raised concerns among scientists about the continuity of global emissions data. Against that backdrop, China’s launch adds capacity to a field in which international coverage remains valuable but uneven.

The timing is notable because climate data has become more than a scientific matter. It now feeds into carbon markets, industrial regulation, trade pressure and diplomatic claims over who is cutting emissions and who is not. Better satellite detection could strengthen verification of methane leaks from coal mines, oil and gas facilities, and large industrial sites, while also improving broader atmospheric modelling. Chinese researchers are already working on ever finer emissions datasets for the country, and the addition of a new orbital platform could help tighten links between satellite observation, ground measurements and policy enforcement.