On January 27, 2017, Chinese Consulate General in New York and Nasdaq OMX Group jointly held the market open ceremony in celebration of Chinese Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rooster. Consul General Zhang Qiyue rang the NASDAQ Stock Market Opening Bell. Robert McCooey, the Senior Vice President of Nasdaq OMX Group, delivered a speech. Representatives of Chinese media and enterprises from Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, China News Service, Bank of China, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company, State Grid, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Bank, China Southern Airlines and Shanghai Greenland Group attended the ceremony. Footage of celebration was showed on the big screens in Time Square in New York and was broadcasted to the globe through U.S. media such as CNBC.
Consul General Zhang Qiyue extended her sincere wishes for Chinese Lunar New Year to all walks of life in the Eastern US, especially to those in the business field. She also thanked Nasdaq for organizing the market open ceremony in the New Year of the Rooster and wished that the cooperation between Nasdaq and Chinese companies will usher a brilliant prospect in the new year.
Zhang Qiyue introduced China's economic development during the speech and interview. She commented that China's economy maintains a sound momentum of growth, and is transforming and upgrading from a manufacturing- and export-based to an innovation- and consumption-based economy. Domestic consumption has contributed 64.6 percent to GDP growth, serving as one of the most important engines of global economic growth and bringing more trade and investment opportunities to companies all over the world, including the U.S. companies. China-US relations have been developing steadily and the bilateral economic and trade cooperation has maintained good momentum in recent years. China is now U.S.'s largest trade partner and the third largest export market. The development of bilateral trade has brought people in both countries tangible and intangible benefits. The consumer goods from China have reduced the cost of living for U.S. people, raised the standard of living, and created millions of jobs in the U.S. With the joint effort of people from all walks of life in China and the U.S., the two countries will achieve win-win cooperation and mutual development in the new year.
Mr. McCooey expressed his best wishes for the Year of the Rooster in Chinese. He said that Nasdaq was honored to hold the market open ceremony with the Chinese Consulate General in New York to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. Nasdaq has been having increasingly close relationship with China. There are so far 105 Chinese companies listed on Nasdaq market, while companies including Baidu and JD.COM are selected as part of the Nasdaq-100 index. The first IPO on Nasdaq in 2016 was a Chinese company. McCooey believed that Chinese companies will continue to lead index higher and pay more dividends in 2017.
With the ringing of the Opening Bell after the countdown, the big screen of Nasdaq in Time Square displayed the pictures with "Happy New Year" in both Chinese and English and the celebration video of the Year of the Rooster to share the joyfulness of Chinese Spring Festival with tourists from all over the world. Deputy Consul General You Weijun, Deputy Consul General Qiu Jian, Science and Technology Counselor Xing Jijun, Cultural Counselor Li Liyan and other consuls were also present to attend the event.
Nasdaq is one of the world's largest stock exchanges. The NASDAQ-100 index was created in January 1985 and has now become one of the three major indexes that reflect the trend of U.S. stock market.