All Provinces And Cities Are Going All Out To Fight For Foreign Trade

Recently, the General Administration of Customs released the 2023 foreign trade "report card". Data show that in 2023, my country's total import and export value will be 41.76 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.2%. Among them, exports were 23.77 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.6%; imports were 17.99 trillion yuan, a decrease of 0.3%. Overall, imports and exports are better than expected, achieving the goal of promoting stability and improving quality.

In late January 2024, various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country held local two sessions one after another. Many provinces have systematically planned and deployed many tasks, including foreign trade. Companies from all over the country have been working non-stop since New Year's Day, actively going overseas to grab orders, introduce projects, and expand markets. In 2024, all provinces will go all out to fight for foreign trade. Who will carry the banner? Who will become the foreign trade dark horse?

"In 2023, our country withstood external pressure, overcame internal difficulties, comprehensively deepened reform and opening up, and intensified macroeconomic control. The economy continued to rebound for the better, and high-quality development was solidly advanced. The import and export of goods trade was better than expected, achieving stability and improvement. Quality goals." On the morning of January 12, at the press conference on the import and export situation for the whole year of 2023 held by the State Council Information Office, the General Administration of Customs summarized my country's import and export situation in 2023.

In 2023, foreign trade has overcome many difficulties.
Under difficult circumstances, China's foreign trade has maintained a stable and slight growth, which can be said to be commendable. "The most important reason affecting the foreign trade situation in 2023 is the change in the external environment. The economic situation of several major countries is not very good, and the growth rate of the world market is relatively weak. The domestic economy faces many difficulties, which affects import demand. In the second and third quarters of 2023, China Foreign trade once faced a severe situation, but rebounded in the fourth quarter."

According to the annual foreign trade data disclosed by various regions, the ranking of major foreign trade provinces has basically been determined. Among them, Guangdong has firmly ranked as the largest province in foreign trade with an import and export volume of more than 8 trillion yuan, followed by Jiangsu and Zhejiang, with total import and export values exceeding 4 trillion yuan.

The Canton Fair has fully resumed its offline holdings, with an export turnover of US$44 billion. The total exhibition area and the number of exhibitors have reached record highs. At the face-to-face consultation symposium between Guangdong businessmen and governors in December 2023, Wang Weizhong mentioned that Guangdong is making every effort to implement the "five-foreign linkage" combination, accelerate the construction of a strong trade province, and promote high-quality development by expanding high-level opening up to the outside world. , better serve and integrate into the new development pattern.

Guangdong's foreign trade has achieved such good results because Guangdong's exports will show a diversified trend in 2023, and the proportion of emerging markets will increase. In addition to the import and export scale still ranking first in the country, the structure of Guangdong's trading entities, trading partners, and trade products are constantly being optimized. Specifically, trading entities are increasingly dominated by private enterprises; trading partners are becoming increasingly diversified, and the proportion of emerging markets continues to increase; the proportion of exports of high-tech products has increased, and exports of agricultural products have continued to grow.

Data from Guangdong Provincial Customs shows that in 2023, Guangdong exported 3.56 trillion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, a year-on-year increase of 0.9%, accounting for 65.4% of the total export value. Among them, the export of household appliances increased by 8%, and the export of "three new items" such as lithium-ion batteries and solar cells increased by 33.7% in total.

Data from Jiangsu Provincial Customs shows that Jiangsu Province will deepen reform and opening up in 2023, introduce an action plan to build a two-way opening hub with global cohesion, promote the construction of the "Belt and Road" intersection based on a new starting point, and cooperate with countries that jointly build the "Belt and Road" Import and export accounted for 42.9% of the province. In addition, Jiangsu also promotes stable scale and optimized structure of foreign trade. Private enterprise exports accounted for 49.7%, cross-border e-commerce exports increased by 12.3%, and the "New Three Samples" export scale and "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" visa export value both increased. Ranking first in the country.

Jiangsu Province stated that Jiangsu will focus on consolidating its basic foreign trade, carry out in-depth the "Jiangsu Excellent Character Global" campaign, further strengthen economic and trade exchanges with the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea, actively expand the market of countries jointly building the "Belt and Road", and open up new space for global economic and trade cooperation. Implement the three-year action plan for the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce, focus on developing "cross-border e-commerce + industrial belt", and actively deploy overseas warehouses.

The second session of the 14th Zhejiang Provincial People's Congress opened on January 23, 2024. In his government work report, Governor Wang Hao said that as a major foreign trade province, Zhejiang's import and export of goods, export and import in 2023 will be 4.90 trillion respectively. yuan, 3.57 trillion yuan and 1.33 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.6%, 3.9% and 6.7% respectively over the previous year, ranking third, second and fifth in the country respectively. The exports of emerging industries grew rapidly. The exports of the "three new items" were 140.2 billion yuan, an increase of 11.0%, driving the province's export growth by 0.4 percentage points.

According to a reporter from China Economic Weekly, government officials and companies in Zhejiang Province are very hardworking and have long called out "thousands of companies to expand the market and grab orders." "Looking back on my 2023, at the beginning of the year, I boarded the first China-Europe freight train in the Year of the Rabbit, the 'Yixinou', which departed from the Yiwu Railway Port in Zhejiang, passed through the Manzhouli Port in Inner Mongolia, and headed for Moscow. We in Zhejiang have started the national stability campaign in 2023. The first shot of foreign trade, we will continue to work hard in 2024!"

In mid-January 2024, the Ministry of Commerce stated in an interview with the media that from the perspective of international demand, the world economy is still sluggish. The IMF predicts that global economic growth will drop to 2.9% in 2024, lower than 3% in 2023 and lower than The average level in the 20 years before the epidemic was 3.8%. From the perspective of international competition, my country's competitive advantage has gradually transformed from factor cost advantages to comprehensive advantages such as business environment, independent innovation, and industrial supporting facilities. Taken together, the difficulties and challenges facing my country's foreign trade development cannot be ignored, but the favorable conditions are stronger than the unfavorable factors. It is expected that my country will remain the largest country in goods trade in 2023. We have the ability, confidence, and confidence to perform at a higher level Promote new steps in building a trade power.