In the first three quarters, China's total value of goods trade imports and exports reached 32.33 trillion yuan, breaking through the 32 trillion yuan mark for the first time in history, with a year-on-year increase of 5.3%. As China's foreign trade achieves leapfrog growth, how to enhance the value of foreign trade and promote high-quality development of foreign trade poses higher demands on various regions.

Unleashing Potential

At the production workshop of Zhejiang Aoli Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., located in the High-tech Industrial Park of Xinchang, Zhejiang Province, automated production lines are working at full capacity to fulfill a batch of sofa orders from European customers.

Furniture and other labor-intensive products are traditional advantageous export industries in Zhejiang. Among the seven types of labor-intensive products exported by the province, six have export growth rates leading the nation. In the first eight months, Zhejiang's labor-intensive product exports amounted to 797.63 billion yuan, an increase of 8.9%. Local furniture export companies, while maintaining stable exports to traditional markets such as Europe and America, actively explore emerging markets and cultivate new growth points.

Advertisement

To stimulate the potential of traditional industries in foreign trade, precise alignment with international market demands is indispensable. This year, the order volume of Zhejiang Jinhua Oudier Sporting Goods Co., Ltd. has continued to rise, and the production line has always been operating at full capacity. Thanks to the overlapping effects of events such as the Paris Olympics and the French Open, Zhejiang's sports equipment exports have seen an explosion. In the first eight months, Zhejiang's sports equipment exports reached 21.36 billion yuan, a 26.7% increase, of which Jinhua exported 9.65 billion yuan, a 36% increase.

In response to the overseas needs of small and micro private enterprises, Jiangsu Province has innovated in industrial development models, combining local industrial endowments and regional advantages to vigorously promote the integrated development of "cross-border e-commerce + industrial belts," allowing more "Made in Jiangsu" products to accelerate entry into the international market.

In Jiangsu, regions such as Suzhou, Taizhou, and Nantong have achieved cluster development in the medical device industry. Jiangsu Weiwo Network Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the medical product supply chain companies. "The medical service technology network platform independently built by our company showcases more than 10,000 types of mid-to-high-end medical products, attracting the attention of many foreign customers," said Qian Miao, the company's sales director.

Focusing on the New

Entering the production workshop of Nanjing Tianjia Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., a batch of mechanical and electrical products are being assembled and tested for shipment to countries and regions such as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

"We mainly provide green and low-carbon integrated solutions and products in the field of air conditioning for large data centers, GMP pharmaceutical factories, hotels, etc. Due to the high stability of our products and their adaptability to special environments such as deserts, they are well received in the market. Since the beginning of this year, exports to Uzbekistan alone have increased by 166% year-on-year," said Wu Xiaoquan, the company's Chief Operating Officer. Behind the impressive export data is the continuous investment in technology research and development. The company has 200 R&D laboratories, more than a quarter of which have reached an internationally advanced level.In Jiangsu, the proportion of high-end, intelligent, and green products in exported goods is gradually increasing, with many companies' overseas strategies evolving from cost advantages to technological advantages. In the first eight months, Jiangsu Province exported mechanical and electrical products worth 1.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%, accounting for 68.3% of the total export value of the province, driving the export growth rate by 7 percentage points. Among them, exports of computers and their components, mobile phones, ships, and automotive parts increased by 5.3%, 37.1%, 75.1%, and 10.4%, respectively.

Focusing on innovation is becoming the choice of more provinces and cities to promote high-quality development of foreign trade.

Delivering 1,000 new energy buses to Kyrgyzstan; signing a procurement agreement for 120 new energy buses with Singapore; and officially delivering 48 pure electric urban buses to Portugal. This year, Zhongtong Bus has continued to gain strength in overseas markets, with a total sales volume of 5,703 units in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 78.6%; of which, 3,533 units were exported to overseas markets, a year-on-year increase of 76.6%.

In Shandong, the export of the "new three items" is achieving new speeds. In the first three quarters, Shandong Province's cumulative export of the "new three items" products reached 8.03 billion yuan, a growth of 23.1%. Since last year, many places in Shandong have introduced policies to promote the "new three items", with new energy vehicles in Jinan and Liaocheng, lithium batteries in Zaozhuang and Jining, and photovoltaic products in Rizhao and Yantai gradually growing stronger. Han Kui, Deputy Director of the Legal Affairs Office of Jinan Customs, said that customs and commerce departments are precisely targeting the "new three items" to cultivate and strengthen new foreign trade dynamics with effective measures, and to accelerate the shaping of new export advantages.

Expanding openness

Recently, a batch of copper concentrate imported from the Alashankou port arrived smoothly at the Urumqi area of the Xinjiang Free Trade Pilot Zone for unloading and supervision. This is the first time the "port + unloading place" joint supervision model has been implemented in Xinjiang.

This model has become a new engine for driving the growth of Xinjiang's foreign trade. Data shows that in the first seven months, the pilot zone's import and export volume was 85.13 billion yuan, accounting for 33.6% of the total import and export value of Xinjiang's foreign trade.

With the introduction of various guiding policies at the national and local levels, foreign trade formats are becoming increasingly rich.

Nowadays, cross-border e-commerce has become an important force in promoting the high-quality development of Shandong's foreign trade. Weifang Comprehensive Bonded Zone has introduced a series of reform measures to expand openness and promote trade facilitation, providing enterprises with full-cycle and full-chain services. In the first eight months, the bonded zone's import and export volume was 52.01 billion yuan, accounting for 22.4% of the city's total, with a year-on-year increase of 13.1%. "Thanks to the bonded zone's supply chain financial services, the enterprise's capital turnover rate has been greatly improved, with 20 million yuan of working capital available each month, allowing more funds to be used for market development," said Zhang Shengbao, General Manager of Weifang Huida Supply Chain Co., Ltd.

In addition, Shandong has made up for the shortcomings in the structure and function of hub facilities in inland areas by building inland ports. Wu Jingyi, a person in charge of Linqing Yixuan Bearing Co., Ltd., said: "In the past, it was necessary to transport goods to Qingdao Port and then send them to various parts of the world, but now after inspection at the inland port, they can be directly transported to Qingdao by train and shipped." Now, the container logistics transportation pattern of "Qingdao Port in the east and Linqing Port in the west" has been formed, and Linqing's transportation location advantage is becoming more prominent.Currently, Linqing Inland Port has cooperated with 17 world-renowned shipping companies, which not only enables Shandong's goods to reach the sea via rivers but also attracts and gathers export goods from surrounding provinces such as Henan and Hebei.