At present, many foreign trade enterprises are working hard, rushing to deliver orders and meeting customers to find business, determined to make a good start. Experts believe that in the first quarter of 2024, there will be both opportunities and challenges for China’s foreign trade development. The economic recovery will continue to consolidate and strengthen, and high-level opening-up will provide support for China’s foreign trade to maintain resilience. The active actions of local governments and enterprises are expected to further stimulate the vitality of foreign trade development.
The beginning is related to the overall situation, and the beginning determines the momentum of the later stage. Some provinces and cities have planned in advance to demonstrate the strength and responsibility of a major foreign trade province while helping enterprises export.
On the first day of the new year, at the Qingdao Port Terminal in Shandong Port, the 366 meter long, designed container capacity of 13500 TEUs, and total cargo value of approximately 200 million RMB, the “Unaza Express” was loaded with Shandong goods and sailed towards the United States on the other side of the ocean. At Dongjia Town Station in Jinan, the first Shandong China Europe train in 2024 will depart from here on the morning of the first day and leave the country via Khorgos Port, carrying laser cutters, tires and other “made in Shandong” to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. On the early morning of the 1st, at Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport, Flight 5Y4701 carried equipment, automotive parts, and other goods to New York, USA
At the beginning of the 2024 New Year, Shandong initiated and implemented the “Good Product Shandong Lu Mao Global” market development action. Ma Ling, Director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Department of Commerce of Shandong Province, stated that this year’s actions will focus on stabilizing traditional markets such as Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea, and expanding more vigorously into emerging markets such as ASEAN, Central Asia, Latin America, and Africa. We will promote foreign trade enterprises to “go global together” and combine support policies through market development activities to create a combination of stable and high-quality foreign trade.
On the afternoon of the 5th, while Shandong was busy with shipping by sea, land, and air, 160 Suzhou Jinlong Haige pure electric buses officially departed from Suzhou Industrial Park to Pakistan. It is reported that this batch of passenger bus orders amounts to over 150 million yuan, marking Pakistan’s first large-scale introduction of pure electric buses.
On January 6th, the Department of Commerce of Fujian Province issued a document proposing 11 measures to support enterprises in expanding the market and stabilizing orders, promoting stable stock and growth in various regions, and strengthening export risk protection. On January 2nd, Weihai City, Shandong Province issued a list of policies and measures to promote high-quality development of foreign trade, focusing on six aspects: international market exploration, cross-border e-commerce development, import of high-quality and bulk products, “business+finance”, innovative development of service trade, and improvement of trade facilitation level. 20 policy measures were sorted and formulated to serve the high-quality development of import and export enterprises.
Looking ahead to 2024, we should not only see the uncertainty and instability of the external environment, but also the continuous accumulation of favorable conditions for China’s economic and foreign trade development The spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, He Yadong, recently stated that the long-term positive fundamentals of the Chinese economy have not changed, and the dividends of opening up to the outside world will continue to emerge. The potential of new foreign trade products and formats will continue to be unleashed.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, there were many positive signals in the development of foreign trade. The export volume in November 2023, denominated in RMB, increased by 12% year-on-year, reaching its peak after the second quarter. In that month, China’s exports to the United States ended a 14 month decline and turned to a growth of 9.6%.
China’s foreign trade has achieved leapfrog development, firmly ranking as the world’s largest goods trading country, and is steadily moving towards the goal of becoming a trading powerhouse. Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, said that it is necessary to expand high-level opening up, actively cultivate new momentum for foreign trade, expand intermediate trade, service trade, digital trade, cross-border e-commerce exports, deepen international economic and trade cooperation, coordinate trade development and security, promote new development and breakthroughs in building a trade power, and make new contributions to promoting Chinese path to modernization.
China’s opening-up has gone through a stage of relying solely on low costs to win. Zhang Wei, Vice President of the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that China is currently playing not a “single event competition” but an “all-around competition”, which includes higher cost-effectiveness, improved industrial support, and a good business environment, which will give various types of enterprises greater growth space.
Post time: Jan-13-2024