Ministry of Commerce: Promoting high-level opening up makes foreign trade easier, more convenient, and more rewarding – Xinhua English.news.cn

Today (2nd), the State Council Information Office held a press conference, and the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce introduced the business work and operation in 2022. Guo Tingting, vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce of China, said that the scale of foreign trade in 2022 will hit a record high again, and the import and export of goods will exceed the 40 trillion yuan mark, reaching 42.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.7%.

Li Xingqian, director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced that from a domestic perspective, foreign trade has made an important contribution to the overall recovery of economic operation. The annual net export of goods and services contributed 17.1% to GDP growth, driving GDP growth by 0.5 percentage points. . There are 598,000 foreign trade companies with import and export performance throughout the year, an increase of 31,000 compared with 2021, which will effectively promote the stability of employment in my country. From an international perspective, against the background of the turbulent global economic and trade environment, China has taken effective measures to stabilize production and exports, ensuring the smooth operation of the global industrial and supply chains. At the same time, the annual import scale reached 2.69 trillion US dollars, making China’s contribution to global economic and trade development.

At the same time, at present, the risk of world economic recession is rising, the growth of external demand has slowed down significantly, and the restructuring of the international supply chain is also accelerating. The environment for foreign trade development is extremely severe.

Li Xingqian said that in 2023, greater efforts should be made to promote the stable scale and optimal structure of foreign trade, stabilize the supporting role of exports to the national economy, and place respect and stimulate the creativity of trade entities in a prominent position. To promote high-level opening up, it is necessary to make foreign trade easier, more convenient, and more rewarding. Focus on implementing four measures:

One is to strengthen trade promotion. Closely connect with suppliers and buyers to stabilize export trade. It is necessary to fully resume offline exhibitions of a series of domestic export exhibitions such as the Canton Fair. At the same time, fully support foreign trade enterprises to participate in various overseas professional exhibitions, so as to create more trade opportunities. The second is to expand imports reasonably. We need to closely cooperate with our trading partners, give full play to the advantages of China’s super-large-scale market, and expand the import of high-quality products from various countries, so as to stabilize the global trade supply chain. The third is to deepen trade innovation. Promote the continuous, rapid and healthy development of new formats such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses. The fourth is to stabilize the industrial base of foreign trade. It is necessary to continue to optimize the industrial structure of foreign trade. While strengthening general trade, support the gradual transfer of processing trade to the central, western and northeastern regions for upgrading and development.