Our reporter Liu Meng
Recently, foreign trade companies from all over the world have attracted attention by “grouping to go overseas”.
On December 7th, according to the WeChat official account “Suzhou Release”, from November 17th to 23rd, the Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce organized a charter flight service to Japan. This charter flight consisted of 12 investment teams and 51 foreign trade companies. The person in charge is composed of 88 people in total. Foreign trade companies actively expanded the market to grab orders, visited more than 200 Japanese customers, and strived for new orders exceeding 1 billion yuan. According to reports, from December 9th to 18th, the Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce will also organize charter flights to France and Germany.
On the same day, Chengdu High-tech Zone held the launch ceremony of “Struggling for the Economy, Grabbing Orders, and Expanding the Market” (European Station). Europe kicked off the first prelude of a series of business activities “going overseas to attract investment, go overseas to attract talents, go overseas to grab orders, and go overseas to communicate”.
In fact, as early as July this year, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province organized foreign trade companies to charter flights. On July 10, the “Ningbo-Budapest” business charter flight carried a Zhejiang foreign-related business delegation from Ningbo to Budapest. During 12 days, the Zhejiang foreign-related business delegation went to many European countries to participate in exhibitions, visit customers, and inspect factories. , Make efforts to stabilize orders and promote cooperation. Since then, other cities in Zhejiang Province have followed suit. Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Taizhou and other places have organized enterprises to go overseas to stabilize orders and expand markets.
Entering December, more and more provinces are “organizing groups to go to sea”. Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, Guangdong Province, Sichuan Province, Fujian Province and other provinces organize business charter flights for foreign trade enterprises to go overseas to expand the international market and make efforts to stabilize foreign trade. On December 3, Zhejiang Province launched the “Thousands of Groups and Thousands of Enterprises to Expand the Market and Grab Orders”, and linked enterprises to participate in exhibitions and conduct business negotiations abroad. In the future, Zhejiang Province will organize more than 10,000 enterprises to participate in economic and trade activities abroad through chartered flights and shared flights.
These “groups going to sea” actions have made many foreign trade practitioners see positive signals. “One meeting is worth a thousand emails.” Zhu Qiucheng, general manager of Ningbo New Oriental Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., said in an interview with a reporter from “Securities Daily”. On the one hand, overseas businessmen can learn more about the company’s situation; on the other hand, the company also It is necessary to “go out” to understand the changes in customer needs on the ground.
For “organizing a group to go to sea”, “confidence” is the key word mentioned by all parties. According to the person in charge of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, the government takes the lead in “going out”, which will further release positive signals of market expansion and encourage the development confidence of Zhejiang foreign trade enterprises.
Zhu Qiucheng said: “Confidence is more important than gold. Ningbo’s “Hundred Groups, Thousands of Enterprises and Thousands of People” first group has set off on December 6, and will go to the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Japan for working visits in more than ten days, which demonstrates Ningbo’s achievements. The confidence and determination of the “City of Foreign Trade Trillions” dispelled the worries of enterprises and boosted the confidence of entrepreneurs.”
In addition to “organizing a group to go overseas”, there are also enterprises that use the method of “exhibiting on behalf of the exhibition” to expand the market and grab orders. Li Jun, general manager of Dongguan Weidi Information Technology Co., Ltd., told the “Securities Daily” reporter that some time ago, the company participated in relevant exhibitions in Russia, Japan and other places through the method of “exhibiting on behalf of” and the exhibition effect was good.
Ming Ming, chief economist of CITIC Securities, told the Securities Daily reporter that under the influence of declining external demand and high base effect, my country’s exports were obviously under pressure. The year-on-year growth rate of foreign trade exports in November showed an unexpected and super-seasonal decline. For various micro-entities, the problem of insufficient orders is more prominent. In this context, many places have organized charter flights to carry out economic and trade promotion activities overseas, providing opportunities for face-to-face communication with overseas customers. This will help boost the confidence of foreign trade companies, create conditions for them to expand their markets and increase new orders, and thus help stabilize growth.
It is reported that some companies have put plans to participate in overseas exhibitions in 2023 on the agenda. Li Jun revealed that the company plans to participate in Japan Gift Show, Frankfurt Auto Parts Show and other exhibitions in the next year.
Looking forward to the future, Mingming said that from the perspective of foreign trade partners, the year-on-year growth rate of mainland China’s exports to developed economies such as the European Union, the United States, and Japan in November was negative, and these economies are also the main markets that various regions are currently striving to develop. As the effects of relevant policies to stabilize foreign trade and orders gradually become prominent, the year-on-year decline in my country’s exports to related economies is expected to converge in the future. At present, due to the high energy cost in Europe, the production capacity of some commodities is limited, including chemical products, some mechanical and electrical products, etc., which will provide opportunities for Chinese foreign trade enterprises to substitute products for export.