Source: People's Daily News
Latin American Chinese Businessmen Help Grow Trade Between China and Latin America (Overseas Chinese Concern)
Yang Ning, Li Hui
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, the trade in goods between China and countries along the "Belt and Road" reached 11.6 trillion yuan in 2021, an increase of 23.6% year-on-year, a new high in 8 years.
As an important region along the "Belt and Road", Latin America's economic and trade cooperation with China has continued to maintain rapid growth during the epidemic. Statistics released by the General Administration of Customs of China show that the total trade between China and Latin America and the Caribbean (hereinafter referred to as "Latin America") will exceed US$450 billion in 2021.
Behind the eye-catching data, there is a contribution of Latin American Chinese businessmen.
Write a new chapter in China-Latin America trade
Zhang Tuo, former Chinese ambassador to several countries in Latin America, said in an interview with this newspaper: "In the context of the spread of the new crown epidemic and the difficult recovery of the world economy, the total trade volume between China and Latin America accounts for about 1/4 of the trade volume of the 'Belt and Road' countries, and the impressive results are inseparable from the efforts and efforts of every overseas Chinese businessman, and the new and old trade Chinese businessmen have played an important role in promoting 'Made in China' and 'Made in China' to go global." ”
As a typical representative of Chinese businessmen, in 1999, Chen Xiaolan, a native of Guizhou, left the familiar position of Traditional Chinese medicine physician, went to the sea to do business, created his own brand, and established a full-process clothing trading company from design, production to retail.
Talking about why he was involved in export trade, Chen Xiaolan said: "At that time, Chilean consumer goods mainly relied on imports, while Yiwu small commodities were rich in variety and low prices, which made me see business opportunities. Today, Chen Xiaolan not only has his own trading company in Chile, but also expands his business from Chile to Peru.
"The new generation of Chinese businessmen has a global vision and professional knowledge. They not only introduce physical goods into Latin America, but also infiltrate Internet thinking into local social development. Zhang Tuo said.
In 2003, Zou Wenbao, a 21-year-old fujian native, came to Venezuela. When he first arrived in a foreign country, Zou Wenbao was not familiar with the land and made a living by installing computer system software for overseas Chinese and Ethnic Chinese. He said: "In the first 10 years of going abroad, I have been trying to learn foreign languages, try to get out of the Chinese area, adapt to the environment, and integrate into the local area. ”
In 2013, Zou Wenbao began to contact e-commerce trade: "Although the overall economic situation in Venezuela was sluggish at that time, I believe that different stages of economic development contain different opportunities, the key is to find, discover and grasp with heart, and e-commerce is the development trend of the times." ”
Zou Wenbao began buying goods on Alibaba's platform and selling them in the Venezuelan market. With local advantages in the domestic logistics system, payment settlement and other aspects, he can quickly purchase in bulk through a computer or even a mobile phone, and win the local market competition at a low price.
China has a rich variety of commodities, a stable supply chain, and a prominent cluster effect of the business environment. This attracts many foreign companies to purchase in China, but due to differences in language, laws and regulations, foreign companies often need to rely on intermediaries to find sources of goods, and transaction costs are relatively high.
With the maturity and stability of e-commerce trade, Zou Wenbao is not satisfied with the business model of domestic procurement and foreign sales, but also looks for a cooperation team in China, intending to extend the Internet thinking to the front-end product research and development design, thereby enhancing the barriers to competition.
Transformation and upgrading under the epidemic
Due to the complementarity of the trade structure between China and Latin America and the strong resilience of the social needs of Latin American countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought more business opportunities, although it has had an impact on China-Latin America trade.
The epidemic has caused traditional cross-border trade to suffer heavy blows in the logistics supply chain, customs and shipping, etc., and the national layout of the overseas "overseas warehouse" logistics system has brought a certain buffer to small and medium-sized Chinese businessmen. "The construction of the 'overseas warehouse' has stabilized our logistics supply chain system, allowing us to send goods in batches to foreign warehouses, saving time and cost between local sales and distribution." Chen Xiaolan said.
The problem of increasing trade costs has prompted many Chinese businessmen to adjust their trade structure. Due to the rise in freight rates, Chen Xiaolan had to adjust the sales model, from the previous small profits and high sales to high quality and high price, and then adjust the category structure and reduce freight costs. Zhang Tuo said: "Compared with the low-end products such as textiles and daily consumer goods exported in the past, china's exports to Latin America today have higher scientific and technological content and wider coverage, from machinery and equipment, transportation, electronic telecommunications and other products to aircraft, communication satellites and nuclear power plants." ”
In the face of the epidemic, overseas Chinese businessmen have actively expanded their customer base through e-commerce while adhering to traditional trade methods and optimizing and upgrading products.
As a small and medium-sized e-commerce practitioner, Zou Wenbao frankly said: "The epidemic has shifted the consumption behavior of local people from offline to online, which has brought new opportunities for the development of e-commerce. Zou Wenbao is not simply transferring product marketing from offline to online, but adopts the "local conditions" scheme to create a new e-commerce trade model.
When it was found that the traffic of the Latin American social platform was much higher than that of the e-commerce platform, Zou Wenbao led the team to regularly test the user browsing, likes and other information on the social platform every week, and promoted the product on social media with the concept of "sharing". Through the transaction data, he summed up the differences between e-commerce products and traditional trade products, and accordingly looked for products suitable for Internet platform transactions, and avoided the saturation of similar products and staggered competition.
Highlight the new responsibilities of the sons and daughters of China
While developing their own businesses, Latin American Chinese businessmen also pay attention to fulfilling their social responsibilities. They give back to their ancestral (home) countries, unite overseas Chinese compatriots, actively carry forward china's excellent traditional culture overseas, and highlight the new era responsibility of The sons and daughters of China.
After the outbreak of the epidemic in China, Chinese businessmen in Latin America are related to their ancestral (home) countries. When he saw the announcement of Wuhan Puren Hospital's request for help, as the president of the Chilean Overseas Chinese Women's Federation, Chen Xiaolan led overseas Chinese women to raise nearly 160,000 yuan in a week and urgently purchased epidemic prevention materials to assist the hospital. Feng Weiguang, President of the Mala Street Branch of the Wuyi Youth Federation in Jiangmen, Venezuela, organized donation activities for young overseas Chinese to support Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic, with a donation amount of more than 300,000 yuan.
In recent years, Venezuela's economy has been unstable and its exchange rate has fluctuated greatly. Zou Wenbao led the team to develop a cash register system suitable for Chinese businessmen, helping Chinese businessmen solve problems such as language barriers, financial management confusion, and untimely price changes. In the future, he hopes to upgrade the cash register system to an online shopping platform, so that more Chinese businessmen can accelerate their transformation and drive overseas Chinese to develop together.
While working hard, Chinese businessmen have also made important contributions to promoting local economic development, enhancing mutual trust and mutual love between the Chinese and Latin American peoples, and promoting the cultural diversity of the countries in which they live. Chen Xiaolan led the Women's Association to donate materials and seek legal aid to 3 Chilean women who suffered domestic violence, and donated Christmas gifts to the Chile National Welfare Children's Institute, so that local children could feel the warmth of "Chinese Loving Mother".
Chinese businessmen also showcase contemporary Chinese civilization by disseminating traditional Chinese culture. Before the epidemic, Chilean overseas Chinese groups jointly held a Spring Festival party in Chile's Presidential Palace Square, and Chen Xiaolan led the women's club to perform the dance "Good Luck Come". Under the epidemic situation, Zou Wenbao started Chinese food takeaway from scratch, he said: "My original intention is not only to provide convenient catering services for local people, but also to spread traditional Chinese culture with the help of food and takeaway packaging. ”
Latin American Chinese businessmen are promoting the in-depth development of China-Latin America's economic and trade with the spirit of hard work and promoting friendly exchanges between the Chinese and Latin American peoples with the vision of development.