Beijing, 25 Apr (Xinhua) -- On 25 April, the Economic Information Daily published an article written by reporters Wang Wenbo and Ding Lecai entitled "'Cloud' Docking Canton Fair Refracts New Momentum of Foreign Trade." According to the article, more than 200 countries and regions of overseas buyers registered to visit the exhibition, the number of stable and rising; exhibitors have uploaded more than 3 million exhibits, a record high; 50 "Trade Bridge" global supply and procurement docking activities, focusing on promoting a number of key domestic industrial clusters and brand enterprises... The 10-day 131st China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) came to an end on the 24th, and a series of data were handed over to the answer sheet of the "cloud" Canton Fair under the epidemic, and also became a vivid annotation of the strong gravity of the Chinese market.
It is worth noting that there are many new signs at this Canton Fair. Exhibitors interviewed by the Economic Information Daily generally reported that online matchmaking, live streaming with goods, cross-border e-commerce and the landing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) have opened up a new path for international cooperation and market expansion under the epidemic. The industry believes that as the "weather vane" and "barometer" of the mainland's foreign trade, the new breakthrough of the Canton Fair shows that China's foreign trade has strong resilience and full of kinetic energy, which is an important driving force for world economic and trade cooperation.
Digital empowerment Accelerate the innovation and development of foreign trade
"Visiting" the exhibition hall and "walking into" the workshop, the Bangladeshi buyer Idils watched the live broadcast of Ulusha Co., Ltd. and then applied for a one-on-one video connection. In the subsequent "cloud negotiation", through online discussion of functions and real-time participation in design, the two sides reached an intention order for sanitary ware products of 300,000 US dollars.
"The convenience of online exhibition is a powerful platform to cope with the challenges of the epidemic and win more customers and orders. We have brought 40 or 50 fashionable and compact fans, kettles and other home appliances. Zeng Nengfu, marketing manager of Nishizhe Co., Ltd. in Japan, said that the company has 6 warehouses in China. The logistics system is ready to take orders at any time.
The "Economic Reference Daily" reporter learned that since the epidemic, on the basis of summarizing the experience of previous sessions and investigating the needs of exhibitors, this Canton Fair has achieved many improvements such as efficient docking of functions and accurate trade matching.
In addition, the trade service sector of this Canton Fair introduced new logistics service formats such as overseas warehouses, and a total of 40 enterprises settled in, helping the development of cross-border e-commerce, promoting the innovative development of foreign trade, and promoting a large number of trade transformations.
Under the empowerment of digitalization, more than 25,000 domestic and foreign enterprises participated in the exhibition, and tens of millions of visitors visited online to negotiate and dock through the "cloud" of time and space.
These are the epitome of the acceleration of the innovation and development of the mainland's foreign trade. In recent years, as a new form of foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce has shown strong development vitality and played an important role in stabilizing the basic plate of foreign trade and foreign investment and promoting high-quality trade development. According to customs statistics, the scale of cross-border e-commerce in the mainland has increased by nearly 10 times in five years, and the import and export volume will reach 1.98 trillion yuan in 2021, an increase of 15% year-on-year.
In the first quarter, under the influence of the epidemic, cross-border e-commerce still achieved positive growth. Preliminary customs calculations show that in the first quarter, the mainland's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports were 434.5 billion yuan, an increase of 0.5% year-on-year, of which exports were 310.4 billion yuan, an increase of 2.6%.
RCEP helps the region to benefit from continuous release
It is worth noting that this is also the first Canton Fair held since the RCEP came into effect at the beginning of the year. Xu Bing, spokesman for the Canton Fair and deputy director of the China Foreign Trade Center, said that the official entry into force of the RCEP means that the world's most populous and largest economic and trade free trade zone has officially landed. "As an all-round platform for opening up to the outside world, the Canton Fair actively guides and encourages enterprises to take the official implementation of RCEP as an opportunity to make every effort to open up the international market."
In the first quarter of this year, the mainland's imports and exports to the other 14 members of the RCEP amounted to 2.86 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.9% year-on-year, accounting for 30.4% of the mainland's total foreign trade. Among them, imports and exports with South Korea and Japan accounted for 20% of the import and export scale of mainland and RCEP trading partners; and the import and export growth rate with South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand and other countries exceeded double digits year-on-year.
RCEP member states have always been an important source area for canton fairs, with nearly 50,000 buyers attending each offline canton fair. This canton fair further expanded cooperation, and 40 of the 170 partners in the world are from RCEP member countries, achieving full coverage of RCEP member countries.
While the "circle of friends" is expanding, the efficiency of cooperation is also improving. This canton fair organized RCEP thematic trade docking activities, focusing on home furnishing industry institutions, according to the subdivision of procurement needs, Changyou, Shida, Eurosha, Kaisco, LULU and other international leading enterprises and Chinese suppliers formed 11 docking groups to negotiate cooperation accurately and efficiently.
The head of Indonesia's Changyou Group, which participated in the docking activity, said that the group's quarterly procurement amount is about 180 million US dollars, and this docking will play a good role in its procurement layout, and they will include more Chinese high-quality products in the order. The person in charge of Zhejiang Yongqiang Group said that the format of the event was novel, and overseas buyers showed strong interest in the company's products.
Cheng Shishi, chief economist of ICBC International, said at the meeting that the entry into force of the RCEP is of positive significance to countries to cope with challenges. He believes that the entry into force of the RCEP will help expand the scale of China's foreign trade and stimulate the vitality of intraregional trade; promote the strengthening of the chain and accelerate the integration of the industrial chain supply chain; maintain the multilateral economic and trade system and accelerate the integration process.
Abundant kinetic energy The long-term trend of goodwill does not change
The long-term effects of the Canton Fair will continue to be released. Gao Lingyun, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Economic Reference Daily that as the "barometer" and "weather vane" of China's foreign trade, the overall scale of the Canton Fair has risen steadily, the efficiency of trade docking has been improved, and the expansion of new markets and new channels are all concrete embodiments of the mainland's strong foreign trade resilience and new momentum, and the staying power can be expected.
Harris, Commercial Consul of the Foreign Trade Development Council of Malaysia, spoke highly of the innovative move of the Canton Fair online held in the context of the epidemic. We are full of confidence in the future trade prospects of the two countries. "The RCEP agreement, which entered into force for Malaysia in March this year, has pushed bilateral relations to a new level and is expected to reach a new milestone in total bilateral trade."
Tomoki Izumikawa, director of the Business Department of the Japan Association for the Promotion of International Trade, said that in 2021, the total import and export volume of Japan and China will reach a record high, and the space for bilateral economic and trade cooperation is vast. At present, the international situation is grim and complex, and the Canton Fair will play a greater role as a "bridge of development, peace and cooperation".
Gao Lingyun believes that despite the complexity of the current international environment, the trend and consensus of win-win cooperation have not changed. More efficient and convenient channel construction, more accurate economic and trade docking, and the in-depth release of the favorable effects of regional cooperation such as RCEP will open up more space for world economic and trade cooperation.
Gao Lingyun further analyzed that at present, due to the multi-point sporadic epidemic in China, the impact on related industries may be difficult to alleviate in the short term. "However, with the improvement of the epidemic situation, from the late second quarter to the second half of the year, the mainland's foreign trade is expected to usher in a sharp rebound." Throughout the year, it is expected to achieve the goal of maintaining stability and improving quality. ”
Liang Ming, director of the Institute of Foreign Trade of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, also believes that in the difficulties, the acceleration of the development of new foreign trade formats and the continuous release of RCEP dividends and many other positive factors are superimposed, which is forming a driving force and confidence to promote the sustained and steady growth of China's foreign trade. (End)