A few days ago, the 130th Canton Fair held in the form of "online + offline" successfully came to an end. Although the current epidemic prevention and control situation in some countries in the world is still unclear, and the risk of epidemic importation still exists, under the historical opportunity of a new round of technological revolution, the signing of the RCEP agreement and China's application to join the CPTPP, the global trade pattern is undergoing profound changes, superimposed on multiple positive factors such as the gradual recovery of the resilience of the global industrial chain and the acceleration of the production of new crown vaccines, Guangdong's foreign trade has three new development advantages and three re-development opportunities. Guangdong should take advantage of the momentum, make full use of the Canton Fair, consolidate the bridge between China and the world market in the form of "offline good-looking, online lively", innovatively play the role of a comprehensive platform for all-round opening up, help Chinese enterprises expand the international market, and make positive contributions to maintaining the smooth flow of the global industrial chain supply chain value chain, while accelerating the transformation of Guangdong from factor opening to institutional opening-up, and "breaking new ground" for the country to achieve all-round high-level development.
At present, the development of Guangdong's foreign trade highlights three major advantages. First, the scale of foreign trade ranks first, and private enterprises inject strong endogenous power. In the economic fluctuations brought about by the global epidemic, Guangdong's foreign trade has shown strong resilience. In the first three quarters of 2021, Guangdong's foreign trade scale performed well in the national foreign trade situation. Private enterprises have driven the foreign trade industry out of adversity, and the export scale will remain the first in the country in 2020, driving Guangdong's foreign trade growth by 2.8 percentage points. Second, the industrial foundation is strong, and new trade formats are booming. Guangdong machinery and equipment, electronic equipment and medical equipment and other high-tech industries import and export trade ranked first in the country, in recent years, but also continue to innovate cross-border e-commerce, market procurement as the representative of the new formats, new models. Third, the international market is diversified and developed. Guangdong's trade with ASEAN, the European Union and the United States ranks among the top in the country, giving full play to the role of foreign trade as a bridge, and also accumulating the advantages of diversified trade, especially in the context of the signing of the RCEP agreement, innovating and exploring new ways of regional free trade development.
At the same time, the development of Guangdong's foreign trade ushered in a three-fold development opportunity. First, the construction of a new development pattern with the domestic cycle as the main body and the mutual promotion of domestic and international dual cycles has been accelerated, and the transformation and optimization of foreign trade has ushered in a breakthrough period. At present, Guangdong has further opened up the domestic market on the basis of opening up the international market, and there are a large number of new growth points in all aspects of domestic production, distribution, circulation and consumption, which bring breakthrough opportunities for further enhancing the transformation and upgrading of industrial enterprises. Second, the emerging technological revolution is in the ascendant, and digital trade is booming. In recent years, Guangdong's digital trade field has continuously burst with new vitality, the service energy level has been continuously improved, and the import and export of knowledge-intensive services has accounted for more than 50%, becoming a new engine for the development of Guangdong's foreign trade. Third, open cooperation platforms continue to emerge. Platforms such as Hengqin and Qianhai Cooperation Zone, Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Test Zone and China (Guangdong)-RCEP Member States Cross-border E-commerce Exchange Meeting are superimposed on the "dual-zone opportunities", highlighting the strong institutional opening power.
After the successful holding of the first "online + offline" Canton Fair, Guangdong should give full play to the above three major advantages and seize the three major opportunities to empower the new development of Guangdong's foreign trade, contribute to the strategic fulcrum of creating a new development pattern of "double circulation" and help the global economic recovery.
(Author: Han Yonghui, Professor, PhD Supervisor, Pearl River Scholar, Guangdong Institute of International Strategy, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Financial and Economic Decision-making Expert of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress; Feng Yaxuan, Research Assistant, Guangdong Institute of International Strategy, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies)
This paper was supported by the National Social Science Foundation's major project "Institutional Opening-up and Institutional Innovation research on global economic governance" (20&ZD061).
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