"Belt and Road" construction, China is the promoter, the initiative, in the current era of "turmoil", we must more deeply grasp the future development trend, with a global vision to plan a new development pattern. Fujian has its own unique advantages in the "Belt and Road", and with the in-depth advancement of the "Belt and Road", Fujian also has many places that need to be further strengthened.
The "Belt and Road" construction, after nearly eight years of development, has made great achievements. According to the statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce, at present, China's economic cooperation with countries along the "Belt and Road" has been further deepened, and the level of trade and investment has been further improved.
The "Belt and Road" economic and trade cooperation continued to deepen
1. The scale of trade is quite large
From 2013 to 2020, the total trade in goods between China and countries along the "Belt and Road" exceeded US$8.6 trillion, accounting for nearly 30% of China's total trade in goods. In 2020, China's trade in goods with the "Belt and Road" countries was $1.35 trillion, an increase of 0.7% year-on-year. According to this momentum, it is expected that in the past 8 years, the total scale of China's trade in goods with the "Belt and Road" countries will exceed 10 trillion US dollars.
2. Investment cooperation continues to deepen
From 2013 to 2020, China's direct investment in countries along the "Belt and Road" was US$197.26 billion, accounting for about 9% of China's outward direct investment stock. The amount of newly signed foreign contracting project contracts with countries along the Belt and Road is nearly 900 billion US dollars, an average annual growth of about 12%. Among them, in 2020, China's enterprises signed new contracts for projects in countries along the Belt and Road amounted to 141.46 billion US dollars, and the turnover was 91.12 billion US dollars, accounting for 55.4% and 58.4% of the total in the same period, respectively. Eighty percent of the newly signed projects are concentrated in the field of infrastructure. It is estimated that the amount of newly contracted project contracts signed between Chinese enterprises and "Belt and Road" countries will exceed 1 trillion US dollars in 8 years.
3. Continuous innovation in trade methods
"Silk Road e-commerce" is becoming a new format and new model of economic and trade cooperation between China and the "Belt and Road" countries, and trade methods such as digital economy and cross-border e-commerce are becoming a new driving force for the smooth trade of the "Belt and Road". For example, China's digital trading platform enterprises have entered the Russian market, and there is also comprehensive cooperation with Thailand, and the first digital world trade platform has been jointly established in Malaysia. In addition to cross-border e-commerce, China's logistics, supply chain system and other facilities construction has also penetrated into the countries along the "Belt and Road".
4. Trade exchanges are smoother
As a major international logistics channel with smooth trade, the China-Europe Express, up to now, the China-Europe Express has operated a total of 38,000 trains, transported 3.4 million TEUs, and reached 151 cities in 22 European countries, and the logistics distribution network has covered all of Europe. Important node cities such as Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and other important node cities in China have set up multimodal transport centers, covering most provinces, and the degree of trade facilitation has been greatly improved.
5. Major projects have been effective
A number of railways, roads, ports and other major infrastructure projects have been completed, such as the Maldives China-Malaysia Friendship Bridge opened to traffic, Gwadar Port has full operational capacity, recently, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court ruled that Chinese enterprises in Sri Lanka to invest in the construction of free trade zones can provide services, these projects, are welcomed by the local people. Some major projects in the fields of energy, resource cooperation and manufacturing have been smoothly promoted, and some have been completed and put into operation. So far, China's enterprises have built 82 overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in countries along the Belt and Road, with a cumulative investment of more than 30 billion US dollars, and more than 4,000 enterprises in the zone, creating nearly 300,000 jobs and more than 2 billion US dollars in taxes for the local area.
The practice of the "Belt and Road" construction in the past 8 years has proved that it is an important strategic measure for China to cope with the major changes that have not occurred in a hundred years, and it is also a plan to maintain China's contribution to world economic prosperity and stability, and it is also a major strategic hedge to break the attempts of some Western countries led by the United States to encircle China. Its vigorous development momentum and cooperation progress are the source of impetus for economic growth in the world today.
Fujian's advantages in the "Belt and Road"
Carefully summarizing the development experience in the past 8 years, as well as some risks and interferences faced, will have very important reference value for us to continue to promote the construction of the "Belt and Road". To discuss the construction of the "Belt and Road" and the economic development of Fujian, we must also deeply study what kind of changes this issue is bringing to contemporary China and the world from the dimension of this era and the pattern of the world economy, so as to profoundly grasp its rich connotation and great significance for future development.
The most advantageous places for Fujian and the "Belt and Road" are:
1. The origin of history
Fujian and the "Belt and Road" of Southeast Asia, South Asia has long had a history of business, Quanzhou Thorn Tong Port was the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road very early, Zhangzhou's Yuegang is also an important Silk Road port in ancient times; Quanzhou also became the largest port in the East in the Yuan Dynasty, is the second largest city after the Yuan Capital, here once gathered merchants from all over the world. Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian, on the other hand, were opened up as the first treaty ports for exchanges with the world during the First Opium War.
2. Geographical advantages
Fujian is located in the southeast coast of China, is an important passage connecting the east and west banks of the Taiwan Strait, and is a necessary place for the north-south passage of the West Pacific Ocean route, with a unique location and a good marine economic foundation. In 2015, the state explicitly proposed to support Fujian in building the core area of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. This is particularly conducive to Fujian deepening cooperation with ASEAN and other countries along the Maritime Silk Road, becoming a strategic fulcrum of maritime cooperation in the hinterland of Fujian, and creating conditions for sustained prosperity in the future.
3. Open awareness
Facing the ocean, Fujian is far-reachingly influenced by overseas cultures, and has always had a strong sense of openness to "going out" in the waves of the times. Ideologically, it is influenced by marine culture and has the courage to dare to venture and take risks that mainland culture does not have. Therefore, most fujian people have the spirit of positive struggle and have developed the temperament of "love to fight to win", which allows many Fujian people to bravely "go out".
4. Strong networks
The biggest feature of Fujian people is that the concept of clan relatives is very deep, they are united and grouped, as long as they make money overseas, they will pull a group of relatives and friends to do business together. As a result, Fujian has become the main ancestral homeland of overseas Chinese. According to public data, at present, there are more than 20 million overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese in Guangdong Province and about 15.8 million people in Fujian Province. Among them, the first place in China's overseas Chinese is Quanzhou City, the number of up to 7.5 million, the "Quanzhou Investment Guide" in this data is 9.5 million people, accounting for more than half of the Overseas Chinese in Fujian. Jiangmen City, Guangdong, which is known as China's first overseas Chinese township, has only 3.7 million, only half of Quanzhou,but they are widely distributed and have an advantage in the proportion of the Americas, so they give the most impression. These overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese in Fujian are scattered in countries along the "Belt and Road", which has become the biggest advantage of Fujian in the "Belt and Road" and is a force that cannot be ignored.
Fujian needs further improvement
Historically, all great powers have formed economic circles around them in the process of their economic rise. How big is this economic circle? It is its energy, and the maximum extent to which its economic power can be projected, that forms its influence.
Fujian Province is no exception. In recent years, with the in-depth implementation of the "Belt and Road", fujian's exchanges with countries along the "Belt and Road" have become increasingly frequent, and trade development has accelerated. In 2020, about a third (34%) of Fujian's total trade of 1,403.57 billion yuan was with the Belt and Road Initiative. The "Belt and Road" is becoming an important growth pole for Fujian's economic development.
However, with the in-depth advancement of the "Belt and Road", Fujian still needs to continue to strengthen the following work:
1. It is necessary to fully integrate geographical advantages with development advantages
Fujian and the Maritime Silk Road geographical advantages are all with it, and has always been a big channel for maritime trade, which can be seen from the trade structure between Fujian and the "Belt and Road" countries, of which the "Sea Silk" countries account for more than 80%, which reflects Fujian's exports to the "Belt and Road" countries, or to take the sea route, mainly commodities, high-tech products to the "Belt and Road" Export is relatively insufficient, so there are fewer China-Europe trains, not as much as Zhejiang. This has left fujian with room for imagination and development for Fujian to develop the diversified market of the "Belt and Road" countries. In recent years, Fujian's economic transformation has made great achievements, and further developing the "Belt and Road" market can promote the process of high-quality economic development and help cultivate its own new industrial system.
2. It is necessary to closely combine the advantages of production capacity with the advantages of innovation
Most of the countries along the "Belt and Road" are in the early stage of industrialization and development stage, the industrial structure needs to be adjusted, through the "Belt and Road" to strengthen production capacity cooperation, Fujian also has a strong advantage. Fujian Province is a major province in the production and export of footwear products, and the annual export volume accounts for more than a quarter of the total export volume of the year. If we can strengthen supply chain cooperation with the "Belt and Road" countries and transfer some of our production capacity, it will help to make room for the development of high-tech in Fujian.
Quanzhou is the main force of Fujian's trade with the "Belt and Road", and the import and export of the "Belt and Road" also accounts for half of its own trade. Cross-border e-commerce is also an important engine for the recovery of Fujian's foreign trade. Quanzhou is a national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, but also a national cross-border e-commerce retail import pilot city, there is a data in the first 11 months of last year, Quanzhou's cross-border e-commerce, exports reached 5.92 billion yuan, a sudden increase of 75 times. However, how to combine the advantages of innovation with the advantages of production capacity requires an all-round solution.
3. It is necessary to fully combine the advantages of networking with complementary advantages
There are many overseas Chinese in Fujian, especially in southern Fujian, there are more than 10.2 million, ranking first, which is related to the navigation and migration habits of Fujian people. Because it is located in the southern sea frontier, near the south, today, in Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, there are not only many Fujian people, but also a group of top-level entrepreneurs. If we can take advantage of this personal connection and combine the complementary advantages of Fujian and countries along the "Belt and Road", the prospects will be very broad. For example, the "Belt and Road" countries are very rich in resources, if the upstream and downstream cooperation of the entire industrial chain can be opened up, so that resources, energy, production, transportation, processing to form a complete industrial chain, not only conducive to significantly reducing costs, forming a processing scale, but also conducive to enhancing competitive advantages and increasing employment, Zijin Mining's acquisition in the "Belt and Road" countries is a successful example.
Fujian also has certain foreign investment capabilities, such as being able to bring out Fujian's leading photovoltaic, wind energy and other advantageous technologies, develop clean energy, and promote green environmental protection products. The reason why we advocate complementary advantages is because this kind of highly technical and cost-effective project is particularly in line with the development needs of the "Belt and Road" countries, which will also greatly enhance the viability and competitiveness of our industry. If this complementary advantage is better combined with personal connections, it can not only open up new markets, but also drive new space for development.
"Belt and Road" construction, China is the promoter, the initiative, in the current era of "turmoil", we must more deeply grasp the future development trend, with a global vision to plan a new development pattern.
(This article is a speech by Zhang Guoqing, chairman of the Free Trade Zone Port Professional Committee of the China Society of International Trade, at the "Belt and Road Construction and Fujian Development" forum held by the Quanzhou Municipal Government and the People's Congress of Chongyang.) The content has been abridged, and the subtitle has been added by the editor and reviewed by the author. ）