Source: Nanfang Daily
From January to July this year, Guangdong's foreign trade imports and exports were 4.49 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.5% year-on-year, accounting for 21.1% of the country's total foreign trade. The picture shows the busy Yantian Port in Shenzhen. Nanfang Daily reporter Zhu Hongbo photographed
■ Authoritative interviews
"General Secretary Xi Jinping's important 'July 1st' important speech is lofty and imposing, with a grand vision, rich connotations, profound thinking, far-reaching artistic conception, and a dialectical materialist and historical materialist world outlook and methodology running through it, which is of extremely great practical significance and far-reaching historical significance for us to comprehensively build a socialist modern power and realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." Zhang Jinsong, secretary of the party group and director of the Provincial Department of Commerce, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Nanfang Daily that the party members and cadres of the province's commercial system will resolutely respond to the great call of General Secretary Xi Jinping, resolutely shoulder the political and historical responsibilities of the major commercial provinces, solidly promote the high-quality development of trade in accordance with the "1+1+9" work deployment of the provincial party committee and the work requirements of the provincial government, serve our province with practical actions to create a new development pattern strategic fulcrum, and strive to walk in the forefront of the country for Guangdong in the new journey of comprehensively building a socialist modern country. Create new brilliance to provide strong support.
● Nanfang Daily reporter Chang Daoli
Twist the strategic base point of expanding domestic demand
Nanfang Daily: How can the Provincial Department of Commerce set off a wave of study and implementation in the whole hall, so that the spirit of the general secretary's important "July 1st" speech will take root and bear fruitful results?
Zhang Jinsong: Over the past month or so, the party group of the Provincial Department of Commerce has led all the party members and cadres of the department to study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's "July 1st" important speech as the top priority and the primary political task, and has rapidly set off a wave of study and implementation through various forms such as the party group meeting of the department, the study meeting of the party group theoretical study center, the study meeting of the branch, and the organizational life meeting.
The party members and cadres of the whole department are full of pride and self-confidence, and have deeply realized that in the past hundred years, China has made the great leap from standing up and getting rich to becoming strong, relying on the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China, relying on the great spirit of party building, and relying on the valuable experience of the "nine musts." The party members and cadres of the whole hall have further established the political consciousness, ideological consciousness and action consciousness of feeling the gratitude of the party, listening to the party, and following the party, further summoned up the tenacity and hard work to promote the high-quality development of commerce in the new era, and are determined to provide strong support for Guangdong to achieve the mission and tasks entrusted by the general secretary with practical achievements.
Nanfang Daily: The provincial party committee proposes to create a strategic fulcrum for a new development pattern, how will the provincial department of commerce effectively play a role in service guarantee and support?
Zhang Jinsong: In accordance with the requirements of the provincial party committee, the provincial government and the Ministry of Commerce, the province's business system will give full play to the key role of commercial work in smoothing the domestic cycle and connecting the domestic and international double cycles, and support and serve Guangdong's strategic fulcrum of building a new development pattern with practical actions, mainly in three aspects.
Give full play to the leading role of commerce in the domestic cycle. The focus is on twisting the strategic basis of expanding domestic demand, further stimulating and strengthening Guangdong's super-large-scale market advantages, and comprehensively promoting consumption upgrading. Not long ago, we successfully won Guangzhou to be selected as the first batch of 5 international consumer center city construction cultivation list in China, and Guangzhou Beijing Road Pedestrian Street was successfully approved as a national demonstration pedestrian street. We will take this as an opportunity to introduce policies and measures to vigorously attract domestic consumption and divert international consumption, and truly build the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area into a highland for the allocation of consumption resources. In addition, we also attach great importance to grasping new consumption formats, vigorously develop live e-commerce, smart stores, smart restaurants, according to third-party monitoring from January to July this year to achieve online retail sales of 1.87 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.5%.
We will also introduce a number of penetrating policies to promote consumption, promote the relaxation of administrative restrictive consumption measures such as automobiles, and leverage the expansion of traditional consumption such as home appliances, furniture, and building materials. At the same time, we will strive to build a commercial and trade circulation system that integrates urban and rural areas, open up the "last kilometer" of rural online shopping, and continuously meet the people's high-quality life consumption needs.
Give full play to the role of commerce as a hub in the domestic and international double cycle. In terms of coordinating the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade, we will focus on promoting the coordinated development of exports and imports, traditional formats and new formats, trade in goods and trade in services, and trade and investment. Since the beginning of this year, we have made every effort to promote the construction of Guangzhou Nansha Import Trade Promotion and Innovation Demonstration Zone, and the province's imports from January to July were 1.77 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.1%. We also vigorously develop new foreign trade formats, market procurement and export of 198.93 billion yuan, an increase of 25%, 13 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test area reported import and export of 155.81 billion yuan, an increase of 2 times.
In terms of coordinating the integrated development of domestic and foreign investment, we will focus on strengthening investment planning, fully introduce leading enterprises in the domestic and foreign-funded industries, and continue to consolidate and enhance Guangdong's advantages in the industrial chain supply chain. In March this year, our province signed strategic cooperation framework agreements with 37 multinational enterprises, with an investment amount of more than 300 billion yuan, and various projects are currently solidly advancing.
In terms of promoting high-level opening up, we will start the construction of the linkage development zone of the pilot free trade zone, select qualified areas in the province to timely and accurately replicate and promote the pilot policies and experiences of the pilot reform of the pilot free trade zone, and accelerate the release of the reform momentum of the pilot free trade zone. We will fully support the development and opening up of Hengqin and Qianhai, and have established 10 working mechanisms of the Special Affairs Office, studied and drafted 21 measures to support the development of Trade Liberalization in Hengqin and 32 measures to support the innovative development of International Trade in Qianhai, and we will actively strive for national support to promote the implementation of relevant policies.
Give full play to the strategic supporting role of commerce in the new development pattern. Commerce is the main engine of economic development, the main battlefield of competition among major powers, and the main force of opening up to the outside world. Foreign trade, foreign investment, and consumption in commercial work are important indicators of comprehensive national strength. Since the beginning of this year, we have resolutely shouldered the responsibility of major foreign trade and economic cooperation provinces and large consumption provinces, grasped it from the beginning of the year, and made every effort to promote the rapid recovery of major business indicators, and the three major indicators of foreign trade, foreign investment and consumption are generally on a par with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, ranking first in the square.
Promote high-quality trade development
Nanfang Daily: During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, how will Guangdong continue to promote the high-quality development of trade and promote the province to achieve a higher level of opening up?
Zhang Jinsong: This year, the provincial party committee and the provincial government held a conference on high-quality trade development in the province, formulated and implemented the Action Plan on Promoting High-quality Trade Development, and launched ten major projects for high-quality trade development. At present, the province's commercial system is in accordance with the requirements of the provincial party committee, the provincial government and the Ministry of Commerce, with the ten major projects as the traction, solidly grasp the implementation of various goals and tasks, and effectively condense and form a powerful driving force to promote the high-quality development of trade.
Seize the commanding heights of development, implement digital trade projects and new trade format projects. In terms of digital trade projects, we began to promote the Guangzhou Tianhe Central Business District to strive for a national digital trade pilot demonstration zone, and prepared to build a provincial trade digital public service platform. In terms of new trade format projects, in the first half of the year, Meizhou and other 7 cities were approved for cross-border e-commerce retail import pilots, and then we will strive for full coverage of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test areas in the province, promote market procurement expansion and categories, and explore the establishment of a whitelist system for offshore trade pilot enterprises.
Consolidate market advantages, implement Guangdong trade global brand project and exhibition promotion project. In terms of Guangdong Trade Global Brand Project, 67 overseas exhibitions of "Guangdong Trade Global" and 41 domestic economic and trade activities of "Guangdong Trade National" have been held respectively, with transaction amounts exceeding US$1 billion and 22 billion yuan respectively. In terms of exhibition upgrading projects, we are preparing for the first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Conference on Trade in Services, leading the drafting of policies and measures for the high-quality development of the convention and exhibition industry.
Enhance the function of the hub, implement the major trade platform project and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area international consumption hub project. In terms of major trade platform projects, the implementation plan for the cultivation of guangzhou Nansha import trade promotion and innovation demonstration zone has been introduced, the Jiedong Economic Development Zone has been successfully upgraded to a national economic development zone, and the Guangzhou Huangpu Comprehensive Free Trade Zone has completed acceptance. In terms of the international consumption hub project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou was successfully selected as one of the first five international consumption center cities in the country.
Strengthen industrial support, implement industrial chain investment projects and trade leading enterprise projects. In terms of investment projects in the industrial chain, around the 20 strategic industrial clusters, the "Guangdong Investment Guide", "The World's Top 500 Investment Research Report on Guangdong" and the investment map will be compiled, and large-scale industrial investment activities will be carried out next. In terms of leading trade enterprises, guangdong province has revised the "Measures for Encouraging Multinational Companies to Set Up Headquarters Enterprises", and will make every effort to strive for the settlement of regional headquarters and functional headquarters of the world's top 500 companies.
Improve the business environment, implement the customs clearance facilitation reform project and trade finance innovation project. In terms of the customs clearance facilitation reform project, we will continue to deepen the construction of a "single window" for international trade, carry out special actions for cross-border trade facilitation, and promote port efficiency improvement and fee reduction. Guangzhou and Shenzhen cross-border trade indicators ranked second and third among the 20 cities in the business environment assessment organized by the National Development and Reform Commission. In terms of trade finance innovation projects, we will actively carry out pilot projects for trade and investment facilitation at a higher level to expand the coverage of export credit insurance.
Number readings
Stabilize foreign trade
●From January to July 2021, the overall underwriting scale of policy-based export credit insurance in the province exceeded US$61.17 billion, an increase of 34.3%.
● As of June 2021, the overall customs clearance time for imports was 8.73 hours and exports were 0.98 hours, which were 79.69% and 91.69% lower than in 2017, respectively.
Stabilize foreign investment
● From January to July 2021, Guangdong's actual utilization of foreign capital was 107.07 billion yuan, an increase of 19.1% year-on-year and an average growth of 8.7% in two years. Among them, the growth of high-tech industries is good, and the actual utilization of foreign capital is 29.59 billion yuan, an increase of 70.4% year-on-year, and an average growth rate of 36.2% in two years.
Promote consumption
●From January to July 2021, Guangdong achieved a total retail sales of consumer goods of 2.51 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.3% year-on-year and an average growth of 1.5% in two years. According to third-party monitoring, online retail sales reached 1.87 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.5%.
●Since the beginning of this year, 168 key activities to promote consumption have been carried out, 5225 participating enterprises have participated, and direct sales have reached 5.58 billion yuan.
Ten major projects for high-quality trade development
● Digital trade engineering
●Trade new format project
●Guangdong trade global brand project
●Exhibition upgrading project
●Major trade platform project
●Industrial chain investment project
●Trade leading enterprise project
●Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Consumption Hub Project
●Customs clearance facilitation reform project
●Trade Finance Innovation Project