Private firms help Guangdong top foreign trade table

Private companies in Guangdong province have played a significant role in developing foreign trade in the region.

According to a statement released by the Guangdong Sub-Administration of the General Administration of Customs of China, foreign trade volume from nongovernmental companies came to 3.4 trillion yuan ($475.61 billion) in the first seven months of this year, up 4.7 percent year-on-year and representing 64.2 percent of the province's total.

The steady growth of foreign trade from private companies has effectively promoted the sustainable development of Guangdong's non-governmental economy.

During the same period, imports and exports by State-owned enterprises amounted to 224.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year reduction of 13.8 percent.

As the "main force" behind Guangdong's foreign trade, private enterprises have proactively adapted to changes, pursued innovations and continuously unleashed their vitality, playing a crucial role in advancing Guangdong's high-standard opening-up and high-quality development of foreign trade, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Guangdong Customs has actively responded to the concerns of private enterprises, continuously introduced special measures to reduce their burdens, increased efficiency and facilitated Customs clearance to help private enterprises "go global" and expand their scale of imports and exports, it said.

He Tianxing, senior executive of Ehang Intelligent Equipment (Guangzhou) Co Ltd, said the series of policies and measures introduced by Guangdong Customs have benefited foreign trade enterprises this year.

"The reduction in inspection rates has made it more convenient for enterprises to handle import and export procedures. Customs clearance efficiency has also been significantly improved," he said.

Chen Yongjun, a distinguished professor at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, attributed the rapid growth of import and export volume from private enterprises to Guangdong provincial government's greater efforts to actively promote the integration of technological innovation and industrial development in the previous months.

The provincial government has actively adjusted the structure of foreign trade, creating fundamental conditions for private enterprises to achieve the results of accounting for nearly two-thirds of the province's import and export volume in the first seven months, he said.

"Meanwhile, Guangdong's private enterprises have seized the opportunity of the postponement of the tariff war between China and the United States to promote exports to the US and other Western countries and adjusted the market structure to explore new markets involved in the Belt and Road Initiative," he said.

But Chen warned that the foreign trade development prospects of private enterprises still face market uncertainties in the months ahead.

He urged the private companies in the province to further enhance the competitiveness of exported products and diversify the global market to ward off global market uncertainties and ensure that Guangdong's annual foreign trade proportion remains at more than one-fifth of the country's total.

Guangdong, China's biggest foreign trader, relies heavily on imports and exports for economic growth.

The province, a global production base, achieved a foreign trade volume of 5.4 trillion yuan from January to July, a year-on-year increase of 4.3 percent and representing 21 percent of the country's total.

Guangdong's trade growth rate outpaced the national average by 0.8 percentage point.

The province's total exports reached 3.44 trillion yuan in the seven months ending July, up 1.7 percent year-on-year, while imports grew much faster by 9.3 percent to hit 1.96 trillion yuan.