Guangdong sees strong import-export growth
GUANGDONG province, China’s leader in foreign trade, had strong import and export growth in the first two months of this year thanks to measures introduced to prevent and control the spread of Covid-19, which allowed production to resume.
The province recorded foreign trade volume of more than 1.18 trillion yuan ($181.54 billion) in the first two months, up yearon-year by 40.5 per cent, Guangdong Customs said in a written statement on March 15.
The province’s exports grew even faster at 53.4 per cent to hit 753.34 billion yuan, while its imports 22.4 per cent yearon-year to 431.03 billion yuan, in January and February.
Guangdong’s foreign trade with the US and EU saw yearon-year growth of 75.9 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively, in the two months, greatly contributing to Guangdong’s strong foreign trade rebound from the pandemic, the statement said.
ASEAN, Hong Kong, the US and EU, as well as the island of Taiwan became the top five trading partners of Guangdong, which annually represents more than 22 per cent of China’s total foreign trade volume.
Guangdong’s trade with Hong Kong and Taiwan increased by 44.9 per cent and 32.6 per cent, in the period.
Guangdong’s foreign trade volume from the processing industry increased year-on-year by 46.1 per cent to hit 628.16 billion yuan in past two months, accounting for 53 per cent of the province’s total, the statement said.
Meanwhile Guangdong’s privately run companies reached a total of import and export volume of 679.29 billion yuan, 57.4 per cent of the province’s total foreign trade volume, up 2.1 percentage points in the first two months.
Foreign trade volume for private companies grew by 46.1 per cent year-on-year since the beginning of this year.
Foreign trade volume from foreign-funded companies grew 35.8 per cent in the first two months to reach 440.24 billion yuan, accounting for 37.2 per cent of the province’s total, while state-owned enterprises logged foreign trade volume of 61.76 billion yuan in January and February, up 25.1 per cent year-on-year, which was 5.2 per cent of the province’s total.