City tightens business ties with foreign nations despite headwinds
Bucking the trend of a sluggish global economy due to the COVID-19 outbreaks, Beijing is showing robust growth in foreign trade.
Its total volume of imports and exports reached nearly 800 billion yuan ($120 billion) in the first quarter, an increase of 17% over the same period of 2021 and 6.3 percentage points higher than the national average, according to Beijing Customs.
Of the total, imports increased by 22.3% year-onyear to 677 billion yuan, and exports declined by 5.9% to 122.1 billion yuan.
As an international scientific and technological innovation center, Beijing has witnessed sound development of its new and high-tech industries.
During the first quarter, the city imported 4.13 billion yuan of devices used for manufacturing semiconductors and integrated circuits, and 1.92 billion yuan of automatic data processing equipment and related components, up 564% and 19% respectively.
Beijing also registered more than 431 billion yuan in trade with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative during the first three months of 2022, up 23.9% year-on-year and accounting for 54% of the city’s total foreign trade volume.
For South American countries, the city launched an online import and export fair on May 18 to boost regional economic cooperation. The fair was mainly hosted by the Beijing Commerce Bureau and a local branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
More than 600 companies from China and South America participated in the opening ceremony online, where Beijing-based businesses — JD Worldwide crossborder e-commerce platform and supermarket chains of Wumart and Jingkelong — signed agreements with three companies from Argentina and Brazil.
The weeklong event attracted an attendance from foreign companies in such countries as Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Chile. It set up five exhibition areas focusing on pandemic prevention materials and medical care, high-tech products and intelligent equipment, smart life, fashion and food and daily necessities.
A spokesperson for the city’s commerce bureau said Beijing and South America have maintained close economic and trade exchanges. The region is also one of the focuses of China in its cooperation with developing countries. Beijing’s trade with South American countries exceeded 200 billion yuan in 2021, 10% higher than the same period of 2020.
According to the commerce bureau, Beijing will continue to uphold the concept of openness and cooperation to promote liberalization and facilitation of regional trade, foreign investment and the flow of talent. The city is stepping up efforts to optimize its administrative system by offering one-stop services for foreign investment.