Guangdong is known as China's southern gateway in import and export trading. In 2005, Guangdong's trade volume rose 19.8 percent to hit a record high 427.98 billion USD. This volume represents 30.1 percent of the national total. Its export increased by 24.3 percent to 238.16 billion USD, while its import rose 14.7 percent to 189.82 billion USD. Its import and export figures account for 31.3 percent and 28.8 percent of the correspondent figures of the entire country respectively.

These numbers would not have been possible were it not for the province's active overseas promotion. Key events in the past few months include two governmental delegations, led by Guangdong Party Secretary Zhang Dejiang and Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua who visited the province's important trade partners in order to extend bilateral cooperation.

Delegation visits to Australia and Southeast Asia

An official Guangdong delegation presided by Zhang Dejiang visited Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand from November 2 to 18, 2005. The visit forged expanded trade and investment between the province and these four countries. For example, the province and Thailand set a target to raise bilateral trade volume to 10 billion US dollars annually, from around 6.5 billion US dollars over the next three years. Officials from Guangdong and the four countries expect closer ties in the areas of energy and mineral resource development.

The business fairs that the delegation held in these countries attracted over 3,000 foreign businessmen and garnered contracts and projects valuing at 8.63 billion RMB in total. China's growing market and Guangdong's business potential were a magnet to these four countries. In 2004, China was Australia's third largest trade partner while Guangdong-Australian trade volume hit 4.58 billion USD. The province accounts for 30.8 percent, 24.2 percent and 37.8 percent of China's trade with the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand respectively. These three countries are all members of ASEAN, China's fourth largest trade partner.

Visits to US, Mexico and Canada

Another delegation led by Governor Huang visited the United States, Mexico and Canada in October last year. The tour resulted in contracts valuing at 7.27 billion USD and boosted Guangdong's cooperation with these three countries. Guangdong made efforts to attract more investors from the US and Canada to be involved in machine making, petrochemical, electronics and information technology, environmental protection and telecommunications. Some US and Canadian businesses expressed their willingness or planed to set up their own R&D centers, regional headquarters or purchasing centers in Guangdong.

Guangdong's finance, tourism, trade, logistics and intermediate service sectors also welcomed investors from these countries. It's expected that enhancing bilateral cooperation would increase Guangdong's chances that more of its manufactured goods would reach these foreign markets.

Yielding of the visits

Many multinational enterprises attended the business fairs held by the delegation, and source revealed Ericsson planed to expand investment to its R&D sections in Guangdong, including its 3G-facility project in Meizhou.
The business fairs saw that foreign businessmen were shifting their interest from the province's traditional low-ended product processing to its rising hi-tech projects and service industry thanks to increased investments in Guangdong's IT and machinery industries.

The Guangdong delegation also introduced the Pan Pearl River Delta (PPRD) regional economic cooperation to foreign businessmen. While some attendees just heard of the PPRD for the first time, many foreign businessmen saw the potential of this project and showed their willingness to get involved.

The fairs also saw increased cooperation between Guangdong enterprises and their oversea counterparts in resource exploitation. Guangdong and some provinces and states in North America began cooperation in tourism, culture, education and sanitation. Guangdong officials have been promoting direct flight between the province and Hawaii and Vancouver and the Canadian Consulate General in Guangzhou is expected to launch new visa services for Chinese tourists visiting Canada.

Guangdong officials have also visited the ASEAN region, Japan, Korea, Europe, North and South America and Africa in recent years. These tours have broadened Guangdong's cooperation with the outside world and have steeped the province deeper into the globalization trend.

Editor: Yan