From January to March this year, Guangdong's foreign trade reached 2.04 trillion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 12 percent. Of this total, the export volume was 1.31 trillion, up by 9 percent, while the import volume reached 731.14 billion RMB, up by 17.6 percent, according to statistics released by the Guangdong Sub-Administration of the GACC on April 16.
In the first quarter of this year, Guangdong's foreign trade maintained the momentum of stabilization since the end of last year. Its import and export scale reached a new high in the same period in history, continuing to rank first in the country and serving as an economic powerhouse in national foreign trade.
The scale of the province's foreign trade exceeded 2 trillion RMB for the first time in the history of the same period, accounting for 20.1 percent of the nation's total.
Based on the data, private enterprises show strong vitality in foreign trade, accounting for a larger part in this field. In the first quarter, the import and export volume of private enterprises based in Guangdong reached 1.28 trillion RMB, an increase of 19.2 percent, accounting for 62.9 percent of the province's total.
During this period, Guangdong's foreign trade with its major trading partners also maintained growth, among which ASEAN continued to be the largest trading partner. The province's import and export to ASEAN reached 324.42 billion RMB, an increase of 5.3 percent. Meanwhile, its foreign trade to BRI partner countries increased by 8.5 percent, to Latin America by 17.5 percent, to the Middle East by 20.5 percent, and to other BRICS countries by 14.3 percent.
The data also revealed that in the first quarter, Guangdong's export of mechanical and electrical products reached 850.87 billion RMB, an increase of 6.4 percent, accounting for 65.1 percent of the total export volume. In addition, the export of high-end equipment such as ships, machine tools, and aircraft increased by 55.1 percent, 32 percent, and 78 percent, respectively.
Furthermore, another highlight of Guangdong's foreign trade lies in the double-digit growth in import and export to Hong Kong, injecting vitality into the export-oriented economic development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). From January to March, Guangdong's foreign trade to Hong Kong reached 252.04 billion RMB, up by 14.1 percent, of which export increased by 11.9 percent and import increased 1.4 times. At the same time, the nine mainland cities in the GBA created a total import and export value of 1.95 trillion RMB, an increase of 11.7 percent, accounting for 95.7 percent of the total foreign trade volume of Guangdong.
Reporter | Nancy Ye, Fanny
Editors | Olivia, Nan, Abby, James
Photos provided to GDToday
