Ningbo unveils plan to stabilize foreign trade growth amid headwinds

Containers stockpiled at Ningbo Zhoushan Port in East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: nbfb0574]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province recently unveiled an action plan to stabilize its foreign trade growth amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

The city will seek further development in cross-border e-commerce, a key engine behind local foreign trade growth, through systematic innovation and construction of related infrastructure, according to the plan.

Ningbo is currently home to 16,500 cross-border ecommerce companies, accounting for 77 percent of the city's enterprises engaged in foreign trade.

Efforts will also be made to promote the aggregation of foreign trade companies and help them develop a "dual-circulation" development pattern and achieve digital upgrading.

The plan also states that authorities would further expand the international footprint of its foreign trade companies and further develop the service trade. Specifically, companies are being urged to increase the exports of competitive products, stabilize the imports of bulk commodities and increase the imports of CEEC commodities.

In addition, the local government will further optimize services in terms of financing, currency exchange, logistics and talent cultivation so as to bolster foreign trade growth.

Ningbo's imports and exports were valued at 404.22 billion yuan ($62.19 billion) in the first four months of this year, an uptick of 12.6 percent year-on-year, according to official statistics from Ningbo Customs.

Specifically, its exports totaled 262.57 billion yuan, rising 16.6 percent year-on-year, while its import volume amounted to 141.65 billion yuan, an increase of 5.7 percent.

The city has set the goal of having its imports and exports grow at a pace of over 10 percent to 1.3 trillion yuan this year, hitting 2 trillion yuan by 2025.