Warming confidence bolsters cross-border biz, economic recovery

GUANGZHOU — The booming orders at the beginning of 2023 mark a robust rebound in foreign trade in South China's Guangdong province, a primary economic hub, injecting new impetus into global economic recovery.

With eased epidemic controls and resumed international communication, some factories in Huizhou, Guangdong province, are receiving a surge in orders from abroad and a growing demand for industrial workers. Fierce competition in the broad overseas markets is also in sight among Chinese enterprises.

Guangdong One Nano Technology Co Ltd in the Zhongkai High-tech Zone of Huizhou is now fully engaged in spring recruitment and plans to double the size of its staff in 2023, following an increase of 279 percent in its revenue in 2022 and a busy order schedule for various nanomaterials before the second quarter of 2023.

"We are highly confident and motivated. We want to get our business off to a good start in the first quarter, and strive to increase our production value by 10 percent this year," said Zhang Qian, general manager of Huizhou Macc Electronics Co Ltd, which has sent a marketing team to visit clients for cooperation opportunities in the Middle East, Europe, the United States and the Republic of Korea.

Overall, the economic operation saw a striking recovery trend as the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain strengthened and market expectations improved. Statistics show that Chinese enterprises have robust confidence and optimistic prospects.

The purchasing managers index for China's manufacturing sector rose 3.1 points from the previous month to 50.1 in January, while the new orders index rose seven points to 50.9, according to a recent release by the service industry survey center of the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

The outstanding performance is a result of the efforts by Chinese enterprises regarding digital transformation and business format innovation.

Benefiting from the expansion of the intelligent manufacturing production lines and automatic assembly lines, as well as the updated information managing system, Galanz, a Foshan, Guangdong province-based home appliance manufacturer, has received rapidly growing foreign trade orders for microwaves, toasters, ovens and dishwashers.

Apart from production, enterprises also attach more importance to cross-border e-commerce, which greatly facilitates their foreign trade business.

"Our salesmen were busy with orders received during Spring Festival. The inquiries and orders on Alibaba.com over the holiday were higher than usual, totaling more than $3 million," said Zhao Yunqi, general manager of Sunway Solar Co Ltd, whose rooftop photovoltaic systems are distributed to its overseas warehouse upon production due to the burgeoning number of orders.

Cross-border e-commerce platforms like Alibaba.com have become an accelerator for new business formats to develop. The cross-border index on Alibaba.com shows that high-quality business opportunities in the new energy industry on the platform increased by 92 percent year-on-year last year, making it an export highlight.

The platform also plans to launch 100 overseas digital exhibitions this year, together with 30,000 cross-border live broadcasts and 40 press conferences for new products in March.

Despite challenges such as the rising risks of a global economic recession and slowing growth of overseas demand, China's import and export potential and contribution to the world economy remain promising.

The deepened opening-up of China's economy and recovery in domestic demand could boost global economic growth by about one percent in 2023, according to a report by Goldman Sachs Group.

China will stick to high-level opening-up to make foreign trade more convenient and rewarding by multiple methods. Offline export exhibitions will resume and enterprises will receive full support to participate in professional expos abroad.

China will also strengthen cooperation with trading partners, leverage the advantages of its massive market, increase quality product imports from other countries and stabilize the global trade supply chain, according to an official of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

The 133rd China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, scheduled to open on April 15, will fully resume offline exhibitions. Chu Shijia, director of the China Foreign Trade Center in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, said that more than 40,000 enterprises have applied to participate. The number of offline exhibition booths is expected to increase from 60,000 to nearly 70,000.

Xinhua