Economic Daily News-China Economic Net May 18 News from the State Council Information Office held a press conference this morning. Secretary of the Party Group of the Ministry of Commerce, Minister Zhong Shan and Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan introduced the work of stabilizing the basic foreign trade foreign capital and the Ministry of Commerce in promoting the construction of the “Belt and Road” initiative.
According to Zhong Shan, the global epidemic has spread and the demand in the international market has fallen sharply. China's foreign trade is facing unprecedented challenges this year. The Ministry of Commerce will do its best to stabilize foreign trade in accordance with the requirements of the "six stability" and "six guarantees" of the central government.
First, help enterprises overcome difficulties. As you just said, affected by the epidemic, our enterprises are very difficult, such as tight funds, falling orders, industrial chain, and supply chain risks.In the early stage, these foreign trade companies have orders that cannot be obtained because the logistics are not smooth and the production capacity is later No orders have been placed, which has caused great difficulties for these enterprises. We have also analyzed these difficulties. Some difficult enterprises can solve them through their own efforts, and some difficulties need government help. For example, fiscal taxation, financial insurance, etc. require government support and assistance. Since the outbreak, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have studied many times to find out how to solve practical difficulties and problems and help enterprises to overcome difficulties. In the recent situation, some policy measures have also played a role. For example, the speed of export tax rebates has accelerated. It used to be more than ten days, but it is now shortened to about one week, which is conducive to the turnover of corporate funds. The second is to expand the scale of corporate credit to help companies solve the problem of funding difficulties. Expanding the coverage of credit insurance, China Credit Insurance has provided assistance to 110,000 enterprises. Most of the foreign trade enterprises used to export only. Now, after the export is blocked, the government supports their export to domestic sales. This work is now seeing results. The domestic sales of export enterprises increased by 17% in April, which shows that high-quality foreign trade products are also welcomed by domestic consumers.
Second, optimize the layout of the international market. Due to the epidemic situation, the demand in the international market has declined, but it does not mean that there is no demand or that there is no market. We want to consolidate traditional markets and open up emerging markets. "The West is not bright, the East is bright." Now some countries have seen a sharp drop in demand, but we have other markets. For example, in the first 4 months, China's total imports and exports fell by 4.9%, but The trade of the countries along the “Belt and Road” has risen against the trend, and its share has increased significantly. There is also ASEAN, which has now become China's largest trading partner. We must actively expand imports while expanding exports, and prepare for the third China International Import Expo to meet the needs of domestic production and living. At the same time, it will further promote global open cooperation.
Third, cultivate new trade formats and models. Over the past few years, cross-border e-commerce and market procurement trade methods have developed rapidly.This year, we have accelerated the pilot, especially the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test area, from the original 59 to 105, we want to support these new formats The development and cultivation of new kinetic energy for foreign trade have made these new models and new formats a new bright spot in the development of foreign trade.
"Belt and Road" economic and trade cooperation, especially some major projects, will there be some challenges during this epidemic? What is the Ministry of Commerce's plan to promote the construction of the "Belt and Road"? Asked by reporters, Wang Bingnan introduced the "Belt and Road" The initiative proposes that for more than six years, China and relevant countries have adhered to the principle of mutual consultation, joint construction and sharing, continued to deepen pragmatic cooperation, and promoted the continuous construction of the “Belt and Road” along the direction of high-quality development, and achieved remarkable results. According to statistics, from 2013 to 2019, the cumulative total of goods trade between China and the countries along the route exceeded US $ 7.8 trillion, direct investment in countries along the route exceeded US $ 110 billion, and the amount of newly signed contracted engineering contracts was close to US $ 800 billion, a large number of major projects It has achieved results in succession with industrial parks, which has effectively promoted mutual benefit, win-win and common development. The influence and appeal of the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” are constantly improving.
Since the outbreak of New Coronary Pneumonia, the impact on the world economy has been great. International trade and investment have become even more sluggish. The economic and trade cooperation of the "Belt and Road" has also been affected. For example, some overseas projects have encountered some difficulties in personnel movement and material security, and the pressure for epidemic prevention and control is also very large.
Faced with this complicated situation, China and the co-founding countries are helping each other and working together to reduce the impact of the epidemic. In general, the current "Belt and Road" economic and trade cooperation has generally remained stable. From January to April, the value of goods traded with countries along the route increased by 0.9% year-on-year in RMB. Direct investment in non-financial countries in countries along the route was denominated in US dollars. A year-on-year increase of 13.4%. In the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will resolutely implement the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, coordinate the promotion of epidemic prevention and control and the “Belt and Road” economic and trade cooperation, promote the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” high-quality development, and make new contributions to building a community of human destiny. . We focus on doing work from four aspects:
One is to strengthen the epidemic response. We will continue to pay close attention to the development of the international epidemic situation, track and understand the difficulties and problems faced by overseas enterprises and projects, and promptly study and introduce targeted policy measures. At the same time, we have further strengthened communication and collaboration with the co-founding countries to form a joint force to jointly maintain the safety and stability of the international industrial chain and supply chain.
The second is to deepen trade cooperation. We will give full play to the role of open platforms such as China International Import Expo and Online Canton Fair, vigorously develop "Silk Road E-commerce", promote the construction of major trade channels such as China-Europe trains, new land and sea channels, and build high-standard free trade zones with more countries. To promote trade liberalization and facilitation to a higher level.
The third is to enhance investment cooperation. In accordance with the requirements of the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” high-quality development, strive to create a batch of large projects with good comprehensive benefits and welcome to all parties, implement a batch of assistance projects that help local economic development and people's livelihood improvement, and deepen overseas economic and trade cooperation The construction of the district will carry out third-party market cooperation with more countries to continuously improve the level of foreign investment cooperation.
The fourth is to tell the “Belt and Road” story well. Last year, we dug deeply into the typical project of the "Belt and Road", organized Chinese and foreign experts to co-create, edited and published the "Belt and Road" story from the "Common Dream", and issued a six-language version. There was a good response outside. This year, we will continue to edit and publish a series of stories to tell the lively stories of the “Belt and Road” and international cooperation in the fight against epidemics, so that people around the world can better understand the significance of the concept of the community of human destiny and better understand the “Belt and Road” To jointly promote the “Belt and Road” to go deeper, to achieve stability and to go further. (Yuan Zi)
