China's high-quality development of foreign trade has a solid foundation
Since last year, the world economic situation has undergone profound and complex changes, and the risks and challenges faced by China's foreign trade development have increased. Some people are therefore concerned about the prospects of China's foreign trade development. It should be noted that China has obvious institutional, industrial, and market advantages, as well as good development conditions, material foundation, and continuously enhanced technological innovation capabilities. The high-quality development of foreign trade has a solid foundation. With the continuous optimization of the business environment and the increasing momentum of economic development, China's high-quality development of foreign trade will continue to take new steps.
Institutional advantages are the fundamental guarantee for the high-quality development of China's foreign trade. In recent years, facing various risks and challenges both domestically and internationally, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has taken charge of the overall situation, made strategic plans, and timely introduced a series of policies and measures to stabilize foreign trade in response to new situations and problems in China's foreign trade development. This has played an important role in reducing the burden on enterprises and enhancing their confidence, demonstrating the institutional advantages of the socialist market economy in fully leveraging the strengths of both the market and the government. For example, continuously increasing the export tax rebate rate and compressing the tax rebate processing time to an average of 10 working days; Continuously improving the level of trade facilitation, the number of regulatory documents for port verification in China was streamlined from 86 to 46 in 2018, and the overall customs clearance time for imports and exports was reduced by 56.4% and 61.2% respectively compared to the previous year.
Industrial advantages are an important foundation for the high-quality development of China's foreign trade. In the 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially in the 40 years since the reform and opening up, China has made tremendous progress in industrial development, built the world's most complete industrial system, and become the world's largest manufacturing country, playing a crucial role in the global industrial chain. In 2018, China's industrial added value reached 30 trillion yuan, and the output of over 220 industrial products ranked first in the world. Among them, in the above scale industries throughout the year, the added value of strategic emerging industries increased by 8.9% compared to the previous year, the added value of high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 11.7%, and the added value of equipment manufacturing industry increased by 8.1%. The situation of dependence on imports for key equipment and core components has gradually improved. The significant improvement of China's position in the international industrial chain has laid an important foundation for the high-quality development of China's foreign trade.
The huge market advantage expands the turning space for the high-quality development of China's foreign trade. China has a population of nearly 1.4 billion and the world's largest and most growing middle-income group. Domestic demand has become the main driving force for China's economic growth. In 2018, the contribution rate of final consumption expenditure to economic growth reached 76.2%, and expanding domestic demand still has enormous potential. From the perspective of urbanization level, at the end of 2018, the urbanization rate of China's registered residence population was 43.37%, and the urbanization rate of the permanent population was 59.58%, which is still a big gap compared with developed countries. The rapid advancement of urbanization will continue to unleash the potential of domestic demand. With the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, the consumption potential of rural areas in China is constantly being tapped. In 2018, the retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas increased by 10.1%, faster than in urban areas for seven consecutive years, indicating that there is still significant room for growth in rural consumption. The continuous expansion of the domestic market provides important impetus for the sustained and healthy development of China's economy, and also expands the survival and development space for foreign trade enterprises, winning time for transformation and upgrading.
Technological innovation provides an inexhaustible driving force for the high-quality development of China's foreign trade. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's scientific and technological innovation capabilities have significantly improved. In 2018, China's R&D expenditure approached 2 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.6% over the previous year and almost doubled compared to 2012; Submitted 53000 international patent applications, ranking second in the world and nearly double the number in 2012. The innovation environment in our country continues to be optimized. In recent years, the State Council has cancelled or delegated more than 600 administrative approval items, and streamlined over 85% of pre-approval procedures. The 2019 Doing Business Report released by the World Bank shows that China's ranking in the 2018 Doing Business environment has significantly increased by 32 places. China's emerging industries are flourishing, with new energy vehicle production increasing by 66.2%, fiber optic production increasing by 23%, and smart TV production increasing by 17.7% in 2018; In some emerging fields such as 5G communication, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, China's technological level has already ranked among the top in the world. Technological innovation promotes the transformation of old and new driving forces and the development of emerging industries, becoming an inexhaustible driving force for the high-quality development of China's foreign trade.
Information source: China Government website
Editor He Yang of this website/Organizing
