Xing Huina:

Due to time constraints, we will only have one last question.

Yicai:

We noticed that China's total imports and exports of goods exceeded $6 trillion in 2021. What is the driving force behind China's rapid foreign trade growth? What role has foreign trade played in promoting China's economic development as well as the global economic and trade recovery? Thanks.

Li Xingqian:

Thank you for your care and support for China's foreign trade. Foreign trade growth was a major highlight of China's economic performance in 2021. The fundamental reason is that the Chinese government calmly responded to various risks and challenges while maintaining its position as a global leader in economic development and COVID-19 response, thus fully leveraging its overall foreign trade advantage. There are four major driving forces behind China's rapid foreign trade growth: policies, external demand, supply and new business forms.

First, relevant policies have been prudent and effective. The Chinese government has cherished trade market entities, maintained the continuity, consistency and sustainability of its policies, and launched a series of support policies regarding tax and fee reductions, financing and credit guarantees. Meanwhile, the government has formulated a plan to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and opinions on accelerating the development of new business forms and models of foreign trade. It has also conducted cross-cycle adjustment. Thanks to these measures, market entities and expectations have been stabilized.

Second, external demand gradually recovered. The global economy as a whole is showing recovery momentum. The WTO estimates global trade in goods grew by 10.8% in 2021. Various countries were controlling the pandemic, resuming production and promoting consumption, which increased the direct and indirect demand for Chinese products. China's exports of intermediate goods, capital goods and consumer goods increased by 27.9%, 13.7% and 13.1%, respectively.

Third, the supply capacity is strong. China has a complete industrial system, with comprehensive supporting facilities and strong resilience within its industrial chain and supply chain. It can quickly adapt to changes in international market demand and swiftly increase supply. At the same time, China and its neighboring countries have formed a regional industrial chain of efficient cooperation, which further enhances our supply advantages.

Fourth, the business format accelerates innovation. China is a fertile ground for the vigorous growth of new business formats and new models such as cross-border e-commerce. Various platforms and merchants have given full play to their advantages in spheres such as online marketing, contactless transactions and short-distance distribution to help foreign trade show a strong momentum of expansion despite COVID-19 impacts. The scale of cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.98 trillion yuan, an increase of 15%, and market procurement trade exports increased by 32.1%. China now has more than 1,500 comprehensive foreign trade service enterprises and more than 2,000 overseas warehouses, and we've built more than 130 bonded maintenance projects.

In 2021, the achievements of China's foreign trade development were well-rounded and multi-level, which effectively served the construction of the new development pattern and made important contributions to the recovery of the global economy and trade.

From the domestic perspective, foreign trade had three major achievements: First, it has effectively driven GDP growth. Net exports of goods and services drove the annual GDP growth by 1.7 percentage points, with a contribution rate of 20.9%. Second, it promoted stable employment. There were 567,000 foreign trade enterprises with an actual import and export performance throughout the year, directly and indirectly prompting the creation of 180 million jobs. Third, it maintained the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain. It has guaranteed the supply of important resources and key components, playing an indispensable role in safeguarding domestic supplies and stable prices and promoting the smooth operation of various upstream and downstream industries.

From the international perspective, China's foreign trade made at least three major contributions: First, it actively supported the global fight against the pandemic and promoted the building of a community with a shared future for human health. China has exported anti-pandemic materials in an orderly manner and provided more than 2 billion doses of vaccines to the world, making it the world's largest provider. Second, it effectively filled the gap between global supply and demand and provided timely products and services for the production and people's livelihood in various countries. Third, we shared China's development opportunities with the world. We have successfully held important international expos such as the CIIE, the China Import and Export Fair and the CIFTIS. In the first three quarters of last year, China contributed 14.1% to global import growth. China actively advocates free, fair and green trade and deepens bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation. It is the backbone of global economic and trade recovery. Thank you.

Xing Huina:

Thank you to the speakers for summarizing the commerce development in 2021 and sharing the outlook for 2022 with us. If you still have questions, the persons in charge of the press and publicity work of the Ministry of Commerce are also here, and you can continue to keep in touch with them after the press conference. That's it for today's press conference. Thanks to the four speakers, and also thanks to the media friends.

Translated and edited by Yan Xiaoqing, Liu Qiang, Zhang Jiaqi, Zhang Rui, Zhang Tingting, Li Huiru, Cui Can, Liu Sitong, Zhu Bochen, Huang Shan, Ma Yujia, Wang Qian, Wang Yiming, Wang Wei, Gong Yingchun, Yang Xi, Zhang Liying, Jay Birbeck, Drew Pittock and Tom Arnstein. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.