Xing Huina:

Friends from the media, good morning! Welcome to this press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO). Today, we will introduce China's commerce development in 2021 and answer your questions. We are joined by Ms. Guo Tingting, director general of the Comprehensive Department of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), Mr. Xu Xingfeng, person in charge of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion of the MOFCOM, Mr. Li Xingqian, director general of the Department of Foreign Trade of the MOFCOM, and Mr. Chen Chunjiang, director general of the Department of Foreign Investment Administration of the MOFCOM.

Now, let's give the floor to Ms. Guo.

Guo Tingting:

Thank you. Friends from the media, good morning! Welcome to today's press conference, and thank you for your attention and concern for commerce development. Today marks the traditional Chinese Xiaonian Festival, a week before the Lunar New Year. Here, I wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger in advance! Next, I will introduce the general situation of commerce development.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the MOFCOM has resolutely implemented the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, promoted the building of a strong domestic market, advanced high-level opening up, and actively participated in global economic governance. By doing so, China has made new breakthroughs in commercial development. China has become the world's second-largest consumer economy. It has ranked first in trade in goods globally for five consecutive years. China is also the world's second-largest foreign direct investment destination, and its outbound direct investment ranks among the world's top. In addition, the country has established 21 free trade pilot zones, promoted the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade agreement (FTA). 

In 2021, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the MOFCOM resolutely implemented the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and the plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee and followed the deployment of the Central Economic Work Conference and the government work report. We fully and faithfully applied the new development philosophy and promoted the fostering of a new pattern of development. We consolidated the gains in the fight against COVID-19 and social development achievements. The positioning of commerce work can be summarized in three important aspects: commerce as an important part of domestic circulation, commerce as an important link between domestic and international circulations, and commerce's important role in building a new development paradigm. With our focus on positioning in the above three important aspects, we carried out a portfolio of "5+5" key tasks. As a result, the commercial operation had a stable, sound, and better-than-expected performance. Foreign trade, foreign investment, consumption volume, and the proportion of investment in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative hit an all-time high. Furthermore, major breakthroughs were made in multilateral and bilateral cooperation. All this has put the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan off to a good start and made a positive contribution to the sustained recovery of the national economy.

First, domestic consumption gradually rebounded. Total annual retail sales of consumer goods rose 12.5% to 44.1 trillion yuan. Consumption has re-established itself as the key driver of economic development, accounting for 65.4% of total expenditure. First, urban and rural markets achieved recovery simultaneously. The retail sales of consumer goods in urban and rural areas increased by 12.5% and 12.1%, respectively. Second, the consumption of upgraded commodities increased significantly. The retail sales of commodities increased by 11.8%. Gold, silver, and other jewelry, sports and entertainment supplies, and cultural and office supplies of units above designated size increased by 29.8%, 22%, and 18.8%, respectively. Sales of new energy vehicles increased by 1.6 times. Third, spending on catering and other services saw an orderly recovery, with catering income rising by 18.6% from a year ago, close to the pre-epidemic level. The per capita education, culture and entertainment consumption, transportation and communication consumption, and health care consumption increased by 27.9%, 14.3%, and 14.8%, respectively. Fourth, new consumption models were further developed. China's online sales of physical goods expanded by 12% year on year to 10.8 trillion yuan in 2021, accounting for 24.5% of the total retail sales during the period. The "Online Chinese New Year Shopping Festival" and "Brand and Quality Online Shopping Festival" drove online retail sales of 1.6 trillion yuan. Offshore duty-free sales in south China's island province of Hainan increased by 83.1%.

Second, foreign trade moved up another notch. The total imports and exports of goods expanded 21.4% year on year to 39.1 trillion yuan. Exports rose 21.2%, while imports went up 21.5%, which were highlights of economic operation. First, the scale and share of foreign trade rose higher. Its volume exceeded the $5 trillion and $6 trillion thresholds over the year. The international market shares of exports and imports in the first three quarters were 15% and 12.1%, respectively, hitting record highs. Second, the vitality of the leading market players continued to increase. The number of enterprises involved in exports and imports increased by 36,000 to 567,000. The imports and exports of China's private sector registered an increase of 26.7%, accounting for 48.6% of the country's total foreign trade volume, 2 percentage points higher than the previous year. Third, the imports and exports to major trading partners maintained relatively rapid growth. Imports and exports to ASEAN, the European Union, and the United States increased by 19.7%, 19.1%, and 20.2%, respectively. Fourth, the commodity structure was further optimized. The exports of high-tech and high value-added products increased rapidly. The exports of machinery and electronic products increased by 20.4%, and the volume of new energy vehicles exports increased by 3 times. Fifth, the service trade saw faster upgrades, rising 14.7% year on year to reach 4.7 trillion yuan in the first 11 months of the year. The exports of culture and entertainment and intellectual property royalties, which are knowledge-intensive services, increased by 36.2% and 29.3%, respectively.

Third, absorption of foreign investment increased quickly. The whole year saw the actual use of foreign investment surpass 1 trillion yuan, which was its first time to reach 1.1 trillion yuan, realizing a growth of 14.9%. Newly-established foreign-funded enterprises totaled 48,000, up 23.5%. The quantity and quality of foreign investment both improved. Firstly, the structure of foreign investment continued to optimize. High-tech industries saw a 17.1% increase in foreign investment, bringing the share of the total to 30.2%. In high-tech manufacturing, the growth of foreign investment was 200% in manufacturing of equipment for electronic products manufacturing and 64.9% in general instruments and meters manufacturing. In high-tech services, the growth of foreign investment was 220% in e-commerce services and 25% in services for commercialization of scientific and research findings. Secondly, investments from major sources grew stably. Those from countries along the Belt and Road increased 29.4%. Those from Singapore and Germany grew 29.7% and 16.4%, respectively. Thirdly, the number of large projects grew quickly. The number of projects with contractual foreign investment of $50 million or more each grew 26.1%, and that with contractual foreign investment of $100 million or more grew 25.5%. Fourthly, highlands for opening-up saw remarkable results. A total of 21 pilot free trade zones (FTZs) actually utilized 213 billion yuan of foreign investment, taking up an 18.5% share of the total foreign investment.

Fourth, steady development was seen in the implementation of outward investment and cooperation and in the process of providing foreign aid. In the whole year, our direct outward investment reached 936.7 billion yuan, up 2.2%, with further structural improvements. Firstly, investment and cooperation continued to deepen in key regions such as those along the Belt and Road. Investment in BRI countries grew 7.9%, bringing the share of the total to 14.8%. Investment in the EU grew 13.4%. Secondly, fast growth was seen in investment in key industries. The investment in transportation, services for scientific research, and information technology grew 80%, 68.5%, and 5%, respectively, with the combined share of the three industries up by 3.1 percentage points. Thirdly, win-win results were achieved through cooperation. As of the end of 2021, the accumulated investment in overseas economic and trade cooperation zones stood at $50.7 billion, with a total of $6.6 billion of taxes being paid to host countries and 392,000 jobs being created locally. Fourthly, contracted projects were stable and growing. In U.S. dollar terms, the contractual value of newly-signed contracts grew 1.2%. The number of newly-signed contracts with a worth of at least $100 million each increased by 46. Fifthly, our foreign aid was carried out with high efficiency. We fully implemented the major measures regarding foreign aid announced by President Xi Jinping, and carried out more than 1,000 foreign aid projects throughout the year. We also carried out vaccine-related foreign aid to 107 countries and four international organizations with high efficiency. 

Fifth, multilateral and bilateral economic and trade relations saw new breakthroughs. Firstly, the strategy for boosting FTZs saw major progress. We made efforts for the RCEP to be enacted and implemented as scheduled. We formally applied for the membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA). We signed a protocol on upgrading our FTA with New Zealand and gained positive progress in negotiations for upgrading FTAs with South Korea and Singapore. Secondly, multilateral cooperation exerted a bigger role. We hosted the High-Level Session on the 20th Anniversary of China's Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and thematic exhibitions. We completed the eighth review of the WTO on China's trade policies. We proactively participated in WTO negotiations regarding relative issues. We deepened cooperation regarding digital economy and supply chains and promoted inclusive policies in trade and investment under the mechanisms of the United Nations, Group of 20, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the BRICS countries, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Thirdly, bilateral and regional economic and trade cooperation further deepened. Remarkable results were achieved through the economic and trade cooperation between provincial-level regions in China and various states in the U.S. Trade between China and Russia reached new heights. We pushed for China and Singapore to develop the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor together. We contrived practical measures for the eighth ministerial conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. We hosted the China-CEEC Expo. 

Also, we made solid efforts for epidemic prevention and control and ensured the supply of daily necessities. We compiled the plan for commercial development, the plan for high-quality development of foreign trade, and five special-purpose plans for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

In 2022, the Ministry of Commerce will follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, implement the principles of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and all plenary sessions of the 19th Party Central Committee in full. We will act on the principles of the Central Economic Work Conference, and carry forward the great founding spirit of the Party. We will prioritize stability while seeking progress, apply the new development philosophy completely, accurately and thoroughly, and facilitate the construction of the new development paradigm. We will advance supply-side structural reform as the main task, ensure stability on six key fronts and maintain security in six key areas, and play the three important roles of commerce-related work. We will carry out Covid-19 prevention and control and pursue commerce development in a coordinated way, ensure coordination in pursuing development and upholding security, push for the continued recovery of consumption, stabilize the fundamentals of foreign trade and foreign investment, ramp up efforts in high-level opening-up, keep commerce-related situations running within an appropriate range, and push for the high-quality development of commerce. We will better serve the big picture of socioeconomic development and welcome the successful convening of the 20th National Congress of the CPC with outstanding performances. 

Thank you all!