Xinhua News Agency:

As we know, major economic provinces play a pivotal role in underpinning the overall stability of the national economy. How did they perform in terms of imports and exports in the first half of this year? Thank you.

Wang Jun:

Thank you. In recent years, the central government has made clear that major economic provinces must shoulder greater responsibility. The latest trade figures confirm that these provinces have indeed shouldered responsibilities commensurate with their size. In the first half of the year, the top 10 provincial-level regions by economic size recorded combined foreign trade of 19.07 trillion yuan, up 15.7% and accounting for 74.9% of the national total.

On exports, these provinces have leveraged their local strengths to foster and scale up new drivers of foreign trade growth. In the first half of the year, exports of high-tech products from these regions reached 2.46 trillion yuan, up 33.6% and accounting for 75.4% of the national total for such products. Among them, the export growth rate for rail transit equipment ran 12.5 percentage points above the national rate, and exports of new materials, biopharmaceuticals and medical devices also outperformed the national level. Notably, these provinces accounted for over 90% of China's exports of intelligent bionic robots, playing an effective leading role.

In terms of imports, major economic provinces bring in large volumes of key production materials and critical components, providing a strong complement to domestic industrial and supply chains. In the first half of the year, imports of electronic components and basic organic chemicals in these regions each accounted for over 80% of the national total. These provinces also played a key role in driving domestic consumption, accounting for 66.4% of the growth in China's consumer goods imports in the first half.

These figures were compiled by the location of the importing and exporting enterprises. We also employ two other statistical measures to give a fuller picture of a region's trade. One is based on the destination of imported goods or the origin of exported goods, and the other on where goods enter or exit the country. In the first half of the year, measured by the destination of imported goods and the origin of exported goods, combined foreign trade by major economic provinces reached 20 trillion yuan, up 16.3% and accounting for 78.4% of the national total. Measured by where goods enter or exit the country, their combined trade stood at 21.03 trillion yuan, up 17.2% and accounting for 82.6% of the national total. These three statistical measures focus on business entities, production and consumption, and cross-border logistics, respectively. Whichever measure is used, the figures consistently demonstrate that major economic provinces are playing a pivotal role in keeping foreign trade stable in scale and improving its structure. Thank you.

Jia Huili:

OK, thank you. Due to time constraints, we will take the last two questions.