- It is a busy period in South China’s Guangdong Province. The region, a primary economic hub, is seeing a robust rebound in foreign trade and it is injecting new life into the global economic recovery.
Factories in Huizhou City, Guangdong, are feeling the heat with surging orders from overseas and a growing demand for industrial workers. Competition is fierce to grab orders in the broad overseas markets among Chinese enterprises.
One company, Guangdong One Nano Technology Co. in Zhongkai High-tech Zone of Huizhou, is fully engaged in its spring recruitment, planning to double its staff in 2023. The company saw a 279% increase in revenue in 2022 and has a busy order schedule for nanomaterials before Q2 2023.
“We are highly confident and motivated,” says Zhang Qian, General Manager of Huizhou Macc Electronics Co. The company has sent a marketing team to visit clients in the Middle East, Europe, the U.S.A. and the Republic of Korea for cooperation opportunities.
Statistics show a striking recovery trend as the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain strengthen and market expectations improve. The purchasing managers’ index for China’s manufacturing sector rose 3.1% in January to 50.1%, while the new orders index rose seven percentage points to 50.9%.
This outstanding performance is due in part to Chinese enterprises’ efforts in digital transformation and business format innovation. Galanz, a Foshan-based home appliance manufacturer, is benefiting from the expansion of its intelligent manufacturing production lines and automatic assembly lines, as well as an updated information management system. The company is receiving rapidly growing foreign trade orders for appliances like microwave ovens, toasters, ovens, and dishwashers.
Enterprises are also placing more importance on cross-border e-commerce, greatly facilitating their foreign trade business. For example, Sunway Solar Co. received more than $3 million in inquiries and orders on Alibaba.com over the holiday period.
Cross-border e-commerce platforms like Alibaba.com are becoming accelerators for new business formats to develop. The cross-border index on Alibaba.com shows that high-quality business opportunities in the new energy industry on the platform have increased by 92%. The platform plans to launch 100 overseas digital exhibitions this year, along with 30,000 cross-border live broadcasts and 40 press conferences for new products in March.
Despite challenges such as a rising risk of global economic recession and slowing growth of overseas market demand, China’s import and export potential and contribution to the world economy remain promising. According to a recent report by the Goldman Sachs Group, the deepened opening up of China’s economy and recovery in domestic demand could boost global economic growth by about 1% in 2023.
China plans to stick to a high-level opening up to make foreign trade more convenient and rewarding by multiple methods. Offline domestic export exhibitions will resume, and enterprises will receive full support to participate in professional expos abroad. China will also strengthen cooperation with trading partners, increase quality product imports from other countries, and stabilize the global trade supply chain, according to an official from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
The 133rd China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, is scheduled to open on April 15 and will fully resume offline exhibitions. Over 40,000 enterprises have applied to participate, with the number of offline exhibition booths expected to increase from 60,000 to nearly 70,000.
“The full recovery of the exhibition industry will accelerate, and the flourishing of trade, investment, consumption, tourism, catering, and other industries will follow,” says Chu Shijia.