General

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that we should promote the optimization and upgrading of trade in goods, innovate the development mechanism of trade in services, develop digital trade, and accelerate the construction of a trade power. In the current complex and volatile international environment, to achieve stable and sustained growth of international trade, we need to take multiple measures to promote high-quality development of foreign trade on the basis of stabilizing the basic situation of foreign trade. Among them, accelerating the cultivation of new forms and new models of foreign trade is a key link in stimulating new drivers of foreign trade growth.

There are many bright spots in Shandong's foreign trade development

In the overall situation of stabilizing foreign trade in the country, the major coastal foreign trade provinces have given full play to their respective advantages and bravely picked up the big beam, providing strong support for the stable and quality improvement of China's foreign trade development. Among them, Shandong's foreign trade development is not lack of bright spots. In 2022, the import and export scale of Shandong's international trade broke through the 3 trillion mark for the first time in history, reaching 3.33 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.8%, 6.1 percentage points higher than the national level. The growth rate of import and export ranks second among the top ten provinces and cities in China's foreign trade, and the growth rate of export ranks first.

With the steady growth of the total volume, the import and export structure of Shandong's foreign trade has been continuously optimized, new business forms and new models have flourished, and new advantages in foreign trade competition are accelerating. First, the structure of export commodities continued to be optimized. In 2022, Shandong's exports of mechanical and electrical products, high-tech products and cultural products increased by 17.0%, 5.9% and 23.6% respectively, accounting for 43.4%, 6.8% and 7.7% respectively. Second, the international market layout has become more diversified. In 2022, Shandong's international trade import and export to countries along the "the Belt and Road" will grow by 38%, significantly higher than the overall level; ASEAN continued to maintain its status as the largest trading partner of Shandong, with its import and export volume increasing by 53.1%; The proportion of imports and exports to other members of RCEP reached 38.1%, 2.9 percentage points higher than that in 2021; The share of emerging markets such as ASEAN, Latin America, Russia and Africa has further increased and the overall distribution is more balanced. Third, the vitality of the main body of foreign trade was further strengthened. In 2022, the import and export of Shandong private enterprises reached 2.46 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.7%, accounting for 73.7% of the province's import and export, up 2.4 percentage points from 2021, and the position of the main force of foreign trade was further consolidated. Over the same period, the import and export of foreign-invested enterprises and state-owned enterprises increased by 1.7% and 10.8% respectively. Fourth, the development level of new formats has been significantly improved. In 2022, the province will cultivate and identify 15 provincial cross-border e-commerce platforms, 20 cross-border e-commerce industrial parks, 50 public overseas warehouses, and 13 pilot units of cross-border e-commerce incubators. The comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone will achieve full coverage in 16 cities. The proportion of cross-border e-commerce imports and exports in the province will reach about 9%, up 3.4 percentage points from 2021.

The foreign trade environment has undergone profound and complex changes

At present, the development of foreign trade in our province still faces major opportunities. First, the space for international cooperation is still vast. The world is experiencing great changes that have not happened in a century, but the division of labor and cooperation among countries and mutual benefit and win-win results are still a long-term trend. The joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" is moving towards a stage of high-quality development, and RCEP has accelerated its implementation with remarkable results. China's opening-up has been comprehensively improved and will play a more important role in global economic governance. Second, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation have been deepened. Emerging technologies, represented by information technology and artificial intelligence, have accelerated the global industrial division and economic restructuring. New industries, new formats and new models are emerging constantly. The pace of digital and green transformation has accelerated, and the development potential of foreign trade innovation is huge. Third, building a new development pattern brings new opportunities. The smooth domestic circulation is conducive to better attracting global factor resources, improving the level of trade and industry integration, and promoting the domestic and international double circulation is conducive to optimizing the import and export, and improving the level of trade liberalization and facilitation. Fourth, Shandong accelerated the construction of a new highland for opening up. The superimposed advantages of China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone, China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Zone and other national open platforms are prominent, and the new advantages of open economy are further reshaped.

At the same time, the development of foreign trade also faces many risks and challenges. First, economic globalization has encountered adverse current. The world has entered a period of turbulence and change, and unilateralism and trade protectionism have become increasingly fierce. The second is to accelerate the restructuring of the global industrial chain supply chain. Developed countries have formulated and implemented the strategy of "reindustrialization", and the trend of regionalization, localization and nearshore of the industrial chain supply chain is more obvious. The cost of domestic factors continues to rise, the carrying capacity of resources and environment has reached the bottleneck, the traditional competitive advantage of foreign trade has weakened, and new advantages need to be cultivated. Third, the development of trade security faces new challenges. At present, the risk of world economic recession is rising, the growth of foreign demand is significantly slowing, and the environment for foreign trade development is extremely severe. The level of trade security in food, energy resources, key technologies and spare parts needs to be improved, and the ability to cope with new trade challenges needs to be further strengthened.

Accelerate the cultivation of new forms and models of foreign trade

We will vigorously develop digital trade. We will explore and develop a diversified business model of digital trade and cultivate a new business model of "digital+service" led by high-end services. Give full play to the industrial advantages of Shandong's digital economy, vigorously develop digital goods suitable for the international market, and promote the trade of digital goods to become bigger and stronger. Support digital technology to enable traditional service trade such as international transportation, international tourism and engineering outsourcing, and promote the digital transformation of traditional service trade. Build national digital service export bases such as Qilu Software Park with high standards, and build a digital trade pilot demonstration zone.

Innovate and develop cross-border e-commerce. Encourage enterprises to use digital technology to innovate the way of goods trade, and form a business model with more autonomy in channels, brands, data, pricing, etc. We will solidly promote the construction of a comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone, attract leading e-commerce enterprises, cultivate a vertical cross-border e-commerce platform for local characteristic industries, build a number of cross-border e-commerce industrial parks with concentrated elements, diverse subjects and professional services, and accelerate the implementation of cross-border e-commerce models in 1210, 9610, 9710, 9810 and other forms.

Stimulate the vitality of market procurement trade. Improve the export-oriented degree of Linyi Engineering Materials Market, Qingdao Jimo International Trade City and Yantai three-station wholesale trading market, and attract more domestic trade entities to carry out international trade business. Further optimize the comprehensive management system of market procurement trade to achieve traceability and controllable risk. We will support qualified markets to strive for the pilot export of pre-packaged food in market procurement trade. Guide financial institutions to provide more convenient financial services for the market procurement trade income recorded in the market procurement trade comprehensive management system and traceable to the authenticity of the transaction.

Give full play to the leading role of foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises. Vigorously cultivate high-energy foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises and provide "one-stop" services such as customs declaration, logistics, tax refund, settlement, credit insurance and financing for small and medium-sized enterprises. We will support Jinan, Qingdao, Weifang, Linyi and other cities to introduce domestic head comprehensive service enterprises and establish regional centers for foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises. We will guide comprehensive service enterprises to innovate service models, extend service connotation, integrate and develop with cross-border e-commerce platform enterprises, and help traditional enterprises expand international trade market and precision marketing through online and offline integration. Establish a customs clearance mode suitable for the development of comprehensive service enterprises, further optimize the tax refund (exemption) management process, and support qualified enterprises to become customs "certified operator" (AEO).

Improve the construction level of overseas warehouses. Encourage traditional foreign trade enterprises, cross-border e-commerce and logistics enterprises to participate in the construction of overseas warehouses, improve the digitalization and intelligence level of overseas warehouses, and promote small and medium-sized enterprises to sail by boat. Optimize the global layout of overseas warehouses, arrange a number of public overseas warehouses with complete supporting services in the main markets such as the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, and emerging markets along the "the Belt and Road", improve the global service network, and establish the transportation and sales channels of "Made in Shandong". Support overseas warehouse enterprises to establish and improve the logistics system and explore the construction of overseas logistics smart platform.

Promote the development of bonded maintenance. Support enterprises in the comprehensive bonded area to carry out global maintenance business of aviation equipment, ships, integrated circuits, construction machinery and other products, and strive to expand the scope of bonded maintenance products. Support enterprises in the pilot free trade zone to carry out bonded maintenance business with high added value, high technology content and environmental protection requirements in accordance with the comprehensive bonded area maintenance product catalog. On the premise of ensuring controllable risks, explore and support the bonded maintenance business of self-produced export products that meet the requirements outside the comprehensive bonded area.

Support the development of offshore trade. We will support the pilot free trade zone and the qualified comprehensive bonded areas in the province to carry out offshore trade and build a new comprehensive service platform for international trade. We will improve the supporting financial supervision policies, improve the convenience of foreign exchange receipts and payments, encourage banks to explore and optimize the business authenticity audit methods, and provide high-quality financial services for true and compliant offshore trade businesses. We will study and explore tax policies to adapt to the development of offshore trade, cultivate a number of offshore trade operators with strong risk control capabilities and sound internal compliance systems, and strive to build a number of benchmark enterprises.