General

New Trends in International Trade: Complementary Resource Advantages, Open Cooperation, and Win Win! Shanghai is an internationally renowned metropolis and a center for international economic, financial, trade, shipping, and technological innovation. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is a nationally designated ecological protection zone and a leading area for high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. One is a world-renowned international metropolis, and the other is a small province or region that is courageously catching up with each other, far apart from mountains and rivers. However, under the strategic arrangement of national regional cooperation and balanced development, Ningxia and Shanghai adhere to the major mission of national unity. Through the full promotion of the two governments and extensive participation of social resources, they have created a market where resource advantages are fully utilized, resource allocation is fully coordinated, and project implementation and high-quality operation are achieved. Improve the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and at the same time, better leverage the role of the government in new regional cooperation practices.

Jointly moving forward in high-level opening up to the outside world

Shanghai is the permanent venue of the China International Import Expo. As the birthplace of China's ethnic industry, Shanghai is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, facing Kyushu Island in Japan across the sea to the east, bordering Hangzhou Bay to the south, and connecting Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to the west. Together, it forms the largest and most comprehensive economic zone in China, the "Yangtze River Delta Economic Circle", with Shanghai as the leader. It is the first region in China to join the world-class urban cluster. Holding the Shanghai International Expo has unique advantages.

Ningxia is the first inland open economy pilot zone approved by the state, with two national level international exhibitions, China Arab Countries Expo and China (Ningxia) International Wine Culture Tourism Expo, as well as a number of national level open platform, including Yinchuan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Yinchuan Comprehensive Bonded Zone, and Yinchuan Cross border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone. In recent years, Nanjing and Shanghai have strengthened coordination and interaction, complemented each other in resource advantages, made full use of open platform such as the China Arab Expo and the Expo, further strengthened comprehensive practical cooperation between the two places, improved the level of openness, promoted the upgrading of industries in the two places, and created new momentum for regional economic and social development.

As the world's first national and international expo with import as its theme, the CIIE has significantly increased its international influence since its first held in 2018, providing new opportunities for Ningxia to connect with the world in a comprehensive, wide-ranging, and multi-level manner. Ningxia has participated in the Import Expo for 5 consecutive years and has built a comprehensive image exhibition for 3 consecutive years. The Import Expo has played a great role in promoting the development of Ningxia's advantageous industries and a good business environment. According to statistics, a total of 593 enterprises were organized to participate in the first four sessions of the China International Import and Export Fair in Ningxia. The purchased products involved medical devices, minerals, large complete sets of equipment, robots, intelligent warehousing equipment, agricultural products, and food, and achieved 8 investment projects with a total amount of 17.908 billion yuan. At the 5th China International Import and Export Fair, Ningxia successfully held the Ningxia Comprehensive Image Exhibition and the Ningxia Opening up Achievement Exhibition, attracting a total of 80000 visitors and selling Ningxia's advantageous characteristic products such as wine, goji products, and Yanchi Tan sheep on site for 200000 yuan; Facilitated multiple cooperation intentions between Ningxia exhibiting enterprises such as Baole Li Jia, Helan Shen, and Hennessy Xia Tong, as well as international enterprises such as UK Five Star Ink Group, Singapore Yisheng Consulting Group, and Japan Shizuoka Bank; Assist Ningxia Medical University General Hospital, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region People's Hospital and other procurement units in reaching a purchase intention of 9.758 million US dollars with internationally renowned technical equipment enterprises such as Siemens, GE, BD, and Zeiss.

As an important part of the science and technology activities of the China Arab Expo, the Shanghai Special Matchmaking Conference has been held for several consecutive times, and has facilitated the signing of more than 10 science and technology cooperation agreements between Ningxia and Shanghai and other eastern regions, as well as with countries along the "the Belt and Road", involving electronic information, environmental protection, modern agriculture, health care and other fields.

At the same time, the enormous advantages of the Shanghai International Trade Center have also played a positive leading and promoting role in Ningxia's opening up to the outside world and the development of international trade. As early as the early stages of Pudong development, Ningxia's foreign trade mainly remained in the primary stage of raw material exports. Encouraged by the development of Pudong, Ningxia Shengxue Velvet Group has taken the lead in going out of Ningxia and entering Pudong. It has built a cashmere clothing processing base based on cashmere as raw material in Pudong, leveraging the advantageous environment of Pudong's open development to end the history of Ningxia's cashmere international trade exports mainly relying on raw materials, and has entered a new stage of high standard production, brand management, and international development. Cashmere products sell well in both domestic and international markets, and are exported to countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union. A new international cashmere market pattern of "world cashmere looks at China, Chinese cashmere looks at Ningxia" has basically formed, with an annual circulation of raw wool accounting for about 50% of the world and 60% of China.

In recent years, Nanjing and Shanghai have actively promoted the implementation of the "the Belt and Road" initiative. In 2015, Ningxia and Shanghai signed a memorandum of cooperation on port clearance, which clearly stated that they would strengthen communication between port departments in the two regions, work together to promote the construction of a "single window" for international trade in Ningxia, and promote the development of port logistics multimodal transportation. Ningxia is the first province to sign "one-to-one" port customs clearance cooperation with Shanghai after Shanghai signed the joint customs clearance agreement with two provinces in the Yangtze River Delta region and six provinces in the central region, further opening up the channels for Shanghai to expand cooperation with countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt through inland areas, and unblocking the channels for Ningxia to strengthen cooperation with countries along the Maritime Silk Road through coastal ports.

Mutual benefit and win-win situation on the track of green energy

The "green electricity" in the western region is constantly being imported into the eastern region, and clean energy technologies and industries in the eastern region are entering the western region, helping to fully develop renewable energy. The regional imbalance between industries and energy resources has given rise to many possibilities for cross regional cooperation between the East and the West. With the support of the "dual carbon" goal, green energy is becoming a new track of cooperation between the East and the West.

As the center of China's economic development and the front position of reform and innovation, Shanghai has strong strength in science and technology, talent, capital, brand, management and other aspects. Its economy is large, but the demand for energy resources is also large. Adequate energy supply is an important guarantee for achieving sustainable development.

Ningxia is located in the western region, with year-round drought and low rainfall, abundant wind and solar energy, and abundant desert land. It is a national first-class province with abundant clean energy. Clean energy has superior conditions for comprehensive development, but lacks technical and industrial support. The development of renewable energy resources urgently needs the promotion of foreign capital.

Both Nanjing and Shanghai have their own requirements in the clean energy industry. In the process of achieving the "dual carbon" goal, cooperation between Nanjing and Shanghai is not only the hope of the government, but also the demand of the market.

In recent years, the business department of Ningxia has visited Shanghai multiple times, utilizing industry exhibitions and special promotion meetings to provide a platform for coastal enterprises to understand Ningxia's clean energy industry. On June 3, 2021, the Ningxia Clean Energy Industry Special Promotion Conference was held in Shanghai, with leading clean energy industry enterprises such as Longji Co., Ltd., Dongfang Hope, and Mingyang Smart Energy participating. Two years later, the projects invested by Dongfang Hope and Mingyang Smart Energy in Ningxia are intensifying construction.

At the foot of Helan Mountain, an annual production of 125000 tons of polycrystalline silicon supporting 145000 tons of industrial silicon project with an investment of 15 billion yuan from Shanghai Dongfang Hope Energy Holdings Co., Ltd. has all started construction of 69 individual projects, and it is expected to be completed and put into operation by June 2023. At this point, a project integrating the entire industrial chain from industrial silicon to monocrystalline silicon, then to silicon wafers, battery cells, and battery components, which runs through the upstream and downstream, is being completed in Shizuishan City. By extending the industrial chain to reduce energy consumption and carbon emission intensity, it further promotes the agglomeration development of Ningxia's photovoltaic and electronic information manufacturing industries.

Shanghai Energy Technology Development Co., Ltd. has invested approximately 1.9 billion yuan in the development, construction, and operation of smart low-carbon towns and "wind power+energy storage" demonstration projects in Jingyuan County, closely integrating rural revitalization with green and sustainable development, and promoting win-win regional economic cooperation. From 2020 to 2022, Shanghai based enterprises such as Guangming Dairy, Sinochem International, Junhe Group, Greenland Group, Shanghai Pharmaceutical, and Bank of Communications implemented 222 investment projects in Nanjing, including deep processing of agricultural products, biopharmaceuticals, and modern finance, with an actual investment of 51.6 billion yuan.

In addition to industrial cooperation, Ningxia's "green electricity" is also helping the development of Shanghai's industry. On September 7, 2021, the national green power trading pilot was launched, and over a hundred household electricity enterprises from more than 10 provinces and cities have purchased green electricity from new energy power generation enterprises in various regions. BASF, Covestro, Schneider, and Guoji Electronics, among other leading enterprises in the industry from Shanghai, have taken the lead and signed a heavyweight order to purchase 1.53 billion kilowatt hours of electricity from Ningxia for five consecutive years from 2022 to 2026, becoming the first batch of cross provincial and cross regional trading orders after the opening of the national green power trading market.

Seize the high-end market in the expansion of commercial and trade markets

Ningxia, located in the northwest of China, has a long agricultural history, diverse ecological types, and excellent agricultural product quality. It is known as the "land of fish and rice on the Yangtze River". Ningxia's characteristic agricultural products enjoy a high reputation in the market and are shining business cards of Ningxia's opening up to the outside world. Shanghai has the largest free trade pilot zone in China - the China (Shanghai) Free Trade Pilot Zone, with a resident population of over 20 million from both domestic and international sources, convenient transportation, and a vast market. It has a strong driving effect on stimulating the consumption, trade, investment of agricultural products, and building well-known agricultural brands in Ningxia. Shanghai and Ningxia jointly tap into their advantages and potential, deepen cooperation, achieve mutual benefit, and play a demonstration and leading role in the transformation of agriculture and rural economy and high-quality development.

In recent years, based on resource endowments, Ningxia has developed leading industries such as high-quality grain, melons and vegetables, grass and livestock, goji berries, and grapes. Through intensive and large-scale planting and operation, the quality and efficiency have gradually improved. At the same time, through online fresh e-commerce platforms and offline physical fresh circulation enterprises, Ningxia's characteristic agricultural products have continuously expanded their sales channels in Shanghai. Since the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, Zhongning goji has gradually established a synchronous online and offline sales model in Shanghai to achieve production and sales integration. Dingdong Maicai, as a self operated fresh food platform and a life service app that provides delivery services, serves nearly 3000 communities in Shanghai and helps Ningxia sell high-quality vegetable products to areas such as East China and the Pearl River Delta. In addition, Ningxia continues to hold product promotion meetings in Shanghai to further promote the signing of agricultural product production and sales strategic cooperation agreements between agricultural specialty product enterprises and Shanghai purchasers.

Ningxia is located in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, with a dry climate, abundant sunshine, and relatively abundant breeding land resources. It is recognized as the "golden milk source" in the industry, and its unique environmental resource advantages have attracted many leading enterprises to invest in Ningxia. In June 2020, Guangming Dairy signed a tripartite strategic cooperation agreement with Zhongwei City and Ningxia Agricultural Investment Group, comprehensively carrying out the five in one modern dairy industry chain cooperation, including dairy product processing, ecological smart pasture construction, high-quality forage planting, establishment of dairy science and technology innovation centers, and output of pasture technology services, marking the beginning of Guangming Dairy's high-quality development in Ningxia. Guangming Dairy continuously relies on the advantageous agricultural foundation of Ningxia, closely following the strong pace of "key industries moving towards high-end, green, intelligent, and integrated development", and creating a "planting, breeding, and adding" intelligent full industry chain advantage agricultural industry cluster project, which has played a great demonstration and leading role in turning Ningxia's dairy industry into a hundred billion yuan industry.

In the spring of 2022, a sudden outbreak of the epidemic in Shanghai touched the hearts of the Party Central Committee and the emotions of the entire country. The people of Ningxia, thousands of miles away, have not forgotten the deep friendship of the Shanghai people in supporting Nanjing and supporting Nanjing over the years. They have quickly taken action and organized the mobilization of 220 tons of vegetables to support Shanghai. On April 5th, at Yaomo Modern Agriculture Demonstration Base in Yuanzhou District, Guyuan City, 13 trucks loaded overnight and loaded with love vegetables were ready to depart. Hanging on the car body are striking slogans such as "Ninghu Deep Love" and "Ningxia Vegetables, Love towards Shanghai", carrying the love and will of the people of Ningxia all the way eastward. These vegetables, including Ningxia cabbage, carrots, cabbage, baby cabbage, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and other varieties, are paired according to the taste of Shanghai residents, providing strong support for Shanghai's epidemic prevention.

Through deep cooperation between Nanjing and Shanghai, as well as continuous exploration of the unique highlights of Ningxia's agricultural products, the "original brand", "old brand", and "Ning brand" characteristic agricultural products hidden in the fields have entered Shanghai and gone abroad, gaining worldwide reputation, and providing wings for the "good things of Ningxia" to enter Shanghai and the national high-end consumer market.

Let the market play a decisive role in allocation while fully leveraging the power of the government. The major issue in the practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the cooperation between Nanjing and Shanghai, has been solved. In the new era of socialist modernization construction, the high-level promotion of the cooperation between Nanjing and Shanghai will inevitably write a perfect answer sheet.