New Chongqing-Chongqing Daily Chief Reporter Yang Jun

At present, because of the international situation, geopolitical conflicts and other reasons, global trade is facing multiple pressures. Against this background, Chongqing's foreign trade and import and export resisted the pressure, and the total value of foreign trade in 2024 exceeded 710 billion yuan, up 0.4% year-on-year, realizing positive growth.

“This achievement is not easy to come by.” The relevant person in charge of the Municipal Commission of Commerce said that in the case of increased uncertainty in the international market, Chongqing's foreign trade can achieve positive growth, showing the resilience and development potential of Chongqing's foreign trade.

Enterprises are the main body of foreign trade, to promote more enterprises to “go out” is also Chongqing to build a comprehensive inland open hub, expanding the volume of the open economy is inevitable. But facing the complex global environment, Chongqing enterprises how to accelerate the pace of “going out”?

March 13, held in Chongqing Chamber of Commerce of Importers and Exporters of “stable incremental, quality” foreign trade thematic activities, industry experts, business representatives gave their own suggestions.

“Going out” is the inevitable choice to realize the domestic and international double-cycle

“Against the background of profound changes in the global economic pattern, 'going out' has become an inevitable choice for Chinese enterprises to realize high-quality development.” Dr. Li Shengquan, an expert in international market development, talked about the fact that at present, it is very difficult to make incremental growth in many areas of the domestic market. In contrast, the foreign market actually provides more broad space.

He introduced that many countries, especially Southeast Asian countries, are slower than China in terms of development speed, especially in Southeast Asian countries, which is equivalent to China's development stage ten years ago or even longer ago. “We just need to replicate what we have already done at home, or the model we have matured at home, and we can find a big market.” Li Shengquan said.

From the national policy level, China put forward the domestic and international double cycle, and introduced a series of policy measures to encourage enterprises to “go out”. Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and other eight departments have also introduced policies to promote cross-border e-commerce and China's “new three sorts” to go to sea, providing strong policy support for enterprises. This also shows that “going out” is an inevitable choice to realize the domestic and international double cycle.

“Southeast Asia, Chongqing enterprises 'go out' one of the best choices.” Li Shengquan introduced, ASEAN countries, Indonesia close to 300 million people, the Philippines 120 million, Vietnam 100 million, Thailand more than 80 million, Malaysia more than 37 million. These five countries have a combined population of more than 600 million and are geographically close to China with convenient transportation. Meanwhile, ASEAN is also Chongqing's largest trading partner. in 2024, Chongqing's import and export to ASEAN amounted to 117.79 billion yuan, an increase of 13.8%.

Central Asia is also an important direction for enterprises to consider when going out, for example, the flight time from Urumqi to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries is only about two hours. These countries are rich in resources and have considerable market potential.

According to the information, in the distribution of Chinese A-share listed companies building factories overseas in 2023, in addition to the United States, six Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia, are at the top of the list. “A-share listed companies have strong research capabilities, and their choices can provide an important reference for our Chongqing enterprises to go out.” Li Shengquan said.

Chongqing enterprises “going out” to do a good job “Strategy”

“Going out” to speed up the pace, but can not be ‘too hasty’, only to do a good job of strategy to ‘get twice the result with half the effort’.

Li Shengquan introduction, from the experience of our enterprises to go to the steps of the basic is: products out of the sea - production capacity out of the sea - supply chain out of the sea - brand out of the sea - culture out of the sea. Standing in Chongqing's point of view, it is required that enterprises also understand their own advantages, targeted.

For example, Chongqing has significant industrial advantages in the field of electromechanical products, data show that in 2024, Chongqing exported 454.97 billion yuan of electromechanical products, accounting for 93.5% of the city's total export value. Among them, the export value of laptop computers is ranked No. 1 in the country, the export value of motorcycles is ranked No. 3 in the country, and the export of electric vehicles has increased by 94%.

Again, in recent years, Chongqing has accelerated to build intelligent network linkage new energy automobile industry cluster, automobile has also become one of the important products exported from Chongqing. Coupled with the Chongqing deployment of “Yu car to the sea” action support, “Chongqing-made” cars have been sailing to the world.

Mr. Yang Guoqing, Chairman of Chongqing Norsen Foreign Trade Development Company Limited, was deeply touched by this. He introduced that the company relies on the technical advantages of Chongqing Qingling Automobile Group in the field of commercial vehicles, and successfully pushes the experience of new energy vehicles to the Singapore market. Over the past three years, Nordson has established a sales network covering 10 countries, with an annual growth of 55 percent in exports.

“We did a lot of homework before promoting Qingling's exports.” Yang cited examples, such as precise market positioning for Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Russia, Belarus and other regions to develop a differentiated expansion strategy; and then relying on the technical advantages of Chongqing Qingling Automobile Group, successfully promote new energy vehicles to enter the Singapore market, with Singapore as the base to expand to the surrounding right-hand drive market, and so on.

Li Shengquan also reminded that enterprises “go out” before, must pay attention to the target country's policies, laws and cultural environment, to understand which industries are restricted, which industries are prohibited, which industries are encouraged. “For example, alcohol products are difficult to promote in Islamic countries, and companies must respect local cultural and religious habits.”

In addition, the target country's economic indicators, demographics, consumption capacity and other factors are also important factors for enterprises to consider when going global. Li Shengquan suggested that enterprises can first examine the population of more than 100 million of the large market, such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, etc., or choose Malaysia, Singapore, etc. as the pivot point of the Southeast Asian market.

Multi-party synergy for Chongqing enterprises to “go out” to provide security

The development of things, the need for internal and external factors work together. Therefore, Chongqing wants to accelerate the “going out”, not only to their own positive, but also need to external forces, including the government, industry associations, financial institutions and other aspects of synergistic support.

Mr. Wang Cuncheng, General Manager of Chongqing New Way Import & Export Trading Co., Ltd. shared their case study of helping Chongqing enterprises to export in the districts and counties. For example, the company set up a subsidiary in Rongchang to provide local enterprises with professional training and incubation for going to sea, and set up a cassava flour sea warehouse for Rongchang vermicelli producers, importing raw materials from Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and other places directly to Chongqing, which reduces the procurement cost of the enterprises and improves the timeliness of supply. Eventually, some Rongchang enterprises also realized their first self-export with the help of Xintu.

Business associations have also been an important help for Chongqing enterprises to “go global”.

Chongqing Chamber of Commerce of Importers and Exporters Executive Director Yang Laike introduced that last year, the Chamber of Commerce to promote Chongqing's foreign trade enterprises to the international market, for example, in the delegation to participate in the Singapore Mechanical and Electrical Exhibition during the success of the three high-quality docking activities, contributing to the intention to cooperate in the amount of more than 50 million U.S. dollars.

In November last year, the Chamber of Commerce organized a delegation of enterprises to participate in the China Brand Commodities (Nigeria) Exhibition, 10 Chongqing enterprises, a total of more than 20 people went to Nigeria to expand the African market and visit Kenya, showing the advantage of covering machinery, electronics, building materials, daily necessities and other areas of the product, by the local purchasers and consumers of the widespread concern and favor. There is an exhibitor financing reached 30 million yuan, there is an enterprise to find business opportunities, has gone to Nigeria on March 9 this year to select a site to open a store.

“This year we will continue to play the role of a bridge to help more Chongqing enterprises 'go out'.” This year, the Chamber plans to set up 20 international liaison offices around the world, with a focus on Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia in Southeast Asia, Germany and France in Europe, New York in the U.S., and Kenya in Africa, said Yang Laike. “These liaison offices will become an important platform for Chongqing enterprises to understand the local market, find partners and solve trade problems.”

Financial support is also an indispensable part of Chongqing enterprises' “going out”.

Shen Lina, assistant general manager of China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (CECIC) Chongqing Branch, introduced that the company has provided risk protection for Chongqing enterprises “going out”. 2024, CECIC Chongqing Branch will provide risk protection of more than 75 billion yuan for Chongqing enterprises, serving more than 1,200 enterprises.

Xu Jiantong, General Manager of Transaction Banking Department of Ping An Bank Chongqing Branch, said that Ping An Bank has launched the “International Trade Finance” product for SMEs, with a maximum amount of up to RMB 7 million (soon to be upgraded to RMB 10 million), which adopts the pure credit credit method, and supports the issuance of letters of credit, bills of lading and forward swaps, and other businesses to meet the cross-border funding needs of SMEs. The product is designed to meet the cross-border capital needs of SMEs.