The global economy is not objectively affected by the geopolitical changes in various countries. The trade between China and countries and regions along the Belt and Road continues to move forward steadily, showing strong resilience. According to data recently released by the General Administration of Customs, in the first quarter of 2023, China’s imports and exports to countries along the Belt and Road were 3.43 trillion yuan, accounting for 34.7% of China’s overall foreign trade; a year-on-year increase of 16.8%, 12 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate. Among them, exports were 2.04 trillion yuan, an increase of 25.3%; imports were 1.39 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.3%.

Unimpeded trade continues to deepen

Qi Xin, director of the Belt and Road Economic and Trade Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, said that in the past ten years of the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, economic and trade cooperation has continued to deepen and become more solid, the level of trade liberalization and facilitation has been significantly improved, and new trade formats and models have continued to emerge. The overall global economic situation in the first quarter of 2023 is not optimistic, but China has shown strong resilience to the trade of goods with countries along the Belt and Road. In RMB terms, China's foreign trade imports and exports totaled 9.89 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%. The volume of trade in goods to countries along the Belt and Road is 12 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of China's foreign trade in the same period; the proportion of China's overall foreign trade has reached a new high, reaching 34.7%, which is nearly higher than the proportion of the overall foreign trade when the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013 10 percent.

This achievement is the result of the hard work and solidarity of all parties involved in the joint construction of the Belt and Road in the past ten years. It is also inseparable from the dedicated investment of China, the advocate of the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and the strong support of China's ultra-large-scale market. Qi Xin said.

The highlights of China's trade in goods with countries along the Belt and Road are more prominent. From a regional perspective, China's trade volume with ASEAN and Central Asian countries has grown rapidly. In terms of US dollars, exports to Singapore and the Philippines increased by 78.2% and 23.3% respectively year-on-year. In terms of categories, trade complementarity continues to increase, and the industrial and supply chains are smoother. In the first quarter, the growth rates of China’s exports of lithium batteries, auto parts, and electrical control devices to countries and regions along the route were 50.3%, 40.5%, and 23.9% respectively; imports of energy products and agricultural products increased steadily, with import growth rates of 18.8% and 16.6% respectively. .

At the same time, over the past ten years, China has continued to promote connectivity with countries and regions along the route. China-Europe Railway Express and New Land-Sea Corridor have developed by leaps and bounds, injecting new momentum into economic and trade exchanges between China and countries and regions along the route, and driving the opening up of the central and western regions. In the first quarter, the growth rate of imports and exports in the central and western regions was 7.8 percentage points higher than that of the whole country, and the scale accounted for 18.6% of the total, a record high in the same period of history.

Promote the healthy development of trade

Over the past ten years, the scale of trade between China and the co-construction countries has steadily expanded. From 2013 to 2022, the volume of trade in goods between China and countries and regions along the Belt and Road has expanded from US$1.04 trillion to US$2.07 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of 8%. The proportion of imports and exports to countries and regions along the route in China's overall foreign trade will increase significantly from 25% in 2013 to 32.9% in 2022.

On how to further promote the healthy development of trade between China and countries along the route, Qi Xin suggested that on the one hand, it should seize the development dividend of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. RCEP has been implemented for more than a year and will take effect for the Philippines in early June 2023. This marks that RCEP will take full effect for the 15 member countries, and the world's largest free trade zone has entered a new stage of full implementation. Enterprises should make full use of free trade agreement arrangements including RCEP to make a good industrial layout.

On the other hand, it is to intensify efforts to promote the construction of new land-sea corridors, do a good job in hard and soft connectivity, rely on the China-Laos Railway and the China-Vietnam Railway to promote the construction of the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor, and improve global resource allocation capabilities.

It is worth mentioning that since the China-Laos Railway opened for operation in December 2021, it has been favored by customers for its safety and speed, and its freight volume has continued to rise. According to statistics, from January 1 to April 13, 2023, a total of 1,130 freight trains have been operated on the Laos section of the China-Laos Railway, a year-on-year increase of 122%, and the cargo delivery volume has exceeded 1.18 million tons. At the same time, the categories of goods are also more abundant, which has expanded from more than 100 kinds at the beginning of opening to more than 2,000 kinds. At present, the China-Laos Railway has been connected with the New Western Land-Sea Corridor and the China-Europe Railway Express, and the goods are shipped to more than 10 countries and regions along the Belt and Road, including Laos, Thailand, and Singapore.

In addition, Qi Xin also emphasized that it is necessary to innovate new forms of trade and new models, expand cooperation in digital, health, green, innovation and other fields, promote Silk Road e-commerce cooperation, and closely connect industrial and supply chains.Editor/Ma Xue