Closely linking the "chain" in win-win cooperation - "group going abroad" follow-up pressure | enterprises | follow-up

Faced with the pressure and challenges of slowing global economic growth and weak demand, government departments in many parts of China have actively "formed groups to go abroad" since the end of last year, organized enterprises to "go out", invited overseas customers in, and worked together with government and enterprises to actively expand the market.

As orders are delivered and projects bloom, Chinese and foreign enterprises cross mountains and seas, closely intertwined in a win-win cooperation. Recently, Xinhua News Agency reporters collaborated with domestic and foreign journalists to track the progress of "going abroad" and explore more stories of overcoming difficulties and achieving win-win cooperation.

Moving forward under pressure: "Going abroad" to harvest orders and expand social circles

At 6:38 am on August 20th, Rotterdam Port, Netherlands. A ferry loaded with goods slowly docked, and containers loaded with 11 high-altitude work vehicles finally arrived after about a month of drifting across the sea.

Two days later, Jacob Borges, the owner and CEO of Alb Crane Equipment Co., Ltd. in the Netherlands, saw this batch of goods. This is the fifth time this company has received products from the same Chinese supplier this year. "The quality is reliable, the supply is timely, our choice is right!" he said.

The Chinese supplier mentioned by Borges is Jiangsu Chenli Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd. A month ago, this batch of goods went off the production line and completed testing and packaging. They departed from Shanghai Port and arrived in the Netherlands, where they will enter more European countries.

Within six months, there were 5 shipments and multiple additional orders, and there is a story that the two companies share with each other.

Liu Aijun, the person in charge of Chenli Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd., told reporters that they have been old friends with Dutch customers for four to five years, but mainly rely on online communication. It was not until the end of last year that the two sides were able to meet during a "group outing" organized by the local government.

"We had a pleasant conversation and hit it off immediately. The Dutch client signed an order for $530000 with us on the spot," Liu Aijun said. Later, the Dutch client added orders worth $360000, and "by the end of July, we had delivered them all.".

Since the beginning of this year, global economic growth has been sluggish, and external demand has continued to weaken, posing significant challenges to China's foreign trade exports. Under pressure, from the government's "group going out" to enterprises actively "going out", all parties are working hard to come up with practical solutions and find ways to enter the market.

Foshan Juyang New Energy Co., Ltd. is an experienced player in the domestic solar and air energy water heater industry, but also a novice in the field of foreign trade. Relying on "going out" to expand its circle of friends, this company only started to explore overseas in mid-2022, and now the foreign trade field has been thriving.

On November 24, 2022, during the visit of the economic and trade delegation to Europe in Foshan, Guangdong Province, Luo Hongxing, the overseas marketing director of Foshan Juyang New Energy Co., Ltd., held talks with overseas customers. Shen Jizhong

"Since 'going abroad' in November last year, the company has delivered three batches of orders to Polish customers and two batches of orders to German customers." Li Chendao, Chairman of Juyang, said, "Although only a few hundred units are delivered each time, our trust with customers continues to deepen. Nowadays, customers often prepay tens of thousands of yuan to finalize cooperation intentions before determining the model, and some customers even have the idea of cooperating to open a factory."

"Facing external pressure, sitting at home cannot wait for opportunities. We must take the initiative to respond," Li Chendao said, echoing the voices of many foreign trade enterprises.

Despite the pressure, China's foreign trade has shown strong resilience. Since the second quarter, China's monthly import and export volume has remained stable at over 3.4 trillion yuan. In the first 8 months, China's total import and export value was 27.08 trillion yuan, a slight decrease of 0.1% year-on-year. In August, imports and exports reached 3.59 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.5% and a month on month increase of 3.9%. The total export growth of electric passenger vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells in the first half of the year exceeded 60%, becoming the "new three types" driving foreign trade growth.

A large number of export goods have gathered at Yantai Port in Shandong Province, preparing to be shipped by car roll on/roll off ships. Shen Jizhong

Going out not only consolidates old customers, but also makes new friends, not only receives new orders, but also understands new situations.

Recently, Liu Aijun flew to Singapore again, where he met old customers who had arrived from India and also visited four new local customers. "Not only does it generate an intention of about 300000 US dollars, but more importantly, it is important to understand the latest demand and product trends in the local market, which cannot be replaced by any online meeting," he said.

Proactively holding hands: laying out the market and exploring new opportunities

"Going abroad" expands orders and markets, while "going out" also involves "bringing in".

In late March, we signed a contract in Japan, and in early August, we started a new project in China. The project participants all exclaimed, "I didn't expect the speed to be so fast!"

The construction of Shimadzu Instrument Phase IV project is in full swing in Suzhou High tech Zone, Jiangsu Province. The new Japanese funded project, which started in early August, means that the global leading scientific analysis instrument company is further accelerating its pace of expanding its presence in China.

Five months ago, Suzhou organized an investment promotion team to Japan for investment promotion. At the Suzhou High tech Zone Japan Cooperation Exchange Conference held in Tokyo, Shimadzu Instruments signed a contract with Suzhou High tech Zone on site.

"More than 700 Japanese companies participated, and the atmosphere was very lively." Tang Xiaodong, Deputy Mayor of Suzhou, recalled that Shimadzu has been investing in China for many years and has a strong willingness to continue expanding investment based on its own development needs. "Moreover, the introduction of high-end medical device related projects will also play a positive role in building our industrial innovation cluster."

Kunji Aoyama, Chairman and General Manager of Shimadzu Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., said that China has become the largest overseas production base of Shimadzu Manufacturing, as well as the largest and best developed production base with the largest investment in China.

In addition to retaining the business environment, investment promotion should also actively extend olive branches and bring in new technologies and projects at a high level.

In Sichuan, the construction of Airbus Aircraft Full Life Cycle Services Co., Ltd. has come to an end and is expected to be capped at the end of September. It will be put into operation early next year.

On August 15, 2023, workers were working at the construction site of Airbus Aircraft Life Cycle Services Co., Ltd. project located in Shuangliu District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. Shen Jizhong

This is the first aircraft recycling project established by Airbus outside of Europe. After operation, it will provide a one-stop service for aircraft parking, maintenance, upgrading, modification, dismantling, and recycling to the global market.

The project has been decided to land in Chengdu in January 2022. Later, in the face of the impact of the epidemic and international changes, all parties involved in the project still maintained close contact and promoted cooperation progress. The joint venture was officially established in April this year and preparations for operation are underway.

"Expanding into the Chinese market has also allowed us to explore more new opportunities," said Brian Agnew, General Manager of Airbus Aircraft Life Cycle Services Co., Ltd. Airbus is accelerating the development of localized services for the global market based on the Chengdu project, while also opening up to global markets such as Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

The head of Bosch Group, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, stated that the positive signals released by the Wuxi investment delegation's visit to Europe earlier this year have further strengthened Bosch's confidence in investment and long-term development in China. In March, Bosch and Wuxi signed a strategic agreement to promote the localization development of hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles. Now, the components of Bosch's Wuxi factory have been used for mass production of hydrogen capacity modules in China.

"Going global", focusing on key areas and industrial chains to accelerate the "recruitment of large and strong talents"; Proactively "bringing in" and inviting executives from multinational corporations to come to China for inspection, providing a better platform for their investment and expansion in China; Deepen communication and exchange with foreign investment chambers of commerce in relevant countries, optimize and promote the local business environment... In order to better attract investment, various regions have launched practical measures.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, the actual amount of foreign investment used by the manufacturing industry in the first seven months was 196.85 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.1%. The actual use of foreign investment in high-tech industries increased by 3.8% year-on-year, with high-tech manufacturing industry increasing by 25.3% year-on-year.

On May 12, 2023, workers inspected vehicles in the assembly workshop of Tesla's Shanghai super factory. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ma Ning

Since the beginning of this year, many well-known multinational executives, including Apple, Tesla, General Motors, AstraZeneca, Siemens, and others, have put "visiting China" on their agenda, expressing their sincerity and determination to continue to deeply cultivate the Chinese market.

Closely connected "chain": open cooperation, embracing mutual benefit and win-win results

Those who share the same aspirations do not consider mountains and seas as distant. The meeting across mountains and seas is a close chain of mutual needs and mutual benefits.

On August 3, 2023, the China Europe freight train Shaanxi Ukraine Economic and Trade Cooperation Longji Green Energy Photovoltaic Module Export Special Train prepared to depart at Xi'an International Port Station. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zou Jingyi

"Chinese customers delivered goods in a timely manner, ensuring a smooth supply chain during the epidemic and allowing us to operate normally," Borges said. "Moreover, their production is innovative and flexible, allowing us to adjust designs in a timely manner according to customers' diverse needs."

In order to deliver more efficiently and with quality assurance, Chenli Machinery has adjusted its production line and opened a new assembly workshop and research and development base at the end of June. "The production capacity has increased by about three times," Liu Aijun said. "Our product development needs to be further accelerated in order to quickly keep up with the pace of market demand."

Zhou Guoxuan, chairman of Zhejiang Xiaoxuan Window Furniture Co., Ltd., told reporters that since this year, he has attended exhibitions in Frankfurt, Türkiye and other places, and the orders have basically been delivered. In order to better cope with future orders, the company is starting to build intelligent new factories, which will be officially completed by the end of this year and early next year.

Why is it closely linked? Yan Si, Executive Director and Board Member of the German Chamber of Commerce in North China and Northeast China, responded that China remains a key market and innovation driver, and German companies will continue to be committed to deepening their presence in the Chinese market because "China is an indispensable part of the global market and supply chain.".

Mutual benefit and win-win, open cooperation, China has never stopped——

Recently, the State Council has successively issued documents to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, proposing 18 policy measures from five aspects: strengthening trade promotion to expand markets, stabilizing and expanding the import and export scale of key products; Propose 24 policy measures from 6 aspects, including improving the quality of foreign investment utilization and ensuring the national treatment of foreign-invested enterprises; The Ministry of Commerce has held multiple roundtable meetings for foreign-funded enterprises to listen to their demands on foreign investment issues; The China International Fair for Trade in Services will be held in September, and the 6th China International Import Expo will be held in November to further embrace domestic and foreign merchants through an open cooperation platform

Local governments are also continuously increasing their efforts to explore overseas markets. Guangdong launches the "Guangdong Trade Global" series of exhibitions and organizes economic and trade delegations to participate and promote exhibitions around the world; Zhejiang continues to increase its support for the entry and exit of business personnel such as overseas exhibitors, overseas marketing, procurement in Zhejiang, and overseas investment

Liu Xiangdong, Deputy Director of the Economic Research Department of the China International Economic Exchange Center, believes that in the face of some countries adopting trade protectionism measures, China still maintains a higher level of openness, adheres to the equal emphasis on "bringing in" and "going out", actively enhances the linkage effect of domestic and international markets and resources, and makes due contributions to the realization of open, inclusive, and balanced development of the global economy.

"The government should make efforts, and companies themselves should also work hard." Li Chendao said that currently, companies have set up more than 50 agency points in Europe. "We will continue to expand our layout, choose countries such as Poland, Germany, Hungary as model markets, and then radiate to more European customers."

Looking ahead to the future, Liu Aijun is full of confidence: "In the second half of the year, we plan to set up warehouses and after-sales service centers in Italy, build an international sales network, and believe that future development will be better!"

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