Guangxi posts standout first-half trade performance

Despite facing mounting complexities and uncertainties in the global landscape, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's foreign trade sector continues to flourish.

Figures released on Monday by Nanning Customs unveiled a significant surge in Guangxi's total imports and exports, reaching 345.28 billion yuan ($47.57 billion) in the first half, marking a notable 12 percent year-on-year increase. The growth rate outpaced the national foreign trade expansion.

Of particular note, exports surged to 191.8 billion yuan, surpassing 150 billion yuan for the first time within the same period in history, demonstrating a substantial 28.5 percent year-on-year increase.

Private enterprises emerged as pivotal players in Guangxi's foreign trade domain, displaying resilience and stability.

During the first six months, import and export volume of private enterprises in Guangxi skyrocketed to 238.17 billion yuan. The share of import and export volume from private enterprises in Guangxi's foreign trade surged to 69 percent.

Among its major trading partners, Guangxi's imports and exports with its largest trading partner, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, soared to 185.62 billion yuan, reflecting a 26.7 percent surge and expanding its market share. Trade with emerging markets such as Latin America and Africa also grew at a pace exceeding the overall trend.

Benefiting from global demand recovery, the Vietnamese manufacturing sector experienced growth. Guangxi's exports of intermediate goods to Vietnam reached 63.67 billion yuan in the first half, up 50.3 percent year-on-year.

Notably, exports of intermediate electronic information products — including integrated circuits, computer components, lithium-ion batteries and audio-visual equipment components — doubled during the period.

Moreover, trade through Guangxi ports involving the nine major mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area totaled 70.46 billion yuan, with over 80 percent of such trade conducted with ASEAN member economies.

Via Guangxi ports, the "13+2"provinces and regions along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor traded 323.39 billion yuan in goods and services in the first half, a 17 percent increase.

Lei Zhonghua, director of the foreign trade division at the Guangxi's Department of Commerce, emphasized the region's enhanced service mechanisms for key foreign trade projects, strengthened industry-trade linkages, and identified 30 major industrial projects with a total import and export volume of approximately 80 billion yuan, generating an incremental volume of about 20 billion yuan since the start of 2024.

Guangxi hosted the "Guangxi Products Go Global" event in Japan, facilitating the entry of 72 companies and numerous high-quality specialty products into the Japanese market.

Furthermore, Guangxi is accelerating its "same source of medicine and food" and expanding the scope of goods eligible for Customs facilitation reform to 39 categories. In the first half, Guangxi imported 11,000 metric tons of goods through the reform, marking a notable 91.3 percent year-on-year increase.

Lei said, "We are committed to enhancing collaboration with Vietnam and other ASEAN nations in the production and trade sectors, fostering deep integration of industrial, supply and value chains, and bolstering the export of intermediate goods."