ITAR-TASS:

I noticed that last year, Shandong's imports and exports increased by 1.7% year on year. In particular, its trade with Russia grew by 27.6%. What are the reasons behind the fast growth of Shandong's imports and exports? What measures will you take to further enhance its foreign trade? Thank you.

Song Junji:

Thank you for your questions. As you mentioned, last year, Shandong's imports and exports maintained good momentum for growth, with the total value reaching 3.26 trillion yuan. The province has led the country in agricultural exports for 25 consecutive years and engages in trade with over 230 countries and regions. Russia is also an important cooperation partner. As one of the leading provinces in opening-up and trade, Shandong has given full play to its role and taken on significant responsibilities.

These achievements are mainly due to our integrated efforts in policymaking, market expansion and service improvement. Meanwhile, we have ensured traditional growth drivers like general trade and new ones like cross-border e-commerce develop concurrently. For example, in terms of policymaking, the province issued seven documents last year and 153 policies and measures related to commerce. In terms of market expansion, we have implemented a plan to organize local companies to participate in exhibitions held overseas. Local foreign trade companies attended more than 540 overseas exhibitions last year. In terms of service improvement, we have improved mechanisms such as "Commerce Plus Port," "Commerce Plus Finance," and "Commerce Plus Customs," providing over 641 billion yuan in credit for commercial and trade enterprises in 2023. All these efforts have provided solid support for stabilizing and growing foreign trade in Shandong.

This year, we will prioritize cultivating new momentum in foreign trade as a key focus of opening up wider to the world, strive to leverage strengths and address weaknesses, promote stability and improve quality in foreign trade, and focus on achieving the "four news."

First, we will introduce "new policies." Since the beginning of this year, in order to promote exports of the "new trio" (electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products), build leading supply chain enterprises and promote the development of cross-border e-commerce, four documents and 37 policies and measures have been released.

Next, we will focus on areas such as intermediate trade, market procurement trade and overseas warehouse construction, continue to optimize a series of policies and measures, expand the scale of credit support such as "Shandong Trade Loan" and "Tariff Insurance," provide precision support for foreign trade enterprises, and continuously stabilize market expectations.

Second, we will explore "new markets." There is a common saying in the foreign trade industry: "After a thousand emails, we still need to meet in person." Therefore, Shandong province launched the "Remarkable Shandong for Worldwide Trade" market expansion campaign this year. We plan to hold and participate in 263 exhibitions and 10 themed matchmaking events overseas this year, support enterprises in "going out" to expand markets, and help more and more high-quality products from Shandong go overseas.

Third, we will foster "new products." We will actively leverage the RCEP agreement, deepen economic and trade connections with key ASEAN markets, consolidate and expand the export scale of intermediate goods and green, low-carbon products, actively integrate into regional industrial chains, and better transform Shandong's industrial advantages into trade advantages.

Finally, we will develop "new business models." We will implement the Cross-border E-commerce Leap Development Action, cultivate 50 new well-known cross-border e-commerce brands and 10 cross-border e-commerce trading platforms this year, and promote the growth and strength of cross-border e-commerce.

At the same time, we will optimize market procurement trade, provide precision support to enterprises in areas such as exhibition and sales platforms, overseas marketing promotion and mutual market development, continuously foster new foreign trade growth, and strive to deliver a "report card" showing stable quantity and quality improvement in imports and exports. Thank you.