In The First Quarter, Guangdong'S Foreign Trade Growth Rate Was Only Half Of That Of The Whole Country.

From yesterday's (April 15th) 2008 Guangdong international economic and trade situation report meeting, we learned that the total import and export trade of our province in the first quarter of this year amounted to US $149 billion 930 million, an increase of 14.3% over the same period last year, and the growth rate has dropped significantly, which is lower than the national growth rate of 24.6%, about half of the country's total. Wan Qingliang, vice governor of Guangdong, attended the meeting and delivered speeches. Wan Qingliang said that the two key point of the future foreign trade and economic cooperation in Guangdong is to promote deep cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, in particular, to promote cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong and Macao, and strengthen cooperation with ASEAN. Due to the influence of comprehensive factors such as Spring Festival holiday, snowstorm, external demand and national macro-control, the total value of Guangdong's import and export trade in 1~3 this year is 149 billion 930 million US dollars, an increase of 14.3% over the same period last year, which is lower than the 24.6% growth rate of the whole country, accounting for 26.3% of the total import and export value of the whole country, and a surplus of 23 billion 560 million US dollars. Guangdong is a major foreign trade province, with total import and export amounting to US $634 billion 50 million last year, accounting for 1/3 of the whole country, ranking first in the country for 22 consecutive years. However, since the second half of 2007, Guangdong's foreign trade growth has been declining, especially in the 1 quarter of this year. In this regard, Wu Gong Quan, director of the Guangdong provincial port office and deputy director of the provincial foreign trade and Economic Cooperation Department, said that Guangdong's foreign trade was going on the road of heavy load. "This year is the most difficult and contradictory year in recent years. Guangdong's exports 60% are concentrated in the European and American markets, and the US subprime mortgage crisis is particularly serious against Guangdong. In the first quarter, Guangdong's export growth to the US and Hongkong was only 4% and 8%." Wu Gong Quan pointed out that the adjustment of export tax rebate, the increase of labor costs and the appreciation of RMB made the export products lose the price advantage, while textile and clothing, shoemaking and other labor-intensive industries have always been the dominant products of our province. Compared with the pan pearl provinces and coastal provinces, Guangdong has been more affected. In the first quarter, the export of textile and clothing increased by only 0.4%, and footwear was 9%. With 4.8%, plastic products dropped by 3.5%. Wu Gong Quan also revealed that although the growth of Guangdong's foreign trade this year has dropped more, its structure has been continuously optimized. The general trade import and export, import and export of private enterprises, export of electromechanical products and high technology products maintained rapid growth in the province, and the growth rate was higher than that of the same period in the whole province.