Jiangsu’s foreign trade, foreign direct investment inflow and retail sales saw sustained recovery momentum in July after fluctuations in April and then recovery picked up steam in May and June, according to a meeting on August 23.
From January to July, the province's actual use of foreign investment reached $22.07 billion, an increase of 24.3% compared with the same period last year.
Photo taken on July 13 shows busy scene at Lianyungang Port. Photo/Wang Chun
Many cities in the province have taken measures to stabilize foreign investment. Suzhou, for example, enhanced efforts to attract investment. In the first half of the year, the number of new FDI projects and projects with added investment totaled 824, including in the advanced manufacturing sector. For high-tech industries, the city's actual use of foreign investment hit $1.85 billion during the seven months, up 69.4% year-on-year, accounting for 28.8% of the province's total in the same period.
Jiangsu’s import and export volume reached 3.14 trillion yuan in the first seven months, a year-on-year increase of 11.5%, 1.5 percentage points higher than the growth in the first six months. Wuxi has strengthened policy support and actively responded to mitigate risks. Up to now, the city has allocated a total of 244 million yuan to support more than 2,500 enterprises in order to keep the foreign trade stable. The city has also opened a green channel to help businesses affected by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, already paying $410,000 in compensation to the first batch of six companies.
As the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement came into force, Wuxi has released an action plan to help companies take advantage of the agreement. Data showed export goods worth $230 million enjoyed preferential tariff rates under the RCEP agreement. As a result of these efforts, in the first seven months, Wuxi’s exports to RCEP member countries grew by 26.6%, 11.1 percentage points higher than the provincial average.
Retail sales of consumer goods in the 7 months dropped 2.9% year-on-year, a rebound of 0.8 percentage points compared with the January-June period. Retail sales in July reported a growth of 2.4% than one year ago, 1.8 percentage points higher than the growth in June. Nanjing has accelerated efforts to build itself into an international consumption center, with the overall consumer market in a V-shaped recovery. The city’s retail sales of consumer goods in July and in the first seven months reached 59.11 billion yuan and 459.13 billion yuan respectively.
Chen Tao, director of the province’s Department of Commerce, said faster, stronger and more solid measures will be taken to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment and expand consumption while also ensuring the COVID-19 prevention and control.
