China's business operation fundamentals maintain stability and high-quality development and take new steps

The basics of business operations remain stable

　　Our reporter Feng Qiyu

　　In 2023, my country's consumption, foreign trade and two-way investment will remain basically stable, making positive contributions to the recovery of the national economy. Business operations throughout the year were generally stable, and high-quality development took new steps.

The characteristics of "maintaining stability, improving quality and increasing energy" are highlighted

　　In 2023, business work can be summarized as “maintaining stability, improving quality, and increasing capacity”.

　　——Stability. Looking at consumption, total retail sales of consumer goods hit a record high, and final consumer spending will contribute 82.5% to economic growth in 2023. Looking at foreign trade, the import and export of goods have achieved positive growth in RMB based on a high base, and the international export market share has stabilized at around 14%. Looking at two-way investment, the actual scale of foreign capital used was the third highest in history, and foreign non-financial direct investment increased by 16.7% in RMB.

　　——Improve quality. The quality of consumption has improved. my country's online retail sales increased by 11%, continuing to maintain a rapid growth rate; service retail sales increased by 20%, showing great growth potential. To improve the quality of foreign trade, my country's import and export proportion of intermediate goods reached 61.1%, maintaining a historically high level; the import and export proportion of private enterprises increased by 3.1 percentage points, reaching 53.5%. In terms of two-way investment, the proportion of foreign investment attracted by high-tech industries and manufacturing has increased; the growth rate of foreign investment in manufacturing, wholesale and retail industries is higher than the average level, and foreign investment cooperation in green, digital and other fields continues to expand.

　　- Energize. New momentum for development continues to emerge. The proportion of online retail sales of physical goods in the total retail sales has increased to 27.6%, a record high; green, healthy, smart products, and domestic "trendy products" are highly favored and have become new consumption hotspots; automobile exports have increased by more than 50% %, cross-border e-commerce exports increased by 19.6%; the number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises increased by 39.7%.

Foreign trade structure continues to be optimized

　　In 2023, my country's total foreign trade import and export volume will reach 41.76 trillion yuan, showing strong resilience.

　　From a vertical perspective, based on the high base in 2022, the import and export scale has achieved a positive growth of 0.2%, an increase of more than 30% compared with 2019 before the epidemic.

　　Horizontally, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development predicts that global trade in goods will fall by 7.5% in 2023. In contrast, my country's foreign trade performance is better than the overall global level and better than most major economies.

　　The foreign trade structure has been continuously optimized, highlighted by two "first breakthroughs". First, the export of "three new" products such as new energy vehicles, photovoltaic products, and lithium batteries exceeded 1 trillion yuan for the first time, an increase of nearly 30%. Second, the number of business entities with import and export performance exceeded 600,000 for the first time, reaching 645,000.

　　In 2023, my country's actual use of foreign investment was US$163.25 billion, equivalent to RMB 1.13 trillion. Although there was a year-on-year decrease, the scale was second only to 2021 and 2022, and was the third highest in history. At the same time, the proportion of investment in high-tech industries reached 37.4%, an increase of 1.3 percentage points from 2022, and the proportion reached a record high.

　　Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said that some fluctuations in short-term foreign investment data are normal phenomena in line with economic laws. The fundamentals of China's long-term economic growth have not changed. In particular, China adheres to the basic national policy of opening up to the outside world. It has always opened its arms and sincerely welcomes companies from all over the world to invest in China.

The consumer market is picking up and improving

　　The Central Economic Work Conference proposed to promote consumption from post-epidemic recovery to continued expansion. Focusing on "continuous expansion", the Ministry of Commerce proposed that 2024 will be the "Year of Consumption Promotion" as the main line, holding various consumption promotion activities to create a strong consumption atmosphere, provide residents with more diverse and richer consumption experiences, and enhance the recovery of the consumer market momentum.

　　Promoting the trade-in of cars, home appliances, etc. is one of the focuses of promoting consumption this year. At present, my country's automobile and home appliance markets have entered an "era of equal emphasis on both increment and stock" from a pure "incremental era". The trade-in of consumer goods such as automobiles and home appliances is a systematic project that requires coordinated linkage and comprehensive policies among production, supply and marketing, upstream and downstream, government, enterprises and citizens, online and offline. The Ministry of Commerce will strengthen support and guidance, promote the improvement of technology, energy consumption, emission and other standards, promote the opening up of difficulties and blockages in replacing old products with new ones, stabilize and expand traditional consumption, and better meet the needs of consumer product replacement and upgrading.

　　In recent years, the cross-border integration of domestic products and "trendy products" has created new hot spots in residents' lives and consumption. This year, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to pay attention to the consumption of "trendy" domestic products, and promote the protection, inheritance, innovation and development of time-honored brands by organizing activities such as the "Time-honored Brand Carnival" and the "Time-honored Brand Digital Museum".

　　In addition, the consumption environment and circulation facilities development levels in cities and rural areas in my country are different, and different methods, policy guidance and promotion are needed. In cities, we will continue to promote the cultivation and construction of international consumption center cities, gradually improve the urban business system led by pedestrian streets, supported by smart business districts, and based on convenient living circles, and continuously improve the city's consumption level. In rural areas, we will accelerate the filling of rural commercial shortcomings, build a rural circulation network with complete facilities and smooth two-way transportation, promote the "bringing of industrial products to the countryside" and the "entering of agricultural products into the city", and continue to release the consumption potential of rural areas. (Economic Daily)