People are diligent and spring is early, and foreign trade is vying for the lead.
On February 2, walking into the Guiyang Comprehensive Bonded Zone, the Foreign Trade Comprehensive Service Department of Guiyang Foreign Trade Development Group Co., Ltd. was busy.
Department head Liu Yanjun is concentrating on handling customs declaration procedures for a batch of goods, which will be sent overseas through the Guizhou Provincial Consolidation and Consolidation Center.
This vivid scene is the epitome of the company’s full sprint for a “good start” in the first quarter.
According to statistics, the total import and export volume of Guiyang Foreign Trade Development Group in the first quarter of this year will exceed 300 million yuan. The overall performance in the first quarter is expected to achieve significant year-on-year growth, with special agricultural products, non-ferrous metals and other sectors performing particularly well.
A brilliant start is inseparable from the dual empowerment of strategic location and top-level design.
As a leading state-owned foreign trade enterprise in Guiyang, Guiyang Foreign Trade Development Group officially moved into the Guiyang Comprehensive Bonded Zone in 2023 in response to the call of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government to strengthen the open platform.
“As a special open area with the highest level of openness, the most preferential policies, and the most complete functions in Guizhou Province, its ‘bonded +’ functional positioning is highly consistent with the company’s development.” Liu Yanjun said that Guiyang Comprehensive Bonded Area has given strong support in terms of policy competition, overseas warehouse construction, and logistics subsidies.
Relying on the functional policy advantages and logistics convenience of Guiyang Comprehensive Bonded Zone, the company’s supply chain efficiency is accelerating and fully released.
Up to now, its business footprint has spread to more than 10 countries and regions around the world, including Brazil, South Africa, and Southeast Asia, and its product categories cover agricultural products, energy and chemicals, minerals, nonferrous metals, electronic products and other fields.
Since its arrival, the company has achieved a cumulative international trade volume of 3.444 billion yuan and established solid cooperative relationships with more than 10 banks and many leading local industrial enterprises.
“Our slogan is ‘Buy nationwide, sell globally’. In the export business, Guizhou’s local products account for more than 90%, and we have always regarded promoting Guizhou’s good products as our core goal.” Liu Yanjun said.
In recent years, Guiyang Foreign Trade Development Group has continued to deepen the strategy of “exporting valuable products overseas”, focusing on distinctive and advantageous industries such as sauce wine, tea, chili products, and prickly pear juice. Relying on the comprehensive advantages of Guiyang Comprehensive Free Trade Zone in terms of policies, functions, logistics, etc., it provides enterprises with full-chain integrated services from international certification, bonded warehousing, brand marketing to online operations.
“We not only need to help companies ‘go global’, but also ‘take root overseas,’” Liu Yanjun said.
Currently, the company is accelerating the layout of overseas warehouses in Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Thailand and other places, building a two-tier network of “domestic bonded warehouses + overseas warehouses”, and actively opening “Guizhou Zone” on mainstream cross-border e-commerce platforms.
Which “expensive products” are most popular overseas?
Currently, prickly pear juice and chili powder are performing well and are going overseas through the exclusive “Guizhou Pavilion” on Australia’s mainstream Chinese e-commerce platform “E-best”.
“Many products are of good quality, but companies don’t understand international certification and are afraid of complicated processes.” To this end, Guiyang Foreign Trade Development Group and Guiyang Customs Technology Center provide companies with “sea navigation” from Halal certification to US FDA regulatory consultation, accurately solving the pain point of “not being able to export”.
Business expansion and innovation are a powerful engine for foreign trade growth.
As the vice-president unit of Guiyang Coffee Association, the company is actively developing coffee bean import and bonded processing businesses in response to the industrial call of “Guiyang to build a coffee city”.
“In the first quarter of this year, the first batch of about 60 tons of Arabica coffee beans imported from Ethiopia will arrive in Hong Kong.” Liu Yanjun said that this move aims to reshape the supply chain and change the situation in which Guiyang coffee raw materials were mostly transited through Shanghai and Kunshan. “We estimate that direct import can save downstream companies about 5 yuan per kilogram.” A larger blueprint is being drawn. The company also plans to build a green coffee bean deep processing center and exhibition center in Guiyang Comprehensive Free Zone, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year.
Faced with the complex and ever-changing foreign trade environment, the one-stop foreign trade comprehensive service platform officially launched by Guiyang Foreign Trade Development Group in August last year has played a key role.
This platform joins forces with strategic partners such as COSCO Shipping and Provincial Railway Investment Group, and uses the Guiyang Comprehensive Free Trade Zone as a hub to build a “road-rail-sea” multimodal transport channel that radiates major ports in South China and extends to Southeast Asia, significantly reducing the time and space distance from the inland to the sea.
At the same time, through innovative supply chain financial services, the establishment of foreign trade capital pools, and the development of order financing and other products, the financial pressure on small and medium-sized enterprises has been effectively relieved.
“Through the platform, the customs clearance efficiency of goods has been greatly improved, the overall logistics time and comprehensive costs have been significantly reduced, and companies have more confidence in exploring the international market.” Liu Yanjun said.
It is reported that in the five months since its launch, the comprehensive foreign trade service platform has served more than 110 local companies and successfully promoted more than 40 local Guizhou products to the international market.
Based on the good start in the first quarter, Guiyang Foreign Trade Development Group has a clear path for future development.
“In the first quarter of this year, the Guiyang Comprehensive Free Trade Zone also introduced a series of favorable policies, which gave us more confidence. It is expected that the annual import and export volume will reach 4 billion yuan.” Liu Yanjun said that during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, the company will continue to deepen the linkage with enterprises in the Guiyang Comprehensive Free Trade Zone to make the foreign trade comprehensive business bigger and stronger.
We will continue to expand our overseas marketing network and focus on deepening cooperation with RCEP member countries and markets along the “One Belt, One Road” initiative to guide local companies to transform and upgrade from “processing and manufacturing” to “brands overseas” and “services overseas”, and continue to climb up the global value chain.
