APEC has entered “Shenzhen time”, and jointly exploring the “Shenzhen plan” for foreign trade overseas is becoming a “compulsory course”.
Recently, under the leadership of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce, the “Shenzhen Small, Medium and Micro Foreign Trade Enterprises Digital Service Ecosystem 2.0” was launched, providing foreign trade enterprises with a “policy + finance + service” package.
As an important exploration in the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan”, Shenzhen not only promotes the systematic upgrading of services for foreign trade enterprises, but also launches the “Five Gifts” campaign to warm enterprises. By sending “global inspections”, sending policies and insurance policies, sending financing quotas, sending overseas services, and sending expert services, a package of “perceptible and usable” service tools is accurately delivered to the front lines of enterprises, releasing a clear signal that Shenzhen supports the high-quality development of foreign trade with institutional innovation and service upgrades.
The “15th Five-Year Plan” clearly proposes to accelerate the construction of a strong trade country, promote the improvement of the quality and efficiency of foreign trade, and promote the balanced development of imports and exports.
The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2025 also put forward clear requirements for stabilizing foreign trade, providing fundamental guidance for further promoting foreign trade and stabilizing growth.
As a city of foreign trade, Shenzhen faces complex changes in the foreign trade situation and new requirements for high-level opening up. In 2025, Shenzhen’s total import and export volume will reach 4.55 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%. The scale has reached a record high, and its exports have achieved “33 consecutive championships”, continuing to rank first among mainland cities.
The two-way flow between Shenzhen and the Asia-Pacific market is also supported by data.
In the first quarter of this year, Shenzhen’s foreign trade accelerated again.
According to the relevant person in charge of Shenzhen Customs, in the first quarter, the products of private enterprises sold well in more than 230 countries and regions, and the scale of exports to other APEC economies exceeded 300 billion yuan, with growth rates exceeding 30%.
In the context of APEC’s “Year of China”, how Shenzhen can further strengthen the supporting role of finance in enterprises going overseas and promote the steady development of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises from a higher starting point has become the focus of all parties.
As early as 2020, the Shenzhen Municipal Commerce Bureau and China Sinosure launched the “Shenzhen version” export credit insurance “grand insurance” policy for small, medium and micro enterprises, innovatively implementing the “government unified insurance, enterprises enjoy free” underwriting model.
Up to now, the number of companies supported by this policy has increased from 10,000 to 24,000, and a total of more than 130,000 companies have been benefited, providing support for companies to avoid overseas risks and expand international markets.
This year ushered in major opportunities such as the APEC meeting being held in Shenzhen for the first time. The bureau optimized and upgraded services for small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises, jointly released “17 Measures to Strengthen Policy Export Credit Insurance to Support Foreign Trade”, and launched the digital service ecosystem version 2.0.
On April 14, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce issued the “Notice on Increasing Policy-Based Export Credit Insurance Support to Solidly Promote Commercial Development and Increase Momentum and Resilience”, which involves 17 work rules. It clearly proposes to give full play to the cross-cyclical and counter-cyclical adjustment role of policy-based export credit insurance to help companies grab orders and expand markets.
Under the premise that risks are controllable, underwriting support will be enhanced, guidance and support will be strengthened for companies exporting to conflict areas, and relevant exports will be “protected to the fullest extent possible” to help companies avoid risks as much as possible. In 2026, export credit insurance will be provided for more than US$100 billion in exports.
In fact, even though it is the “number one city for foreign trade”, Shenzhen is still “under great pressure”.
With the profound changes in the global geopolitical economic and trade environment in recent years, the competitive environment and risk environment in overseas markets have continued to intensify and evolve, and domestic industries have urgent internal requirements such as accelerating high-quality development. Today, Shenzhen’s small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises are facing multiple overlapping new challenges and new pressures.
At present, small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises are facing five core business difficulties – overseas markets are “clearly visible and incomprehensible”; overseas credit risks are high and they are afraid to accept orders; financing is difficult and expensive, and they “cannot accept orders if they have orders”; it is difficult and costly to obtain supporting services overseas; the overseas business environment is complex and there is a lack of professional guidance, etc.
In this regard, on the same day, the Shenzhen Municipal Commerce Bureau, Shenzhen Financial Supervision Bureau, Shenzhen Small and Medium Enterprises Service Bureau and others jointly launched the “Shenzhen Small, Medium and Micro Foreign Trade Enterprises Digital Service Ecosystem 2.0” and the “Five Gifts” Action to Warm Enterprises. Through the “Government, Trust, Bank and Enterprise” coordination mechanism, grassroots enterprises were synchronized, and this year’s latest “assistance policies, financial measures” and other combinations to serve foreign trade were accurately delivered to the front lines of enterprises, aiming to break the current foreign trade business dilemma.
This upgraded digital service ecosystem 2.0 mainly focuses on “credit empowerment” and “ecological linkage”.
Focusing on the new needs of foreign trade enterprises, we hope to play a key role in three dimensions: first, to be an enabler of the entire life cycle of overseas development of small, medium and micro enterprises, focusing on providing services such as “overseas investment layout, localized marketing, smooth domestic and overseas supply chain service chains” for small and medium-sized enterprises in the “going global” stage; second, to provide credit pricing for the industrial chain
The third is to be the “builder” of new ecological advantages of “going overseas” for small, medium and micro enterprises, and to build an open and diversified platform for precise direct connection of service advantages and resources for the majority of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises – deintermediation, cost reduction, quality and efficiency improvement.
The official credit service “Global Check” specially customized for foreign trade companies has also become a new “sharp tool” to protect Shenzhen’s foreign trade companies.
Through this service, Shenzhen foreign trade companies can instantly check overseas buyer information and usage records, and judge the buyer’s credit status. It involves 490 million overseas business entities and exclusive information on credit insurance, which can provide an important basis for companies to make decisions when looking for markets.
At a time when geopolitical risks are uncertain, foreign trade companies can also inquire about the overall situation and development trends of the global industry and determine market opportunities and risks in advance.
The platform can even query the overseas import status of designated products and target overseas target markets and buyers, involving product information from nearly 200 countries and regions.
In order to enable Ecology 2.0 to accurately irrigate small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises, the organizer also simultaneously launched the “five gifts” for warm enterprises – “global investigation”, policies and insurance policies, financing quotas, overseas services, and expert services.
On the same day, a number of financial institutions, freight logistics companies and investment institutions in Shenzhen also signed a “Letter of Initiative”, proposing four initiatives, including leveraging the advantages of all parties to provide precise professional services, jointly building a one-stop overseas platform, increasing financial and policy support to reduce corporate operating costs, and forming an expert service team to improve corporate risk control capabilities, to gather the joint efforts of multiple parties to empower Shenzhen’s foreign trade companies to go overseas with high quality.
As the popularity of “APEC’s China Year in Shenzhen” escalates, the “booster” of financial empowerment is also forced to speed up.
With the multi-party “endorsement” of “government, trust, banking, capital and enterprises”, Shenzhen has accelerated the construction of a foreign trade service pattern of “government guidance, financial empowerment, participation of all parties, and benefit for enterprises”, and has also released more “Shenzhen opportunities” for enterprises to go overseas.
