Foreign trade in goods in the Yangtze River Delta region has maintained growth for 19 consecutive months, reinforcing the region's role as a key stabilizer for China's overall foreign trade, according to the latest customs data.
In the first three quarters of this year, the region's total merchandise imports and exports reached 15.19 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.3 percent. This accounts for 38.1 percent of the national total, further consolidating the region's trade resilience.
High-tech exports surged by 49 percent during the period with exports of intelligent bionic robots, ships, and integrated circuits reaching 85 percent, 57.6 percent, and 42.1 percent of the national total, respectively.
"The rapid growth of foreign trade in the Yangtze River Delta, one of China's three major engines for high-quality development, is reflected not only in scale expansion and structural optimization but also in the iterative upgrading of development momentum. In the first three quarters, imports of electronic components grew by over 70 percent, while imports of automatic data processing equipment and its components increased 1.2 times, providing strong support for the stable operation of advanced manufacturing," said Jia Hong, deputy director of the Statistical Analysis Division of Hangzhou Customs.
In the first three quarters, the share of the Yangtze River Delta region's imports and exports with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative rose to 51.6 percent, and trade with markets including ASEAN, the European Union, Africa, and Latin America, all saw double-digit growth.
Yangtze River Delta goods trade sustains 19-month growth
