Open economy in Ningbo developing vigorously against the downturn
- Details
- Category: Ningbo Business
- Published: Thursday, 19 January 2012 18:06
As Chinese New Year is drawing near, foreign trade companies in Nordic Industry Park, Zhenhai District, are working in full swing. “In recent months, our company has been running at full capacity because our products have replaced some of the imports”, said Zhu Weizhen, financial manager with NMF A/S, a machinery manufacturer mainly producing spare parts for wind power generation equipment. He also added that sales were expected to double this year.
Despite the slow recovery of the world economy and the shrinking external demand, lots of foreign trade companies like NMF A/S have sprung up in Ningbo. Therefore, open economy in Ningbo has maintained fast yet steady development. According to the latest statistics given by Ningbo Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau, in 2011, contracted foreign investment utilized has reached 5015 million USD, increasing by 23.9 % and overseas investment by Chinese enterprises was 1100 million USD, increasing by 112.2 %, both of which hitting a record high. Total export-import volume is expected to reach 98 billion USD, including 60.5 billion USD in export, which will increase by about 18 % and 16 % respectively.
Facing the political turbulence in some north African countries and the Middle East, as well as the outbreak of EU debt crisis, departments of Ningbo Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau immediately help enterprises to exploit international market. Last year, the city acknowledged the first batch of 64 public service platforms, providing R&D, designing and trade incubation for over 10,000 foreign trade enterprises. Meanwhile, 90 million RMB has been distributed to support the economic restructuring of foreign trade. And 30 million RMB from Ningbo Municipality will be added to subsidize enterprises in overseas exhibition and export credit insurance.
Under the guidance of government policies, foreign trade enterprises in Ningbo have sped up the pace of going global. Junsheng Corporation, the auto parts giant in Ningbo, leaps to the front-end of the automotive industry chain after purchasing the German Preh Gmbh. Chunhe Corporation purchased 77.6 % of the stake of MAG, a large Canadian listed company and will launch a large potash project in Congo (Brazzaville) with an annual production of 1200,000 tons. Some foreign trade enterprises also take part in new industries, effectively avoiding the dilemma of shrinking market demand.
Foreign capital of today is foreign trade of the future. Learning from Hangzhou and Dalian, Ningbo has introduced large enterprises and projects, putting equal emphasis on quantity and quality. IBM R&D Institute in Ningbo, which is the fourth in China, has been officially started. Tata Group of India, one of the largest software outsourcing businesses, has established a software outsourcing base in Ningbo. The quality foreign capital has become the driving force for the development of foreign trade. Statistics show that the actual foreign investment utilized is 2809 million USD, which has increased by 20.9 % than the previous year, reaching a historical high. The actual foreign investment in the service sector is 1528 million USD, increasing by 119.9 %.
The open economy in Ningbo, transforming from the traditional foreign capital, foreign trade and foreign economy to new industries such as service outsourcing and service trade, is now rising to the challenge. Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show that in 2011, the export volume of Ningbo has exceeded that of Beijing, ranking fifth in China.
Yu Danhua, Director General of Ningbo Municipal Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau, said that considering the new situations in domestic and international economy, we will continue to adhere to the policy of putting equal emphasis on quantity and quality of foreign capital, on export and import, and on a steady development and economic restructuring. We should improve the ability of turning crisis into opportunity in order to maintain fast yet steady development of the open economy in Ningbo
