Shaanxi posts 10.9% growth in trade with BRI countries in H1

The total import and export value of Northwest China's Shaanxi province with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) route totaled 21.2 billion yuan ($3 billion) in the first half of 2019, a year-on-year growth of 10.9 percent, 10.1 percentage points faster than the overall growth of the province's total foreign trade, according to Xi'an Customs.

The trade volume with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) along the BRI route grew by 24 percent, and that with Central Asia and Egypt by 1.8 and 2.1 times over the previous year.

From January to June, Shaanxi's total import and export value recorded 172.95 billion yuan, up 0.8 percent year-on-year, among which exports were 96.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.6 percent, and imports amounted to 76.17 billion yuan, growing by 16 percent year-on-year.

Since this year, Shaanxi has made great efforts to ensure the high-quality development of the China Railway Express (Xi'an), also known as the China-Europe freight train. The province has continued to deepen economic and trade cooperation with countries along the BRI route, which has grown into a new growth engine for Shaanxi's development of foreign trade.

Foreign trade volume of private enterprises and general trade saw a fast growth, with its proportion continuing to rise. The trade volume of private enterprises totaled 41.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 7.6 percent in H1, accounting for 24.1 percent of the province's total foreign trade, and that of general trade was 41.97 billion yuan, growing by 6.1 percent year-on-year, 1.2 percentage points higher over the same period last year.

The exports of automobiles and solar cells amounted to 2.05 billion and 4.94 billion yuan, growing 1.3 and 1.2 times respectively.

The imports of medicines were 1.96 billion yuan, up 60.7 percent year-on-year, and those of aquatic products hit 290 million yuan, growing 379-fold.

Source: shaanxi.gov.cn

(This English version is only for reference. To learn more, please refer to the authoritative Chinese version.)