Foreign trade continues to grow despite pandemic

Despite the global economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign trade volume in the Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Zone has maintained double-digit growth in the first half of this year, according to commerce and logistics officials of the zone.

From January to June, the zone's imports and exports totaled 5.35 billion yuan ($786.45 million), an increase of 19.7 percent year-on-year, of which the exports surged by 20.5 percent to nearly 2 billion yuan.

Total cargo throughput at Pingtan's Jinjing Port reached 79,400 metric tons during the first six months, up 1.89 percent year-on-year, with 20,800 containerss handled by the port, up 22 percent.

Amid the tight pandemic prevention and control measures, trade between Pingtan and Taiwan has continued smoothly, bringing much confidence to Taiwan-invested companies in Pingtan.

A policy the Pingtan government issued in June to promote the high-quality development of the zone's logistics businesses has injected further impetus for local companies engaging in cross-Straits logistics.

By 2022, it is expected that the zone's foreign trade structure will be further optimized and the total volume of imported and exported goods will stand at 16 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of 20 percent.

Imports of Taiwan agricultural and fishery products is expected to reach 1.5 billion yuan and duty-free goods 1 billion yuan.

"I believe the policy will offer more help for logistics companies like us to realize high-quality development, " said Cheng Chian-chun, general manager of Fujian Xiecheng International logistics, a Taiwan-funded company.

The company provides transportation, purchasing, warehousing and other business services to Taiwan customers. "Many Taiwan compatriots choose to purchase from online shopping platforms in the Chinese mainland. The goods are stored in our warehouse and we are responsible for packaging, allocation and delivering," the general manager said.

The company has set up logistics stations in several areas of the mainland including Pingtan, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

A spokesman of a Pingtan e-commerce company also praised the county's geographical advantages, and said the policy will lay a foundation for Pingtan to carry forward a business-to-business model in cross-border e-commerce industry.