In 2019, private enterprises became the largest subject of foreign trade in China.

　　CCTV News:On January 14th, 2020, the State Council Press Office held a press conference. Zou Zhiwu, Deputy Director of General Administration of Customs, and Huang Guohua, Deputy Director of Statistics and Analysis Department introduced the import and export situation in 2019 and answered questions from reporters.

　　The reporter asked, what are the characteristics of private enterprises in import and export in 2019? What new measures does the General Administration of Customs have to support the import and export of private enterprises?

　　In 2019, private enterprises became the largest subject of foreign trade in China. Zou Zhiwu believes that there are mainly several aspects:

　　First, the vitality of private enterprises has improved. In 2019, the number of private enterprises with import and export performance reached 406,000, an increase of 8.7% over the previous year. At present, the significant increase in the number of private enterprises reflects the continuous optimization of the domestic business environment and is an important manifestation of the endogenous motivation and development vitality of China’s foreign trade. In 2019, the import and export of private enterprises increased by 11.4%, driving the growth of foreign trade by 4.5 percentage points.

　　Second, private enterprises in the central and western regions developed rapidly. With the help of the "Belt and Road Initiative" and the comparative advantages of regional comprehensive costs, the import and export of private enterprises grew faster in the central and western regions. In 2019, the import and export growth rate of private enterprises in the central and western regions reached 28.3% and 22.4% respectively, which was 19.5 percentage points and 13.6 percentage points higher than that in the eastern region. In 2019, the top four provinces in terms of import and export growth of private enterprises were all located in the central and western regions, namely Tibet, Hunan, Guangxi and Anhui.

　　Third, the efforts of private enterprises to explore emerging markets have been continuously enhanced. In 2019, the export of private enterprises to all major markets showed a growth trend. While maintaining their traditional market advantages, their exports to emerging markets such as ASEAN, Latin America and Africa increased by 25.6%, 11.4% and 15.6% respectively, which were also higher than the national export growth rate to these three markets.

　　In the next step, the General Administration of Customs is prepared to study and introduce specific measures specifically aimed at the concerns of private foreign trade enterprises, study more specific, more targeted and more beneficial support measures for enterprises, do a good job in customs supervision and services, and further optimize the business environment of private enterprises.