In 2017, Guangzhou will make great effort to thoroughly understand the spirit of a series of speeches by General Secretary Xi Jinping and the new concepts, thoughts and strategies for state governance and put them into in-depth practice. It will carry out the decisions and deployment of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, the CPC Guangdong Committee and the People’s Government of Guangdong to construct international shipping center, logistics center, trade center, modern financial service system and national innovation center under high norms. It will enhance the functions as a hub-type network city to improve the ability for global resource allocation and promote all-around improvement of the construction of national major central city to allow the citizens to live a more happy life.

 

In the process of building the international trade center and a hub-type network city, Guangzhou is taking large strides forward. A review of the past showed that Guangzhou has made splendid achievements in business and trade development: it has ranked top three nationwide for 29 consecutive years in terms of total retail sales of consumer goods (TRSCG). Looking into the future, Guangzhou will work hard to build a modern business city, a city with great competitiveness in foreign trade, a network-based business city and a modern circulation system to develop toward a global trade hub.

 

Guangzhou has set new goals for the blueprint to build an international business and trade center and a hub-type network city. According to the Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce, Guangzhou is now structuring a global trade hub featuring “global buying and selling” based on the construction of the modern business city, the city with great competitiveness in foreign trade, the network-based business city and the modern circulation system.

 

Looking back to the year of 2016, under the complicated and changeable domestic and international economic circumstances, Guangzhou realized TRSCG of RMB870.65 billion, up 9%, ranking top three among all Chinese cities for 29 consecutive years; total foreign trade exports reached RMB518.7 billion, up 3%, with a growth faster than that at national and provincial levels; total imports and exports related to cross-border e-business reached RMB14.68 billion, increasing by 1.2 times, ranking first nationwide.

 

Construct a modern business city: to change the pattern of the retail sector with anonymous stores

 

This year, Guangzhou will make innovation of the real economy development pattern of the retail sector. It will deeply promote the comprehensive pilot program for the reform and development of the domestic trade circulation system, encourage the Tianhe Road business circle to meet the norms of world-class business circles, and lead Grandview Mall, Teemall and other large-scale shopping centers to make innovation of the real economy development pattern of the retail sector, aiming to realize differentiated competition and change the pattern of the retail sector with anonymous stores to promote consumption upgrading.

 

Integrated development of business and trade, tourism and culture industries has become a new focus of Guangzhou for the development of commerce. So far, the Working Plan for Promoting Integrated Development of Business and Trade, Tourism and Culture Industries of Guangzhou has been made to integrate related resources to build up three to five landmark complexes or functional zones with international influence for the business and trade, tourism and culture industries by 2020, realizing TRSCG of RMB1,150 billion, added value of culture industry of more than RMB190 billion and total income of tourism industry of RMB500 billion to gradually build Guangzhou into a business and trade center, a tourist destination and a world famous cultural city that is well-known in the Asia-Pacific and has great international influence.

 

The “Food in Guangzhou” has enjoyed a high reputation throughout the country. Based on that, Guangzhou proposes to build a world leading city for food lovers. It aims to build a number of catering clusters, including the Panyu Avenue, hold the Guangdong International Food Festival, develop plazas featuring specialty food, such as China Plaza and Wanda Plaza, cultivate a number of industrial leading enterprises, including Guangzhou Restaurant and Fishermen's New Village, and appraise and elect “Top 10 Famous Desserts”, “Top 10 Famous Stores” and “Top 10 Famous Chefs”, aiming to further enhance of the reputation of the “Food in Guangzhou”.

 

Construct a city with great competitiveness in foreign trade: to support financial leasing and cruise industries

 

Guangzhou’s total imports and exports through foreign trade reach RMB856.69 billion in 2016

 

Up 3.1% year-on-year; both exports and imports show positive growth by various indicators, higher than the national level, provincial level and levels of other major cities of China

 

Increase of imports and exports of service trade in 2016:　29.6%

 

Ranking third among national pilot cities in terms of scale:  24.5%

 

Increase of imports and exports of bonded logistics in 2016:　24.5%

 

In 2016, there were more than 320,000 inbound and outbound passengers taking cruises in Guangzhou; the balance under financial leasing contracts reached nearly RMB100 billion; a great number of leading enterprises with industry boosting effect, such as China Southern Airlines International Financial Leasing and Skyco International Financial Leasing, have settled down in Nansha.

 

The Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce said that Guangzhou made great efforts to develop new business types and trade modes last year. It has promoted the implementation of a number of national foreign trade reform pilot programs and policies in Guangzhou, including the pilot program for an innovative development of service trade and the pilot program for the market purchasing trade mode. Based on related researches, it has worked out eight measures for the development of tourism shopping export, financial leasing and other new types of trade. It has also made the working plan for accelerated development of financial leasing and policies to support cruise industry. All of these efforts aim to lead to an innovative development of foreign trade.

 

To promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional trade, Guangzhou has set up the Huadu District (Shiling) Luggage and Bags Base and the Zengcheng Denim Clothes Foreign Trade Pattern Transformation and Upgrading Demonstration Base and made organizations for Guangzhou Silk Road Garment and other processing and trade enterprises to attend a series of high-end business matching activities, such as the China Processing Trade Products Fair, to help these enterprises expand the domestic and international markets. It has allocated RMB27.35 million to support enterprises such as Chinsan-Hitachi Science and Technology to integrate with new types of business and trade modes to extend industry chains and improve brand marketing ability.

 

To further facilitate customs clearance, Guangzhou has launched the pilot program for reform of inspection-related service charges at Baiyun International Airport and organized publicity activities for the use of “single window” for trade to encourage and guide foreign trade enterprises to realize highly efficient and facilitated foreign trade through “single window”.

 

Construct a network-based business city: to build an e-business cluster with output value of RMB100 billion

 

Guangzhou’s total imports and exports related to cross-border e-business reach RMB14.68 billion in 2016

 

Among 60 Chinese cities with imports and exports related to cross-border e-business, Guangzhou ranked first in terms of total imports and exports related to such sector, accounting for 29.4% of national total and 64% of provincial total. Moreover, the retail sales of the on-line stores reached RMB63.03 billion, up 20.7%, driving a growth of TRSCG of 1.4 percentage points.

 

In recent years, Pazhou has shown the most prosperous development of the Internet industry. Guangzhou is promoting the construction of e-business clusters, with emphasis laid on the construction of the Pazhou Internet Innovation Cluster as well as Liwan Huadihe and Huangpu Zhuangyuangu national e-business demonstration bases to attract Alibaba, JD.com, Gome and a number of medium- and small-sized e-business enterprises to build an e-business cluster with output value of RMB100 billion and gradually form up a zone for concentration of world-class e-business and mobile Internet brands.

 

In addition to industrial leaders, Guangzhou also encourages the development of “Taobao villages”. By the end of 2016, Guangzhou has developed 91 “Taobao villages” in Baiyun, Panyu, Huadu and Zengcheng districts.

 

Last year, Guangzhou was designated a national comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-business. The Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce said that Guangzhou should accelerate and promote the adoption of related policies, establish related public service platforms, optimize cross-border e-business modes, encourage enterprises to deal with B2B export as well as B2C and B2B2C import, and support Wisepower Transporting & Distribution Group (WTD), CK1 and other e-business enterprises to establish overseas warehouses to construct a global e-business network system and expand their share in the overseas markets.

 

Construct a modern circulation system: to improve global logistics delivery efficiency

 

The Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce said, last year, Guangzhou made great efforts to develop platform economy, including providing support for the construction and development of Guangdong Plastics Exchange, Guangdong Materials Steel Exchange Center and other bulk commodity exchange platforms and promoting in-depth integration of the upstream and downstream products on industry chains, e-business circulation service, trade and finance industries.

 

At the Nansha free trade zone, Guangzhou established the Guangzhou Diamond Exchange to deal with operations for entry and exit of rough diamonds through various trade modes and realize international commodity exchange and resource allocation. In addition, specialized markets and other public service platforms have been established to guide Baima Garment Market and Zengcheng Denim Clothes Market to deal with on-line transactions. The Guangzhou International Commodity Exhibition and Trade Market was established to gradually guide the separation of the business flow and logistics flow at the markets of textiles and fabrics, auto parts, home decoration and other markets in the central urban area.

 

How to provide fast and convenient logistics services for large-scale circulation of goods? The Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce is promoting and applying modern logistics standards to establish a standard pallet and warehouse management system based on the carriers of Pearl River Beer Standard Logistics Operation Innovation Project and the Huaxin B&T Integrated Platform for Distribution Logistics. Organization has been made for Lin’an Logistics and Nanwu International to apply for demonstration enterprise and park for smart logistics delivery. Public logistics information platforms have been established. Great efforts have been made to promote Enpro Supply Chain Management Ltd to improve efficiency of international transfer and global logistics delivery in special supervision areas and comprehensively reduce logistics delivery cost.

 

To maintain market order, 1,548 inspections over law enforcement concerning business activities were carried out in 2016; 38 law enforcement cases were handled; 82 reports and complaints concerning business activities were accepted, handled and concluded. Great efforts have been made to promote reform of comprehensive administration and law enforcement concerning business activities, make innovation of whole process of law enforcement, promote the law enforcement mode featuring “randomly selecting inspection objects and randomly designating inspectors and making results public”, establish business credit database of Guangzhou and adopt “blacklist” management and “gridding” supervision and regulation to form up a comprehensive dynamic supervision and regulation system.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, March 10, 2017