Beijing, China / TimesNewswire / January 16, 2023 – Recently, China’s General Administration of Customs stated that China’s total trade volume surpassed 40 trillion yuan for the first time with a 42.07 trillion-yuan record-breaking result. It registered a 7.7 percent year on year increase.

The new record was achieved in spite of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the adjustments in China’s COVID-19 policy, there’s been a rapid restoration of economic and social lives. The Spring Festival travel will see a 99.5 percent surge in passenger trips to 2.1 billion, resuming to about 70.3 percent of the same period in 2019, based on Ministry of Transport’s data.

“I think that it’s been very encouraging for most of the world, including business people here in the United States, in the financial and in the industrial community, but also worldwide,” said William Jones, the Washington Bureau Chief for Executive Intelligence Review in the United States. He pointed out that China’s COVID-19 policy adjustments have created a “great sense of optimism,” and that World Bank and IMF figures show that China’s economic growth, in contrast to other countries, is moving forward.

“Again, China will become the engine for economic development,” Jones added.

Between 2013 and 2021, China’s average contribution to the global economic growth exceeded 30 percent. In 2021, China’s GDP grew by 8.4 percent, the largest growth in a decade and account for more than 18 percent of the global economy. It was also the only country to achieve a positive growth in 2020 when all major economies were hit hard by the pandemic.

China’s economic development will be an undeniably powerful force in the global recovery from the pandemic. Supachai Wuthichuwong, senior reporter at Thailand’s Manager Media Group, pointed out that around 30 percent of Thailand’s GDP is generated by the tourist industry and Chinese tourists account for almost half of Thailand’s tourists. Ikenna Mba Emewu, the Editor in Chief of Africa China Economy Magazine, said that 45 percent of international business Nigeria and the world is between Nigeria and China. “Now that travels are resumed, there’s a high hope that all those businesses that were left unattended between Nigerian and Chinese partners would kick-off again,” Emewu said.

Daryl Guppy, a national board member of the Australia-China Business Council, said that Australians are looking for fast access into China to restore face-to-face meetings, and businesses could re-establish themselves and explore opportunities that existed during the COVID-19 pandemic. “In the West, there’s this idea that somehow China didn’t develop… this is not correct. What we’ve seen is tremendous advances on the digital economy. And this is something of particular interest to Australia but to business more broadly,” he said.

China has a netizen population of 1.05 billion, and the internet penetration rate had reached 74.4 percent, according to a white paper released in 2022. China has the world’s largest 5G network with 1.85 million 5G cell towers and 455 million 5G cell phone. The digital economy had reached 45.5 trillion yuan in 2021, accounting for nearly 40 percent of Chinese GDP.

Whether it’s tourism, digital economy or the broader business cooperation, the global community is looking forward to China’s development after the COVID-19 policy adjustments. And China has been creating a friendlier and more liberal business environment for the international community. For example, starting from December 30, 2022, market entities no longer need to provide foreign-trade operator registration materials to apply for import and export licenses in China. It’s a significant reform measure in foreign trade management, China’s Ministry of Commerce stated.

Source: CGTN