Guangdong kicks off effort to spur foreign trade

By Li Wenfang in Guangzhou (China Daily) Updated: 2014-06-05 06:51

The 600-meter television tower, a landmark of Guangzhou, capital city in South China's Guangdong province, is pictured. [Photo / dfic.cn]

Province unveils new measures to streamline refunds, assist SMEs

The Guangdong provincial government has pledged to improve its export duty refund policy and step up enhancements for foreign trade service providers and commodity import trading centers as part of 25 measures it recently enacted.

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Guangdong houses the country's largest number of small and medium-sized enterprises and was the first to provide comprehensive foreign trade service in China, said Xiao Feng, deputy general manager of Shenzhen OneTouch Enterprise Service Co.

The new measures should guide more SMEs into outsourcing foreign trade services and encourage such service providers to help shift away from their long-time reliance on manufacturing, he said.

The provincial government accounted for 23.2 percent of China's foreign trade in April. Its plan for facilitating growth in foreign trade is the first such plan since the State Council, China's cabinet, announced a guideline on the topic in May.

Guangdong's total foreign trade declined by 23.5 percent year-on-year in the first four months of the year, which was 1.7 percentage points narrower than the drop in the first quarter, according to the Guangdong Sub-Administration of China Customs. The country's foreign trade fell by 3.1 percent in the first four months.

Guangdong's foreign trade fell by 18.7 percent in April, with a smaller decline estimated for May.

In its latest plan, Guangdong's government set its foreign trade growth target this year at 2.4 percent, which was higher than the 1 percent goal noted in the government's work report delivered in January at the annual session of the provincial people's congress.

The government pledged to cut the time for approving export duty refunds to within 20 working days.

It also said it will work with national agencies to improve the refund policy, with an aim of optimizing the local government's share in providing such refunds and adjusting the basis for calculating refunds.

The move is expected to assist exporters by speeding up their capital turnover, said Chen Wanling, director of the Research Center for International Trade and Economy of the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

The government will offer subsidies on interest for loans to companies providing comprehensive foreign trade services and will guide other cities in nurturing such companies.

It also will offer a 5 million yuan ($799,288) award to a foreign trade service provider in the Pearl River Delta that facilitates exports of more than $1 billion in a year as well as 5 million yuan to each such provider in the less developed cities.