F REIGN TRADE - 中国国际贸易促进委员会

in Eastern China. Exports of ChongqingCity, Henan, Guangxi, Sichuan andJiangxi Provinces expanded by 1.9 times,1.2 times, 29.3%, 62.8%, and 38.35 respectively.Guangdong exports increasedby 5.5% to $168.61 billion. Jiangsu andZhejiang Provinces and Shanghai Cityreported exports volume of $95.8 billion,$65.29 billion and $63.57 billion, increasesof 1.7%, 4.2% and 1.2% respectively.Exports volume of Shandong provincefell by 0.3% to $38.62 billon, while thoseof Fujian Province and Beijing City expandedby 7.6% and 2.9% to reach $27.3billion and $17.7 billion respectively.Steady increase in exports ofmechanical and electrical products. Inthe first four months of the year, Chinaexported $346.79 billion worth of mechanicaland electrical products, 8.5%higher than that of last year, 1.6 percentagepoints higher than the increaserate of the nation’s total exports. Inspecific, the country exported $140.29billion worth of electrical applianceand electronic products, an increase of5.5% over the same period of last year;exported $115.05 billion worth of mechanicalequipment, up by 11% fromthe same period of last year. Among thelabor-intensive goods, the country exported$39.97 billion worth of clothing,up by 1% year on year, $28.85 billionworth of textiles, down by 0.3%, and$12.4 billion worth of shoes, up by 4.2%.Slowdown of the expansion rateof exports under the general trade.From January to April of the year, China’sgeneral trade value jumped by 6.8%year on year to $617.06 billion. Specifically,exports reached $280.29billion, anincrease of 7.3% year on year; importsincreased by 6.5% to $336.77 billion.The country reported a general tradedeficit of $56.48 billion, an increase of2.7% over the same period of last year.The nation’s processing trade valuejumped by 3.3% year on year to reach$412.99 billion. Specifically, exportsrose by 5.3% to $266.11 billion, whileimports dropped by 0.3% to $146.88billion, resulting in a surplus of $119.23billion, an expansion of 13.1% from thesame period of last year.Utilization of foreigninvestmentIn the first four months of 2012,China approved the establishment of7,016 new foreign-invested enterprises,a decline of 13.94% year on year. Thenation utilized $37.881 billion worthof foreign capital, a decline of 2.38%from the same period of last year. InApril alone, China utilized $8.401 billionworth of foreign capital, a declineof 0.74% from the same period of lastyear. By the end of April, China hadapproved the establishment of 745,000foreign-invested enterprises on an accumulativebasis and received $1.2 trillionin paid-in foreign capital.Significant increase in the utilizationof foreign capital by some ofthe service sectors. In the first fourmonths of the year, the service industrymade an actual use of $17.71 billion,a decline of 3.1% year on year and accountingfor 46.8% of the nation’s totalutilization of foreign capital, morethan the share of the manufacturingindustry. Among the service industry,such sectors as software application,comprehensive technology and financinghave reported over 30% increase inthe utilization of foreign capital. Thesectors of agriculture, forestry, animalhusbandry, and fisheries made an actualuse of $610 million in foreign investment,a decrease of 0.9% year on yearand accounting for 1.6% of the country’stotal utilization of foreign capital.The manufacturing industry made anactual use of $17.02 billion in foreigninvestment, a decline of 4.4% over thesame period of last year and accountingfor 44.9% of the national total.Continuant increase in investmentin China from Japan; significantdecline in investment in China fromthe EU. Investment from Japan continuedto rise from January to April of theyear, amounting to $2.7 billion. Paidincapital from the 27 European Unionnations fell by 27.9% to $1.9 billion.Investment from the United States roseby 1.9% to reach $1.05 billion. Paidincapital from ten Asia nations andregions (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan,Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia,Singapore, Indonesia, and SouthKorea) amounted to $33.08 billion, upby 0.6% year on year.Significant increase in paid-inforeign capital to central China. Inthe first four months of the year, thecentral regions made an actual use of$3.05 billion, an increase of 12.6% andaccounting for 8% of the national total.The western regions made an actual useof $2.47 billion in foreign investment,a decline of 15.2% year on year and accountingfor 6.5% of the national total.The eastern regions made an actual useof $32.36 billion in foreign investment,a decline of 2.5% year on year and accountingfor 85.4% of the national total.Overseas investment andeconomic cooperationChina’s outbound FDI In thefirst four months of 2012, China’sdomestic investors invested directly in1,445 overseas corporations in 109 nationsand regions, with a total of nonfinancialoutbound FDI of $23.16billion, an increase of 72.8% year onyear. $8.8 billion worth of direct investmentwas made in the form of merger,making up for 37.7% of the total FDI.By the end of April, China had made$345.1 billion worth of FDI on an accumulativebasis.Overseas-contracted projects Inthe first four months of the year, China’soverseas-contracted projects reported aturnover of $29.11 billion, an increase of17% year on year. April reported a turnoverof $8.22 billion, up by 4% from thesame period of last year. $35.34 billionworth of new contracts were signedfrom January to April, down by 19.1 %year on year. In April alone, $7.04 billionworth of new contracts were signed,down by 45.8% year on year. By theend of April, China had signed a totalof $877 billion worth of agreements oncontracting overseas projects, and realized$568.1 billion in turnover.Foreign labor service cooperationIn the first four months of 2012, thenumber of all kinds of labor sent abroadwas 132,000, a drop of 2,000 from thesame with last year. 66,000 of them areworking on overseas contracted projects,and 66,000 of them are for laborcooperation. At the end of April, therewere a total of 814,000 Chinese workingabroad, 39,000 more than the sameperiod of last year.(Source: Press Conference ofthe Ministry of Commerce of Chinaon May 15, 2012)29