Faced with huge uncertainty in the global economy, our province's foreign trade has shown strong resilience. On June 11, the reporter learned from Zhengzhou Customs that in the first five months of this year, our province's foreign trade imports and exports were 343 billion yuan, an increase of 27% year-on-year (the same below), 24.5 percentage points higher than the national growth rate (2.5%) in the same period, an increase of 72.87 billion yuan year-on-year. The scale of foreign trade hit a new high in the same period in previous years, and the growth rate of foreign trade ranked third in the country and first in the central region. Among them, exports were 234.3 billion yuan, an increase of 43.1%; imports were 108.7 billion yuan, an increase of 2.2%; and the trade surplus was 125.6 billion yuan, an increase of 118.9%.

In May, our province's foreign trade imports and exports were 67.23 billion yuan, an increase of 17.5%, 14.8 percentage points higher than the national growth rate (2.7%) during the same period. Among them, exports were 46.35 billion yuan, an increase of 39.2%.

Nearly 60% are imported and exported through processing trade and bonded logistics. In the first five months, our province imported and exported 152.47 billion yuan through general trade, an increase of 20.5%, accounting for 44.5% of the province's total foreign trade value (the same below). During the same period, the import and export of processing trade was 111.29 billion yuan, an increase of 28.7%, accounting for 32.4%; the import and export of bonded logistics was 77.84 billion yuan, an increase of 38.9%, accounting for 22.7%; the total import and export of the two was 189.13 billion yuan, an increase of 32.7%, accounting for 55.1%, an increase of 2.4 percentage points.

The number of enterprises with import and export performance exceeded 11,000, and foreign-invested enterprises had the fastest growth rate of import and export. In the first five months, the number of foreign trade enterprises in our province with import and export performance reached 11,100, an increase of 11.5% year-on-year and 1,142, mainly driven by the increase in active enterprises in Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Xinxiang. Among them, there were 453 enterprises with an import and export value of more than RMB 50 million, accounting for 86.4% of the province's foreign trade, an increase of 44 companies year-on-year. It is worth noting that private enterprises imported and exported 251.06 billion yuan, an increase of 23%, accounting for 73.2% of the province's total foreign trade value; foreign-invested enterprises imported and exported 71.26 billion yuan, an increase of 74.5%.

ASEAN continues to remain the largest trading partner of our province, and imports and exports to the EU and Japan are growing rapidly. In the first five months, our province's imports and exports to ASEAN were 44.83 billion yuan, an increase of 6.6%; imports and exports to the EU were 43.22 billion yuan, an increase of 23.2%; imports and exports to Japan were 23.47 billion yuan, an increase of 162.9%. During the same period, our province and countries jointly built the "Belt and Road" were 164.08 billion yuan, an increase of 16.6%; imports and exports to other RCEP members were 103.03 billion yuan, an increase of 30.1%.

The export of mechanical and electrical products is growing rapidly, accounting for more than 60%. In the first five months, our province exported 150.31 billion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, an increase of 66.6%, accounting for 64.2% of the province's export value; of which 20.41 billion yuan of automobiles were exported, an increase of 62.5%. Exported labor-secret products was 12.37 billion yuan, an increase of 0.6%. Exported agricultural products was 6.58 billion yuan, an increase of 26.3%. Exports of silver were 5.63 billion yuan, an increase of 28%. Basic organic chemicals were exported at 3.67 billion yuan, an increase of 1.9%.

Mechanical and electrical products and agricultural products are the main driving forces for import growth. In the first five months, our province imported 59.04 billion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, an increase of 5.5%. Imported agricultural products were RMB 6.83 billion, an increase of 28.4%. Imported unforged rolled copper and copper materials was RMB 4.05 billion, an increase of 129.3%.

In addition, the growth momentum of foreign trade imports and exports in our province is good, and the import and exports of 11 prefecture-level cities have achieved positive growth. Among them, Zhengzhou grew the fastest among all cities, with foreign trade increasing by 66.24 billion yuan year-on-year, increasing the province's foreign trade growth rate by 24.5 percentage points. (Reporter Wang Ge Correspondent Liu Yuanfang)