In mid-January, Shui Qijun, manager of International trade Department of Ningshui Group, a Ningbo enterprise, led the team to Australia to communicate with local customers about the implementation of the project. His work schedule is full, and attending overseas exhibitions and visiting clients will become the norm in the New Year. In the beginning of 2024, enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region actively acted, or planned groups, or attacked alone, and "expanding the market and grabbing orders" ran out of acceleration. On the afternoon of January 2, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, held the launch ceremony of the 2024 "Hundred Tuanqian enterprises to expand the market to increase orders" action, which opened the curtain of Zhejiang Province's group to go to sea action. Subsequently, Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce led the team into the non-stop business trip: January 4 led the team to Hong Kong to participate in the toy fair; On January 13, enterprises were organized to attend the Barcelona Fashion Exhibition in Spain and held the Wenzhou-Barcelona economic and trade cooperation matchmaking meeting. According to the plan, in early February, Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce will lead more than 200 glasses companies to participate in the Milan International Optical Glasses Exhibition in Italy.
Haining in Zhejiang Province is close behind. On January 4, Haining held a special promotion meeting of 2024 "Sea Extension Market", attended by representatives of more than 100 foreign trade enterprises and quality exhibition institutions from 5 provinces and cities. In 2023, Haining organized enterprises to participate in the sea for many times, and the harvest was fruitful. This makes many business leaders at the scene full of expectations for 2024. "Through this presentation, we are more confident that 2024 will be the 'order year' for foreign trade enterprises." Wu Liangzhen, general manager of Haining Anka Textile Co., Ltd. introduced that this year's preliminary plan to participate in exhibitions in Vietnam, France and other countries, hoping to use these platforms to continue to maintain export advantages and deepen the global market. Other parts of the Yangtze River Delta are also getting into action. In late January, Wang Xiangyuan, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee of Taicang, Jiangsu Province, led a team to Germany and France, a trip of about 7 to 8 days, which included activities such as liaison office listing, small business merchants, and enterprise visits. In addition, the reporter learned from the relevant departments of Suzhou that the Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce is actively preparing to organize enterprises to participate in the exhibition in Central and Eastern Europe in the near future.
Emerging markets become a new target for going overseas More and more companies take emerging markets as a key area for overseas expansion. Water Qijun told reporters that since 2023, the performance of emerging markets has exceeded expectations, and the company will increase its efforts to tap the potential of emerging markets in 2024. The most exciting news for him is that the company has made a breakthrough in the upgrading of the export product structure, and overseas customers have ordered the high-end ultrasonic smart water meter products launched by the company. Chai Xiaohui, deputy director of the securities department of Oriental Sunrise, has similar feelings. He said that from the company's annual orders in 2023, the demand for new energy such as photovoltaic and energy storage in emerging markets such as Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East has climbed, and the market potential is huge. On January 30, Yang Fan, spokesman for the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, introduced at a regular press conference that the "thousand regimental sea" operation will be vigorously carried out. For Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, Latin America and other important economic and trade partners, more than 1,000 batches of business groups will be organized to overseas exhibitions and visits to negotiate, help enterprises to expand the market with orders, and support local investment. In the view of experts, this year's "thousands of delegations to the sea" action to actively extend to ASEAN, Latin America and other emerging markets will become a highlight, through this layout, Chinese enterprises are expected to capture more business opportunities in the global scope, expand a broader space for development. In addition, diversified layout can effectively reduce the risks brought about by changes in the external environment.
Sun Chuanwang, a professor at the School of Economics at Xiamen University, said it was undoubtedly a positive sign for companies to go to sea to grab orders. However, in the long run, Chinese enterprises are still facing pressure from the weak global economy, intensifying international competition, and shifting supply chains. Only by continuously building the core competitiveness of the brand can we obtain pricing power and resilience beyond the economic cycle. According to He Jianhua, director of the Institute of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of Yangtze River Delta Modernization of Nantong University, in 2023, the "new three kinds" will play a significant role in pulling foreign trade, but it is also easy to fall into homogenized competition. In 2024, the Yangtze River Delta region should give full play to the respective advantages of the three provinces and one city, create core products, layout industrial chains, and form an industrial cluster development model.
