Zhuhai rates 7th among China's Top 100 Foreign Trade Cities in 2019, according to China Customs magazine recently published by the General Administration of Customs of the PRC (GACC).

Zhuhai has occupied a top-10 spot for several consecutive years. The Bureau of Commerce puts the actual use of foreign investment at 16.4 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) in 2019, ranking 3rd in Guangdong. Zhuhai foreign trade value of 290.9 billion yuan ($41.7 billion), places 5th in the province. Actual investment abroad also is up by $135 million from 2018.

Zhuhai has been stabilizing foreign investment and trade despite negative effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and gloomy global economy in the first half of this year. Exports are valued at 67.14 billion yuan ($9.6 billion) from January to June, while the import value tallies 50.7 billion yuan ($7.3 billion).

Hongwan Port in Nanping Town [Photo by Zhang Zhou / Wechat account: zhuhaifabu]

Other nine top cities in foreign trade are Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Xiamen, Suzhou, Ningbo, Chongqing, and Qingdao.

There are nine Pearl River Delta cities on the Top 100 list, six of which rose in the ranking of foreign trade structure and performance above their 2018 levels. The best results are from traditionally strong cities such as Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Dongguan.

Guangdong's foreign trade value totals 3.06 trillion yuan ($439 billion) in the first six months of this year, accounting for 21.5 percent of China's total. The 7.1 percent decrease rate, 1.7 percentage points lower than that of January-May, shows a robust recovery.

The evaluation of domestic prefecture-level-or-above cities in foreign trade competitiveness is based on 25 indicators categorized for level, structure, performance, development, and potential.

The July edition of the magazine also underscores the vitality of foreign trade in the Pearl River Delta. It cites as evidence the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed railway and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge as well as implementation of the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.