Foreign trade volume for Zhuhai increased by 40.4 percent year-on-year to 48.2 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) in the first two months of this year. The growth rate equals the provincial average and is 8.2 percentage points higher than the country's.

Local export value rose 48.2 percent from 2020 to 27.37 billion yuan ($4.2 billion), while that of imports improved by 31.3 percent to 20.83 billion yuan ($3.2 billion), the Zhuhai Bureau of Commerce announced March 22.

Gaolan Port International Container Terminal [Photo by Zhang Zhou / Zhuhai Daily]

During the period, Zhuhai's general trade value rose by 57.9 percent year-on-year to 31.4 billion yuan ($4.8 billion). This accounts for 65.1 percent of the city's total foreign trade value, which is 7.2 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

Local private enterprises demonstrated strong growth momentum as their import-export value grew by 74.5 percent to 23.23 billion yuan ($3.6 billion). The proportion attributed to foreign trade is 9.3 percentage points higher from the previous year.

The scale of Zhuhai's cross-border e-commerce expanded with 1.67 million packages tallied in January and February. Personnel at Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Cross-Border Ecommerce Operation Center -- China's first customs clearance site for cross-border e-commerce exports direct to Hong Kong and Macao -- worked 7/24 during Spring Festival. They processed 400,000 packages that left the Chinese mainland via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to be further sent worldwide from the Hong Kong and Macao airports.

The Bureau of Commerce has been helping foreign trade by exploiting such free trade agreements as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The bureau has a tracking mechanism to offer tailored services for key projects and has further improved cross-border e-commerce infrastructure to increase foreign trade.