Minister Wang Wentao Attended State Council Information Office Press Conference to Brief Reporter on Speeding up High-Quality Development of Commerce and Serving the Building of the New Development Paradigm Home> NEWS> Press Conference MOFCOM BJT Minister Wang Wentao Attended State Council Information Office Press Conference to Brief Reporter on Speeding up High-Quality Development of Commerce and Serving the Building of the New Development Paradigm Chen Wenjun (Director General of the Press Bureau and Spokesperson of the State Council Information Office): Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon. As China has entered the stage of high-quality development and is building the new development paradigm, commerce work plays a very important role in this process. Today, we are honored to have with us Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy China International Trade Representative Wang Shouwen, and Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming to meet you and take your questions. Now, I’d like to invite Minister Wang to make his opening statement. Wang Wentao: Thank you, moderator. Good afternoon, friends of the media, it's a great pleasure to meet you here. First of all, on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce, I would like to express heartfelt thanks to you for your interest and support for our work. In 2020, we were faced with severe and complex international situation, especially the impact brought by Covid-19. Under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, MOFCOM struck the balance between epidemic prevention and control on the one hand and economic and social development on the other. We took concrete steps to ensure stability in employment, financial operations, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and expectations and went all out to ensure security in job, basic living needs, operations of market entities, food and energy security, stable industrial and supply chains, and normal functioning of primary-level governments. We stabilized the fundamentals of foreign trade and foreign investment, promoted recovery in consumption, and made new breakthroughs in bilateral and multilateral trade and economic relations. Trade and economy have returned to a stable upward track, which is better than expected, thus making contributions to national economic and social development. This year, MOFCOM will follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, have an accurate understanding of the new development stage, follow through the new development concepts, and accelerate the building of the new development paradigm, and strive to promote high-quality development of commerce. As we embark on the new journey, we will get the first step right, demonstrate new vitality, and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC with an excellent score sheet. My colleagues Vice Minister Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister Qian Keming and I would like to take your questions. China Business News: There are various assessments on the situation and pressure China’s foreign trade faces this year due to multiple factors including Covid-19. What’s your view on China’s foreign trade this year? In addition, what policy measures will MOFCOM take in the future to help foreign trade companies stabilize their industrial and supply chains? Thank you. Wang Wentao: Thank you. You asked me how to assess the situation of China’s foreign trade this year and what measures we will take to stabilize foreign trade. Let’s look back at the last year. In 2020, President Xi Jinping made important plans on stabilizing the fundamentals of foreign trade and foreign investment. The State Council introduced a series of policy measures. Relevant ministries, local governments, and in particular Chinese foreign trade companies pulled in the same direction to meet the difficulties head on. In a nutshell, for China’s foreign trade, last year was an extremely extraordinary year with remarkable achievements. Let’s look at some figures. Last year, the import and export of goods totaled 32.2 trillion yuan, up by 1.9%. It tells us three things. First, China is the only major economy in the world with positive growth in trade. Second, the volume and international market share of China’s foreign trade hit record high. Third, China strengthens its position as the world’s biggest trader in goods. Having said that, we think the situation of China’s foreign trade this year remains grim and complex. From the demand side, obviously there are still uncertainties about the pandemic. That’s why we say the situation can be grim and complex. In terms of the supply and industrial chains, destabilizing factors keep evolving. We will stand firm to stabilize the fundamentals of foreign trade and foreign investment. This remains unchanged as our goal for 2021. Our primary goals this year are optimizing imports and exports, integrating trade and industry and facilitating trade connectivity. Let me explain in details. First, we will further step up policy support. We will work with local governments and other ministries to ensure policy continuity, stability and sustainability. We talk with exporters on a regular basis to know their concerns and needs, such as blockage in international logistics and high logistics cost, and raising export credit insurance, among others. We will keep policies consistent and stable while making timely adjustment according to latest developments. Second, we will ensure stable and smooth industrial and supply chains for foreign trade. We will make a great effort on trade-industry integration, approve a batch of foreign trade transformation and upgrading bases, and build a number of industrial parks for processing trade. We will also create a series of demonstration zones to expand import and enhance the competitiveness and efficiency of relevant industries. Third, we will help exporters secure orders and grow markets. In this connection, we will leverage the role of platforms. We have some good platforms. This year we will continue to make the most of them. We will strive to make the fourth China International Import Expo and the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services a success, make good use of the Canton Fair and the first China International Consumer Products Expo, among other important expos, to help companies secure orders and expand markets. In the meantime, we will leverage both online and offline resources as the pandemic evolves. We will also step up efforts to build the international marketing system, especially the upgrading of overseas warehouses, to promote integration of domestic and foreign trade. We will also discuss with more trading partners, especially countries along the Belt and Road, to establish working mechanisms on trade connectivity in a bid to create an enabling international environment for Chinese exporters. Fourth, we will actively foster new business patterns and models of foreign trade. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, new business patterns and models have played an important role in foreign trade, such as cross-border e-commerce and market procurement trade. In 2020, the import and export via cross-border e-commerce hit 1.69 trillion yuan, up by 31.1% and export via market procurement trade reached 704.54 billion yuan, up by 25.2%. Going forward, we will further enhance support for these forms and models and contribute to stable development of foreign trade this year. Thank you for your questions. CCTV: The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee put forward that the modern distribution system should be improved and business distribution costs should be reduced during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The recent meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform reiterated the need to build a modern distribution system. What are the plans of MOFCOM for implementation? How to build a modern commercial distribution system? Thank you. Wang Wentao: As we all know, distribution connects production and consumption. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, China's commercial distribution has developed rapidly, with diverse players and patterns, as the landscape for open competition has basically taken shape. However, we also have much to improve in distribution. For example, the ratio of total social logistics costs to GDP in 2020 is a figure often compared with that of other countries. This ratio is about 14.7% in China, which is generally about 6 percentage points higher than that of developed countries, thus our logistics costs are still relatively high. Take another indicator as an example, our cold chain logistics is a shortcoming out of all the shortcomings. The damage rate of agricultural produce in developed countries is less than 10%, while the damage rate of meat in China is about 12%, and that of fruit and vegetables is even higher, about 18%, or more than 20% according to some studies. This shows that we still have many logistics constraints. In addition, Chinese distributors are not internationally competitive enough. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that an efficient modern distribution system is essential for both domestic and international circulations. Just now, you asked about our plans. We would establish a problem-oriented modern distribution system featuring “six improvements”. First, improving the distribution network layout. If the distribution network is compared to blood vessels of human beings, the backbone network would be the main artery, so we should first improve the backbone network, and then keep the basic network smooth before we unblock the microcirculation and establish a sound network system. When it comes to the distribution network, we should focus on the backbone network, by formulating a good plan for commodities distribution centers, integrated logistics parks and public delivery centers. After the backbone network is improved and becomes smooth, we will ensure microcirculation is smooth till the last mile. Second, improving the distribution infrastructure. Compared with developed countries, there are still many gaps in our distribution infrastructure, with the main gap now in the “last mile”. Just now, I mentioned the establishment of the backbone network, and in the next step, we need to ensure smooth microcirculation, especially for the “last mile”. The important thing is that we need to go down to community levels. How to do that in the city? We should provide residents with access to convenience stores, vegetable markets and community service outlets nearby. In other words, we should focus on creating a fifteen-minute community service circle. How to do that in the countryside? Rural areas should focus on improving the commercial system, transforming the commercial distribution network at the county, township and village levels, improving the logistics distribution network, and ensuring smooth access to industrial products in the countryside and agricultural produce in the city. We have set a target that by 2025, every county should have chain supermarkets and logistics distribution centers, towns and villages should have business centers, and villages should have access to express delivery. We would mainly focus on the community level in cities and rural areas, and keep the “last mile” smooth. Third, improving the competitiveness of distributors. As I said just now, compared with developed countries and large international distributors, there are still much to catch up with. However, the application of new technologies, such as 5G, Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, has provided a good opportunity for distributors to catch up. We will also encourage and guide distributors to seize this opportunity for leapfrog development in digitalized, network-based and intelli…