(Yicai) April 15 -- Many Chinese local governments have introduced measures to stabilize foreign trade and increase the proportion of exports to emerging markets.

Dongguan will motivate enterprises to participate in more than 200 overseas key exhibitions every year, including over 100 in emerging markets, according to a plan released yesterday by China’s fifth-largest exporting city. It will also promote the development of bonded logistics, facilitate transborder e-commerce, and advance overseas warehouse construction.

Moreover, Dongguan will lure 2,000 companies to take part in nearly 20 local exhibitions, promote imports and exports through the Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone and Qingxi Bonded Logistics Center to exceed CNY125 billion (USD17.1 billion) this year, hold 1,000 e-commerce livestreamings annually, and encourage firms to optimize their supply chain layout along the Belt and Road Initiative.

The city in Guangdong province aims to have about one-third of its exports shipped to BRI markets by 2027.

Yangjiang, another city in Guangdong, also recently introduced policies to encourage enterprises to explore more emerging markets and participate in exhibitions in BRI countries, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership members, and the Middle East.

Fujian province previously issued a document proposing to cover more than half of companies’ booth fees at overseas exhibitions and offer foreign trade counseling to key enterprises that wish to foray into overseas markets.

To boost the expansion of local foreign trade firms in the domestic market, Fujian will strive to cultivate 1,000 leading enterprises to integrate domestic and foreign trade and develop no less than 100 domestic and foreign e-commerce integration platforms with a scale of hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan, equal to tens of millions of US dollars, by 2027.

China’s foreign trade with traditional markets remained resilient in the first quarter of the year, with imports and exports to Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom surging rapidly, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs yesterday.

The growth rate of imports from and exports to BRI countries was 0.9 percentage point higher than the overall figure in the three months ended March 31, according to GAC data. Foreign trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Central Asian countries rose 7.1 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

Editor: Futura Costaglione