SOEs See Higher Increase in Export Than Foreign-funded Enterprises in First Quarter

The export volume of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reached US$ 25.34 billion in the first quarter of this year, up 38.1 percent over the same period last year, accounting for 49 percent of the national gross export volume. The volume of exports by foreign-invested enterprises was US$ 23.91 billion, up 36.3 percent over the same period last year, accounting for 46 percent of the national gross export volume.

This situation appeared especially prominent in relatively developed provinces in southeast China. According to export working conferences held in some provinces and cities, in January and February, the export of the SOEs of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang increased by 57 percent, 45 percent and 49.9 percent respectively, higher than that of the foreign-funded enterprises by 35, 14 and 1.5 percentage points respectively. The growth rate of exports by SOEs in Guangdong Province was also higher than that of the foreign-funded enterprises by 22.2 percentage points in the first two months. The disparity of their export proportion to the province's total shrank from 10.5 percentage of last year to 3.2 percentage this year.

Experts pointed out that one must not be blindly optimistic about the good beginning achieved in the exports by the SOEs this year, because the high growth rate was achieved largely on last year's low base number, while foreign-funded firms' exports have always maintained a stable growth in recent years.

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