Shanghai's Hongqiao Central Business District sees prosperous development of foreign trade

In west Shanghai, a piece of land covering 151.4 square kilometers and adjacent to the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, is generating nearly 10 percent of the economic aggregate of the Yangtze River Delta with less than 2 percent of the delta's total area.

This piece of land is the Hongqiao Central Business District (CBD). It attracted major projects worth 120 billion yuan ($16.47 billion) in the first eight months of 2022.

Asia Socks Inc. is a company based in the Hongqiao CBD. It sources finished socks from Southeast Asia and sells them to European and American merchants. The company has exported socks worth over $2 million.

Shanghai Totole Food Ltd., another company headquartered in the Hongqiao CBD, not only has established a sales network that covers China but also sells its products to countries in the West and the Middle East.

Besides, Shanghai Wooray Metals Group Co., Ltd. in the Hongqiao CBD reported revenue of 75 billion yuan in the previous year.

Companies in the central business district, driven by multiple factors, are forging ahead despite adversity.

Photo shows a night view of the Hongqiao Central Business District (CBD) in Shanghai. (Photo courtesy of the administration committee of the Hongqiao CBD)

Yang Xubo, head of the business development department of the administration committee of the Hongqiao CBD, introduced that the Hongqiao CBD recently named 30 companies as trade-oriented headquarters according to their annual revenue and other performance.

Besides, the central business district is also home to a batch of "backup" enterprises of this type, which help foster a brighter future.

"Despite the impacts from COVID-19 in the second quarter, the Hongqiao CBD still enjoys robust momentum for foreign trade," said Mao Xiangyu, another official with the administration committee of the Hongqiao CBD.

"We are engaged in the development and sales of plant protection products and new fine chemical materials. We are doing business in Shanghai because of its geographical and platform advantages," said Bu Mingxing, general manager of CAC Shanghai International Trading Co., Ltd., which is located on No. 365 of Linhong Road, Changning district of Shanghai.

He told People's Daily that the Hongqiao CBD enjoys obvious geographical advantages and is home to many business platforms.

According to him, his company has established cooperation with multiple transnational corporations and sells its products to overseas destinations after having participated in trade exhibitions held in the Hongqiao CBD, such as the China International Agrochemical & Crop Protection Exhibition.

Photo shows the Hongqiao Central Business District (CBD) in Shanghai. (Photo courtesy of the administration committee of the Hongqiao CBD)

"The China International Import Expo (CIIE) is seeing a constantly expanding spillover effect. We have set up permanent exhibition platforms such as the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center and the Greenland Global Commodity Trading Hub, as well as ten 10-billion-yuan distribution centers of imported commodities, including an international coffee port," said Cai Jun, general manager of a Shanghai-based enterprise operating the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center.

Great platforms help enterprises pursue larger goals. In the Hongqiao CBD, there are trade service platforms such as the Hongqiao Overseas Trade Center and the Hongqiao International Central Legal Hub; there are demonstration bases of service trade facilitation such as the Shanghai Hongqiao Linkong Business Park and the Xihongqiao business district; there are cross-border e-commerce demonstration zones such as the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center.

Offshore trade, new models of cross-border e-commerce, bonded exhibition, exhibits-turned- bonded commodities, exhibits-turned cross-border commodities and other new business forms are seeing rapid development. Innovative policies of the CIIE regarding customs clearance facilitation, capital settlement, investment facilitation and exit & entry of personnel have been upgraded to regular rules.

Recently, logistics company Overseas Courier Service (OCS) Shanghai Co.,Ltd. received its Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Travel Card. "Compared with business visas, the APEC Business Travel Card can make business activities more efficient," said Yu Tianli, deputy general manager of OCS Shanghai Co.,Ltd.

Great services make resilient foreign trade in the Hongqiao CBD, and also boost the confidence of foreign trade enterprises in the district in coping with challenges. 

Foreign merchants visit the Food and Agricultural Products exhibition area at the fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE), November 2021. The CIIE, as a world-class exhibition, serves as a platform for foreign trade enterprises. (People's Daily Online/Zhai Huiyong)