China on Monday unveiled new guidelines on the innovative development of the country's foreign trade, in a bid to foster a stable trade environment under a new development pattern domestically and uncertainties in the overseas market.
It specified measures covering nine areas to promote trade development, including searching for new ways to explore the international market, optimizing the domestic layout of foreign trade, and enhancing the competitiveness of foreign trade firms.
The policy echoes the 14th Five-Year Plan for Social and Economic Development as well as the Double Development Dynamic (DDD), also known as "dual circulation," that the country has highly stressed recently.
The country will actively negotiate and sign more high-standard free trade agreements and regional trade agreements while leveraging new technologies and channels to explore the international market, according to the guidelines.
Efforts will go into enhancing trade quality in the country's eastern region, increasing the proportion of trade in the central and western areas, and expanding the opening-up of the northeastern region while innovating mechanisms to foster cooperation among different regions, the guidelines said.
The guidelines also required authorities to offer a targeted guide to different types of enterprises to foster the competitiveness of both large foreign trade firms and small and medium-sized enterprises.
It also specified measures to improve the structure of exports and imports, cultivate innovative trade modes, and foster platforms to promote foreign trade.
China has managed to keep foreign trade stable this year despite disruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The country's exports continued to expand in October, reaching a 19-month-high. In the first 10 months, the country's foreign trade of goods went up by 1.1 percent year on year, accelerating from an increase of 0.7 percent in the first three quarters, customs data showed.
(Cover: Lianyungang port, east China's Jiangsu Province, September 7, 2020. /Xinhua)
(With input from Xinhua)