By Wu Xiaoyun

Faced with many risks and challenges, Nantong has kept high-quality development, effectively promoted the stable scale and optimized structure of foreign trade. According to the statistics of Nantong Customs, in 2023, Nantong realized foreign trade import and export of 350.03 billion yuan, remaining at a high level over 350 billion yuan. It ranked 4th in Jiangsu, accounting for 6.7% of the total import and export value of Jiangsu. Among them, the export is 228.97 billion yuan, and the import is 121.06 billion yuan.

In terms of import and export scale, the import and export values of Chongchuan District, Nantong Economic&Technological Development Area and Rudong County continue to be top 3 of the city. In terms of the import and export growth rate, the growth rates of export of Tongzhou Bay Demonstration Zone, Haimen District and Chongchuan district have reached 25.5%, 14.6% and 5.5% respectively.

The export markets are becoming more evenly distributed. There has been more export to those along ‘the Belt and Road’. The import and export to the top four major trade partners EU, ASEAN, America, and Japan are 53.98 billion yuan, 49.05 billion yuan, 37.06 billion yuan and 33.45 billion yuan respectively. The sum accounts for 49.6% of the total foreign trade of Nantong. The export to ‘the Belt and Road’ joint building countries increased by 5.9%, and its proportion increased by 3.2 percentage points to 41%.