At 10 a.m. this morning, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to announce the import and export situation in the first quarter of this year. According to customs statistics, in the first quarter of this year, my country's import and export of goods was 10.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.3%. Among them,

·Exports were 6.13 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.9%;

·Imports were 4.17 trillion yuan, a decrease of 6%.

The growth rate of imports and exports rebounded month by month, with imports and exports falling by 2.2% in January, basically the same in February, and 6% in March.

With the increasing number of external difficulties and challenges, all localities, departments and the vast number of foreign trade operators have responded actively to promote a stable start in my country's foreign trade imports and exports in the first quarter.

In terms of exports, in the first quarter, my country's export scale exceeded 6 trillion yuan, achieving a rapid growth of 6.9%, showing strong resilience under pressure. Among them, exports to more than 170 countries and regions have achieved growth. China's high-end, intelligent and green transformation momentum is strong. Exports of ship and marine engineering equipment and special equipment increased by 10.8% and 16.2% respectively. New energy products continue to play an important role in global green transformation, with exports of wind turbines, lithium batteries, electric vehicles, etc. increasing by 43.2%, 18.8% and 8.2% respectively.

In terms of imports, in the first quarter, domestic industrial production grew rapidly, driving the increase in imports of parts and equipment. Among them, automatic data processing equipment parts, ship and marine engineering equipment increased by 95.6% and 52.5% respectively. The consumer market is steadily improving, and the import of some people's livelihood commodities has increased. Among them, the import value of edible oil increased by 12.1%, and the import volume of dried and fresh fruits increased by 8.3%.

In the first quarter, my country's private enterprises imported and exported 5.85 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.8%, and its proportion increased to 56.8%. While the scale of foreign trade has achieved rapid growth, the quality of development has also been continuously improved. Private enterprises have achieved growth in imports and exports to nearly 180 countries and regions around the world. Imports and exports to emerging markets such as ASEAN, Africa, and Latin America increased by 7.4%, 9.6%, and 5.2% respectively; and traditional markets such as the EU and Japan increased by 7.1% and 4.8% respectively. Private enterprises' import and export of high-tech products hit a record high in the same period, with a scale of nearly 1 trillion yuan, maintaining the largest import and export main position. Among them, exported industrial robots grew by 67.4%, high-end machine tools grew by 16.4%, imported high-end equipment was 25.6%, and surgical robots grew by 47.5%.

Data shows that in the past five years, the cumulative import and export of foreign-invested enterprises account for about one-third of China's foreign trade. In the first quarter of this year, more than 67,000 foreign-invested enterprises had real import and export performance, the highest in the same period in the past three years; imports and exports were 2.99 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.4%, achieving growth for four consecutive quarters.

In the first quarter, my country's imports and exports to the EU were 1.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.4%. China and Europe are highly complementary and closely integrated with interests, promoting the sustained and positive development of bilateral trade. ASEAN continues to rank as my country's largest trading partner, with imports and exports of 1.71 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.1%, and its share of my country's overall foreign trade increased to 16.6%. my country's economic and trade relations with ASEAN are becoming increasingly close, and trade complementarity continues to strengthen.

In the first quarter, my country and countries jointly built the "Belt and Road" imports and exports were 5.26 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.2%, setting a new record for the same period in history, and its proportion of my country's overall foreign trade continued to increase to 51.1%.

(CCTV reporter Ye Huan Kong Lingwen)