Foreign trade is an important component of my country's open economy and a key hub for facilitating the smooth flow of domestic and international trade. To accelerate the building of a strong trading nation, it is essential to promote the optimization and upgrading of goods trade, innovate the development mechanism of service trade, and develop digital trade.
A set of foreign trade achievements is remarkable: "The scale of goods trade has remained the world's largest for eight consecutive years," "The scale of services trade will exceed US$1 trillion for the first time in 2024," and "Negative list management will be implemented for cross-border services trade for the first time."
Equally impressive is that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the Export-Import Bank of China provided more than 9 trillion yuan in loans to the foreign trade sector, with an average annual compound growth rate of 11% in outstanding loans.
On the journey of building a strong trading nation, the Export-Import Bank of China has always been committed to leveraging its professional advantages as an export-oriented bank to build a comprehensive and high-quality financial service system. Through targeted efforts, innovation-driven development, and international cooperation, it has helped China's foreign trade to "increase its scale," "strengthen its structure," and "forge its resilience."
Increase support to promote the continuous expansion of foreign trade volume
No matter how far apart mountains and seas may be, cooperation will surely lead to success. Starting from Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, kitchen and bathroom products made in China arrive in Europe in 15 days, traversing mountains and seas; flour from Kazakhstan arrives in the kitchens of Xi'an residents in about 7 days, transforming into "oil-splashed noodles"... Today, the China-Europe Railway Express (Xi'an), this "steel camel caravan," is making convenient cross-border trade a daily occurrence.
The Export-Import Bank of China is the first and largest financing bank for the China-Europe Railway Express (Xi'an). To better meet the diversified financial needs of the train operators and upstream and downstream enterprises, on November 18 this year, the Export-Import Bank of China launched another new initiative - the "Comprehensive Financial Service Plan to Support the High-Quality Development of the China-Europe Railway Express", announcing the establishment of a special quota of RMB 30 billion for the China-Europe Railway Express, to further ensure the efficient operation of the China-Europe Railway Express.
“In the past, exports required a large amount of upfront capital. Now, through the financial services provided by the Export-Import Bank of China, we can quickly recover funds and rapidly expand our production scale,” said the head of a textile company in Tianjin.
In recent years, my country's foreign trade enterprises have generally faced difficulties and challenges due to increasing uncertainties and instabilities in the external environment. In response, the Export-Import Bank of China has further strengthened its resource guarantees, established multiple special quotas, increased the issuance of medium- and long-term loans, adopted differentiated guarantee measures, and actively addressed the financial needs of various foreign trade entities, thereby enhancing their confidence in business development. These measures range from providing comprehensive financial services such as cross-border financing and country-specific consulting to export-oriented enterprises, to precisely matching the financing needs of private enterprises across all stages of "R&D-production-export," and exploring a service model for micro and small foreign trade enterprises that involves joint participation from banks, government, and insurance companies and utilizes online and offline multi-scenario applications.
In addition, the Export-Import Bank of China actively supports the construction of free trade zones and overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, carries out special actions for small and micro foreign trade enterprises, provides financial services for exhibitions such as the China International Import Expo, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, and the China International Fair for Investment and Trade, revitalizes resources in the foreign trade sector, promotes effective supply and demand matching, and makes positive contributions to the continuous increase in the scale of foreign trade.
Improving service precision will drive further optimization of the foreign trade structure.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, my country's foreign trade underwent profound structural changes, with "quality improvement" and "higher quality" becoming prominent features. In goods trade, the export share of high-tech products reached 18.2%. Compared with 2020, exports of the "new three items"—electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products—increased by 2.6 times in 2024.
Supporting the export of advantageous products such as the "new three commodities" is a key business direction for the Export-Import Bank of China during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The bank prioritizes supporting technological innovation and transformation and upgrading in the manufacturing sector, continuously optimizing its foreign trade financial service system for manufacturing. It provides full-cycle financial support in areas such as technological breakthroughs, supply chain collaboration, and cross-border trade, resulting in rapid growth in related loan balances and helping to solidify the foundation of the foreign trade industry.
From competing on "quantity" and "price" to competing on "intelligence" and pursuing "innovation," new business forms and models represented by cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses are continuously releasing their growth potential in the process of strengthening my country's foreign trade. At the same time, they are also putting forward higher innovative demands for efficient and convenient financial services.
In response, the Export-Import Bank of China has conducted in-depth research into the characteristics of new business formats and models, utilizing a combination of credit, trade finance, and capital products to streamline the upstream and downstream supply chains and provide customized financial service solutions for relevant enterprises. With a focus on overseas warehouses, the bank is exploring ways to optimize its financial service models, providing comprehensive financial support to all participants involved in warehouse construction, management, utilization, and logistics.
At the same time, the Export-Import Bank of China continues to track and analyze new trends and characteristics in foreign trade development, increases resource allocation, supports the expansion of intermediate goods trade, service trade, and digital trade, and cultivates new drivers of foreign trade. It continues to advance special programs to support imports, enriching its services in areas such as information consulting, tax coordination, and exchange rate hedging, supporting the import of advanced technologies, important equipment, and specialty products, and promoting a balanced development of the trade structure.
Expanding the breadth of services has continuously enhanced the resilience of foreign trade.
In the ASEAN region, the Genting Tunnel open-cut hard rock excavation of the East Coast Rail Link project in Malaysia was completed, entering the final sprint stage before its opening; in African countries, the vocational training school in Côte d'Ivoire held its opening ceremony, once again demonstrating the vivid story of "teaching a man to fish"; in the heart of Central Asia, the Tashkent Olympic City project in Uzbekistan was fully completed, injecting new vitality into the region's sports industry... In 2025, the Export-Import Bank of China continued its efforts to promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, with a series of projects progressing steadily and achieving frequent successes.
Openness brings progress, and cooperation leads to win-win results. Data shows that my country's trade in goods with participating countries increased from US$2.7 trillion in 2021 to US$3.1 trillion in 2024, with its share of total trade rising from 45.3% to 50.7%. As a major financing bank supporting the Belt and Road Initiative, the Export-Import Bank of China continues to deepen economic and trade cooperation with participating countries, comprehensively considering and coordinating its efforts to help enterprises expand their networks and diversify their foreign trade. To date, the bank's outstanding loans related to the Belt and Road Initiative exceed RMB 2 trillion, with business covering more than 130 participating countries.
Over the past five years, the Export-Import Bank of China has successfully completed its financing window task of 350 billion yuan, facilitating the implementation of a number of major landmark projects and "small but beautiful" livelihood projects. These projects have driven Chinese products, technologies, and services to "go global," playing a positive role in facilitating the smooth flow of domestic and international dual circulation. For example, the China-Laos Railway project adopts Chinese technical standards and equipment throughout its entire length and is directly connected to the Chinese railway network. This has not only promoted the flow of goods between China and Southeast Asia but also enhanced the international influence of Chinese brands, encouraging more enterprises to go global and injecting continuous momentum into regional economic and trade exchanges.
(Data source: Export-Import Bank of China)
