On the morning of November 4, 2022, the press conference of "China Import Development Report 2022" and "China Import Development Expert Seminar" was successfully held in Beijing Normal University. The press conference was jointly held by BNUBS and Changjiang Institute of Industrial Economics of Nanjing University.

 

The China Import Development Report is the first comprehensive report on import trade issued by the whole country. It serves the major national strategy of actively expanding imports and the important event of the China International Import Expo. The editor of the China Import Development Report is Wei Hao, a professor at BNUBS and director of the National Import Research Center. Since the China International Import Expo was held in 2018, the report has been released for five consecutive years (2018-2022).

　

　　The Report on China's Import Development 2022 consists of four parts, namely, a special section, a progress section, an index section and a ranking section. It makes a systematic statistical analysis of China's import development with a large amount of micro data. According to the new characteristics of China's import development, the experience of national import trade promotion innovation demonstration zone construction, China's import from neighboring countries and other 11 aspects are summarized. China has developed the country's first import development index, including "China Import Development Index" and "World import Development Index".

 

　　

　　Conference and expert seminar 

 

At the press conference, first of all, Liu Zhibiao, Professor of Nanjing University, Changjiang Scholars Distinguished Professor, Changjiang Industrial Economics Research Institute President and Professor Sun Zhijun, Party Secretary of BNUBS respectively delivered speeches. Secondly, Professor Wei Hao, chief editor of China Import Development Report 2022, released the report. And then, Prof. Yao Zhizhong, Party Secretary of Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Prof. Li Gang, Vice President, China Association of International Trade; Prof. Sang Baichuan, Dean of Institute of International Economics, University of International Business and Economics; Prof. Zhang Xiaotao, Dean of School of International Economics and Trade, Central University of Finance and Economics; Prof. Ma Yeqing, Associate Dean of School of Economics, Nanjing University; Prof. Ma Hong, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University. The professors delivered keynote speeches respectively. Finally, Chen Liu, vice president of Changjiang Industrial Economic Research Institute, made a summary. Xu Ning, Vice President of Changjiang Institute of Industrial Economics and Professor Sun Zhijun, Secretary of the Party Committee of BNUBS chaired the meeting.

　　

　　

　　Liu Zhibiao, Professor of Nanjing University, Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars and President of Changjiang Industrial Economic Research Institute 

 

In his speech, Liu Zhibiao, professor of Nanjing University, Distinguished Professor of Cheung Kong Scholars and President of Cheung Kong Institute of Industrial Economics, first highly affirmed the research value of China Import Development Report and pointed out that import plays an important pivotal role in China's "double cycle" development process. In the past, China's economic development model was two markets, two resources, big import and big export. Under this model, China's foreign trade mainly reflects two characteristics: one is "import for export's sake", the other is the import content in export, that is, the vertical specialization level is high. However, under the new development pattern of "double cycle", China's import trade will show new changes. Part of the industrial chain will realize the substitution of imports by domestic production. Meanwhile, it will continue to expand the import of intermediate goods. Under the influence of these new changes, the study of import development will have new significance and value of The Times.

　　

　　

　　Professor Sun Zhijun, Party Secretary of BNUBS made a speech

 

Professor Sun Zhijun, Party secretary of BNUBS, pointed out in his speech that actively expanding imports should be the country unswervingly promote a higher level of opening-up strategy. In recent years, unilateralism and protectionism have been on the rise, and economic globalization has also encountered adverse trends. However, China is determined to open wider to the outside world at a higher level, share development opportunities with the world, and uphold and lead economic globalization. The Report of the Party's 20th National Congress also stressed that China adheres to the basic state policy of opening up, unswervingly opens up to the outside world, constantly provides new opportunities for the world with China's new development and promotes the building of an open world economy. In order to better focus on expanding imports and tell China's story, I have presided over the compilation and release of the China Import Development Report since 2018, which is now the fifth report. The Report has achieved certain academic and social influence. It is one of the key projects supported by the School and also an important part of the development plan of the School.

　　

　　

　　Professor Wei Hao, BNUBS

　　

When releasing the 2022 China Import Development Report, Professor Wei Hao, professor of BNUBS and director of the National Import Research Center, pointed out that actively expanding imports is a major change in China's foreign trade policy, a landmark event in China's new round of reform and opening up, and has become a major national development strategy. It is also the main act of the new round of high-level opening to the outside world. At present, there are still major problems in China's import, such as a low proportion of consumer goods, a high concentration of imported products, a low degree of import dependence, a high level of import tariffs and a need to further improve the quality of imports. In the future, in order to do a better job of actively expanding imports, governments at all levels should correctly understand and publicize the significance of actively expanding imports, "tell a good story about China's imports" through various means and channels, attach great importance to the strategic role of the China International Import Expo, actively expand the scale of imports of consumer goods, and attach great importance to import safety issues. The National Leading Group for Import Safety has been set up to integrate the strategy of actively expanding imports with other major national strategies, promote high-quality import development, and accelerate the establishment of a new development pattern.

 

　　

　　

　　Yao Zhizhong, Party Secretary of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences　　

 

Yao Zhizhong, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out in his keynote speech that three relations should be properly handled in terms of imports. First, the relationship between imports and economic security. The economic security problems caused by imports are, on the one hand, the security problems caused by conventional imports due to improper import management and import policies, and on the other hand, the security problems caused by unconventional imports due to natural disasters and changes in international relations. We need to focus on and identify systemic security issues and build a diversified and stable international economic relationship. Second, the relationship between imports and high-quality development. Import can enhance our international influence through competition effect, productivity effect and spillover effect, which will promote our industrial development, production efficiency improvement and residents' welfare improvement. Third, the relationship between import and trade power building. In order to speed up the building of trade power, we should pay more attention to the role of import. First of all, it is necessary to increase our import share in the whole world and other countries; Secondly, we should diversify import sources and actively expand new import source markets. Finally, we should adjust the structure of import trade and gradually replace low value-added products with imported high value-added products.

 

　　

　　

Li Gang, Vice President of China Association of International Trade

 

Li Gang, Vice President of China Association of International Trade, pointed out in his keynote speech that there are still major deficiencies in the current research on import trade, which are mainly reflected in the inconsistency between theoretical research and policy practice. The current mainstream international trade theories mainly focus on export trade, less from import, and less consider the two-way interaction between import and export. However, the policy practices of import trade are too numerous to enumerate. In the new era, actively expanding imports is of positive significance to build a new development pattern of double cycles, implement the strategy of expanding domestic demand, promote high-level opening up and accelerate the building of a trade powerhouse. China can further expand imports by further promoting trade liberalization and facilitation, steadily expanding institutional opening-up, deepening institutional reform, opening up trade in services, and implementing a high-standard strategy for upgrading free trade areas. In order to further actively expand imports, we can continue to reduce import tariffs and give full play to the positive role of such platforms as the CIIE and the Canton Fair in diversifying import markets.

　　

　　

　Professor Sang Baichuan, Dean of School of International Economics, University of International Business and Economics　　

 

Professor Sang Baichuan, Dean of the School of International Economics at the University of International Business and Economics, pointed out in his keynote speech that we should change the concept of import. On the one hand, we need to affirm the positive role of import, on the other hand, we need to think about the reasons and measures for expanding import. There has never been complete free trade in the world, and tariff collection has always been a problem. In terms of the world economy, when the world economy is booming, the theory of free trade will prevail, and when the world economy is in recession, the theory and policy of trade protection will become the mainstream. However, in the long run, trade protection is not conducive to economic development. It is rare for China to raise import expansion to the level of national strategy. Therefore, we need to think about the reasons why trade protection theory does not advocate import expansion. Trade protection can boost domestic industry, but the free flow of international resources can do more. When a country is still idle for labor, land and other resources, protective tariff can be used as a means to promote the full use of resources in the country, because protective tariff will increase the cost of using factors, which will encourage domestic enterprises to fully improve the efficiency and level of resource utilization, and thus help improve the overall scale of production and social welfare level of the country. How to strike a balance between trade protection and trade liberalization is very important.

　　

　　

　　Professor Zhang Xiaotao, Dean of School of International Economics and Trade, Central University of Finance and Economics　　

 

Professor Zhang Xiaotao, Dean of the School of International Economics and Trade at the Central University of Finance and Economics, pointed out in his keynote speech that under the background of profound and complex changes in the internal conditions and external environment of China's development, China should unswervingly implement a high level of opening-up and pay more attention to rule-based opening-up while continuing to promote the opening-up based on the flow of goods and factors of production. We will deepen reform comprehensively by opening up to a high standard. The new type of globalization led by the Belt and Road Initiative is not about building an exclusive circle of trade protection, but about achieving genuine mutual benefit and common development of the world. The new development pattern means that on the basis of high-quality "big domestic cycle as the main body", we should promote high-level opening up, accelerate the building of a big unified national market, and cultivate China's new advantages in international cooperation and competition, so as to actively participate in and lead the international cycle, and realize the positive interaction and mutual promotion between China and the world economy.

　　

　　

　　Professor Ma Yeqing, Associate Dean of School of Economics, Nanjing University

　　

Professor Ma Yeqing, Associate Dean of School of Economics, Nanjing University, pointed out in the keynote speech that the development of cross-border e-commerce business will significantly promote the improvement of enterprise innovation level by providing enterprises with a larger market scale and reducing the cost of information search. This improvement is not only reflected in the "quantity" of enterprise innovation, but also in the "quality" of enterprise innovation. In the face of the "great changes not seen in a century", the Chinese government should encourage enterprises to carry out cross-border e-commerce business. Policy support should be provided for enterprises to obtain trade flows at home and abroad, expand the number of corporate customers, and improve the depth of global trade participation. We should speed up the operation and improvement of cross-border e-commerce platforms, promote the digital reform of cross-border logistics, and promote the development of digital trade.

　　

　　

　　Professor Ma Hong, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University 　　

 

Professor Ma Hong of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University pointed out in the keynote speech of experts that China's imports are mainly driven by capital goods and intermediate goods, that is to say, China's imports are driven by production and exports, so we cannot talk about imports in isolation from China's exports. The composition of China's imports and exports reflects its position on the value chain. In recent years, China's imports continue to develop upstream, reflecting the trend of supply chain localization and value chain climbing. China's high-quality opening-up means a shift from a vertical to a horizontal division of labor, that is, a shift from a cost-driven opening-up to a scale-driven opening-up. We should pay more attention to the import of manufactured goods and consumer goods and give full play to the welfare effect of expanding imports. 　

 

　　

　　Chen Liu, Vice President of Changjiang Industrial Economic Research Institute　　

　

In the conclusion of the meeting, Chen Liu, Vice President of Changjiang Institute of Industrial Economics, first highly affirmed the continuous and in-depth research of Professor Wei Hao and his team on the import issue, and achieved remarkable results. Secondly, it points out that the import problem is not only the import itself, but also the trade problem, the opening problem, the industry problem, the security problem, the development model problem, import is an important research perspective and paradigm, we should pay more attention to the import problem and the research intensity. On the occasion of the 20th successful Conference and the fifth anniversary of the CIIE, the research team is expected to achieve more high-quality research results on imports in the future.

 

Edited by Wei Hao

Reviewed by Cai Hongbo