Tough conditions slash Guangxi exports by half
Guangxi's exports have dropped by half in the first eight months of this year compared with the same period last year amid an increasingly difficult environment for foreign trade.
Yang Hailin, deputy secretary-general of the provincial government, said exports had dropped from US$1.4 billion to $700 million.
Exports in the first six months of the year recorded an even sharper decline of 60 per cent over last year, but the decline has bottomed out in the second half.
The province still saw a trade surplus of more than $300 million, he said.
Mr Yang said a credit crunch by the banking sector, a strong yuan, lack of competitiveness of Guangxi's products, as well as changes in statistical methods accounted for the decline.
Guangxi products were mainly simple manufactured goods and had lost their edge when competing with products from other Asian countries that had devalued their currencies, he said.
'What we have, other people have too, and we can do nothing but squeeze prices.
'It is important to change the structure of our industries,' Mr Yang said.
delegation is touring large Hong Kong companies this year, eager to attract foreign capital to salvage the province's industry.
TRADE
