Staff members of Hechi Customs inspect local companies' products. [Photo/hechi.gov.cn]

The total import and export volume of Hechi's foreign trade reached 4.5 billion yuan ($694.15 million) in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 51 percent, officials announced on Jan 26.

Hechi has successfully achieved growth in foreign trade, despite the impact caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, and the city's overall volume ranked 10th in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and its growth rate ranked top in the region.

Efforts have been made by Hechi's commercial departments to keep the fundamentals of foreign trade stable by taking initiatives such as strengthening the monitoring and analysis of foreign trade data from major export-oriented industries and from major import and export companies.

Preferential policies for foreign trade have also been launched such as offering export tax rebates, releasing foreign trade credit, providing export credit insurance and supporting the domestic sale of export products to help local companies.

In addition, Hechi's actual use of foreign investment in 2020 has also made a historical breakthrough, as the city met its annual target in the first 10 months.