Haimen, a district of Nantong in Jiangsu province, has strengthened efforts this year to foster new growth drivers for the development of foreign trade.

The district's imports and exports hit a record high to reach 19.55 billion yuan ($3.03 billion) from January to July in 2021, up 79.8 percent year-on-year. Exports soared 85.3 percent to 16.73 billion yuan, while imports jumped 53 percent to 2.82 billion yuan in the first seven months of the year.

With a focus on fostering big enterprises and new business formats for foreign trade, the district government has rolled out supportive policies to encourage production-oriented foreign trade enterprises to accelerate innovation, develop new products, as well as enhance competitiveness in the global market.

The companies are also urged to take part in international exhibitions and fairs, as well as promote the integrated development of market procurement trade and cross-border e-commerce to help Haimen's high-quality products go global.

China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co, one of Haimen's major import-export companies, has highlighted technological innovation, attracted high-end talent, increased investment in R&D, and developed new products. In addition, it has deepened cooperation with international classification societies and ship owners to expand their overseas markets. This year, its exports rose 135.9 percent to 1.39 billion yuan in the first seven months of the year, offering key support to Haimen's export growth. 

The district will continue to drive efforts for stable foreign trade growth. These include supporting foreign trade companies to establish overseas warehouses to build an exhibition, storage, logistics, and distribution service system, constructing international logistics parks to enhance warehousing logistics efficiency, as well as boosting the integration of market procurement trade and cross-border e-commerce to promote Haimen's cross-border e-commerce industry.