Shenzhen's imports and exports with countries under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) amounted to 340.81 billion yuan (US$47.08 billion) between January and May, up 14.3% year on year.
The growth rate was 1.3 percentage points higher than the national average, with Shenzhen ranking third among Chinese cities, data from Shenzhen Customs showed.
Shenzhen's mechanical and electrical products, in particular, were highly sought after by BRI countries. Shenzhen exported 162.19 billion yuan worth of mechanical and electrical products in the first five months, up 25.1% year on year and accounting for 75.3% of the total exports to BRI countries in the same period. Exports of lithium batteries, electric vehicles and solar cells experienced rapid growth, with growth rates exceeding 50%, data showed.
"Our products assembled in the morning could be shipped directly to Malaysia via Hong Kong in the afternoon," Wu Shujun, customs affairs manager of Shenzhen KTC Technology Co. Ltd, said at an interview recently.
At Shenzhen MTC Co. Ltd., workers were recently seen working overtime to deliver LED ceiling lights to Vietnam. Shao Kuixian, general manager of the company, said their self-developed LED light-emitting chips helped reduce production costs by 10%, and the lights' remote control and mobile app functionalities, enabling brightness, color, and power adjustments, added value to the products.
In the first five months, Shenzhen Customs issued over 100,000 certificates of origin, resulting in tariff reductions and exemptions for exported goods to BRI countries worth 30 billion yuan.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-proposed BRI.