Exploring fresh outbound opportunities

Chinese companies should better diversify their target markets and shift more focus to developing countries as the pandemic ravages many of the country's traditional key trading partners, said Yan Yilong, an associate professor with Tsinghua University.

As a transcontinental program that improves connectivity and increases trade, the Belt and Road Initiative will play a pivotal role in helping Chinese companies explore new overseas opportunities, Yan added.

During the first half of 2020, China's trade with countries along the Belt and Road saw a slight decline of 0.9 percent year on year to 4.2 trillion yuan, 2.3 percentage points lower than the country's overall decrease in foreign trade.

For years, China has been encouraging enterprises to expand their operations globally to better leverage external markets and resources. The trend will be accelerated over the coming years, as more companies realize the importance of a globalized approach.

Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chairman and CEO, said the new development pattern has important bearings on the country's economic security.

The normal operation of Lenovo's plants in Brazil and other countries bolstered the company's output when the epidemic erupted in China, while the subsequent recovery of domestic demand also helped strengthen its global supply chain, Yang said.

Despite the impact of COVID-19, China has reiterated that it will continue to broaden market access and open up its service sector, vowing supportive measures to shore up foreign investment and trade.

"China's opening-up and sharing growth opportunities with other countries will also benefit its own development in turn," Yan said.

In its latest efforts to open the economy, China unveiled a new negative list for foreign investment in late June, cutting the number of sectors that are off-limits for foreign investors to 33 from 40 in 2019.

China's opening-up measures amid the pandemic have helped stabilize the international industrial and supply chains and promote a virtuous cycle of the global economy, said Hu Xiaolian, chairman of the Export-Import Bank of China.