Tibet pushing foreign trade, improving logistics

The Tibet autonomous region stepped up its policy support for foreign trade, as its total exports and imports grew steadily over the past year.

The region's foreign trade grew by 14.6 percent year-on-year to 4.6 billion yuan ($678.9 million) in 2022, customs data showed. The growth rate was 6.9 percentage points higher than the country's average growth rate for 2022.

According to Lhasa Customs, Tibet's exports reached 4.3 billion yuan, while imports stood at 292 million yuan last year. In the first two months of the year, foreign trade hit 480 million yuan.

"Over the past year, the regional government has been actively implementing relevant policies and measures for foreign trade at the direction of the central government. More than 140 enterprises involved in foreign trade in the region were surveyed to learn what difficulties and challenges they face, and special funds for foreign trade development have been allocated to ensure the stable operation of foreign trade in the region," Dedron, an official in the region's foreign trade office, was quoted by Tibet Daily as saying.

Tibet has been working on the construction of a border logistics platform and channel in recent years. The establishment of the Gyirong Border Economic Cooperation Zone and the Lhasa Comprehensive Cross-Border E-commerce Pilot Zone has been approved by the State this year, she added.

The Ministry of Commerce allocated 20 million yuan of special funds to support the construction of the Gyirong Border Economic Cooperation Zone in 2022.

The Lhasa Comprehensive Cross-Border E-commerce Pilot Zone has qualified for operation, and it has finished its first shipment — 40 tons of wool and 20 tons of cashmere to Nepal.

Over the past year, Nepal was one of the region's major trading partners. The export freight volume of region's ports of Zhangmu and Gyirong to Nepal hit 97,000 tons, an increase of 5 percent year-on-year. The export trade volume of the whole country hit 2.8 billion yuan.

"Meanwhile, Tibet has been acting actively in the building of a new land-sea trade channel over the past few years," Dedron said. "The region has been actively docking with provinces and municipalities, including Shaanxi, Qinghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing to promote the building of an open channel with South-Asian countries in 2022."

Meanwhile, the region has been talking with Nepal's Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply in the areas of port construction, clearance, investment and trade facilitation, as well as broadening economic and trade cooperation.

"Next, we hope to lead more foreign enterprises in the region to explore international markets and to promote the export of more plateau products, including bottled water, barley products, yak meat and fungus," she said.