China News Service, Shenzhen, October 31 (Reporter Cai Minjie) In November this year, the 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Informal Meeting will be held in Shenzhen. For Guangdong, this high-level international conference is not only an important platform for dialogue and cooperation among Asia-Pacific economies, but also an important window for observing the iterative upgrades of Guangdong goods going overseas.
High-end manufacturing, green products and independent brands are becoming the new business cards of Guangdong's foreign trade exports, and the logic of companies going overseas has also shifted from simply "selling goods" to technology sharing, mutual recognition of standards, and co-construction of a localized ecosystem.
Other APEC economies are an important direction for Guangdong’s goods to go overseas. According to statistics, in the first three quarters of this year, Guangdong exported 3.33 trillion yuan to other APEC economies. Among them, the export of mechanical and electrical products was 2.33 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.6%. Exports of high-end manufacturing products such as integrated circuits and industrial robots grew rapidly, accounting for 61.6% and 26.6% respectively.
Among them, private enterprises have become the backbone of economic and trade cooperation between Guangdong and other APEC economies. Data show that in the first three quarters of this year, a total of 142,000 private enterprises in Guangdong had import and export performance to other APEC economies, with a total import and export of 3.78 trillion yuan to other APEC economies, an increase of 36.1%.
Shadowstone Innovation is a well-known private technology enterprise in Guangdong. Its panoramic camera and gimbal camera business has covered more than 200 countries and regions around the world. “During the Asia-Pacific Media High-end Forum, foreign media reporters experienced the product and then purchased it directly, taking this Shenzhen smart product back to their hometown as a ‘Shenzhen souvenir’.” Yuan Yue, head of Shadowstone Innovation China, said that good products are a universal international language. APEC has built a display window for China's intelligent manufacturing in the Asia-Pacific region, and companies have carried out local adaptation of language and usage habits for markets such as South Korea to make products more relevant to local users.
Guangzhou Intelligent Manufacturing, represented by new energy vehicles, has sown the seeds of win-win cooperation in APEC member economies. The private enterprise Xiaopeng Group has accelerated its localized production layout in multiple places, and its Indonesian factory has been put into production. "We not only share technology with our partners, but also grow together with our partners." said He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Group. Currently, Xpeng is opening its vehicle platform, intelligent assisted driving, chips, batteries, electric drives and tool chains to global partners to support partners in mastering technology and carrying out independent innovation.
In the Southeast Asian market, the international version of AI office software WPS365 has launched a localized ecosystem in Malaysia. WPS365 International Edition recently held an AI office salon and partner signing in Kuala Lumpur, uniting with a number of local companies to build a service network. A digital accounting firm in Malaysia has become the first batch of users. Nearly 300 accountants have activated the product. AI automatically sorts out meeting minutes and identifies to-do items, helping the team save at least 30% of time and costs.
Xu Liu, vice president of Kingsoft Office, said that Malaysia is located at the hub of the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets, and its multi-lingual and multi-cultural business environment makes it an important base for companies to expand into the Southeast Asian market.
What overseas buyers are no longer concerned about is just "how much it costs", but whether the product can pass local certification, whether it can be adapted to application scenarios, and whether it can provide after-sales operation and maintenance and localized support.
In the high-end medical field, after more than 20 years of development, the private enterprise Guangdong Kaili Medical's overall product sales have covered APEC member economies. The company's business has expanded from early ultrasound equipment to four major segments: ultrasound imaging, endoscopic diagnosis and treatment, minimally invasive surgery, and cardiovascular intervention.
"The facilitation of the flow of business personnel promoted by APEC, as well as the related mechanisms of customs clearance facilitation, regulatory exchanges, and mutual recognition of conformity assessment, will help reduce the cross-border logistics and compliance registration costs of medical devices among different members." Li Hao, deputy general manager of Kaili Medical, said that Kaili Medical will continue to combine local clinical needs and access conditions to help China-made ultrasound, endoscopic, surgical and other products to be launched on a wider scale.
Consumer brands are also going global at the same time, becoming a carrier for Guangdong goods to enter the daily lives of people in the Asia-Pacific. HEYTEA's overseas store layout covers many APEC member economies such as South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, and the United States. Relying on overseas multi-regional warehousing centers and global supply chains, new mainland products can be launched simultaneously in multiple markets within two months.
American buyer Raghu Chilukuri believes that this year's APEC meeting is expected to continue to shorten cross-border trade processes and relax import and export-related restrictions.
Wang Lizong, President of the Guangdong High-tech Industry Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that Guangdong’s private enterprises going overseas are transforming from the early product export stage of “waiting for orders” to a deeper ecological co-construction. “Going overseas cannot stop at ‘going out’, but must also achieve ‘going in’, so that Chinese products can form a deeply bound symbiotic relationship with overseas markets.”
