China's exports have shown strong resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the country has significantly sharpened its competitiveness over the past few years. Total exports in renminbi terms increased 4.0 and 21.2 percent respectively in 2020 and 2021, driving up GDP by 0.7 and 1.7 percentage points, while in the first 11 months of 2022, China's total exports reached a high of 21.8 trillion renminbi ($3 trillion) — a year-on-year increase of 11.9 percent.

As a result, net exports are expected to contribute up to 1 percentage point to GDP growth this year.

However, Chinese exports also face multiple challenges. First, because of the US Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes, the global economy could contract significantly, which might cause some developed countries and emerging economies to slip into recession or encounter an economic downturn that could curb China's exports.

Second, with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic weakening globally, China has to adjust its exports structure. In the early period of the pandemic China had advantages in checking the spread of the virus and managed to keep a strong export. But now it should be focused on exploiting relative advantages.

Third, the rapid rise of the US dollar also means unstable outlook for emerging economies, which again will destabilize exports. This unfavorable external situation cannot be improved by enterprises alone. For that, the visible hand of the government needs to play a more important role.

Recently, provincial officials in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and other provinces heavily dependent on foreign trade have taken chartered flights abroad to "grab orders". That the local governments have taken the initiative to promote high-quality opening-up and the people in southern China have a strong sense of national development has come in for special praise.

Worse, the United States-led West, which has gained advantages in many vital fields, is making efforts to decouple their economies with China's, opposing economic globalization, and resorting to trade protectionism, greatly squeezing China's external development space. On the one hand, China has been clearing the hurdles obstructing its endogenous development.

So everyone is looking forward to seeing what role the government can play in stabilizing exports and attracting more and more orders from abroad.

However, the economic situation is grim. So the government and enterprises should work together to overcome the developmental difficulties and promote development, while local governments ought to make efforts to attract more and more investment.

In the past, the government used to set up the stage, and provide various convenient services for enterprises. Why do many local enterprises expect the government to lead the initiative to attract investment this time?

In fact, the government stepped forward to dispel the enterprises' doubts. Given the gloomy outlook for the global economy, it is easier for people working as a team to "grab orders" than individuals working alone. And the government should take advantage of the country's industry chains to build teams that can attract foreign investments by highlighting the comparative advantages of China's foreign trade and Chinese products' competitive advantages.

Also, the government should not replace enterprises in marketing. Instead, it should focus on building cordial and clean relations with businesses and solving problems for private enterprises, because a healthy job market and sustained development of market entities are important to local and national stability.

The government should also focus on implementing policies that will help market entities to meet their needs, minimizing non-market social risks for enterprises and reducing their transaction costs, in order to stabilize exports, promote consumption and expand domestic demand.

But the two main factors acting as hurdles for the government are bureaucratism and formalism, and the best way to clear these hurdles is to promote innovation and widen opening-up, and implement the people-centered development concept. The optimization of China's anti-pandemic measures and strengthening of the government's ability to balance pandemic prevention and control and socioeconomic development are conducive to overall economic recovery.

However, China faces the triple pressure of demand contraction, supply shocks and weakening expectations. So governments at all levels should take more proactive measures to make a good start for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country.

The author is deputy director of and a professor at the Department of Economics, Party School of the CPC Central Committee. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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