The global financial crisis has brought a lot of stress for the Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Chinese central government wants to take some measures to get the SMEs out of trouble. There is still room for the development of the export of China.

The spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics, Li Xiaochao, said on October 20 that the contribution ratio of the import and export of goods and services to the economic growth in the first three quarters was 13.5%. This result comes from a primary estimation. The contribution ratio decreased by 8.9% compared with the same period of last year. The import and export of goods and services promoted stimulated the economic growth by 1.2%, down by 1.2% from last year.

Li Jian, a researcher of the Department of the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC, said: “Years ago the export of China kept a fast growth, which greatly promotedstimulated the growth of the GDP of China reasonably. Though in the first three quarters of this year the promotion decreased, it still existed. So we can not deny the effect of export on the Chinese economy.”

Actually, according to the statistics of the customs of China, in the first nine months of this year the export of China was 1074 billion US dollars, which means an increase of 22.3% compared to last year. It still maintains a fast growth rate.

In Li Jian’s opinion, years ago China always had a large surplus in its foreign trade. So reducing the trade surplus is an important content of the macro-economic adjustment. Now is a good chance to reduce the dependence of the economy on the foreign demand. When the contribution ratio of the export to the economy decreases, the ratio of consumption and investment increases.

However, such a change may bring some negative effects to the export-oriented SMEs in China.

According to Li Xiaochao, those numerous SMEs solve the problems concerning employment, taxation and so on, bringing positive influence on the stable and fast development of the national economy of China. The Chinese central government pays great attention to the current difficulties of the SMEs and it has taken some measures to give support to the SMEs. Li also hopes that the SMEs can deal with their difficulties correctly and actively.

Some experts pointed out that now it is a good time for the SMEs to adjust their structures. On the one hand it can open the Chinese domestic market; on the other hand it can shift to some emerging markets in Europe and America.

According to the statistics from The China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, the first three days of the Chinese Export Commodity Fair held in the middle of October, the turnover was 6.098 billion US dollars. Though the growth rate of the turnover decreased obviously, there were still highlights. The turnover with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Brazil and South Africa increased reasonably, with 38.4%, 96.3% and 29.2% respectively.

In the eyes of the experts, the economic data in the fourth quarter of this year and the beginning of next year are very important. If the export still keeps a mild increase, it is certain that the Chinese export is not too much affected by the global financial conditions. On the other hand, it will bring related effects upon the other areas of Asia.

The international professional rating institution Moody’s released a report on October 20, saying that China will reduce its import demand if the number of its export order forms keeps decreasing. This is because many imported products are used for export after being processed. For example, the export of the resource products from Australia to China may be influenced a lot. Meanwhile, Japan, Korea and some countries from ASEAN may be confronted with great stress.

According to Li Jian, the Chinese central government may make an upward adjustment to the export rebate rate. This can reduce the loss of the enterprises and maintain a certain growth rate of the enterprises’ export. However, this can not relieve the influence of the weakening of the global economy completely. The key is still the foreign demand.

In Li Xiaochao’s opinion, there is still space for the expansion of the export structure. The Chinese Export Commodity Fair showed that there was great potential in some emerging developing countries or regions, such as Africa. The development of the economy of the resource-based is still very fast. Meanwhile, in those countries there is enough space for the adjustment of the policies, such as the policies of finance, monetary, structure and industry.