Guangzhou's total import and export volume in the first quarter of 2021 reached 244.44 billion yuan ($37.75 billion), a year-on-year increase of 21.3 percent, officials said on April 22.

The city's export volume climbed 29.2 percent year-on-year to 142.06 billion yuan in the first three months, while its import volume grew by 11.7 percent to 102.38 billion yuan. 

The import and export volume between Guangzhou and countries and regions alongside the Belt and Road expanded by 25.5 percent year-on-year during the first quarter, while the volume between Guangzhou and member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership increased by 15.1 percent.

The actual use of foreign capital in Guangzhou went up by 34 percent to 13.21 billion yuan. 

The city's achievements in foreign trade owe much to its stable industrial chain and supply chain. 

Shuki Gleitman, the former director general and chairman of the Guangzhou Sino-Israel Biotech Investment Fund, spoke highly of Guangzhou's biomedicine industry.

Gleitman said that Guangzhou has a complete industrial chain and innovation system with huge market potential. Guangzhou is now capable of establishing a new system to boost development through the integration of its own resources and innovative technologies from overseas.

Major indexes of Guangzhou's China-Europe freight trains, such as its shipment and cargo value, have grown by more than 20 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. The city had dispatched 16 China-Europe freight trains for export by the end of February, transporting 1,598 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a respective increase of three times and 3.7 times year-on-year.

The Nansha Port of Guangzhou Port opened six new international liner ship routes in March, increasing the total international liner ship lines operated by Guangzhou Port Group to 130.