People visit the 7th China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region. [Photo/Ningxia Daily]
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), the outward-oriented economy of Ningxia Hui autonomous region has continued to grow.
Ningxia has seized the major opportunity of the Belt and Road construction, continued to build a platform for opening-up and cooperation, further optimized the environment for opening-up, and built new channels for opening-up.
The region has seen an uptick in foreign trade. From 2021 to 2024, the total import and export volume of the region reached 88.3 billion yuan ($12.44 billion), with an average annual growth rate of 19.8 percent, which is 11.8 percentage points higher than the national average.
Among them, the total import and export volume to countries and regions along the Belt and Road was 28.4 billion yuan, accounting for 32.6 percent of the total import and export volume in 2024, up from 31.7 percent in 2020.
Ningxia has continued to strengthen connections with the outside world. It has opened international freight channels from west to Central Asia and north to Russia, as well as southbound land sea new channel trains and eastbound sea-rail intermodal trains.
The region's open platforms have also yielded fruitful results. It held the China-Arab States Expo with high quality and held the China (Ningxia) International Wine Culture and Tourism Expo for four consecutive years, fostering its outward-oriented economy to achieve greater results.