Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

 
Northwest China's Shaanxi Province is emerging as a trade growth driver to watch. In the first 10 months of the year, total imports and exports reached 420.95 billion yuan ($59.16 billion), up 12.2 percent year-on-year, according to a report by Shaanxi Daily. Trade by foreign-invested enterprises grew even faster, surging 19.5 percent to 242.67 billion yuan, highlighting a subtle but meaningful adjustment of global supply chains toward China's interior. 

Behind these figures lies a story with four distinct dimensions. The first dimension involves the reasons for Shaanxi's rapid trade growth. A closer look at the data shows that exports have risen particularly in integrated circuits, automobiles, and automatic data processing equipment and components - many of which are high-tech products or segments of emerging industries. This pattern suggests that the province's trade performance is increasingly linked to technology-intensive sectors rather than traditional low-cost manufacturing.

Underlying this export growth is a concrete story of industrial development. According to a Shaanxi Daily report in January, the province's semiconductor and integrated-circuit sector has surpassed 100 billion yuan in output and encompasses more than 300 companies, research institutes, and supporting organizations. Shaanxi has built a full industrial ecosystem covering chip design, wafer fabrication, packaging and testing, equipment, and materials. In this way, the province's industrial capacity is feeding directly into its export momentum.

The second dimension considers whether Shaanxi's export growth is an isolated phenomenon. The evidence suggests it is not. According to CCTV News on November 17, goods trade in China's central and western regions outpaced the national average in the first 10 months of the year. The six central provinces' total trade rose 9.52 percent year-on-year, with high-tech products accounting for nearly one-third of total exports. The 12 western provinces and regions saw an 8.9 percent rise, and trade by foreign-invested enterprises expanded by more than 10 percent. Together, these figures point to a broader inland trend in which industrial capacity and technology-intensive exports are driving regional trade growth.

Inland trade growth reflects a shift in industrial development, with high-tech and emerging sectors increasingly driving economic expansion in the central and western provinces. Rather than simply relocating low-end capacity, these regions are upgrading their industrial bases and integrating more deeply into global supply chains.

The rise of foreign trade in these areas also enhances the nation's overall trade resilience. As global trade patterns shift and external uncertainties increase, diversified export hubs help stabilize China's trade network, allowing technology-intensive exports to support both regional economies and broader engagement in global markets.

The third dimension of this story lies in the underlying factors behind China's trade resilience. It is driven not only by ongoing industrial adjustments but also by fresh dynamics, new vitality, and emerging opportunities - trends that global traders and investors can increasingly tap into.

Rising demand in the central and western provinces plays an important role in this development. In the first 10 months of the year, Shaanxi's imports reached 129.33 billion yuan, up 5.7 percent year-on-year. As these regions steadily improve their economic openness and business environments, they are becoming increasingly attractive to foreign investment. The participation of foreign enterprises helps explain why trade by foreign-invested firms continues to grow, reinforcing local development while creating benefits for global investors.

The fourth dimension lies in the steadily increasing openness of China's central and western regions. These provinces are actively participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, developing transportation and logistics networks that connect Europe, ASEAN, and other parts of the world, while continuously improving the business environment and expanding high-level economic openness.

This growing openness is helping to support regional economic development while sharing the resulting opportunities with the world. By creating a more accessible and attractive environment for international trade and investment, central and western provinces are reflecting their increasing integration into global commerce.

Shaanxi's trade growth is just one part of this broader story. Its significance lies in the window it offers into the ongoing economic transformation of China's interior and the global implications of that shift. For international traders and investors, these developments point to new opportunities and potential collaborations, offering insight into the trends and dynamics emerging in inland China's economy.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn