Photo: Courtesy of China Eastern Airlines

Across China, from East China's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces to South-west China's Sichuan and South China's Guangdong provinces, government-backed charter flights organized for private business groups - with the aim of snapping up more export orders - have been making headlines since late November, in a vivid display of the country's top-down fighting spirit and great enthusiasm, as the world's manufacturing base starts running in full throttle. 

The trips have been described as "races against time" as they mark the first time in three years of coronavirus flare-ups that Chinese businessmen have been able to communicate face-to-face with foreign clients, a chance they have been longing for that will not only shore up subdued demand, but also build new ties with potential clients.

At a time when China's trade is confronted with mounting headwinds, the organized trips also inject a much-needed boost into public confidence, showcasing the government's all-out efforts to stabilize the economy and the country's firm recovery trajectory, which is set to make up for any epidemic-inflicted economic loss, observers said.   

To date, some 20 business groups, organized by the commerce departments of Guangdong, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, have set off for overseas destination since late November and early December, flying to Eu-rope and neighboring markets such as Southeast Asia, Japan and South Ko-rea. They are the first such trips since the COVID-19 epidemic in terms of the magnitude of the companies involved. 

On Friday morning, a group of around 190 businesspeople departed from Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, via a charter flight to Europe, where the Chinese industry insiders are expected to meet with their counterparts at top Europe-an companies such as Siemens, Knorr-Bremse and Fives Group, according to a statement that the China Eastern Airlines, the flight operator, sent to the Global Times on Friday.

The business group will also be attending and holding promotional meetings in several major cities in Europe in a bid to expand business.

One businessperson from a Suzhou-based company was very excited by the trip, as it was the first time he had been able to make one since the epidemic began.

"I haven't visited European customers for three years, while many of my cus-tomers' needs require face-to-face talks for further negotiation. After learn-ing about this charter flight, I immediately signed up for it...it is really a timely piece of help for our company!" the person said.

The use of charter flights for domestic businesspeople has already yielded significant results for its early starters. The latest example is the first charter flight organized by the Suzhou commerce bureau to Japan from November 17 to 23, the first of its kind since the onset of the epidemic. The trip was a success, with companies obtaining new orders worth over 1 billion yuan ($144 millions), according to a report by the Suzhou government.

Earlier this week, another business group, made up of 40 people from 31 domestic foreign trade companies and organized by the commerce depart-ment of Sichuan Province, set off to France, Germany and Italy for a nine-day tour to carry out economic and trade promotion activities for market ex-pansion - the first overseas business tour organized at the provincial level in Sichuan since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Global Times learned.

An official with the Sichuan commerce department told the Global Times on Friday that the main purpose for the business trip was to maintain or build ties with foreign clients, with orders being a secondary objective.

"Orders often take time to make, but the important thing for the trip is to en-able more local companies to explore overseas markets by meeting with cli-ents and attending local expos," the person said, noting that compared with online meetings, face-to-face contact is more direct and effective from a business perspective.

The participating companies are mainly involved in the food, medical, and daily necessities industries, in which Sichuan plays an important part at the national level.

"We will make a decision based on next year's epidemic prevention and con-trol and economic situation on whether we will organize more charter flights of this kind in the future," the official said.

Other cities have also been active in arranging overseas business trips, with some taking action even earlier. For example, in late November, a delegation of 44 businesspeople from Foshan went to Poland to hold economic and trade activities, becoming the first city in Guangdong to resume overseas economic exchange activities.

In addition to organizing charter flights, some local governments have also extended aid to private businesses, with an extra bonus. 

For example, foreign trade enterprises in Nanjing are eligible for subsidies of up to 50 percent of transportation and entry quarantine expenses incurred when traveling abroad for business activities such as exhibitions and negoti-ations, according to media reports.

The current form is of great help to foreign trade enterprises, mainly in terms of business and market confidence, which will also have an invigorating ef-fect on the entire industrial chain, Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Friday.

In November, the volume of China's foreign trade amounted to 3.7 trillion yuan, a slight increase of 0.1 percent year-on-year. The growth rate slowed down sharply from 6.9 percent in October, the lowest since May this year.

Analysts said the strong support from local governments also comes as Chi-na finds itself at a critical stage in stabilizing the economy, and a solid eco-nomic performance at the end of 2022 will pave the way for a head start next year. 

The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Com-mittee held a meeting on Tuesday to analyze economic work in 2023. During the meeting, the concept of "daring" was put forward, including "local economies dare to make a break," and "enterprises dare to work harder."

Observers noted that the local government moves are an embodiment of this spirit, and will herald not only the return of export orders but also a full-fledged recovery of the world's second-largest economy next year.