A Study On Foreign Trade Competitiveness Of The Prefecture And Above Cities In The Yangtze River Economic Zone

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is one of the three major strategies of the country.Under the background of the new normal economy,how to effectively formulate policies to guide the Yangtze River Economic Belt to rely on the golden waterway to achieve sustainable development is of great overall significance.This paper makes a preliminary analysis of the development of foreign trade in cities at the prefecture level and above in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from the aspects of the quality of foreign trade in the scale of foreign trade and the regional differences in foreign trade.On the basis of combing the classical theory,this paper demonstrates the influence of economic,social,ecological and transportation factors on the development of urban foreign trade.The GMM model is constructed with the scale and quality of foreign trade as explained variables,and the relevant data of the 108 prefecture level and above cities in the Yangtze River Economic Zone from 2005 to2016 are collected to verify the impact of economy,society,ecology and transportation on the development of urban foreign trade.Based on the empirical conclusion,the evaluation system of urban foreign trade competitiveness in the five dimensions of economy,society,ecology,transportation and foreign trade is established,and the relevant data of cities at prefecture level and above in the Yangtze River economic belt are standardized and summarized.The foreign trade competitiveness of cities at and above the prefectural level in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is calculated and analyzed by using the data of 108 cities at and above the Yangtze River Economic Zone from 2005 to 2016.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)The five-dimensional index evaluation system constructed by economic,social,ecological and non-traffic trade can well evaluate the competitiveness of urban foreign trade.(2)The export gap of cities at prefectural level and above in the Yangtze River economic belt is narrowing,and the product competitiveness of export backward cities is improving.(3)In the development of the city,foreign trade,economy,society,transportation and other aspects are intermingled and influenced each other.(4)The cities with strong foreign trade competitiveness in the Yangtze River Economic Belt are municipalities directly under the Central Government,provincial capital cities or cities of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.Among the nine provinces and two cities,the foreign trade competitiveness of the two cities is better than that of nine provinces,and the foreign trade competitiveness of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces is the most prominent of the nine provinces.(5)In the comprehensive foreign trade competitiveness aspect,the cities in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are significantly better than those in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River,and the cities in the middle reaches are slightly better than those in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.The overall foreign trade competitiveness of the cities in the Yangtze Economic Belt has steadily improved from 2005 to 2016.