Against external headwinds like softer overseas demand, China has introduced a number of policy measures to help companies, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and individual businesses, to promote investment, consumption and foreign trade, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

By participating in the MIDO Eyewear Show 2023, an annual international event of the optics, optometry, ophthalmology and eyewear industry, in Milan, Italy, in early February, over 400 exhibitors from 170 companies in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, China's eyewear industry hub, secured $300 million worth of intended orders, said Wenzhou Bureau of Commerce.

The show, held from Feb 4 to 6, is the largest international event dedicated to the global eyewear industry, with companies from Wenzhou occupying more than 8,000 square meters of booth space during the exhibition.

To restore earning strength for its companies, the Wenzhou city government began to offer financial support to local companies to take part in overseas business exhibitions this year and has set a goal to assist more than 300 exporters to participate in more than 50 exhibitions abroad in the first quarter.

Huizhou Macc Electronics Co Ltd, an electronic component manufacturer in Guangdong province, has sent a sales team to visit clients to obtain business orders in the Middle East, Europe, the US and the Republic of Korea.

"We are confident and highly motivated. We hope to get our business off to an adequate start in the first quarter and strive to increase our production value by 10 percent this year," said Zhang Qian, the company's general manager.

In addition to registering their company names for global business expos, such as the International Food and Drink Event in the UK in March, New York International Auto Show in the US in April, and the International Tools and Hardware Expo in Japan in October, many Chinese companies have been actively exploring emerging markets, specifically signatory countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, said Sun Jianjiang, director of the Suzhou (Jiangsu province) Bureau of Commerce.

"As the recovery pace of China's exhibition industry is accelerating, it will generate growth momentum for foreign trade, investment, consumption, tourism, catering and other service-related businesses this year," said Chu Shijia, director of the China Foreign Trade Center in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.

China's goods trade surged 7.7 percent year-on-year to a record 42.07 trillion yuan in 2022, making the country the world's largest trader of goods for the sixth successive year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.