In the 40 years of reform and opening up in Chongqing, Chongqing International Trade Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the International Group), as a state-owned enterprise, played an important role in the different stages of Chongqing's opening to the outside world: the earliest overseas investment, the earliest expatriate labor, and Participated in a large number of international aid projects. In the new process of building an inland open highland in Chongqing, the international group is exploring a new path for the transformation and development of a traditional foreign trade enterprise to a modern service trade enterprise through its own reform. On Jianbei North Road in Jiangbei, there is an orange building that has been built for more than 20 years, and its shape still seems to be out of date. This building has witnessed the glorious past of the international group. With the changes in the global environment of foreign economics, foreign trade and foreign investment, the traditional business of international groups is constantly challenged. In April 2017, Zhao Xiaoping, general manager of the Chongqing Foreign Trade Group's bulk trading company, became the chairman of the international group. The restructuring of the international group is a target case for the transformation of Chongqing's state-owned foreign trade enterprises.

 

From general trade to bulk trade

 

With the deepening of domestic reforms and the changes in the global market structure, foreign trade has become an open competitive industry from a monopolistic closed industry, and state-owned enterprises in the midst of storms are under tremendous pressure to transform. In the entire foreign trade and economic business sector, foreign trade import and export is the top priority, and Chongqing has always been based on general commodity trade. At the beginning of 2016, Chongqing Foreign Economic and Trade Group established a large trading company (hereinafter referred to as the bulk trading company), and Zhao Xiaoping became the general manager. Commodities are mainly for commodities that are the basic raw materials for industry, generally ore, energy, chemicals, agricultural products, etc. Large-scale trade has a large quantity, high amount and complicated operation. From another level, it has formed certain market barriers. From the import and export of general commodities to the import and export of bulk commodities, this is the original intention of Chongqing Foreign Trade Group to establish a large trading company. Although optimistic about this area, Chongqing does not have a professional team that matches this. In the first quarter of 2016, Zhao Xiaoping led the team for three months to recruit in various parts of the country, and finally found more than 40 professionals in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and other foreign trade ports. Immediately after the second quarter, Zhao Xiaoping began to develop business processes and risk control mechanisms for enterprises. For traditional state-owned foreign trade enterprises, stimulating the internal vitality of enterprises is the key and difficult point of reform. Chongqing Foreign Economic and Trade Group has become the first enterprise to implement the pilot system of professional managers in the municipal state-owned assets system. Zhao Xiaoping tried the pilot of professional managers in the bulk trading company and established a set of incentive assessment mechanism that matched salary and performance.

 

From merchandising to channel marketing

 

After the internal smoothing, the bulk trading company started its business in the second quarter of 2016. Zhao Xiaoping and the team began to study the business type of bulk trade: bulk commodities are at the top of the entire foreign trade commodity, and there are not many companies that can truly participate in and influence the market. The operation is complicated and the capital demand is huge. The shortcoming of the large trading company lies in the lack of experience. The advantage lies in the state-owned enterprises in Chongqing. The bank credit line is sufficient, and this is precisely the value that is most valued by the upstream and downstream in the commodity trade. Where. Through more than one year of advancement, the business has expanded rapidly. The company directly embeds the trade chain of dozens of Fortune 500 companies or large global traders, and CCI, Louis Dreyfus, Tianjin Property Group, etc., which are well-known global commodity traders. The company has formed a partnership, expanding its business from aromatics to non-ferrous metals and ores. In 2016, it completed more than 7 billion yuan of bulk commodity trade, and initially became a well-known import and export service provider for bulk commodities in the west.

 

From decentralized operations to integrated operations

 

After the small trading company led by Zhao Xiaoping stood firm in the new field, he became the chairman of the international group at the same time in early 2017. As a dual-department, Chongqing Foreign Economic and Trade Group hopes that Zhao Xiaoping will revitalize the old state-owned enterprises with the new business unit, business channels and business ideas of bulk trade. As a veteran foreign trade and economic enterprise in Chongqing, during its 35 years of development, the international group has invested in more than 10 factories overseas, and has built dozens of international projects with a total amount of nearly 10 billion yuan in Asia and African countries. project. However, in recent years, the overseas investment of international groups has been basically suspended, and the advantages of traditional international construction, labor export, import and export trade have gradually weakened. After taking office, Zhao Xiaoping made a new strategic orientation for the international group: to build a world-class, nationally renowned international trade service provider. Although the international group faces tremendous transformational pressures, it has been deeply immersed in overseas investment, foreign construction, import and export trade for 35 years. Its rich platform resources still have great market competitiveness through activation and integration. For example, in the offshore construction sector, through the trade first, to promote the new project of overseas projects, and to build a trade chain of + trade + engineering linkage, and quickly promote the export of products and equipment in Chongqing and surrounding areas. In 2017, the international group achieved revenue of 11.3 billion yuan and import and export of 13 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 37.8% and 159%. The import volume of electrolytic copper and iron ore ranks among the top importers in the country.

 

/dialogue/

 

The future direction is to be a platform

 

Chongqing Morning Post: The transformation of the international group is actually a reform of state-owned enterprises.

Zhao Xiaoping: Under the background of supply-side structural reform, traditional foreign trade enterprises must find their own position in the process of profound transformation, especially for enterprises like our competitive field, on the other hand, to create new business platforms. On the one hand, it is to deepen the internal reforms. For example, we have retired 12 households with zombie shell enterprises, reduced the fourth- and fifth-grade enterprises, and reduced the management level to the third level, and smoothly reduced the number of employees by 470. For example, the traditional agent settlement time is 90 days. We are now adjusting to 70 days, 60 days, or even 50 days to realize business value-added through spreads and exchange differences.

 

Chongqing Morning News: What is the future direction of the international group?

Zhao Xiaoping: In terms of business development, international groups and large trading companies have gone up three steps in the past two years: one is from traditional trade to bulk trade, the other is from import and export agency to channel operation, and the third is from decentralized business to integrated operation. . Another idea for the future is to do supply chain services. We will be committed to building a large-scale trading platform and becoming a comprehensive service platform for the bulk commodity industry. Bulk trade involves commodities, finance, and logistics. It involves traders, customs, ports, inspection and quarantine. We comb all information, all nodes, and all pain points to form a solution framework through big data and blockchain. The application of technology forms a powerful integrated service platform. The profitability of the service platform with comprehensive competitive advantages in the future is very promising.

 

Chongqing Morning News: How can enterprises better participate in the construction of inland open highlands in Chongqing?

Zhao Xiaoping: The entire Chongqing Foreign Economic and Trade Group is carrying out a deep-level reform, from a simple and extensive foreign trade business to a modern service industry multinational group. Our strength lies in the rich international and domestic market operation capabilities and operation platform. The cross-border linkage and industry-finance combination of "international trade + international engineering + supply chain finance + cross-border investment" can bring more business opportunities to Chongqing enterprises.

 

Upstream News·Chongqing Morning News reporter Qiu Wei