Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co Ltd, a machinery manufacturer based in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has set a challenging overseas market performance target for 2022－to increase its sales by 58 percent year-on-year.

But that goal is based on confidence rather than mere hopes.

Supplying sectors including forestry, mining and road construction, the company posted 64-percent year-on-year growth in overseas sales last year, 40 percent higher than the global average level.

All of its overseas subsidiaries and product lines reported high levels of annual growth, with the company's excavator unit reporting a remarkable annual growth rate of 110 percent.

The company, which has more than 300 dealers, 13 overseas subsidiaries and three overseas manufacturing plants around the world, is just one of the many Chinese enterprises looking to the huge potential of foreign markets.

Latest data from the General Administration of Customs showed that China accounted for nearly 14.9 percent of global exports during the first three quarters of last year, up 0.6 percentage point from a year earlier.

The nation's imports accounted for 12.1 percent of the global total, up 0.5 percentage point year-on-year.

Supported by reliable fundamentals and the strong resilience of the Chinese economy, the nation's foreign trade is expected to sustain its upward momentum this year and make further contributions to stabilizing global industrial and supply chains, despite various challenges such as last year's high comparison base and the slowdown in the global economic rebound, according to officials and experts.

To facilitate foreign trade growth, they said, the nation needs to accelerate the establishment of the new dual-circulation development pattern that takes the domestic market as the mainstay and lets the domestic and foreign markets reinforce each other, while strengthening cross-cyclical adjustments.

The nation's imports and exports hit $6.05 trillion in 2021, setting a new historic record, according to data released earlier this month by the administration.

In renminbi terms, total foreign trade in 2021 was 39.1 trillion yuan, surging 21.4 percent year-on-year.

Exports were 21.73 trillion yuan, up 21.2 percent year-on-year, while imports expanded by 21.5 percent on a yearly basis to 17.37 trillion yuan.

"China's impressive exports significantly offset production disruption from COVID-19 in other countries, meeting global demand and helping to tame price surges in the world, while its expanding imports boosted economic recovery in related economies," said Zhou Xuezhi, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"The better-than-expected performance last year was mainly due to the relatively strong global economic rebound as well as China's stable industrial and supply chains thanks to its effective control of COVID-19.

"But export growth in 2022 will likely become more moderate due to the high comparison base and weaker overseas demand."

Li Kuiwen, the administration's spokesman and director-general of its statistics and analysis department, said at a recent news briefing in Beijing that foreign trade growth in 2022 will be challenged by multiple factors including "shrinking demand, supply shocks and weakening expectations" facing the domestic economy, as well as increasing uncertainties in the external environment.

To support the growth in foreign trade, multiple measures targeting overall economic development are expected to add resilience to the sector, according to analysts.

Tu Xinquan, dean of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said as more economies reopen and relax disease control measures, China needs to seek a better balance between strict disease prevention and control and economic growth, to further boost foreign trade.

The establishment of the dual-circulation development pattern and the pursuit of common prosperity are expected to accelerate and increase people's incomes, foster stronger domestic demand and hedge against external risks, which will at the same time strengthen China's industrial and supply chains and sustain their competitiveness in global trade, he said.

Zhou from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences suggested more efforts to stabilize the renminbi's exchange rate, to create favorable conditions for China's foreign trade in 2022.

Zeng Guang'an, chairman of Liugong, added that, to further tap global market potential, the company will strengthen its strategic investment in key overseas regions and deepen cooperation with all of its dealers.

"With awareness of customer needs and market, we will accelerate the R&D and application of new technologies in the industrial internet of things, big data and new energy, to increase our presence among world-leading players with improvements in technology-based competitiveness," he said.

Liu Jie, general manager of Optima Integration Group, a leading frozen products import service platform in China, said the nation's increased foreign trade has been creating more business opportunities for the rest of the world, helping to stabilize global industrial and supply chains.

Li from the administration said the nation will seek a balance between disease prevention measures at ports and the promotion of foreign trade.

While reinforcing regulation, the authorities will also improve administrative services to enhance the business environment, he said.