An Empirical Study on the Contribution of Foreign Trade to the Economic Growth of Southwest Minority Region of China

The development of foreign trade has become one of the focuses of the world´s attention. The prospects and competitive forces reveal the developing possibility of one country or region. The southwest minority region is no exception. On base of the existing literatures, the empirical study shows that during the 30-year reform and opening-up: (1) foreign trade has contributed a lot to the GDP growth of foreign trade and still has great potential to be tapped. (2) There is a positive correlation between the foreign trade and GDP. And the correlation coefficient (0.991) between GDP and import is bigger than the correlation coefficient (0.988) between GDP and export. It indicates that import has more positive effect on GDP growth. Finally, the paper points out that in order to maintain the economic growth, Southwest minority region must unswervingly implement the opening-up policy and be aware of trade protectionism.