Zambian expat starts business in Hangzhou

"If you want to start your business, just come to Hangzhou,"said Gastone, a foreign student from Zambia.

Gastone, or Gai Shitong in Chinese, came to Hangzhou six years ago to pursue undergraduate studies at Zhejiang University of Science and Technology. Majoring in marketing, the young man started his own business at an entrepreneurial center in the Cross-Border Trading Town in Hangzhou two years ago, focusing on retail, wholesale, imports and exports.

"It's not easy for expats to start businesses in China, especially when we are confronted with difficulties in local policies, capital funds and finding offices to rent at a reasonable price," Gastone explained, adding that Hangzhou is endowed with a sound environment conductive for innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as preferential talent policies.

As the son of a businessman, Gastone has always had a head for business. After finishing his sophomore year at the university, he started to pay multiple visits to trade fairs in Yiwu and Guangzhou, closing a few business deals in the years that followed.

At the end of 2017, Hangzhou rolled out a new wave of preferential exit-entry policies covering expats' visas, long-term stay and permanent residency in an effort to attract and retain high-caliber foreign professionals. Thanks to the new policies, Gastone is the first international student in Hangzhou who has received a two-to-five-year entrepreneurship residence permit.

As the head of the entrepreneurial center, Gastone now has helped over 80 overseas students to engage in business in Hangzhou, many of whom are from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Over the years, Hangzhou has witnessed an increase in the number of overseas students. The entrepreneurial center is designed not only as a platform for overseas students to start businesses in China, but also to cultivate the country's future trading partners.

Opened in 2016, the Cross-Border Trading Town is the first imported commodity e-commerce experience area established in China since Hangzhou became the country's first cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone.