Major exporter embarks on reform to be trade hub

Global trade hub

The State Council approved Yiwu as the tenth national pilot city or district for the comprehensive reform of international trade in March 2011. It was the first State-level comprehensive pilot reform carried out in a county-level city.

The city's foreign trade has increased tenfold in eight years of development, thanks to its tireless exploration, reform and opening-up.

Yiwu in Zhejiang province has initiated the No More Than One Trip campaign to streamline administrative approval procedures and provide convenience for business owners in business registration.Gong Xianming/for China Daily

Yiwu has created a trade system that exports goods bought at local shopping malls. The new type of trade has been replicated in domestic counterparts and has helped boost entrepreneurship, innovation and industrial upgrades.

In 2013, a trial program for an individual cross-border renminbi trade settlement was launched in the city to promote the growth of trade by independent entrepreneurs in the city.

According to statistics from the Yiwu bureau of commerce, more than 100,000 new market entities were set up in the city last year, up 37.77 percent year-on-year, the highest growth rate in five years. The total number of market entities now exceeds 450,000.

The Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe train service made its maiden voyage from Yiwu to Madrid, Spain, in 2014. Trains from Yiwu now travel along nine international routes to over 30 countries.

A total of 320 commuter trains were launched last year, shipping 25,060 standard containers, also known as 20-foot equivalent units or TEUs, rising 68.8 percent year-on-year.

Now, more than 20,000 foreigners from over 100 countries and regions live in Yiwu. About half-a-million more visit and make purchases every year.

The Yiwu International Trade Market, with 75,000 booths in a business area of 5.5 million square meters, is the epicenter of the world's largest trading hub for small commodities. It attracts hundreds of thousands of sellers and buyers every day.

Aerial view of the Yiwu International Trade Market, the largest trading hub for small commodities in the world.Wu Xianhua/for China Daily

The city has cultivated business connections with more than 210 countries and regions. According to Yiwu customs, 1.08 million TEUs of goods were exported from Yiwu in 2018, up 15.9 percent, accounting for one-seventh of the containers leaving the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in Ningbo, another city in Zhejiang province.

Despite the sluggish global growth, Yiwu's exports and imports totaled 256 billion yuan ($38.09 billion) in 2018, up 9.4 percent year-on-year, while exports recorded 252.16 billion yuan, up 9.4 percent year-on-year, 2.3 percentage points higher than the national growth rate.