By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-12-12 08:01:39 | Updated at 2024-12-12 10:29:05
2 hours ago
The world’s largest wholesale hub for small manufactured items is expected to be enhanced as a symbol for international trade following the State Council’s approval of plans to more comprehensively deepen and reform its development.
Yiwu, a small city in China’s Zhejiang province known for funnelling huge quantities of dollar-store products to the West, will undergo efforts to resolve deep-rooted institutional problems, strengthen the building of integrated standards of domestic and foreign trade, and promote greater cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Specific items on the deepening-development list included maximising the function of tariff-free zones, reforming procurement systems, proactively connecting to international trade standards, improving management of export companies’ categorisation, and building 100 good-quality international trade corporations.
“The more intensive development this time will bring more opportunities to Yiwu,” Zhu Keli, the founding head of the International New Economic Research Institute, was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Securities News. “Yiwu can go deep into reforming and innovating the area of international trade, improve its trade structure and enhance quality.”
Yiwu saw its total trade value reach 560.2 billion yuan (US$77 billion) in the first 10 months of this year – 18.3 per cent more than the same period last year, according to customs figures.
The deepening-development plan will also support the high-quality development of China-Europe express trains to enhance the circulation of goods.
