Global trade hub
Famed as the “supermarket of the world”, Yiwu in East China has started an epic journey to change from an export-oriented city into a global trade center.
The city under the administration of Jinhua, Zhejiang province, witnessed the launch of an international trade reform pilot zone in late February, the first of its kind in the country.
The local government aims to make it an engine to help fuel Zhejiang’s major use of the Belt and Road Initiative, deepen reform and opening-up and promote the rise of the central region in the province.
Covering some 1,280 square kilometers, the pilot zone incorporates the city of Yiwu and Jin-Yi New Urban District, a Jinhua-Yiwu integrated area. It comprises townships between the two cities, as well as multiple logistics bases, such as the Yongkang dry port, the Dongyang logistics park and the central Zhejiang highway-railway combined transport service center.
Zhu Congjiu, vice-governor of Zhejiang and director of the government work panel for the pilot zone, said at a panel meeting that the zone is of great importance to Yiwu’s economic upgrade and transformation, Jin-Yi’s integrated urban construction and Zhejiang’s improved competitiveness in opening-up.
Sheng Qiuping, head of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce and deputy director of the panel, said that the zone will be built to high standards and feature innovations in a bid to unite it into the China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone and propel the development of the Yangtze River Delta region.
The zone will seize the opportunities offered by the Belt and Road Initiative for further opening-up to the outside world under the unified deployment of the provincial government, Sheng added.
The zone has rolled out a five-year (2019-23) plan for its construction, which is focused on “trade liberation and facilitation for the public”.
According to the plan, four key areas — the Yiwu International Trade Market, a bonded port area, the Shuangjianghu Science and Education Park and Jin-Yi New Urban District — will be key elements in the construction of the pilot zone.
New trade tactics, cross-border e-commerce platforms, financial reforms and extensive logistics networks will be adopted to build the zone with precise planning and construction and investment promotion, according to Lin Yi, Party chief of Yiwu.
The zone will help to lift Yiwu’s profile as the world’s trading capital for small commodities and explore new ways to build an open economy for other Chinese cities, Lin said.
Yiwu has entered a new development stage with the establishment of the zone, said Cao Rongqing, a professor at a local economic research institute.
According to the zone’s administrative committee, it is an economic zone designed to widen reforms. Authorized by the Zhejiang provincial government, the committee will lead Yiwu to explore and reform the commodity circulation system and the international trade regime.
The zone will emphasize the development of cross-border e-commerce, foster cross-border e-commerce industrial clusters and establish Electronic World Trade Platform with e-commerce giants to nurture new development drivers and boost its international position.
It will also explore a new model for integrated development between the trade sector and local industries to boost high-end manufacturing.
A standardization strategy and a supply chain model combining trade with logistics, finance and new technology will be launched to build a demonstration zone for small commodity innovation and intelligent manufacturing.
The administrative committee also aspires to innovate in space planning, management, development models, resource allocation and policy.
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 countylevel city.
The city’s foreign trade has increased tenfold in eight years of development, thanks to its tireless exploration, reform and opening-up.
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 yearon-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.
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 NingboZhoushan 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.