Yiwu railway port busy at transporting goods

On March 1, Yiwu issued the guidelines detailed in Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Market. These guidelines put forward 14 measures concerning Yiwu’s market, e-commerce, exhibition, logistics, ports, and other market-related issues. These procedures are made to optimize the business environment, stimulate market vitality, and maintain the prosperity and development of the market.

The business associations, market operators, foreign trade import and export companies, and e-commerce companies in Yiwu attach great importance to the new measures. According to the market operators and representatives of some business associations, the market is the soul of Yiwu. The announcement of the measures conforms to the trend of the high-quality development of the market, deepens the integration of online and offline markets, enhances the linkage of exhibition and trade, improves  logistics, and optimizes the functions of the port platform. This all  provides more momentum to Yiwu—which is the biggest small commodity market of the world.

As a global small commodity procurement and distribution center, Yiwu is an important source of goods for the world’s market. The export containers of Yiwu account for 1/7 of the total amount exported from the Ningbo Zhoushan Port. Due to the pandemic, the sea-rail combined transportation with high efficiency and high stability has become the main channel for Yiwu companies to transport goods to the Ningbo Zhoushan Port. According to the new measures, the Yiwu government will give subsidies to the operation platforms that engaged in the sea-rail combined transportation of Yiwu’s West Railway Station.

In February of this year, Yiwu issued the Support Policy on the 2022 Open Economic Development to further deepen the comprehensive reform of international trade, promote the construction of a free trade zone, boost the confidence of foreign trade and foreign-invested companies, promote the healthy development of an open economy, and form a new development pattern of dual circulation.

Open development is one of the basic experiences that Yiwu gained from its economic development over the past 40 years. Yiwu achieves modernization through the path of openness. Gong Pinzhong, chairman of Huahong Holding Group Co., Ltd., believes that the so-called open economy means that it is easier to go global and more convenient to attract foreign companies. He suggested that the government should set up development offices in Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, and other places to help companies  establish production infrastructure in these foreign countries. These offices would increase support for foreign trade companies and develop transnational barter trade, make better policies to ensure the security of international trade funds and the convenience of capital flows, and provide convenience for international talents, especially regarding their exit and entry, residence, and employment. At the same time, the government should attract capital and notable talents among international students, encourage them to engage in international trade, give full play to the international alumni resources, and strengthen the openness of the economy.

Cross-border e-commerce has become a new highlight in this round of building an open economy. Under the influence of the pandemic, import and export consumption has accelerated the development of online business, and the scale of cross-border e-commerce import and export in Yiwu has expanded rapidly. Zhejiang Equator Supply Chain Co., Ltd. has been engaged in cross-border e-commerce for five years, and its turnover has increased by 40% when compared with the same period last year. Chairman Zhang Min said that Yiwu should respond to the major national development strategies more actively, accelerate the construction of logistics channels, develop new models of international trade, deepen cross-border industrial cooperation, promote cross-border e-commerce, and coordinate various factors more efficiently. (By Wu Fengyu, translated by Wei Han, edited by Daniel Haws)