Reform, opening-up fuel development of Yiwu

Photo shows China’s first specialized market for showcasing and trading in new energy products at the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province. (Photo/Shi Kuanbing)

Yiwu, a city in east China’s Zhejiang Province, has become a small commodity hub, offering over 2.1 million types of products in 26 categories.

The city hosts 15,000 resident foreign merchants and over 8,000 foreign-funded entities while maintaining trade relations with more than 200 countries and regions. Between 2011 and 2023, the total import and export value of the city surged over 20-fold to hit 566.05 billion yuan ($78.82 billion) from 25.5 billion yuan.

The city’s vitality stems from China’s reform and opening-up policies. Yiwu has participated in over 30 national-level and more than 40 provincial-level pilot reform projects. For example, the trade mode of market procurement trial was approved by the Ministry of Commerce and related departments, exploring a new method of exporting small commodities in Yiwu, and 472 economic and social management responsibilities were delegated by Zhejiang Province to the city.

Quality products from Yiwu are on display at an exhibition hall in Dubai. (Photo courtesy of Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co., Ltd.)

Over 70 percent of Yiwu’s merchants have embraced e-commerce. In 2023, the total number of e-commerce entities in Yiwu exceeded 650,000, with an average of 1,871 e-commerce livestreaming sessions being held every day.

Cross-border e-commerce has thrived in Yiwu. Chinagoods, the official online platform of the Yiwu International Trade Market, has attracted 75,000 merchants since it was launched nearly four years ago, with their total transactions exceeding 160 billion yuan.

Since its launch in 2014, the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train route, known as Yixinou in Chinese, has handled over 7,400 freight trains. In addition, the sixth port area of the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in Yiwu increases the operational efficiency of export containers on sea-rail intermodal trains by nearly 20 percent.