Major exporter embarks on reform to be trade hub

Foreign businesspeople buy holiday decorations at a market of small commodities in Yiwu.Liu Shibin/for China Daily

City of Yiwu looks to transform itself and its economy through Belt and Road Initiative

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.

Officials attend the inauguration of the Yiwu International Trade Comprehensive Reform Pilot Zone on Feb 27.Provided To China Daily

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.