BEIJING, June 14th (ABP) – Yiwu is one of the county-level cities of Jinhua, capital city of Zhejiang province, which has diligently adhered to and deepened its strategy of ‘developing the city by prospering commerce’ since China’s reform and opening up.
Located in the central part of Zhejiang province, Yiwu covers an area of 1,105 square kilometers, with a central urban built-up area covering 114.5 square kilometers. Yiwu is home to 1.903 million long-term residents, making it the most populous county-level city of Zhejiang.
On-the-spot information specifies that in 2023, Yiwu’s regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) exceeded 200 billion yuan, ranking among the province’s top 10 county-level cities and districts. The city has placed a strong emphasis on the cultivation, development, and upgrading of its market, thus paving the way for a distinctive regional development mode.
To this end, president Xi has made 10 references to Yiwu on many important occasions, underscoring Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe (YYE) China-Europe Railway Express as one of the early achievements of the Belt and Road Initiative. In addition, President Xi positioned Yiwu as the World’s Capital of Small Commodities.
Strategically speaking, Yiwu stands as an international trade city brimming with unlimited business opportunities; an open city integrating itself into the world; a dynamic city that actively encourages mass entrepreneurship; and a harmonious and inclusive city offering a delightful living environment.
Yiwu’s international trade market was established in 1982. It currently spans a business area of over 6.4 million square meters, housing 75,000 shops and offering an impressive array of more than 2.1 million products across 26 major categories. Yiwu market serves as a hub, connecting with 2.1 million micro, small and mediummedium-sized enterprises, and providing employment to 32 million industrial workers across the nation.
On September 20, 2023, President Xi Jinping made his 13th visit to Yiwu for inspection and research. Thus, he issued important instructions, bestowing upon Yiwu a new mission of being the epitome of the “Chinese path to modernization” and setting new requirements for Yiwu to continue creating new business miracles.
Notably, Yiwu market has garnered praise from authoritative international organizations such as the United Nations, and the World Bank, as the world’s largest wholesale market of small commodity goods. Undoubtedly, when getting the opportunity to enter the Yiwu international trade market, it is quite hard to get out without buying anything. Almost all mall commodities are found in Yiwu market, including decorative items, jewelry, toys, small electronics equipment, modern cars, to name but a few.
While promoting the continued prosperity of its primary market, Yiwu has promoted the integration of online and offline trade, securing leading positions in both import and exports business. It boasts the highest density of e-commerce accounts dedicated to domestic trade in China, and ranks second in the density of e-commerce accounts dedicated to international trade.
In addition, Yiwu is an open city to the world. Currently, the Yiwu market trades with over 230 countries and regions, with a foreign trade rate of 65%. More than 560,000 overseas merchants visit Yiwy annually, and over 21,000 foreign merchants are permanently based in the city. It has attracted more than 20 multinational retail groups such as Walmart and Metro, and over 30 well-known domestic chain supermarkets for permanent procurement. The city hosts over 8,100 foreign-funded entities, including more than 1,800 foreign-invested partnership enterprises.
As a dynamic city that actively encourages mass entrepreneurship, Yiwu houses a national-level economic and technological development zone, featuring two modern manufacturing clusters worth a hundred billion yuan in the fields of information optoelectronics and automobile manufacturing. Yiwu accounts for nearly 20% of the global market share in photovoltaic component shipments. The city is home to over 1,05 million market entities, with newly increased entities accounting for one-seventh of that of Zhejiang province.
Yiwu hosts several several national-level exhibitions, such as the China Yiwu International Commodities (Standards) Fair, China Yiwu Cultural and Tourism Products Trade Fair, and China Yiwu International Forest Products Fair. Thus, Yiwu’s extensive logistics network spans over 1,500 cities at the county level or higher throughout the nation and more than 700 major hub entities at the global level.
Finally, Yiwu is a harmonious and inclusive city with delightful living environment. Yiwu is renowned as the “Land of Culture”, and has cultivated its unique “Yiwu spirit” over thousands of years, characterized by diligence, righteousness, bravery, integrity, and inclusiveness. The city has garnered various prestigious titles, including National Civilized City, National Model City for Ecological Civilization Construction, and National Forest City.
The city hosts higher education institutions, including the International School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, the College of Modern Science and Technology of China Jiliang University, and Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College.
In addition, the city boasts four Grade-A tertiary hospitals, the Grade-A representing the highest level of hospital assessment in China. These include the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Yiwu Central Hospital, Yiwu Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, and Yiwu Maternity and Children Hospital.
On-the-spot information goes on concluding that in Yiwu, people from different countries, regions, ethnic backgrounds, and religious beliefs coexist and work together harmoniously.