China's State Council, or Cabinet, has given a green light to a comprehensive international trade reform plan in Yiwu, a small city in eastern Zhejiang Province known as the country's largest distribution center for small commodities.

"This is a major strategic decision as the State Council eyes transforming the country's economic growth patterns and improving the opening-up level," Yao Zuoting, deputy director of Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission, told Xinhua on Friday.

According to the reform plan, Yiwu will try to transform itself from a sole good supplier to a supplier of comprehensive services through building a state-level small commodities trade center and an exhibition and trade center for overseas goods.

Meanwhile, the county-level city will build a global sales network and a local platform to help small- and medium-sized businesses expand overseas.

The city will also be built into a major transport hub on the Yangtze River Delta to help cut logistics costs.

Yao said Yiwu was chosen to pilot the reforms because it is the epitome of China's trade growth patterns and faces typical, deep-rooted problems that hinder further development.

The small commodity markets in Yiwu were introduced in 1982, just four years after China launched its reform and opening-up drive in 1978.

The city is now the nation's largest export hub for small commodities such as textiles, shoes, toys, hardware, household goods, cosmetics, and arts and crafts. The area is also an important window for international trade.

Over 200,000 small- and medium-sized domestic companies supply more than 1.7 million varieties of goods in Yiwu. Also, more than 400,000 overseas entrepreneurs come to the area for purchases each year and 3,000 overseas companies have set up representative offices in the city.

Yao Xianming, deputy director of Yiwu's bureau of foreign trade and economic cooperation, said that the obstacles hampering Yiwu's trade growth are mainly connected with institutions and policies.

The city authorities will first study the series of regulations concerning customs, inspection and quarantine, taxation, foreign exchange and market supervision, Yao Xianming said.

Reforms in these areas are critical to promoting international trade, he added.

The city government will strive to simplify inspections and quarantines of goods, customs procedures and launch international air services in the near future, said Yiwu mayor He Meihua.

"This will help to boost customs clearance efficiency and facilitate the entry and exit of overseas entrepreneurs," He said.

Last year, Yiwu exported 570,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) containers of goods worth 30 billion U.S. dollars to more than 200 countries and regions, official figures showed.

The reforms are expected to help nurture a better export environment to help Yiwu and even Zhejiang improve its competitiveness in terms of foreign trade, said Zhang Handong, director of Zhejiang's research center on international trade.

Source: Xinhua

Editor: Xie Fang