Yiwu issues a business license for its 10,000th foreign-funded enterprise. [Photo/tidenews.com.cn]
A Pakistani businessman received a business license for his new company on July 31 in Yiwu — a county-level city in Jinhua, Zhejiang province. This made Yiwu the first county-level city in China to reach 10,000 registered foreign-funded business entities.
Since the establishment of its first foreign-funded business in 1989, Yiwu has led the country in cultivating such enterprises and continues to attract global investors.
According to Lou Xiaodong, head of Yiwu market supervision and administration bureau, resident representative offices, foreign-funded partnerships, and foreign-funded companies are the three main types of foreign-funded business entities in Yiwu.
Resident representative offices were the dominant type before 2010 while foreign-funded partnerships grew rapidly from 2010 to 2015. Foreign-funded companies have surged since 2015, with an average annual growth rate of 29 percent.
Foreign investment in Yiwu covers 14 industries, with particularly strong growth in the catering and business service industries. International catering units in Yiwu received over 3.2 million visits in the first half, generating a turnover of 365 million yuan ($51.05 million) with a year-on-year increase of 21.7 percent and creating over 5,000 jobs.
According to a government official, Yiwu has pioneered the reform of the foreign investment registration commitment system and is now able to register all types of foreign-funded business entities. The reform has reduced the registration period from 15 days to just one, saving nearly 700,000 yuan in translation costs and benefiting about 20,000 foreign investors.
