Yiwu plans to be international trade zone

Yiwu, a city in Zhejiang province known as a global trading center for small commodities, aims to become the country's international trade special zone, an official told China Daily on the sidelines of the ongoing 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

"We are mulling a plan to build Yiwu into an international trade special zone. We'll later submit the plan to the central government for approval," Chen said.

Chen believes that now is the time for the central government to deepen reforms.

"We have some comprehensive reform zones such as Shenzhen, Pudong and Tianjin's Binhai, now we need reforms to go further in some fields," Chen said.

Though China's exports growth has largely slowed down this year due to the sluggish global economy and the eurozone debt crisis, Yiwu saw its exports jump 59.1 percent in the first nine months of the year to $4.19 billion.

"We expect our exports growth to exceed 80 percent year-on-year this year," Chen said.

Zhejiang Governor Xia Baolong said at the open-discussion session during the Party congress that the province is struggling to achieve an import and export growth rate of 10 percent this year.