Yiwu, a county-level city in Jinhua, East China's Zhejiang, has issued about 94,700 certificates of origin for exports worth $2.22 billion to Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states in the first 10 months of this year, according to local customs officials.

The number of certificates of origin for exports to the Southeast Asian regional bloc increased by 18.5 percent year-on-year, accounting for 47.6 percent of the total issued by Yiwu Customs during this period.

They can reduce import tariffs on exported goods such as handicrafts and toys by over 800 million yuan, according to official data.

ASEAN is a main export destination for small commodities from Yiwu. Since the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area came into effect in 2010, trade between Yiwu and ASEAN has grown rapidly.

Fang Xiaoyun from Zhejiang Jiyue Import and Export Co Ltd said the company has applied for self-service printing of the certificates. It takes about two minutes for them to submit an application and print one out after passing through a review.

From January to October, the company has applied for 3,192 certificates of origin for exports to ASEAN, which scaled back its import tariffs by more than 46.8 million yuan ($6.71 million).

Yiwu Customs has been promoting self-service printing projects like this so enterprises can enjoy the greater convenience brought by digital services.