Imports and exports of Jinhua in East China's Zhejiang province amounted to 438.86 billion yuan ($60.04 billion) from January to July this year, representing a year-on-year increase of 13.9 percent, according to authorities.
Exports were valued at 377.66 billion yuan, an increase of 10.3 percent year-on-year, accounting for 18.4 percent of the provincial total.
The strong performance was largely due to the implementation of measures rolled out by authorities, including expanding markets in Latin America and Africa, optimizing foreign trade structure, and improving services.
In terms of expanding markets, the local government mobilized companies to attend international trade fairs and trade and investment promotion events held in Tanzania and South Africa, with 118 delegations comprising 2,397 companies taking part from January to July.
The city's exports to Latin America and Africa increased by 26 percent and 25.7 percent during the January-July period.
Authorities have been focusing on attracting more new-energy projects and providing relevant supporting policies to increase the proportion of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar panels in foreign trade.
It has created a billion-yuan photovoltaic industrial cluster. From January to July, Jinhua's solar cell exports reached 22.08 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the provincial total.
In addition, the local government has released a five-year action plan to build the city into an international land port transportation hub, with 10 projects having been launched.
The city's Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train service now operates 22 shipping routes, delivering commodities to more than 50 countries and 160 cities along the Belt and Road, and its exports to these countries stood at 134.91 billion yuan over the same period, an uptick of 12.7 percent year-on-year.
