Yiwu International Trade City. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee
When it comes to Yiwu, a city in central Zhejiang, people often praise - "Yiwu of the world".
More than 20 years ago, the first county-level city investigated by Comrade Xi Jinping, then secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, was Yiwu, and he visited more than 10 times in a row.
He vividly summarized the development of Yiwu as "inexplicable", "out of nothing" and "turning stones into gold", and asked the province to learn Xi promote the experience of Yiwu and personally promote the reform of Yiwu and start again.
In the history of the development of China's leading counties, how can Yiwu, with its narrow and barren land and no resource advantages, maintain its vitality, continue its popularity, and become famous all over the world?
On the occasion of the 45th anniversary of reform and opening up, after General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Yiwu again this year, we walked into Yiwu to find answers.
(1) Yiwu experience
The experience of the rise of Yiwu is familiar to many people. Among them, the most talked-about episode is that in the spring of 1982, a rural woman named Feng Aiqian, who was investigated and punished for setting up a stall, directly "broke into" the office of Xie Gaohua, then secretary of the county party committee, and slapped the table and said, "I hope the government will give the farmers a bite to eat."
The story starts here. With the responsibility of an outstanding Communist Party member, Xie Gaohua led the cadres and the masses to break through all kinds of shackles, started the Yiwu reform, and opened the legendary curtain.
In 1982, the market scene of Qingmen Road in Yiwu Lake. Photo by Kim Bok-geun
On August 25, 1982, the leading group for the rectification of the market in Choucheng Town, Yiwu County, issued the "No. 1 Notice" to open the "small commodity market", one in Huqingmen, Choucheng Town, and the other in Twenty Sanli Town.
Three months later, the Yiwu County Party Committee held a congress of professional households and key households, officially announcing the "four permits": allowing farmers to do business, allowing farmers to traffic long-distance, allowing urban and rural markets to open up, and allowing multi-channel competition.
Xie Gaohua said on the spot: "I am responsible for the problem!"
Since then, hundreds of thousands of Yiwu people who dare to start a business and are willing to endure hardships have happily poured into the market and thrown off their hands and feet to do a great job. A wooden plank, two stools, and small stalls were placed from outside the city to inside the city, all the way to the entrance of the county government......
From the first generation to the fourth generation, from the open air to the indoor, the facilities are becoming more and more perfect, and the fame is becoming more and more famous, which also attracts people from all over the world to work hard. Among them, Zhang Jiying, a young native of Shangyu in Shaoxing, followed his father who went south to the north to repair umbrellas to make a living, and after visiting Yiwu twice, he set up a one-meter-long stall and sold umbrellas in the Huangyuan Market that opened in the 90s of the last century.
Started with reform and grew by reform. By the beginning of the 21st century, Yiwu, which used to be "chicken feathers for sugar", has "flown to the sky", has the largest and most well-known small commodity market in the country, and has opened the transformation from domestic trade to foreign trade.
The legend of reform here has also aroused the attention of Comrade Xi Jinping.
On December 27, 2002, Comrade Xi Jinping, who had just served as secretary of the provincial party committee for more than a month, came to Yiwu for investigation.
This is also the first county-level city he investigated after working in Zhejiang.
On the construction site of the second phase of the trade city, which was still a piece of loess at that time, he left a promise: "I will often come to Yiwu in the future." ”
Word.
In 2003, Comrade Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the opening of the Yiwu International Commodities Fair in China;
In July 2004, he went to the International Trade City for inspection, and in October, he attended the opening ceremony of the Yi Fair and delivered a speech, and also participated in the opening ceremony of the second phase of the Trade City......
The second phase of the International Trade City was completed and opened. Photo by Kim Bok-geun
Also in this year, Zhang Jiying, who had sold umbrellas in Huangyuan Market for 7 years, rented a 15-square-meter store and settled on the first floor of the second phase of the trade city.
Muhannad, a young Jordanian boy, opened his own Arabic restaurant on Chouzhou North Road, Flower Restaurant.
Yiwu, like a flower, is full of vitality and hope.
Comrade Xi Jinping, who has always had deep feelings for the development of Yiwu, issued instructions in November 2005 based on in-depth research and thinking, requesting the General Office of the Provincial Party Committee to set up a research group in conjunction with relevant departments to properly summarize and promote the "development experience of Yiwu".
In April of the following year, the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government jointly issued the "Notice on Learning Xi Promoting the Development Experience of Yiwu".
In an interview with the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and other central media in Hangzhou, Comrade Xi Jinping explained Yiwu in his eyes as follows: "Yiwu is an economically strong county (city) developed in our province since the reform and opening up, and it is also a microcosm of our province's economic and social development. ”
On June 8, 2006, Comrade Xi Jinping went to Yiwu for the eighth time for investigation. The purpose of this trip is to promote the upsurge of academic Xi Yiwu development experience that has been set off in Zhejiang to develop in depth.
At the forum held by the Hengtang Village Committee, Comrade Xi Jinping concluded: "The development of Yiwu is simply 'inexplicable' development, 'out of nothing' development, and 'turning stones into gold'. ”
At the meeting, he emphasized the "five combinations". That is, to learn from the development experience Xi of Yiwu, we must closely integrate the implementation of the spirit of the central committee and the implementation of the decisions and arrangements of the provincial party committee with the local reality; we must closely integrate the inheritance of our predecessors with the promotion of innovation; we must closely integrate the promotion of economic development with the promotion of all-round social progress; we must organically combine the role of the "visible hand" of the government with the role of the "invisible hand" of the market; and we must closely integrate the promotion of reform and development with the realization of social harmony and stability.
Twelve words and five combinations incisively and profoundly summarize the connotation of Yiwu experience. Since 1993, Lu Lijun, a special expert in Zhejiang Province who has served as a consultant to the Yiwu Municipal Government, said that more importantly, this is the guidance of Yiwu's second reform, and it is the password for Yiwu to walk in the forefront and stand at the forefront of the tide.
Zhang Jiying's umbrella shop and Muhannad's restaurant are becoming more and more prosperous......
Mr. and Mrs. Muhannad pose for a photo with the restaurant staff. Photo by Lv Bin, Yiwu Sharing Alliance
(2) A key move
Summing up the experience of Yiwu is also a clarion call to start again. The rapid development of Yiwu was facing various institutional constraints at that time.
At the beginning of 2006, less than 10 days before the Spring Festival, at 4:45 p.m., Iranian businessman Ali hurriedly squeezed into the office building of the Yiwu branch of the People's Bank of China. Approaching the end of work, there are many foreign businessmen inside, and they all want to pay for the goods urgently before the market closes in the trade city.
At this time, China's foreign exchange controls were strict. Yiwu is only a county-level city, and the use of foreign exchange by non-residents must be posted from the bank.
Data show that in 2005, Yiwu's international trade volume exceeded the domestic trade volume for the first time. Like Ali, there are more than 8,000 foreign businessmen stationed in Yiwu. There are nearly 600 offices (representative offices) of overseas enterprises that have been approved for registration and establishment.
However, from foreign exchange management to the registration of foreign-funded enterprises, county-level cities either have no authority or insufficient authority.
Huang Songyi, a staff member of the Yiwu Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce at the time, said that for example, if a permanent representative office of a foreign company is registered, foreign businessmen have to go to Hangzhou. If it is smooth, it is expected that it will take half a month to pass the examination and approval at one time, and if the materials are incomplete and returned for reprocessing, it may take one or two months.
Due to the inconvenience of handling affairs, "black intermediaries" have emerged, and there are also cases of foreign trade companies "running away with foreign exchange". Some deceived foreign businessmen often go to the city government to "ask for explanations" in anger.
Once, the African businessman Wiki was deceived of a deposit of 500,000 yuan, and in a hurry, he took 4 fellow villagers to appear at the door of the Yiwu Letters and Visits Office.
In the end, after several rounds, the Municipal Letters and Visits Office contacted the public security and assisted in finding the person in charge of the foreign trade company who acted as an agent and recovered the money.
At that time, the leaders of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee reported the situation to the province, and they said with embarrassment: "Foreign businessmen in Yiwu will petition if they 'follow the customs'!"
At the same time, local enterprises also complained: the county-level financial institutions approved a credit line of up to 2 million yuan, and they could not apply for it multiple times. On the one hand, it is time to expand production and increase efficiency, and on the other hand, there is a high interest rate on private loans, and business owners are as anxious as ants on a hot pot.
Cadres are complaining: "How can an organization serve more than 1.5 million permanent residents with a population of 600,000?"
Residents are also dissatisfied: "I have to go to Jinhua, 53 kilometers away, to get a license plate and get a driver's license, what a mistake!"
Experts said in one word: the management authority of the county-level government has not been able to keep up with the speed of Yiwu's economic and social development. They describe the situation as "flying a kite under the table".
Merchants tidy up plush toys in the shop. Photo by Lv Bin, Yiwu Sharing Alliance
Comrade Xi Jinping is also very clear about the various institutional and institutional bottlenecks faced by Yiwu.
He once vividly used the analogy that a child is growing too fast, and the clothes are too small, so he has to "put on a big dress for the child who grows fast".
In November 2005, Comrade Xi Jinping issued instructions to request the relevant departments of the province to send an investigation team to study policies to further promote the development of Yiwu in view of some situations that have occurred in the unconventional and rapid development of Yiwu.
Soon after, the provincial leaders led the team and organized a number of provincial departments to conduct in-depth research in Yiwu. In the report submitted to the principal responsible persons of the provincial party committee and the provincial government, they said that reform is imperative.
How to change it? Everyone has different opinions.
Some people advocate "upgrading": "With a permanent population of more than 1.5 million, what is the difference between Yiwu and a prefecture-level city?"
Some people objected: "The GDP has just broken 30 billion yuan, and the strength is still poor." ”
Someone suggested that "a bowl of water is level": "Zhuji and Cixi, these strong counties should be changed together." ”
Finally, under the personal promotion of Comrade Xi Jinping, on November 14, 2006, the General Office of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and the General Office of the Provincial Government issued the "Several Opinions on Carrying out the Pilot Work of Expanding the Economic and Social Management Authority Reform of Yiwu City", implementing an unprecedented expansion of Yiwu's power.
This is also the fourth round of reform to expand the power of economically strong counties in Zhejiang since the reform and opening up in 1992, 1997 and 2002.
Pilot, only one in Yiwu.
"Good opportunity!" Chen Xiuxian, then member of the Standing Committee of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee and Minister of Propaganda, used one word to describe the mood at that time.
She recalled that a meeting of cadres was held in the city that night. The city leaders conveyed the spirit, and the faster they spoke, the higher the tone they spoke. The audience was quiet, only the rustle of everyone taking notes, and the common smile on their faces that they could finally let go.
The meeting ended at 9 p.m., and every teacup was still full, and no one bothered to drink water. The footsteps of the end are not running home, but towards their respective units.
Organize materials, sort out policies, and discuss plans. Early the next morning, a pair of bloodshot eyes gathered in the compound of the municipal party committee. Some people came to ask for their opinions, and some people acted quickly and rushed to Hangzhou in official cars. They have to arrive before they go to work and talk to the authorities about the specifics.
It is not easy to face the problems of reform head-on, and it is not easy to promote it. For example, if the management authority is delegated, will the administrative institution have the right to collect fees? How to fill the financial gap at the municipal level in Jinhua?
"There have been 3 promotion meetings presided over by provincial leaders alone. According to the information compiled by the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee Office, in March 2007, after more than three months of coordination and docking, the General Office of the Provincial Government officially issued a document to delegate the first batch of 472 economic and social management authorities to Yiwu.
Yiwu, which "put on big clothes", has significantly improved its work efficiency and investment environment, which has also laid the foundation for its development in the next ten years.
An intuitive data: in 2007 and 2008, the average annual growth rate of Yiwu's GDP was more than 12%.
A distinctive case: in July 2009, the original Yiwu Office of Jinhua Customs was officially upgraded to Hangzhou Customs, which is subordinate to Yiwu Customs. In the year of closing, the annual export container volume of small commodities exceeded 500,000 TEUs.
Yiwu Customs queues up for vehicles to leave customs. Sharing Alliance Yiwu photo by Wu Fengyu
(3) Break through again
After the reform of the management system and mechanism, Yiwu has continued the development of "inexplicable", "creating something out of nothing" and "turning stones into gold", and various undertakings have reached a new level. However, the hidden dangers left in the early stage of domestic trade to foreign trade have also become a big stone in the hearts of Yiwu people.
In general foreign trade exports, a container is loaded with a commodity. However, there are many types of small commodities and a small quantity per batch, so in order to reduce inspection fees and customs clearance fees, merchants often "spell" dozens of goods into a box. As a result, it has caused corresponding regulatory problems such as customs, inspection, foreign exchange, and taxation.
"Hangzhou and Jinhua Customs adopt the mode of tourism and shopping supervision, allowing small commodities to be 'assembled' for customs clearance, but the scale of Yiwu's exports is getting larger and larger, and it is urgent to further promote the innovation of foreign trade methods. Xu Jian, director of the Reform Office of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee, said that the regulatory "blind spot" caused market disorder, the quality of export goods was uneven, and even labeled as "low-end", and international disputes occurred from time to time.
Yiwu is the time when we can't help but change.
In 2009, Yiwu set up a special working group to introduce a forced mechanism internally and strive for reform policies externally. Shi Wenzhen, then director of the Political Research Office of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, was one of the members.
When the working group first went to Beijing, it encountered a problem. The leaders of the national ministries and commissions politely received the visitors from Yiwu, but expressed difficulties in the reform demands of reducing the catalogue of goods inspected by the customs: "First, there is no precedent, and second, the rest of the country cannot be balanced. ”
The department has visited, the province has helped to win it, and the National People's Congress deputies have put forward bills...... This road of reform has always been difficult to follow.
Unexpectedly, in 2010, the State Council Research Office reported the "Investigation and Suggestions on the Pilot of Comprehensive Reform of International Trade in Yiwu", which attracted the attention of Xi Jinping, then member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice president of the state.
He made important instructions, requiring in-depth thinking and timely promotion of the pilot of Yiwu's comprehensive reform of international trade. In March of the following year, the State Council officially approved the launch of Yiwu international trade comprehensive reform pilot.
Yiwu has thus become the country's first county-level city approved by the State Council for the pilot of international trade reform.
"In terms of market procurement and trade innovation, we entered the market and visited enterprises during the day, and at night we sorted out ideas, wrote reports, and wrote a total of 100,000 words. Shi Wenzhen said that the thousand-character plan finally submitted by the municipal party committee and the municipal government to the province embodies Comrade Xi Jinping's concern for Yiwu, and also embodies the reform spirit of "cadres dare to act, localities dare to break through, enterprises dare to do, and the masses dare to take the initiative".
So far, Yiwu has introduced more than 200 trade and financial facilitation measures, forming more than 700 innovative cases. Among them, the reform of market procurement and trade methods has been replicated and promoted in more than 30 cities across the country.
Yiwu cityscape. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee
In fact, the deeper we go into Yiwu, the more we can deeply feel that the spirit of initiative has been deeply integrated into this land. From the "Sugar Knocking Gang" who went south and north, to Feng Aiqian, who bravely set up stalls, and Xie Gaohua, the "pioneer of reform", their baton has been passed on to generations of cadres and masses.
"Without that discussion on transforming e-commerce, there would be no continued prosperity of the Yiwu market. In 2006, Wu Bocheng, who served as the secretary of the party committee and president of the mall group, did not expect that after six or seven years of smooth sailing, he would encounter an unprecedented "wind and waves".
At that time, online consumption was in the ascendant, and Yiwu International Trade City, which focused on offline display and merchant procurement, gradually lost its charm.
After a few rounds of the market, everyone was shocked: the vacancy rate of shops was as high as 9%!
Whether to go online, how to go online, from the mall group to the government, I can't make up my mind. There are also people who say the opposite: "Yiwu small commodities take the route of standardization and batching, and the clothes, shoes and hats of e-commerce are non-standard products, and changing to online is a dead end." ”
Wu Bocheng remembers that it was the end of August in the heat of 2013, and a vigorous discussion began. In response to the ideological obstacles that hinder entrepreneurship and innovation, the whole city issued the "Yiwu Nine Questions"——
"Do we still need the spirit of 'chicken feathers for sugar' in the new era?"
"Will Yiwu become a frog in warm water?"
"Is our dream just to be a landlord?"
……
Every unit, every village, and every Yiwu person "sat down", looked at the crisis, thought of countermeasures, and sought a way out.
The consensus was to embrace change.
For a time, organized by the Market Development Committee, run by the Mall Group, and opened by vocational schools, e-commerce training courses have sprung up. Qingyan Liu Village, Jiangbei Xia Zhu Village, and revitalized the community, one by one the villages and communities "touched the net" and prospered.
The upsurge of learning and Xi development has been set off up and down, and there is the momentum of everyone learning foreign languages and doing foreign trade at the beginning of the 21st century!
Soon after, Zhang Jiying looked forward to her daughter Zhang Jiayuan, who had returned from studying abroad, and settled in the e-commerce platform to open up online and offline.
Today's Yiwu market, constantly listening to the needs of the times, the voice of the world, although selling is still a small commodity, but the inside has already undergone revolutionary changes——
Here, more than 70% of the merchants are engaged in both online and offline business, and 26.4% of the market operators are university graduates.
One street away from the fifth phase of the trade city, a new park called the "Global Digital Trade Center" will also rise.
This will be the sixth generation of Yiwu market, beyond the concept of the physical market, integrating R&D and design, brand live broadcast, financial services and other functions, brewing the next "stone into gold".
During the National Day holiday, the "world supermarket" was one after another. Sharing Alliance Yiwu photo by Wu Fengyu
(4) Go out
When I met Feng Xubin, chairman of Yixinou Trade Services Group, he had just returned from Spain. Although it is dusty, it is full of confidence and passion.
"Madrid", for him 10 years ago, was only a point on the map, but 10 years later, it has become the city he travels the most, and one of the destinations of the "Yixinou" China-Europe train.
After the 2008 financial crisis and the opportunity of the 2011 international trade reform pilot, Yiwu once again took advantage of the momentum, and foreign trade exports showed a "blowout" growth. In 2012, the total self-operated exports reached 9 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 150%, and contributed 65.8% to the growth of Zhejiang's foreign trade exports.
Small commodities and containers have continuously arrived in more than 200 countries and regions around the world, continuing to write the development legend of "inexplicable", "creating something out of nothing" and "turning stones into gold" in the world.
However, in the open center, Yiwu people feel that they are "stuck" again.
The most important problem is that the passage is not smooth. At that time, there were two main ways for Yiwu goods to be exported, one was to transport the car to Ningbo Port or Shanghai Port first, and then go to sea by steamer, and the other was to transport it to the Xinjiang border port by road or railway, and then go out of the customs.
The first way, slow. Missing the departure of a freighter and encountering a port inspection can be delayed for several weeks. Commodities with high timeliness requirements can't go.
The second way is expensive. Merchants said that most of the profits were "eaten" by freight, and it was very difficult to get the goods and lose their credit.
"Why don't you take a train to send goods from Yiwu to Europe?" Feng Xubin thought. Inquire again, the huge international trade city, the train direct transport "zero" record. He couldn't sit still.
But friends who are engaged in logistics first "pour cold water": "From Central Asia to Europe, a country has a checkpoint, and even the container shipping standards are different, how to get through?"
Relevant departments also "vaccinated": "The municipal government has entrusted the relevant departments of the province to apply to the Ministry of Railways for 'train customs clearance trade' many times, but there has been no news for a long time. ”
Indeed, because it was an inland county-level city, Yiwu did not even have a railway customs supervision station at that time. And this is the most basic condition for the opening of international intermodal trains.
How to promote the deepening of reform by expanding opening up? The tide of the times is testing the people of Yiwu and the bridgehead of opening up to the outside world.
As they pondered, they ushered in a major opportunity.
In September 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Central Asia. At Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, he first proposed the initiative of jointly building the "Silk Road Economic Belt".
"Provinces, cities and counties work together!" Feng Xubin said, and the relevant person in charge of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government immediately set off and took him to the province to report. The plan to open Yiwu to Central Asia and Europe has been affirmed and strongly supported.
This year, he broke two cars, running to Hangzhou and Beijing for docking, and Chongqing and Xinjiang to study Xi. The people in the same car changed batch after batch, including customs, commerce bureaus, and transportation bureaus. The most difficult part is to coordinate the supply of goods.
In the face of hesitation, Feng Xubin, under the recommendation of Lin Huihuan, the person in charge of Yitong European Logistics Co., Ltd., and others, got acquainted with more than 10 overseas Chinese businessmen such as Xia Yongping, executive chairman of the Spanish Chinese and Western Department Store Association, and promised on the spot: the loss of goods caused by the poor operation of the train, and the loss of one will pay two.
Through reform and innovation, Yiwu City has also simultaneously broken the blockages on the open channel one by one——
In 2013, Yiwu Railway Customs Supervision Site passed the acceptance;
In 2014, the original station space for transporting coal and steel was released, and Yiwu West Railway Station had the ability to send entire trucks to Europe;
……
On September 26, 2014, President Xi Jinping said in a meeting with then Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy that the China-Europe freight train has a good development momentum, and the "Yixinou" railway plans to start from Yiwu, Zhejiang Province and arrive at Madrid, and China welcomes the West to actively participate in the construction and operation to jointly improve the level of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
52 days later, the first "Yixinou" China-Europe train was departed. From Yiwu, I changed the car 3 times, traveled 13,052 kilometers, and went to Spain.
On September 28, 2023, the 19th route of the China-Europe (Yixinou) train - Yiwu-Boti (Georgia) debuted. Sharing Alliance Yiwu photo by Wu Fengyu
From one-way to two-way, from 1 line to 19 lines, when "Yixinou" continued to write the "New Silk Road", Yiwu also embraced the world with a more open attitude.
to the sea. Wang Jianwei, chairman of Yiwu Land Port Group, said that through the construction of the "sixth port area", containers entering various ports in Yiwu are regarded as entering Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, and can be "declared, inspected and released". In addition, 4 sea-rail intermodal trains have landed, realizing "one order to the end", "arriving at the port as a whole" and "going to sea on the same ship", shortening the transportation time for enterprises by more than two days.
to the sky. Cheng Kechao, head of Zhejiang Yangcheng International Logistics Co., Ltd., said that the demand for cross-border e-commerce small-amount, small-batch, and high-efficiency express transportation has soared, and Yiwu has linked customs, border inspection, airports and other departments to quickly build an international air freight station and airport logistics park. The "Aerial Silk Road" to Osaka, Manila and other places is becoming smoother and smoother.
It is not near the river, not near the sea, not along the border, a small inland county, but it can integrate the sea, land and air channels. The proportion of exports in the country increased from 0.1% in 2010 to 1.8% in 2022.
The international logistics platform "Global YDH" built by Yiwu Mall Group provides various logistics resource information for foreign trade enterprises. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee
Yiwu is indeed a pearl on the map of reform and opening up in Zhejiang and even China.
From the Mercedes-Benz train, to the busy station, from the towering shopping mall, to the new platform, walking Yiwu, we clearly feel a city that is becoming more and more open, a city with increased vitality.
(5) Everyone should be well
Cilin Community, the most common "United Nations" community in Yiwu, has a registered population of more than 6,000 and a floating population of 15,000, including 843 foreigners, from 78 countries and regions such as Jordan, Syria and India.
In June 2014, at the opening ceremony of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, General Secretary Xi Jinping told with emotion: "In Zhejiang, where I once worked, there is such a story. In the city of Yiwu, where Arab businessmen gather, a Jordanian businessman named Muhannad opened an authentic Arabic restaurant. He brought the original Arabic food culture to Yiwu, and also reaped the success of his career in the prosperity of Yiwu, and finally tied the knot with a Chinese girl and took root in China. ”
"Brother, brother, give me face!" said Muhannad, who was speaking Arabic and patting his fellow on the shoulder.
After living in Yiwu for 21 years, his flower restaurant has become more stylish and has changed its name to Bedi Restaurant, which means "my home" in Arabic. In addition to opening a restaurant, Muhannad also opened a trading company. At this time, he is mediating a dispute over the wages of foreigners.
"We went to Yiwu mainly to make money, right? You are so noisy, his restaurant can't be opened, and your salary can't be paid, what's the benefit?"
"He's quicker, you should be more generous, everyone take a step back, settle the money today, how about it?" After playing the emotional card, and then playing the reasoning card, Muhannad went around, and the two sides of the dispute shook hands and made peace, and had lunch together. A matter of concern for the community workers has also come to an end.
In the whole of Yiwu, there are quite a few communities like Cilin. The number of immigrants exceeds the number of locals, and there are 15,000 foreigners out of a permanent population of nearly 2 million. Business, workers, dialect speakers, foreign language speakers, multicultural and complex demands converge here, making various contradictions such as labor conflicts and emotional disputes surface.
All this has given birth to reform initiatives such as the "International Old Lady". In 2006, Yiwu implemented the policy of localization of foreign population, and launched a pilot project for the integration of foreign personnel into the community, and in 2013, the Yiwu People's Mediation Committee for Foreign-related Disputes, the country's first long-term mechanism for mediation of foreign-related disputes, was established, and the first batch of 13 foreigners from 12 countries was recruited.
Many Muhannaids came to Yiwu for innovation and entrepreneurship, and also participated in social governance, and their dream journey resonated with the Chinese dream of pursuing happiness and harmony.
On November 6 this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping cordially met with representatives of the selected units of the national "Fengqiao-style work method" at the Great Hall of the People. One of them is the Yiwu "Foreign Investigation Commission".
Ned House Dragon Boat Festival. Photo courtesy of Choucheng Street, Yiwu City
At present, in the Cilin community, the "House of Ned" studio initiated by Muhannad has 17 members, and has mediated more than 400 disputes.
Looking back on the past, the exploration of social development and governance in Yiwu is also the epitome of the deepening of Zhejiang's reform.
Yiwu, the "wind vane" of market reform, has become an important practical sample for Comrade Xi Jinping to promote overall reform. Coordinating urban and rural development is an important part of it.
In 2006, the "Twenty Articles for the Construction of Yiwu New Countryside" was formulated to promote farmers and citizens to enjoy equal treatment.
In June of that year, before holding a forum to promote Yiwu's development experience, Comrade Xi Jinping specifically proposed to go to the countryside to have a look.
At the convenience supermarket in Hengtang Village, Chengxi Street, Comrade Xi Jinping carefully asked the shopkeeper about the price of the goods, whether the quality could be guaranteed, and whether the masses were satisfied or not.
Then, he also walked into the house of villager Yu Meizhen to learn about the work and life of the family.
Hearing that the village has changed a lot, and that the family members who have gone to the city to do business want to come back and stay longer, Comrade Xi Jinping said with a smile: "There is great hope for the construction of the new countryside!"
Subsequently, in the meeting room of the village committee, Comrade Xi Jinping proposed the "five combinations", including "the need to closely integrate the promotion of economic development with the promotion of comprehensive social progress."
"Now, I can write a book about my happiness!" A few years ago, Yiwu built a national e-commerce demonstration base, and the site was located in the Hengtang area.
Aerial view of Hengtang Village, West Street, Yiwu City, after organic renewal. Courtesy of Yiwu Chengxi Street
The old village has been organically renewed and turned into a park. The old house of the Jin family has been transformed into a coffee shop. The old couple moved into a high-rise building and were also allocated 70 square meters of industrial space per person.
In the morning, I go to the rented land to grow vegetables, in the afternoon, I go to the park to bask in the sun, in the evening, I dance in the square, and occasionally travel to Qiandao Lake and other places. Jin Yongliang said: "There is a taste of old age. ”
(6) Always stand at the head of the tide
This year, in the face of the complex international and domestic situation, from foreign trade to domestic demand, Yiwu has to overcome a lot of difficulties, up and down have gritted their teeth.
At the critical moment of development, they once again ushered in the general secretary.
On the morning of September 20, under the golden autumn sun, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Li Zu Village. In recent years, the environment of the village has been greatly improved, and rural tourism is very prosperous, from the former "buffalo horn" to "green and rich beauty".
Knowing that the annual per capita income of the villagers has reached 52,000 yuan, the general secretary was very happy: "Lizu Village has steadily promoted common prosperity, which is a microcosm of the remarkable results of Zhejiang's 'Ten Million Project'. ”
Leaving Lizu Village and coming to the second phase of Yiwu International Trade City, the general secretary learned about the operation of the trade city in real time through the electronic screen, and walked into the market to communicate with the representatives of merchants and small business owners.
Zhang Jiying, a merchant who has worked hard in Yiwu for 27 years, is selling umbrellas through live broadcasts. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee
At Zhang Jiying's shop, the general secretary asked cordially: "How long have you been working here?"
"It's been 27 years. Zhang Jiying replied. The 15-square-meter shop that first moved into the city in 2004 has now expanded to 3 stores of 45 square meters. A dazzling array of umbrellas of different styles are neatly displayed.
"The feet of the farmer do not leave the field, and the person who does business does not leave the counter. Zhang Jiying said that this is the business experience that her father taught her back then. Focusing on entrepreneurship for more than 20 years, she has grown step by step from setting up a stall to opening a store, and then running a business, and the umbrellas she produces have been sold to more than 100 countries and regions around the world.
These umbrellas, which are customized according to customer needs, or designed with traditional Chinese cultural elements, or adopt new technologies and can change color when exposed to water, are widely popular at home and abroad, and are sold at a price of up to 388 yuan a piece.
"I wish you all the best in your work!" said the general secretary with a smile.
Zhao Wenge, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Yiwu Mall Group, who accompanied him all the way, reported that in 2002, the Commodity City was 1.1 million square meters and there were more than 30,000 merchants. Today, it is 6.4 million square meters, with 75,000 merchants, more than 60% of the stores have self-operated enterprises and self-operated brands, and more than 20% of annual sales come from new products.
Listening to the stories and figures, the general secretary once again talked about the "development experience of Yiwu": "This place, which is neither near the sea nor the border, has become a trade center in the world? ”
Before walking out of the trade city, he did not forget to encourage everyone, "Yiwu small commodities have broken out of the big market and become a big industry, and it is great to come to this point." "Each of you is a participant, builder and contributor to the development of Yiwu, and you must continue to work hard and create brilliance. "The trade city should create new brilliance and make greater contributions to expanding the domestic and international markets and smoothing the domestic and international dual circulation." ”
Here and now, reading the wonderful answer sheet of Yiwu in the past 45 years of reform and opening up, in the face of the future full of opportunities and challenges, the story of the city moving forward once again tells us -
惟reformer,勇立潮头; 惟有依靠reform,talent永远立潮头。
Editor: Shu Mengqing
Source: Chao News