Yiwu, one of the golden hubs of the Belt and Road Initiative located in East China's Zhejiang province, is embracing new driving force for global development.

In the first 11 months of this year, Yiwu's imports and exports to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative totaled 377.58 billion yuan ($51.73 billion), an increase of 17.6 percent on a yearly basis, accounting for 61.5 percent of the total import and export value of Yiwu in the same period, according to customs data on Thursday.

According to a circular released on Dec 11, the State Council has approved the overall plan for deepening comprehensive international trade reforms in Yiwu, a city known as the "world's supermarket".

Promoting Belt and Road cooperation and high-quality development of the China-Europe freight train network, the small commodity hub is slated to further contribute to advancing China's dual circulation strategy, which integrates domestic and global markets and supports efforts to build China into a strong trading nation, Xinhua reported citing the circular.

In the first 11 months of the year, Yiwu's imports and exports surged 17.6 percent year-on-year, reaching 613.99 billion yuan.

During the period, the city's export value was 542.06 billion yuan, while the import value was 71.93 billion yuan, up 17.4 and 19 percent, respectively, on a yearly basis.

As per the data, the export of household appliances in Yiwu was 15.19 billion yuan through to November, an increase of 36.2 percent on a yearly basis. The export of auto parts reached 6.82 billion yuan with a yearly increase of 33.3 percent.

The export of sporting goods and equipment was 9 billion yuan, up 30.6 percent year-on-year, while the import of cosmetics and toiletries was 7.82 billion yuan, up 22.9 percent on a yearly basis.

The external environment is complicated this year, and the country's support for Yiwu to deepen a new round of comprehensive reform of international trade has brought good news to foreign trade development, said Wang Dong, chairman of Zhejiang China Commodity City Group Co Ltd, during an interview with Xinhua.

He also mentioned that the company should follow the guidance of the just concluded Central Economic Work Conference by promoting the upgrading of Yiwu market and vigorously develop new forms of digital trade, to make contributions to expanding domestic and international markets.

Editor: Xu Zhitian