Xinhua Silk Road: E China city leverages high-level opening-up to bolster high-quality growth

BEIJING, April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- When the 5th RCEP (Shandong) Import Expo kicked off on Monday, crowds of purchasers from home and abroad and exhibitors from 48 countries thronged Linyi City to feel the pulse of its opening up.

As a city home to Linyi Trade City, one of the earliest wholesale market clusters in China, it is gaining speed in growing its opening up-led economy, boasting extensive trade ties with countries across the world.

Last year, Linyi Trade City reported an aggregate turnover of 708.53 billion yuan, total logistics value of 1.08 trillion yuan, and gross import and export value of 124.52 billion yuan, attesting again to its vibrancy.

By 2035, the city pledged to shape the Linyi Trade City into an international commodity distribution center and logistics hub, a goal that has already been written in a Shandong provincial government bulletin.

In October 2025, Shandong provincial government unveiled a basket of 22 measures to back the high-quality development of Linyi Trade City and afterwards, Linyi leveraged the "dual-center" construction mode to further optimize local opening up mechanisms.

By advancing reforms in key sectors such as customs clearance, logistics, finance, legal services and risk control, the city further invigorated factor flow-driven opening up while expanding institutional opening up at a steady pace.

Under such circumstances, its foreign trade with Africa skyrocketed 109.3 percent on year to 21.26 billion yuan in 2025.

Linyi has been revving up its exploration of emerging markets such as Africa, the ASEAN region and the Middle East, making them key growth drivers for local foreign trade, according to a person in charge of related affairs with Linyi Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

Furthermore, other integrated service facilities were also put into operation to bolster high-quality foreign trade growth.

Earlier in February, Linyi international trade center, a local service harbor that combines outgoing-related customs, taxation, foreign exchange, finance and logistic services, and Linyi digital trade center became operational, further lowering digitization threshold for local businesses to improve trade efficiency.

Moreover, overseas exhibitions and local events for foreign merchants are regularly organized by the city to boost two-way trade together with exploration of new transport routes connecting with central and southeast Asia and other key markets.

Co-functioning of such efforts is now serving as a staunch support for Linyi's way forward in prompting opening up-led trade development.

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