Xiamen ranks fifth among China's top 100 cities in foreign trade
Xiamen in East China's Fujian province made the list of China's top 100 cities in terms of comprehensive competitiveness in foreign trade for 2019.
The list was recently published by China Customs magazine.
Xiamen was ranked fifth with a score of 77.4, behind Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Dongguan.
A total of 297 cities at municipal level and above were evaluated based on five aspects – capability, industrial structure, profits, development and potential of foreign trade, with 25 indexes taken into consideration.
In 2019, Xiamen's imports and exports grew 6.9 percent year-on-year to 641.29 billion yuan ($92.92 billion), accounting for 48.2 percent of the province's total.
Trade with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative also achieved strong growth at 14.4 percent in 2019 - total trade with these nations amounted to 202.19 billion yuan, accounting for 31.5 percent of the city's overall foreign trade.
Despite being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Xiamen's foreign trade still maintained a stable growth rate of 3.9 percent in the first half of this year.
Why Xiamen
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Xiamen is one of the most economically competitive cities in China and was one of the first Special Economic Zones on the Chinese mainland. As a vice-provincial city independently listed on the State development plan, it has provincial-level authority in economic administration and local legislative power. In 2010, the Xiamen SEZ was expanded to cover the entire municipality. Today, Xiamen is a modern and international port city.