Safety assured

The tour group was headed by Fei Jianming, director of the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce's foreign trade promotion department.

In his tour diary, which was published in Ningbo Daily on July 10, Fei wrote, "The launch of the chartered flight is the first step, but there is still a long way to go.

"We need to promote cooperation between Ningbo and foreign companies while strictly implementing epidemic prevention measures. To ensure the safety of our group members, health experts from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are traveling with us."

According to the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce, more chartered flights will be made available for foreign-trade companies nationwide, and the authorities will help reduce travel costs.

On Thursday, a second group of foreign-trade entrepreneurs was due to leave Ningbo for Milan, Italy.

To enable foreign-trade enterprises to better access the international market, the authorities in Ningbo began promoting exhibition services last month among companies that have had difficulty taking part in offline exhibitions overseas.

As part of this service, Chinese companies send their products to exhibition sites, and prospective purchasers can contact the companies online at these venues.

The authorities in Zhejiang have introduced measures to stabilize foreign trade and investment, and to tackle difficulties faced by businesses.

These steps are aimed at boosting cross-border trade by streamlining the process for businesspeople to enter and leave China, with 24-hour special service windows being planned to quickly issue the documents that such visitors require.

The measures also seek to expand markets, provide support for small businesses in international maritime logistics, reduce financing costs for enterprises, and facilitate settlement in international trade and investment.

Investment support

Foreign businesspeople arriving in Zhejiang will be offered support to engage in investment, entrepreneurship, scientific research, and trade activities during their stay. More chartered business flights will be arranged and the number of scheduled flights will be increased.

The measures that have been introduced will result in at least 50 overseas exhibitions being organized to help enterprises explore the international market and boost their development.

Zhejiang will also provide one-off financial support for the establishment of regional headquarters or research and development centers by foreign-funded enterprises in the province.

In addition, a regular communication mechanism between provincial leaders, heads of multinationals, and people responsible for major investment projects in leading companies, such as those on the Fortune Global 500 list, will be established to promote further cooperation.

Last year, Zhejiang's total import and export volume ranked third in China.