Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co, an A-share listed State-controlled company based in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, published a notice on June 15 stating that it plans to spend 449 million yuan ($69.6 million) in purchasing 100 percent of the shares of Zhejiang Haier Network Technology Co.

The most valuable asset for the company to be acquired is its license for third-party payments, which was granted by People's Bank of China in July 2013.

The acquisition would result in Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co owning its first license for third-party payments.

Zhejiang China Commodities City Group manages the world's largest wholesale market for small commodities in Yiwu, which is often dubbed "the world's supermarket". The brick-and-mortar market under the group's management occupies 6.4 million square meters and houses around 75,000 shops, having established trade relations with about 230 countries and regions, as well as having introduced 150,000 kinds of overseas goods from 100 countries and regions.

Statistics show that Yiwu's foreign trade volume stood at 91.86 billion yuan from January to April, up 32.8 percent year-on-year. In the same period, Yiwu handled 23.1935 million articles of goods for cross-border businesses, up 25.46 percent from the previous year.

Express delivery service companies in the county-level city delivered a total of 2.67 billion parcels during the first four months of this year, which was 74 percent more than the corresponding figure last year and was only surpassed by the southern metropolis of Guangzhou among all Chinese cities.

In October 2020, Zhejiang China Commodities City Group launched chinagoods.com, a comprehensive online service platform for international trade. The third-party payment qualification will help the group lower the costs of payment, improve customer experience, and strengthen supervision over digital trade on the platform.

Zhejiang China Commodities City Group launches chinagoods.com in October 2020. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]