Speech delivered at 2015 China (Linyi) International Sourcing Conference by Wei Huaxiang, Vice Mayor of Linyi Municipal Government

Wei Huaxiang, Vice Mayor of Linyi Municipal Government, delivered a speech at 2015 China (Linyi) International Sourcing Conference on Oct. 18 in Linyi City, East China's Shandong Province.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, friends,

On the occasion of the convening the 6th China (Linyi) International Trade and Logistics Fair, we are gathered here to hold the 2015 China (Linyi) International Sourcing Conference. First of all, on behalf of Linyi municipal people’s government, I would like to express my warm welcome to all the guests present today.

Linyi is located in the southeast of Shandon province, exercising jurisdiction over 9 counties and 3 districts. It has a population of 11.13 million and covers an area of 17.2 thousand square kilometers. It is the largest city in Shandong province in terms of its population and land area.

Linyi is a city with long history of 2500 years and splendid culture. The world famous bamboo slips of Sunzi’s Art of War and Sunbin’s Art of War was unearthed in Linyi city.

It is also the home town of many celebrities, such as, Wang Xizhi, the sage of calligraphy, Zhuge Liang, the sage of wisdom, Yan Zhenqing, famous calligrapher, Liu Hong, the inventor of abacus.

Linyi enjoys advantageous location and convenient transportation. It is located on the one end of the new Eurasian land bridge, being adjacent to the sea and ports. It is less than 100 kilometer away to the Lianyungang and rizhao ports, and only two hours’ drive to Qingdao port.

There are 5 express ways sourding the downtown area. Yanshi and jiaoxin railways crisscross in the city. The construction of Lunan passenger special line-Linyi section will be started at the end of this year; it will be put into operation in 2018. By then, it will only take 2 hours to Beijing.

There are over 20 scheduled flights in Linyi airport; the passenger throughput is one million. The traffic system of land, sea and air is becoming more and more complete and convenient.

Linyi is a city with prosperous trade and developed logistics. Linyi is a famous market city in China. It has 128 special wholesale markets of various kinds, covering 25 categories, such as, small commodity, hardware, building materials, wood-based panel, garden machinery, etc. with over 60,000 brands.

Linyi is the capital city of logistics in China. It has over 2000 loading lines covering all the cities above county level and reaching all the ports all over the country, with the logistics costs 20%-30% lower than the national average level.

E-commerce is surging quickly. The trade volume of e-commerce in the first half of this year is 56 billion, up 40%.

Linyi is a city with abundant tourism resources and beautiful eco-environment. It has 100 A level scenic spots in the whole city, among which, there is one 5A tourism attraction and 23 4A tourism attractions. Mountain Meng is the second highest in Shandong province and the 5A tourism attractions. It is reputed as the natural oxygen bar and longevity mountain.

Linyi abounds in water resource, which takes up one sixth of the whole province. There are 8 rivers running through the downtown area with the water storage area of over 50 square kilometers, which create a water city landscape featuring 8 rivers running though the city and beautiful scenery on the banks. The riverside scenic spot is the largest urban wetland nationwide.

Linyi maintains a sound development momentum and good prospects. In the first half of this year, the GDP of the whole city registered 189.62 billion RMB, up 6.2%; the public fiscal revenue 16.13 billion RMB, up 12.3%, the trade volume of Linyi trading complex 165.37 billion RMB, up 28.3%.

Linyi has been successively rated as “the city with best investment potential in the eye of transnational corporations”, and awarded as the top prize of efficient government with competitiveness among Chinese cities released by World Bank. It was elected as the best commercial city on Chinese mainland for 8 consecutive years by Forbes.

Distinguished guests and dear friends, Linyi municipal party committee and municipal government are vigorously promoting the internationalization of Linyi trading complex and speeding up the construction of international famous trade city. Now is the best time for the purchasers to come to our city.

First, we provide preferential policies. Linyi trading complex is implementing a series policies, such as, carrying out comprehensive pilot reform of international trade, implementing the supervision of tourism purchasing pattern, supervision of export commodity inspection, etc. we reduce the added value tax for the tourism purchasing commodities and for the export commodities, we adopt the supervision pattern of qualification assumption and give green light based on the license. The Municipal government has set up special fund and provided trusteeship loans of tax refund, which greatly improve the efficiency of tax refund upon export goods. So far, we are striving to adopt the trade pattern of market purchasing, exploring the exporting pattern of international engineering materials and creating a base for international engineering material.

Second, we have good platforms. Linyi port has complete facilities with the annual designed handling volume of 500,000 TEU, which could realize customs declaration, inspection, and given green light all at one time. Linyi bonded area has officially passed the national acceptance test, and is scheduled to start operation by the end of October, which could provide services related to tax exemption, protective tariffs, and export tax rebate, etc. Linyi has successfully launched international flights to South Korea, and opened Lin Xin O fast freight trains which further reduced the cost of international procurement; accelerate the establishment of overseas offices, rationally set up "border warehouses" and "overseas warehouse", to further improve cross-border efficiency of e–commerce and logistics.

Third, we offer good service. Linyi Trade City international trade hall can provide services including registration, foreign administrative examination and approval, shopping guide, translation, legal advice and freight forwarding.  Registration of foreign trade companies has been reduced from seven to three working days. China (Linyi) International Procurement Center can provide foreign trade enterprises with customs clearance, inspection of, export tax rebates, foreign exchange and other "one-stop" service.

Four, we have good environment. In order to better serve international buyers, the city set up a foreign travel health center, a foreign hospital, a foreign language school and foreigners club. The city provides buyers with convenient and comfortable life service facilities including hotels, restaurants, health care, education etc.

We will view the International procurement Fair as an opportunity to provide quality services for Chinese and foreign businessmen, and strive to create a more efficient business environment.

I believe that through this conference, both buyers and sellers will find satisfying cooperators to purchase high-quality goods, and achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results.

In the end, I wish this trade fair a complete success! I wish all guests and friends successful career, happiness and good health!

责任编辑：梁子硕