Jining in East China's Shandong province has seen impressive achievements in its foreign trade sector in the first half of 2021 after making great efforts to improve the city's business environment.

In the first six months of this year, Jining's foreign trade totaled 28.41 billion yuan ($4.39 billion), an increase of 29.8 percent year-on-year. Its imports and exports over the same period reached 9.58 billion yuan and 18.8 billion yuan, up 20.9 percent and 34.9 percent respectively.

By the end of 2020, Jining has been home to more than 1,500 foreign trade companies and ranked 5th in terms of the growth rate of foreign trade in Shandong.

Jining's bureau of commerce has been making continuous efforts to boost the city's foreign trade. It has been working with relevant government departments, such as the customs and taxation administrations, as well as making full use of the province's online platform to address the concerns of local foreign trade companies.

Jining's taxation authorities have greatly streamlined the tax refund process, returning a total of 1.29 billion yuan during the first half of this year, an increase of 25 percent year-on-year. As the city with the most companies in Shandong running pilot programs that facilitate foreign exchange payments, Jining's local administrations have settled transactions worth $213 million in the first six months of the year, an increase of 128 percent. In addition, the amount of time spent by companies having to travel back and forth to a bank to handle business was reduced by 80 percent.

To further support cross-border trade in the city, Jining's commerce bureau will make a work plan to cultivate more foreign trade talents, help companies to take full advantage of preferential policies regarding customs clearance and tax refunds, as well as give full play to foreign trade service suppliers. It will also take active measures to attract more cross-border e-commerce companies, as well as build a provincial-level industrial park and public overseas warehouses.