An expert was introducing the latest policies at the Lihe Lighting Expo Center on April 3.[Photo by Wen Bo]

Last year, Zhongshan became one of the 4th National Market Purchasing Trade Units. The city was also among the three pilot cities in Guangdong Province.

As of April 3rd at 5 p.m., a total of 485 companies registered to the "Zhongshan Market Purchasing Trade Information Platform". The city's exports under the market purchasing trade have already exceeded 500 million Yuan.

Zhang Yanqing, a company representative of Zhongshan Yanghong Import and Export Limited, pinpoints that this new trade system has brought real benefits to enterprises. Previously, under the general trade or supply export systems, the company had to spend two days, perhaps a week, to prepare customs declaration documents on account of various product categories. Now, though, under the market purchasing trade system, the procedure has been simplified and the preparation time has been limited to just a couple of hours.

According to Liu Xuan, an official of Zhongshan Customs, market purchasing trade is a convenient channel notably for exporting small commodities that feature "multiple varieties, small amounts and multiple batches". Exports under the market purchasing trade system soared last month, an indication that this new trade system has met Zhongshan's industrial and economic demands.