Alibaba Group signed with Zhejiang China Commodities City Group in Yiwu city, Zhejiang province to establish the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) Yiwu Joint Venture on June 18.

According to the deal, both sides will build the Yiwu International Trade Public Service Platform, which will provide services in customs clearance, settlement, taxes and supply chains.

The signing ceremony was attended by Zhang Yong, chairman of Alibaba; Wu Zeming, co-founder of Alibaba; Tian Deming, deputy director of Hangzhou Customs; Lin Yi, Party secretary of Yiwu, and Wang Jian, mayor of Yiwu.

According to the deal, the eWTP Yiwu Joint Venture will be responsible for building the Yiwu eWTP Public Service Trade Platform, which will help digitalize the trade chain and provide better services for global small and micro companies.

The city of Yiwu signed an eWTP strategic cooperation deal with Alibaba Group on June 19, 2019, aiming to provide a wide range of services for global small and micro companies, helping them get involved in global trade more easily.

Since Yiwu began to build eWTP last year, an increasing number of local small and medium-sized companies in the city have made efforts to explore the global market on the platform.

According to statistics shown by Alibaba International, the online trade volume of local businesses in Yiwu increased by 82 percent within a year, with nearly 3 million buyers from across the globe showing interest in trade.