1288 foreign enterprises from over 100 countries and regions set up their representative offices in Yiwu

Sources from the related office indicate that by the end of August，2007 ，there have been 1 ，2 8 8 foreign enterprises from over 100 countries and regions setting up thei r representative offices in Yiwu . Yiwu now is the county with the largest number of permanent establishments abroad in China . In April，2002 ，a Palestinian trade company firstly setup its office in Yiwu . And with the growing reputation of Yiwu around the world，the number of permanent offices of foreign countries increases rapidly .

　　This March，the representative office of Darcono Brothers Co . Ltd was established by Darcono from Mali ，Africa，who became the 1000th one of foreign offices in Yiwu . Sinc e then，Yiwu has become the first city with one thousand resident offices of foreign enterprises in Zhejiang Province . With the great influence in the international world，Yiwu owns more and more resident offices of foreign enterprises . Up to now，Yiwu ranks the first in all county-level cities in China according to its number of permanent offices of foreign countries. Initially，most resident offices came from the Middle East and Africa. But since 2004 ，more and more offices have been coming from Europe ，America ，Japan ，Korea and otherd eveloped countries，which accounts for 17 . 6% of the total today .

In the first half of this year，due to the stable，sound and rapid growth of the city’s export-oriented economy，the total volume of the import & export trade amounted to 818 million US dollars . Yiwu wi tnessed a large-scale increase in exports with its major trade partners . In particular，the exports to the U. S . increased by 48 . 7% ，the European Union 3 6 . 9% ，India 5 9 . 7% and Brazil 35 . 6% . The top export countries and regions are as follows：the United States ，the United Arab Emirates ，Russia ，Ukraine ，Germany ，Korea，Spain，Brazil，and Panama .