Businesswomen Gain Success in E China's Yiwu

There is a scarcity of resources in east China's Zhejiang Province, however it has developed into a province with a strong economy during the past 40 years, since the implementation of reform and opening-up policies.

Local Yiwu in particular has stood out as an increasingly prosperous city.

Starting from Feather for Sugar, a historical barter transaction activity, Yiwu has gradually developed into a well-known global small-commodity market. Furthermore, its emergence has a close relationship with the villager Feng Aiqian.

In the 1980s, 40-year-old Feng could only do odd jobs to support her family. However, in those days engaging in business activities such as setting up stalls were regarded as illegal. So Feng was in constant fear of being fined.

With no other means to make a living, she decided to report her actual conditions to the local government.

In May 1982, Feng complained to Xie Gaohua, a newly-inaugurated secretary of the county's Party committee, about her difficult conditions.

After the hour-long argument, Xie began to ponder over what Feng had said, and decided to assign a work team to fully investigate the rural conditions and mobile stall situation in Yiwu.

A few months later, the local Party Committee made a pioneering decision to open Yiwu market. Later, it also put forward a slogan to revitalize Yiwu.

Thus, under the government's support, the small commodity market in Yiwu was steadily developed.

In addition to the priority of policies, there were also some outstanding businessmen in Yiwu, who were hard-working and with an acute business ability.

He Haimei is one of the first batch of merchants on the street market.

In 1983, in order to do business in the children's clothes field, He looked into cloth industries everywhere, only to find that virtually all the production materials were under the control of the State-owned enterprises at that time.

With her persistence, He finally managed to obtain some goods from a State-owned clothes factory in Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province.

He also changed the operation direction with her acute business judgment. She ran a business selling clothes and hats, and later selling scarfs, which have been sold to more than 30 regions and countries, including the Middle East, Europe and America.

Meanwhile, she also established a branch company in Italy.

"I really shared the same fate as the Yiwu market," He said sincerely.

Certainly, Yiwu has created a miracle, but it is more important to maintain the trend. For a long time, Yiwu small commodities left an impression of low value and taste, so the local government fully upgraded the transformation of the market and enterprises, based on three strategies, including quality, brand, and standards.

Three years ago, Wu Hongxia, founder of the Chuxinyipin Brand, worried about her company as its turnover remained unchanged for three years. This negative trend only changed when she set up her own brand, and her annual sales have seen an annual increase of 15 percent for the last three years.

Furthermore, because of the integrated intellectual property services platform provided by the Market Supervision Bureau of Yiwu, she is also more confident of carrying out research on products.

Meanwhile, many businessmen in the region were also encouraged to apply for more patents, based on the support for the design patents and subsidies.

Wu has applied for about 10 design patents since last year, which is also a big progress compared to the past.

"I hope our own brand can develop into a local well-known brand, even a name card of Yiwu, which is not only my dream, but also the motivation for my progress," Wu added.

(Source: clady.cn/Translated and edited by Women of China)