There are smiles all round as the Nantong International Commercial Center, located in the City North Hi-Tech Zone in Chongchuan district, starts operating. [Photo/WeChat account: chongchuanonline]

There was great news for the Nantong International Commercial Center – located in the Chongchuan district of Nantong city in East China's Jiangsu province – which started operating on June 18, as six companies signed up to settle there that day.

The center, in the district's City North Hi-Tech Zone, is the second foreign trade agglomeration area in Nantong after the Nantong Foreign Trade Center and is expected to become a new window for the city's international commerce.

Costing 2 billion yuan ($298.6 million), it is situated at the prime intersection of Nantong Railway Station and Beidajie Street, with a total floor space of about 200,000 square meters.

Plans are in the next five years to attract more than 200 resident foreign trade enterprises from outside Chongchuan district, with over 100 engaged in cross-border e-commerce.

High-quality development is widely said to come hand in hand with a high-level opening up of the economy. Nantong was one of China's first 14 coastal cities to have opened to international commerce and it now has a developed, open economy. Its main urban area – Chongchuan district – is widely said to have the most dynamic foreign trade ecosystem in the city.

Chongchuan is home to over 2,000 various kinds of foreign trade enterprises. In 2021, the value of the import-export volume of the district hit 70 billion yuan, accounting for one fifth of Nantong's total.

City North Hi-Tech Zone, one of three provincial development zones in Chongchuan, is a hot spot to develop a high-level open economy. In 2018, the Nantong Foreign Trade Center opened for business, with dozens of foreign trade enterprises – engaged in textiles, the smart home and life health – promptly moving in. Last year, its operational revenue exceeded 3 billion yuan.

Moving forward, the Nantong International Commercial Center and the Nantong Foreign Trade Center plan to work closely together to boost the development of an open economy in Chongchuan and in Nantong.