Geely cars to be shipped are lined up on a quay at the Port of Meishan in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Aug 5, 2013. [Photo/IC] 

Ningbo, the second largest city in East China's Zhejiang province, witnessed a record high in its foreign trade in January at over 90.13 billion yuan ($13.43 billion), up 29.9 percent year on year, according to statistics from Ningbo Customs. 

Imports winded up at 30.36 billion yuan during this period while exports reached 59.97 billion yuan, up 24.1 percent and 33 percent, respectively.

Private and foreign-funded enterprises played a major part in driving the growth, with their imports and exports together taking up 90.7 percent of the city's total.

Featuring an export-oriented economy, Ningbo has released many policies to boost its foreign trade over the past year, including 25 measures for driving its private economy and 80 measures for improving its business climate. 

In addition, it has cut the customs clearance time to facilitate its cross-border trade. 

Statistics show that customs clearance times for imports to Ningbo were shortened by 72.21 percent in December 2018 compared with the previous year while those of exports were shortened by 66.18 percent. 

"Most of the foreign trade companies that we serve are small and micro-sized enterprises, which have benefited a lot from the favorable policies released by the local government," said Kong Zehao, vice general manager of Ningbo Shimaotong, a local foreign trade service provider.

The company realized $760 million of imports and exports last year, up 25 percent year on year. In January, the figure surpassed $100 million, up 60 percent compared with a year earlier.