A total of 2,541 vehicles from countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative were imported at the Meishan port in Ningbo from January to July, 6.6 times higher than that recorded in the same period last year.

This year, the port also started to import vehicles from Belt and Road countries by means of ro-ro shipping. 

In 2019, the online commodity sales at the Meishan port amounted to 484.8 billion yuan ($70.26 billion). Its imports and exports stood at 19.5 billion yuan, official data show.

The strong results came on the back of the city's sustained efforts to deepen economic and trade cooperation and promote cross-border trade facilitation.

Significant progress has been made in facilitating cross-border trade. As of last year, the application and approval process for the import and export of special goods in Ningbo can all be completed online, with the average approval time being slashed to just 1.8 work days.

The logistics processes in all ports in the city are now managed visually, with the entire container-handling process now being displayed synchronously on computers or mobile phone screens.

The customs clearance time for imports and exports in Ningbo dropped 77.6 percent and 88.3 percent respectively from 2017.