A conference attended by more than 30 companies and organizations from Ningbo, ASEAN and CICA Region is held in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on April 21. [Photo/Ningbo Evening News]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province has seen increasingly closer trade ties with ASEAN and the CICA region in recent years.

CICA, short for the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, is a multilateral cooperation body that seeks to promote peace, security and interaction in Asia. It currently has 27 member states and 13 observers including eight states and five organizations.

ASEAN has been the city's third largest trading partner since 2012. Official statistics show that Ningbo's trade volume with the bloc was valued at 107.95 billion yuan ($16.6 billion) in 2020, a year-on-year uptick of 10.5 percent. Specifically, imports stood at 50.05 billion yuan, up 14.9 percent year-on-year, while exports amounted to 57.9 billion yuan, an increase of 6.9 percent.

Trade with ASEAN has gradually emerged as a new engine for fueling the profit growth of private companies in Ningbo.

Xu Guangxian, president of the Ningbo association for the promotion of international trade, said that Ningbo is highly complementary with ASEAN and CICA countries in aspects like resource structure, industrial structure and goods trade.

Addressing a conference attended by more than 30 companies and organizations from Ningbo, ASEAN and the CICA region on April 21, Xu expressed hope that the conference would serve as a platform to strengthen links between them and help local enterprises expand their business presence in the emerging markets.

Hu Tianming, secretary general of the Ningbo toy and juvenile products association, said that Ningbo has secured footholds in some ASEAN member states in addition to the traditional European and American markets.

According to incomplete statistics, about 2 billion yuan worth of toys and juvenile products – about 20 percent of the city's total - were exported from Ningbo to ASEAN and its surrounding areas in 2020.