The city of Jinhua, in East China's Zhejiang province, has achieved remarkable growth over the past few decades in all areas, Chen Long, Party chief of Jinhua, said at a news conference held in Hangzhou on Monday.

The conference was held in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Statistics show that the regional GDP of the city grew from 985 million yuan ($139.89 million) in 1978 to 410 billion yuan in 2018, a 415-fold increase. Per-capita income of urban and rural residents grew from 555 yuan and 324 yuan in 1983, respectively, to 55,000 yuan and 26,000 yuan in 2018, respectively.

From 2003 to 2018, the regional GDP rose by 4.4 times, GDP per capita increased by 4 times and fiscal revenue surged by 6.5 times.

Jinhua plays a key role in the development of Zhejiang and the integration of the Yangtze River Delta region, Chen said.

Chen said Jinhua, known as the "hometown of craftsmen", boasts a flourishing private economy, featuring the sale of small commodities to architecture, woodcarving, hardware manufacturing and textiles sectors.

According to Chen, the city houses the world's largest small commodities wholesale market and the world's third-largest hardware distribution center – in Yiwu and Yongkang, respectively, two county-level cities under its jurisdiction. The number of Jinhua's market entities now surpasses 1 million, ranking it the third among all cities in Zhejiang.

Jinhua also enjoys a good living environment, Chen added, noting that the city has 61 percent of forest coverage and has been named nine times as one of China's top 10 livable cities.

In recent years, Jinhua has been committed to building itself up as a global metropolis of small commodities, an international metropolis of screen culture, a base of innovation and smart manufacturing and a livable land where happiness among its residents is high, Chen said.

Statistics reveal that there are 75,000 booths in Yiwu's small commodities market, selling more than 1.8 million kinds of commodities. Over 550,000 overseas traders come to Yiwu every year, and more than 13,000 overseas traders permanently live in the city. Around 70 percent of China's film crews come to Jinhua's Hengdian town every year, making a quarter of the nation's films and one-third of the country's TV series. In addition, Jinhua now boasts 16 industrial clusters with annual output exceeding 10 billion yuan, and 29 national industrial bases.

Chen said the growth could partly be attributed to the city's vigorous efforts in reform over the years, especially the "At Most One Visit" reform, which cuts red tape for companies by introducing internet technology to save their time and costs.

Further opening up the economy was another growth driver, Chen said, adding that two of the province's four key freight transport channels involve Jinhua - the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe cargo train route which now includes 10 railway lines connecting 35 countries, and the Yiwu-Ningbo-Zhoushan cargo channel that combines transport by river, sea, highway, railway and air.

According to statistics, Jinhua's exports grew 23 times over the past 15 years, ranking the city second among all the cities in Zhejiang. In addition, the city's cross-border online retail export ranks it first in Zhejiang. Its express delivery business volume ranks first in Zhejiang and second in China.