Jinan's foreign trade value grew by 23 percent on a yearly basis to 138.3 billion yuan ($21.34 billion) in 2020, according to statistics from the Jinan municipal bureau of commerce.

The city's foreign trade saw substantial growth despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Exports increased by 17.2 percent to 75.5 billion yuan while imports surged by 30.7 percent to 62.76 billion yuan.

Foreign trade was dominated by general trade imports and exports, which was valued at 119.3 billion yuan, up 18.7 percent, accounting for 86.3 percent of the city's total foreign trade. Exports of textile and pharmaceutical products increased by 113.9 percent and 33 percent respectively.

In addition, the city's foreign trade to the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 48.24 billion yuan, up 13.9 percent.

The increase was partly due to the city's supportive policies to help promote foreign trade of local enterprises during the pandemic.

Local government helped enterprises cope with difficulties in production, sales and epidemic prevention. A total of 152 problems across 20 categories for foreign trade enterprises were solved. An additional 941 enterprises were set up in the city last year.

To boost the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises, the government had also launched an initiative to help the growth of SMEs and encourage them to explore the international market in clusters. More efforts have also had been made to expand the live broadcasting market to drive foreign trade exports.