(Yicai) April 7 -- Zhejiang China Commodities City Group, the operator of the world’s largest wholesale market for small commodities which is located in the city of Yiwu, has published an Arabic version of the summary of its 2024 annual report for the first time to make the performance of this mainland-listed firm more accessible to foreign investors.

Both the Arabic and English-language versions of the Yiwu International Trade City's annual report summary were published on April 4. In terms of content, they are identical to the Chinese version but were released slightly later than the full annual report, which was published on March 27.

In recent years, as China’s capital markets become more internationalized, an increasing number of listed companies are publishing English summaries of their annual reports alongside the Chinese version. The introduction of an Arabic version provides a new way for foreign investors to gain insights into mainland-listed companies.

Cross-border business has become a key driver for growth at the Yiwu International Trade City. The market logged an average daily footfall of 224,300 visitors last year, a jump of 12 percent from the year before, according to the report. And the average number of foreign visitors each day exceeded 3,900, up 17 percent.

Emerging markets such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America are taking up an increasingly bigger share of the market’s business. This year, Commodities City plans to focus on expanding into the Middle East, South America and Africa, and to set up overseas sub-markets, foreign warehouses and international showrooms.

Commodities City logged a 12.7 percent jump in net profit in the first quarter from a year ago to CNY800 million (USD110 million), while revenue surged 18 percent to CNY3.1 billion (USD430 million), according to its latest quarterly report.

As of the end of last year, Yiwu China Commodities City Holdings was the largest shareholder of Commodities City with 55 percent equity. Other major shareholders include Zhejiang Zhecai Capital Management and the National Social Security Fund.

Editor: Kim Taylor