(Yicai) Aug. 22 -- Zhejiang province in eastern China, which is home to the world's small commodities capital of Yiwu, became the fifth provincial-level region in the country to boast more than 10 million registered companies this month.

Zhejiang, which only ranks eighth in the country in terms of population size, has 9.67 million private companies and around 330,000 state-owned ones, according to the latest government data.

Zhejiang is a mountainous province and does not have a lot of arable land, so most of its residents are skilled in doing business, Tang Hairu, deputy chairman of the Expert Committee of the Hangzhou Planning Commission, told Yicai. Every county in the province has formed a leading industry and many businesses have unique local characteristics.

Its county-level city of Yiwu, which is home to the world’s biggest market of low-cost consumer goods selling everything from Christmas decorations to electronics, now has over one million market entities, 71 percent of which are run by individuals. It is only the second such region in the country to reach the one-million mark, after Kunshan in eastern Jiangsu province.

Most businesses in Yiwu are engaged in foreign trade and the city’s success has attracted many small merchants, Tang said. It also has an active e-commerce business which has driven up express delivery volumes and live streaming events, creating more small businesses in the area, he added.

Guangdong, the province with the biggest economy, has the most registered businesses in the country at 17.2 million, accounting for one-tenth of the national total. It has ranked first for many years.

It is followed by eastern Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, which have the second and third largest economies respectively, and both have more than 14 million market entities. Central Henan province ranks fourth with more than 10 million.

Guangdong, Shandong and Henan provinces both had populations of around 100 million as of the end of 2020 and Jiangsu province had about 80 million, according to the seventh national census. Zhejiang, by contrast, had just 64.5 million people, ranking eighth in the country.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor