Poon Chee Kin, President of the Malaysia Federation of Stationery and Books Industry, says 90% of the stationery products in Malaysia originate from China. Over half comes from Yiwu, Zhejiang. The city is the largest source of imports for Malaysia's stationery market.

At Malaysia's largest gifts wholesale centre in Kuala Lumpur, tens of thousands of stationery and gift items are on offer, with over 90% of them from Yiwu. Kenny Ng, Managing Director of the wholesale centre, says the advantages of Yiwu in terms of product variety and performance-price ratio are unparallelled.

When Ng discovered the competitive edge of Yiwu's small commodities a few years ago, he shifted his purchasing from Guangdong to Yiwu. Today, his company's trading activities are closely tied there. He visits Yiwu every month to source stationery products.

Ng also points out that as logistics arrangements between Yiwu and Malaysia continue to improve, trade between the two places is becoming easier while the costs of sourcing keep going down.

According to information released by LBS Logistics Sdn Bhd, a leading logistics group in Kuala Lumpur, the volume of cargo between Kuala Lumpur and Yiwu has been increasing. Law Ban Seng, Chairman of the group, says that every month at least 30 to 40 containers are dispatched from Yiwu to his company, and this number is increasing every year.

The majority of local stationery traders also points out that the share of Yiwu stationery products in the local market is expanding. Yiwu is set to replace Guangdong as Malaysia's top import source.

"Trade activities between Malaysia and Yiwu are becoming more and more frequent; local traders go to Yiwu on sourcing tours several times a month," says Law, who is also President of the Yiwu-Malaysia General Chamber of Commerce. A lot of his businesses have close links with the Yiwu market.

Law says that many Malaysian traders support the idea of setting up a Yiwu small commodities exhibition hall and sourcing and distribution centre in Malaysia. If this materialises, they can source small commodities from Yiwu and this will not only facilitate local buyers, but also attract traders from other Southeast Asian countries to source in Malaysia.

At present, the Yiwu-Malaysia General Chamber of Commerce is selecting a site in the downtown area of Kuala Lumpur in preparation for setting up the Yiwu small commodities exhibition hall and sourcing and distribution centre. It's understood that the centre will be ready for operation by the end of this year.

from Shirley Pan, Hangzhou Office