Local Area Requests Expat Participation in Governance!

Source: China.org.cn

Located in east China's Zhejiang province, the city of Yiwu is known as the world's largest wholesale market for daily commodities, and is home to more than 15,000 foreign merchants from over 100 countries and regions.

While constantly improving its business environment, Yiwu also invites its foreign residents to participate in social governance and help develop a more attractive international commercial city.

Gholamhossein Dehghani, an Iranian businessman, came to Yiwu in 2003. Impressed by the city's inclusiveness and hospitality, he decided to settle down and started a foreign-trade company.

"All residents are treated equally in Yiwu, regardless of their nationalities and ethnic groups," Dehghani said in an interview on Wednesday. "Though living abroad, I have a strong sense of security here."

Dehghani now lives at the Jimingshan residential community, along with more than 1,380 expats from 74 countries and regions. The multicultural community is often compared to the United Nations by locals.

Fluent in six languages, Dehghani helps resolve disputes between people from different countries. In 2014, he was invited to work as an "international laoniangjiu" by the community. In the Zhejiang dialect, "laoniangjiu" means someone who is good at mediating disputes.

Dehghani said disputes are common and unavoidable when people from diverse cultural backgrounds live and work alongside one another, and most of the issues he handles arise from language barriers.

He added that the number of new disputes has been in decline since the community began offering free mandarin classes for foreign residents.

Through the community's volunteer station, Dehghani also takes an active part in various public service activities, such as security and fire inspections. When finding Chinese and foreign residents are having difficulty communicating, he is often on hand to help interpret for them.

As a member of the residents' committee, Dehghani has offered many constructive suggestions for the development of his community and Yiwu city. "I've received too much kindness and warmth here, and I would like to make my contribution to better the future of Yiwu," he said.

In normal years, Yiwu receives more than 560,000 overseas buyers and sells commodities to more than 210 countries and regions. On an average day, there are around 30,000 foreign purchasers in the city.

Misunderstandings are natural when people from different cultural and social backgrounds talk business. To address this problem, Yiwu authorities established a mediation committee in 2013 aimed at resolving business conflicts.

Reputable foreign businesspeople are invited to join the team after undergoing legal training to bridge language and cultural gaps and improve mediation efficiency.

Sushil Komar Agrawal came to Yiwu from Nepal 19 years ago and opened a medical equipment trading business. He joined the committee as a volunteer mediator in 2015 and has so far helped process more than 70 cases.

In Agrawal's opinion, to succeed in resolving disagreements, mediators need to put themselves in others' shoes and try to provide reasonable and impartial solutions.

Agrawal said that by helping other merchants solve their problems, he has gained a lot of knowledge about economic laws, which has in turn taught him how to manage his own business more successfully.