A bird's-eye view of Xiamen. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

According to statistics, Xiamen has made fruitful achievements in business development over the past decade.

Xiamen's wholesale and retail sales jumped to 3.06 trillion yuan ($428.63 million) in 2021, which was 4.1 times more than the total in 2012, and the average annual growth rate settled in at 14.6 percent.

Over the past decade, Xiamen has expanded its consumer goods market. The total retail sales of social consumer goods exceeded 250 billion yuan in 2021, leading Fujian province in terms of growth rate.

In 2021, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Xiamen reached 67,197 yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 8.1 percent. As residents' incomes increased, their ways of consuming changed, which has helped boost the vitality of consumer market.

Over the past 10 years, the number of market entities has increased in Xiamen. By the end of 2021, Xiamen had 4,090 wholesale and retail, accommodation, and catering companies above designated size, which increased by 2,497 from that in 2012.

Xiamen has also put more emphasis on retail sales over the past decade. For example, Siming and Huli districts achieved 153.34 billion yuan in retail sales in 2021, which is 1.4 times more than the figure in 2012, while Haicang, Jimei, Tong'an, and Xiang'an districts achieved a combined total of 105.07 billion yuan in retail sales in 2021, amounting to 4.1 times more than that in 2012.

Empowered by the development of digital technology and big data, Xiamen's e-commerce industry has developed rapidly. The city is home to three national e-commerce demonstration bases and three national digital business companies integrate both online and offline business formats.

In addition, Xiamen's accommodation and catering sectors have made great achievements over the past decade. In 2021, Xiamen's accommodation sector achieved a turnover of 6.52 billion yuan, an increase of 35.3 percent from that in 2012, with an average annual growth rate of 1.5 percent, while its catering sector achieved a turnover of 26.75 billion yuan, an increase of 1.7 times more than the figure in 2012.