Chinanews, Hangzhou, Mar. 16 – Recently, many businesspeople from Yueqing city in Zhejiang packed their luggage and left for Russia to do business again, after the Russian government lifted its ban against foreigners doing retail sales in the country.

 

Last year, the Russian government once imposed a ban which said that starting from January 15, 2007, foreign dealers should not occupy more than 40% of the vendor stands in Russian retail market, and from April 1, the Russian government would forbid all foreign dealers to do retail business in Russia, said Wang Hengshun, chairman of the Zhejiang Yueqing Overseas Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Russia.

 

The ban aroused great opposition from Chinese businesspeople in Russia. After that, some 30,000 foreign retail dealers (mostly Chinese) retreated from Russian market, leaving 70% of the vendor stands vacant.

 

Russian people’s life was greatly affected by the ban. In order to curb price hikes and stabilize the retail market, the Russian government held an emergency meeting and decided to lift the ban. It said that from February 12, foreign dealers could continue to do their business in Russia.

 

Seeing that Russian government had changed its attitude, some 1,500 businesspeople in Yueqing decided to return to Russia after celebrating the Spring Festival at home.