China pledged to ramp up support for cross-border trade in further effort to facilitate foreign trade amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

The country will seek to minimize the impact on the industry chain and supply chain of cross-border trade by tackling difficulties like financing and cash liquidity for companies in the border and cross-border economic cooperation zones in seven provincial regions, including Heilongjiang, Yunnan, and Guangxi, said a circular released Monday by the Ministry of Commerce and the Export-Import Bank of China.

More efforts should be made to nurture small industry clusters within three square km while the country enhances credit support to help establish integrated platforms featuring trade, processing, production, services and logistics in the economic cooperation zones, according to the circular.

The document also called on the cooperation zones to expand export to emerging economies and import of agricultural products and key technologies, as well as to deepen involvement in the Belt and Road Initiative.