The China International Commodity Trading Platform (CICTP) has gone into operation in Beijing to help smaller firms explore the international and Chinese markets, according to China Daily on Wednesday.

CICTP, jointly set up by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, was poised to boost the competitiveness of Chinese and foreign small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said the paper.

Xu Chunjing, head of CICTP, told Xinhua that CICTP aimed at providing domestic and overseas SMEs with a full array of services including exhibition, brand promotion and online trading.

Xu predicted that the number of CICTP's member firms would expand to about 1,000 in next two years.

(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2010)