Four delivery men are elected deputies to attend the fourth session of the 16th People's Congress of Tonglu county in Hangzhou on Jan 18 for the first time. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

Four delivery men were elected deputies to attend the fourth session of the 16th People's Congress of Tonglu county in Hangzhou on Jan 18. This marks first time that delivery men have attended the congress.

Tonglu county is known as the birthplace of Chinese private express delivery companies. The countries' four delivery companies - STO, YTO, ZTO and Yunda - were all founded in the county.

We invited delivery men to attend the congress so that they could offer us advice on how to develop Tonglu's express delivery industry, said Xia Min, deputy director of the Tonglu organization department.

"I felt excited when the Governor Qi Li said that we will develop 'the strongest delivery industry in China' in the government report," said Guan Liping, a delivery man for STO.

In 2020, Tonglu will lay out a plan and implement policies to support the development of the express industry in the county.

In recent years, the provincial and municipal governments have been focusing on the development of the delivery industry in Tonglu, with some officials saying that the government needs to provide strong support for Tonglu in boosting its delivery.

In 2019, the third China Hangzhou International Express Delivery Industry Conference was held in Tonglu, helping Tonglu find a large number of partners across the globe.

Over the past year, Tonglu signed six delivery projects which drew a total investment of 7.24 billion yuan ($1.05 billion). The tax revenue generated from Tonglu's delivery and related sectors reached 606 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45.7 percent.

On Dec 27, 2019, the Tonglu government partnered with SF, STO, Yunda, YTO and ZTO to launch China's first hub integrating purchasing and logistics equipment. 

Moving forward, more well-known Chinese delivery companies will partner with the hub.