宁波属我国首批对外开放14个沿海城市之一,是东方大港—北仑港的所在地,1999年港口吞吐量近亿吨,十年间翻了二番半,成为仅次于上海港的全国第二大港。九十年代初,国家要求将宁波建设成为华东地区重要工业城市和对外贸易口岸、浙江省经济中心, Ningbo is one of the first batch of 14 coastal cities in China to open to the outside world. It is the location of Dongfang Dagang-Beilun Port. In 1999, the port throughput was nearly 100 million tons, which has doubled in two decades and became the second largest in the country after Shanghai Port. Dagang. In the early 1990s, the state demanded that Ningbo be built into an important industrial city and foreign trade port in East China and an economic center in Zhejiang Province.