WUHAN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The first downtown duty-free shop in central China's Hubei Province began trial operations in its capital city of Wuhan on Friday, marking also the first such store to open in central China, according to the provincial department of commerce.

In August last year, five government departments including the Ministry of Finance jointly made a statement that a downtown duty-free shop would be opened in each of the eight cities, namely Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Xi'an, Changsha and Fuzhou.

Previously, China had already established six downtown duty-free shops in cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Dalian, Xiamen, and Sanya.

The downtown duty-free shop in Wuhan marks the first newly opened downtown duty-free store in China since the new policy was implemented, the authorities said.

It is located in a luxury shopping mall within Wuhan's core commercial districts, which received over 32 million visitors last year and achieved annual sales exceeding 10 billion yuan (about 1.39 billion U.S. dollars).

The duty-free shop's investor and operator, a joint venture company, has secured cross-border direct procurement agreements with over 100 international brands. These partnerships span multiple categories including fragrance and cosmetics, wines and foods, digital electronics, luxury accessories, domestic cultural-creative products, as well as coffee and tea products.

The shop also showcases culturally distinctive intangible heritage products, as part of its strategy to promote "fashionable goods" of domestic brands in the global market.

"The launch of Wuhan's downtown duty-free shop marks a new phase in the opening-up of China's inland cities," said an official with the provincial department of commerce, adding that the project, upon operation, is expected to serve the needs of over 2 million international travelers that visit Hubei each year.  ■