E-commerce boosts development of traditional foreign trade

Over the past few years, China has witnessed rapid growth of the cross-border e-commerce market. 

In 2016, the government improved measures for promoting trade, and built 12 new integrated experimental zones for cross-border e-commerce.

On the sidelines of the ongoing session of the top legislature, some deputies from east China's Zhejiang province have shared their insights on how the initiatives have impacted the area.

Zhejiang is a traditional and major foreign trade province in China. The local economy is driven mainly by the private sector and light manufacturing industry.

As one of the fastest-growing areas in China, Zhejiang has been the forerunner in developing the country's e-commerce.

The new form of trade has changed the way that businesses interact with customers, and also brought new opportunities to create wealth.

Shi Linbin is running a small-sized hardware company in Zhejiang. 

In 2012, he started doing business online. Now, he sells products to Europe and the Middle East.

"It has shortened intermediate links, setting up a direct connection between buyers and sellers. It's helpful to promote my products, and to make my brand known by more customers around the world," said Shi.

Since 2015, the central government has issued several policies to encourage the growth of e-commerce imports by reducing logistics frictions, streamlining customs clearance, and simplifying tax regulations.

Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, was approved by the State Council as the first national-level cross-border e-commerce pilot zone.

Driven by the new business mode, the total export-import volume of the province in 2016 exceeded 2 trillion yuan, about 320 billion US dollars, three percent higher than the previous year.

"Last year, the total export-import volume of the Group reached 7.3 billion dollars. The export alone broke through 3.4 billion dollars, an increase of nearly 15 percent. It is a remarkable figure. We achieved such a rapid growth despite economic slowdown, thanks to the contribution of e-commerce. It not only accelerated export-driven growth, but also benefited the import trade. It will stimulate the development of national economy and improve people's living standard," said Deputy Wang Tingge, chairman of Zhejiang Materials Industry Group.

In 2016, China built 12 new integrated experimental zones for cross-border e-commerce. The innovations in Hangzhou have been introduced to more cities with fruitful results.

Ningbo, a port city in Zhejiang, has already benefited from the immense potential unleashed by cross-border e-commerce.

Since the city's experimental zone started operation last May, transaction value of the cross-border e-commerce market reached 27 billion yuan, or 3.9 billion U.S. dollars within 7 months, which is two times higher than that of 2015. Hundreds of new companies have joined the sector.

Chai Lineng from east China’s Zhejiang Province is a deputy to the 12th National People’s Congress in 2017. [Photo: Sun Yang/China Plus]

Deputy Chai Lineng, director of the development and reform commission of Ningbo, said e-commerce is a big step in the development of foreign trade. He also suggested more policies to optimize the offline process.

"Cross-border e-commerce uses Internet as a platform to buy and sell. For offline supervision, we still follow the old way. What we need is to promote trade facilitation, forming an integrated system to speed up the process of customs clearance, inspection and quarantine, maritime and frontier inspection," said Chai.

In Premier Li Keqiang's government work report, he said that the single-window model for processing international trade will be used more widely, and customs clearance procedures will be integrated nationwide.

Chai applauded these decisions and said the increasing globalization of trade will bring more opportunities for China's e-commerce market.

"In his report on the work of the government, Premier Li stressed that the country will promote the liberalization and facilitation of international trade and investment. I believe the policy will add a considerable impetus to the development of cross-border e-commerce," said Chai.