People's Daily: Activating New Momentum in Foreign Trade With Cross-border E-commerce

Inside the Express Supervision Centre of the Bonded Logistics Centre in the West Coast New District of Qingdao City, Shandong Province, staff are skillfully packing garments from Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, into trucks. It is expected that all the goods can be delivered to Japanese consumers within 5 days, shortening 2 to 3 days compared with before. The hot scene has become a vivid microcosm of the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce exports.

In 2023, China's cross-border e-commerce exports developed rapidly, totalling more than 1.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.6%, far exceeding the overall national export growth rate over the same period. A number of emerging e-commerce platforms have risen rapidly, occupying a larger share of the foreign e-commerce market. Only from the Shanghai Pudong Airport Customs, three e-commerce platforms ushered in explosive growth in 2023 with more than 10 times year-on-year growth in export declarations. It can be said that the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce exports has helped China's products reach the world, and injected new kinetic energy to promote the construction of a strong foreign trade country.

As the fastest growing, the largest potential, the strongest driving role of the new foreign trade pattern, cross-border e-commerce export scale has repeatedly reached record highs, showing many bright spots. At present, China's cross-border e-commerce main body has more than 100,000, the construction of independent station has more than 200,000, exports cover from clothing, shoes and bags, toys and textiles to electronic digital, smart home and most of the "Made in China" and "China's smart" advantageous products. Supporting services for cross-border e-commerce are also improving. By 2023, there will be more than 1,800 overseas warehouses in China, and banks in China can basically provide full-chain, full-cycle services for cross-border e-commerce operators in China. Cross-border e-commerce is increasingly becoming a new engine to promote the high-quality development of China's foreign trade.

The rapid development of China's cross-border e-commerce exports cannot be separated from the support of a strong supply system. Foreign trade has always been the connecting point of the domestic and international double cycle, and China's strong domestic supply chain advantages and production support advantages have won cost and price advantages for cross-border e-commerce exports. For example, Qingdao actively integrates into and actively serves the ecological protection and high-quality development strategy of the Yellow River Basin, and establishes the "9+2" cross-border e-commerce industry co-operation and exchange mechanism and the Yellow River Basin cross-border e-commerce alliance covering nine provinces and regions along the Yellow River as well as Xinjiang and Yunnan, which not only allows inland industries to connect to overseas demand, but also reduces the cost of exports. It can be said that with the continuous improvement of China's cross-border e-commerce infrastructure, product research and development, scientific stock preparation, warehousing and distribution, marketing and promotion, as well as customer service and after-sales service and other industry-wide ecology, the potential of cross-border e-commerce will be further released.

The rapid development of China's cross-border e-commerce exports depends on the continuous release of policy dividends. Since the new era, governments at all levels and relevant departments have introduced targeted support initiatives one after another to make the cross-border e-commerce industry travelling light. From reducing the cost of cross-border e-commerce enterprises export refunds, to improve the development of cross-border e-commerce logistics infrastructure required, to financial support for enterprises to build independent stations, the central and local policy from multiple perspectives, all kinds of innovative initiatives have been launched, to promote cross-border e-commerce high-quality development of the full range of speed. At the same time, China also makes full use of open platforms such as comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zones, and constantly pioneers and tries in the areas of cross-border flow of data, cross-border payment, personal privacy protection, artificial intelligence, and so on. This shows that by realising the positive interaction between the government and the market, and by coordinating the visible and invisible hands, we can create a good development environment for cross-border e-commerce exports, and provide a strong boost to the high-quality development of the economy.

The Central Economic Work Conference proposed: "We should accelerate the cultivation of new dynamics in foreign trade, consolidate the basic foreign investment in foreign trade, and expand the trade in intermediate goods, trade in services, digital trade, and cross-border e-commerce exports." Multiple measures, optimise services, and vigorously cultivate comprehensive cross-border e-commerce service enterprises with international competitiveness will surely further promote the vigorous development of cross-border e-commerce, and inject new kinetic energy in foreign trade for consolidating and enhancing the economic upturn to a positive trend.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)