The rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce (online China)

　　China's cross-border e-commerce industry has experienced several years of accumulation and accumulation, ushering in a "golden period" of rapid development.

The national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone (referred to as the "cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone") has been expanded to 105, and cross-border e-commerce has increased by nearly 10 times in 5 years.

In the first half of this year, China's cross-border e-commerce import and export volume was 886.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.6%.

Cross-border e-commerce has become a new driving force for foreign trade development, a new channel for transformation and upgrading, and a new starter for high-quality development.

　　Emerging businesses grow against the trend

　　In the China (Nanning) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone, frequent trucks are loaded with goods from China and ASEAN. Many young people are engaged in cross-border e-commerce operations and live broadcast related work here.

Since the establishment of the Nanning cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone in 2018, cross-border e-commerce related businesses have taken root here and have grown steadily.

According to statistics, from January to July this year, the Nanning Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone completed a total of 3 billion yuan in cross-border e-commerce import and export transactions.

　　Nationwide, there are 105 comprehensive test areas for cross-border e-commerce like this one.

Since the establishment of the first batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test areas in 2015, the “test plots” that have been tested first have yielded fruitful results.

According to customs statistics, the national cross-border e-commerce import and export volume reached 1.69 trillion yuan in 2020, an increase of 31.1%.

As an emerging trade format, cross-border e-commerce has developed rapidly during the epidemic prevention period and has become an important force in stabilizing foreign trade.

According to statistics, the real economy will be hit by the new crown pneumonia epidemic in 2020. With a high degree of flexibility, Chinese export e-commerce companies will achieve rapid growth of over 20% against the trend.

　　The "Research Report on B2C Cross-border E-commerce Platform "Going Overseas"" recently released by the Globalization Think Tank shows that China and the United States are currently the countries where the main platforms of global cross-border e-commerce are located, and they are also the main markets for global cross-border e-commerce transactions.

About 26% of the world's business-to-consumer (B2C) cross-border e-commerce transactions take place in mainland China. China surpasses the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, ranking first in the world.

　　"In recent years, China's cross-border e-commerce has shown rapid growth, showing many obvious characteristics." Zhang Manan, chief researcher of the US and European Institute of the China International Economic Exchange Center, analyzed in an interview with this reporter that China is in the field of cross-border e-commerce trade. It is shifting from quantitative growth to high-quality development; the product types of cross-border e-commerce transactions show large and comprehensive characteristics, and the volume of business-to-business (B2B) cross-border e-commerce transactions has increased significantly, and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises participate in cross-border e-commerce trade. It reflects the improvement of China's overall industrial capabilities and corporate competitiveness; China's trade increase with emerging markets has accelerated significantly, especially in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

　　Multi-party support

　　In Guangdong Customs, a batch of cross-border e-commerce goods completed the review process from declaration to release in just 10 minutes; in Yuping Dong Autonomous County, Tongren City, Guizhou Province, clothing companies’ products are sold to more than 30 countries and regions including Europe and the United States; From the 2021 Service Trade Fair, the 18th China-ASEAN Expo to the 5th China-Arab States Expo, cross-border e-commerce can be found at recent large-scale exhibitions in China...Behind the rapid development of China’s cross-border e-commerce, It is the support of the improvement of the comprehensive strength of China's digital economy and the long-term accumulation of power from many parties.

　　"The rapid development of China's cross-border e-commerce is inseparable from China's industrial foundation, policy dividends, and institutional opening." Strengthen the provision of a good industrial foundation and ecological environment for cross-border e-commerce.

China's 105 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test areas are spread all over the country, and the mature experience and system innovation policies formed in the comprehensive test areas are gradually extended to the whole country.

The Chinese government has continuously introduced supporting policies to promote trade and investment facilitation, explored major measures to open the system, and set a clear demonstration of cross-border e-commerce "cloud participation" at large international exhibitions such as China International Import Expo, Canton Fair, and Consumer Fair. effect.

　　"Chinese cross-border e-commerce is favored by consumers around the world with its unique advantages of low cost, high efficiency, and breakthroughs in time and space." , Has formed nearly 70 mature empirical practices, and built a cross-border e-commerce system framework with the "six systems and two platforms" as the core.

For example, China's customs declaration model of "list approval, release and summary statistics" has improved the efficiency of customs clearance, and cross-border e-commerce tax preferential policies such as approved collection have greatly reduced the burden on enterprises.

The scope of cross-border e-commerce B2B export supervision pilots and retail import pilots continued to expand.

The list of cross-border e-commerce retail imports has been further optimized to better meet domestic consumer demand.

In addition, a series of regulations on the return and exchange of goods for cross-border e-commerce import and export have been issued, making it more convenient for consumers to return and exchange goods.

　　As one of the most important infrastructures for cross-border e-commerce, China's overseas warehouse construction has been continuously strengthened to provide guarantee for the development of cross-border e-commerce.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, China has 1,800 overseas warehouses with an area of ​​12 million square meters, an increase of 80% and 50% respectively year-on-year.

Since the beginning of this year, the number and scale of overseas warehouses have been further expanded. There are 1,900 overseas warehouses with an area of ​​13.5 million square meters. The business scope covers the whole world. Among them, the number of overseas warehouses in North America, Europe, Asia and other regions accounted for nearly 90%.

　　Facing the "Blue Ocean" and continuous innovation

　　In July this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Forms and New Models of Foreign Trade", which further released favorable policies in the field of cross-border e-commerce, proposed to actively support the use of new technologies and new tools to empower foreign trade development and expand cross-border e-commerce Comprehensive pilot area pilot scope, cultivate a group of excellent overseas warehouse enterprises, improve the global overseas warehouse network, promote small, medium and micro enterprises to go to sea by ship, and drive domestic brands to expand the international market space.

　　The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce stated that advocating openness and win-win, supporting cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouse development are the key tasks of the commerce department during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.

At present, China has established a "Silk Road E-commerce" bilateral cooperation mechanism with 22 countries to jointly carry out multi-level and multi-field cooperation such as policy communication, planning docking, industry promotion, local cooperation, and capacity building, and is a country along the "Belt and Road". The development of e-commerce creates a favorable environment.

　　"Facing the broad blue ocean, cross-border e-commerce is growing rapidly in the face of opportunities and challenges, and it is expected to become a new track for China to "change lanes and overtake" in the digital economy." Zhang Manan believes that cross-border e-commerce companies should improve product quality when going overseas. Innovation, competitiveness, compliance with overseas and local trade rules, and focus on high-quality development.

The development of China's cross-border e-commerce requires not only “policy dividends”, but also institutional innovation and strengthened supervision. Enterprises standardize their own behaviors, assume social responsibilities, and jointly create a good industrial ecology for cross-border e-commerce trade, and create for China's cross-border e-commerce More "ecological dividends".

Gao Qiao