As a new growth point of my country’s foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce is ushering in a new wave of favorable policies. A reporter from the “Economic Information Daily” noticed that recently, relevant departments have expressed their views one after another, speeding up the expansion of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone (referred to as the “comprehensive pilot zone”), and deploying more policies and measures to support the development of cross-border e-commerce , to promote the accelerated release of market potential.

The interviewed experts said that the continuous and in-depth promotion of the construction of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone is an important force for my country to vigorously develop new trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses and promote the high-quality development of foreign trade, which is conducive to stimulating my country’s foreign trade innovation. development vitality.

Many parties expressed their positions to speed up the expansion of the comprehensive test area

Recently, there has been continuous news about the expansion of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test area. The executive meeting of the State Council held a few days ago proposed to promote the greater development of new foreign trade formats, to set up a new batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, etc., and to give greater support to the construction of overseas warehouses.

Subsequently, the “Several Policies and Measures to Support the Stable Development of Foreign Trade” issued by the Ministry of Commerce made arrangements, clearly giving play to the role of the foreign trade innovation platform, and proposing to set up a batch of new cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones.

At the recent State Council policy briefing, Wang Shouwen, the international trade negotiator and vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced that in 2015, my country established the first cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, and then the State Council approved five batches of cross-border e-commerce. The commercial comprehensive test area has achieved good results.

For example, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, where my country’s first cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone is located, has cultivated 49,000 e-commerce sellers over the past seven years, with over 2,000 overseas registered trademarks, and 23 leading companies with a value of over US$100 million. The import and export volume of merchants exceeds 100 billion yuan.

Wang Shouwen proposed that we should learn from these good practices and prepare to add a batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones.

Hong Yong, a think tank expert from the China Digital Reality Fusion 50 Forum and an associate researcher at the Institute of Electronic Commerce of the Ministry of Commerce, told the “Economic Information Daily” reporter that from the current deployment point of view, the pace of the new batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones has already begun. Getting closer. This is not only a need to cope with external demand pressure and market changes, but also an important manifestation of my country’s innovative development of foreign trade and the promotion of high-level opening up.

“The expansion and upgrading of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone will help to find new economic growth points for my country’s cross-border e-commerce, cultivate and develop new engines in strengthening regional cooperation, and establish and improve mutually beneficial, multi-balanced, and safe. An efficient and open economic system has formed a new pattern of all-round, wide-ranging, multi-level, and high-level opening up.” Hong Yong said.

Regarding the new batch of expansion directions, Li Mingtao, chief expert of the China International E-Commerce Center of the Ministry of Commerce, told the “Economic Information Daily” reporter that the establishment of the new batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones should fully consider the development of the cross-border e-commerce industry in local cities. According to the demand, it is recommended to choose an area with a good development of cross-border e-commerce industry and a large space for the combination of local advantageous industries and cross-border e-commerce. At the same time, due consideration should be given to cross-border e-commerce and market procurement trade, border trade, processing trade, service trade, etc. the need for integrated development. “Through the construction of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, it will provide a new carrier for the sustained and rapid development of the cross-border e-commerce industry and trade integration innovation.”

Policies help construction and upgrading to promote the accelerated growth of the industry

At the same time of further expansion, the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone will also accelerate its own construction and create conditions for industrial development.

The “14th Five-Year” E-commerce Development Plan proposes measures to promote the construction of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, improve the policy system, optimize the development environment, innovate industrial public services, and explore the innovation of the whole process of cross-border e-commerce transactions.

Wang Shouwen said that he will continue to guide various cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones to cultivate a number of key enterprises and well-known brands.

In fact, in the exploration in recent years, the role of the comprehensive pilot zone in cultivating market entities has become increasingly prominent. Not only the cross-border e-commerce enterprises in Hangzhou are growing rapidly, but also more enterprises in the comprehensive pilot zone have achieved better development with the help of cross-border e-commerce.

In August this year, Jiangsu XCMG focused on developing cross-border e-commerce B2B export business through the business model of “cross-border e-commerce platform + overseas warehouse”. With the help of Xuzhou Customs, the company has added 1 overseas warehouse for record. Up to now, the cross-border e-commerce platform has covered more than 200 countries and regions, and the scale effect has surged.

“With the unique advantages of cross-border e-commerce exports, the construction machinery has doubled the business volume through the cross-border e-commerce platform, and the company’s overseas market has achieved significant growth.” Gao Ming, deputy general manager of Jiangsu Xugong E-commerce Co., Ltd. told reporters Say.

In order to further tap the advantages and potential of the cross-border e-commerce industry, various localities and departments are still planning to launch more measures. The reporter was informed that the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, proposed 8 policies and measures to support the development of overseas warehouses, which will be introduced in the near future. These measures include promoting the national networking of information, realizing “territorial filing and national use”, supporting overseas warehouses to optimize market layout, and making more intelligent use of multi-functional service platform functions.

Locally, some cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot areas are also actively exploring to further play a leading role. For example, the Hangzhou Comprehensive Pilot Zone is speeding up the formulation of new cross-border e-commerce policies, including optimizing financial services, and will set up a “Hangzhou Cross-border Loan” to provide financing support for eligible enterprises; in the Nanjing Comprehensive Pilot Zone, the customs strengthens “digital empowerment” Ability” to create a three-dimensional public service platform integrating “information flow”, “capital flow” and “logistics” to facilitate cross-border import and export of enterprises.

The continuous release of positive benefits adds momentum to the development of trade innovation

Li Mingtao pointed out that in recent years, my country’s cross-border e-commerce has maintained a rapid growth trend, but the potential and space for industrial development are still huge.

Hong Yong gave a set of data: According to customs statistics, China’s cross-border e-commerce import and export has increased by nearly 10 times in five years, and the scale reached 1.92 trillion yuan last year, an increase of 18.6%. Judging from the latest data, my country’s cross-border e-commerce will still maintain stable and rapid growth in 2022, and the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce in the first half of the year will increase by 28.6% year-on-year. Among them, the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone has an obvious leading role.

Hong Yong pointed out that the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot area is driven by deepening reform and expanding opening up, creating a complete industrial chain and ecological chain of cross-border e-commerce, and gradually forming a set of management systems and systems that adapt to and lead the development of global cross-border e-commerce. The rules provide replicable and popularized experience for promoting the development of cross-border e-commerce in my country.

Li Mingtao also said that the continuous and in-depth promotion of the construction of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone is an important part of my country’s vigorous development of cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses and other new trade formats, and the promotion of high-quality development of foreign trade, which is conducive to maintaining the vitality of foreign trade development. “Under the current situation, by establishing a new batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones and continuing to expand the coverage of the state’s support policies for cross-border e-commerce, it will build confidence in the development of the cross-border e-commerce industry, and at the same time further explore the cross-border e-commerce in various regions. The development potential of cross-border e-commerce, and the advantages of cross-border e-commerce are small and fast, and make new contributions to stabilizing foreign trade.”

In the first three quarters of 2022, the total import and export value of Hubei Province was 469.09 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 22.1%. The province’s imports and exports to RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the same below) countries have maintained a growth trend, accounting for more than 30%.

According to data reported by Wuhan Customs on October 27, in the first three quarters of this year, Hubei’s imports and exports to the other 14 RCEP member countries totaled 141.19 billion yuan, an increase of 21.7%, accounting for 30.1% of the province’s total import and export value during the same period.

Since the implementation of RCEP for three quarters, nearly 1.4 billion yuan of goods in Hubei have enjoyed RCEP discounts. Among them, in terms of exports, Wuhan Customs has issued a total of 3,354 certificates of origin for exports under RCEP in the first three quarters, with a value of 1.027 billion yuan. The beneficiaries are mainly related to chemical, textile, agricultural products and other industries. In terms of imports, a total of 368 million yuan of imported goods from RCEP member countries were inspected and released, and the tariff reduction was 3.9219 million yuan, covering nearly 70 types of preferential commodities, mainly including Japanese auto parts and plastic rubber products, and Singaporean chemical products.

Data show that in the first three quarters of this year, Hubei’s imports and exports to major trading partners maintained growth. Among them, ASEAN, the European Union and the United States are the top three trade partners of the province, with bilateral trade values ​​of 72.1 billion, 56.65 billion and 54.22 billion yuan, up 38.4%, 12.4% and 5.1% respectively.

The province’s private enterprises play the role of “main force” in stabilizing foreign trade. In the first three quarters, the import and export of private enterprises in Hubei reached 292.81 billion yuan, an increase of 30.4%, accounting for 62.4% of the province’s total foreign trade value in the same period, an increase of 4 percentage points over the same period last year.

In addition, the export of some high value-added products maintained a strong trend. Data show that in the first three quarters, Hubei exported 151.65 billion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, an increase of 18.7%, accounting for nearly “half” of the province’s total export value.

Since the beginning of this year, problems such as supply chain disorder, sharp fluctuations in exchange rates, and shrinking demand caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, global inflation, and US interest rate hikes and shrinking balance sheets have had a certain impact on mechanical and electrical foreign trade enterprises in terms of demand, supply and logistics. Encountered resistance in developing international markets.

However, even in the face of multiple pressures, the export value of China’s mechanical and electrical products in the first three quarters still increased by 10% year-on-year, showing strong resilience. The achievement of this good result is inseparable from the hard work of the electromechanical foreign trade people, intensifying research and development efforts, expanding sales channels, and actively doing electromechanical enterprises to get rid of the predicament. At the same time, in order to help electromechanical foreign trade enterprises relieve their worries, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Electromechanical Products has held a number of online docking activities, which have achieved remarkable results.

Exports face many difficulties

At present, the export of mechanical and electrical enterprises is facing multiple difficulties. On the one hand, foreign exchange controls in some countries have made it difficult for companies to ship goods and collect payments. Recently, companies such as Midea, Aucma and Gree generally reported that countries such as Pakistan, Argentina, Algeria and Egypt have tightened foreign exchange controls, resulting in the difficulty of shipping a large number of orders, delays in payment collection, and stagnation of sales. According to Zhou Nan, deputy director of the Industry Development Department of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products: “In February this year, Egypt implemented a new regulation of stopping wire transfer payments and changing all payments by letter of credit in full. Except for the necessary materials stipulated by the Egyptian government, other The issuance of letters of credit for goods has almost stagnated, making it impossible for Chinese companies to deliver goods after they have produced orders, and Egyptian customers unable to place new orders, making it difficult for mechanical and electrical products to be exported to Egypt.”

On the other hand, the depreciation of the euro has affected China’s export business to the euro area market. The depreciation of the euro and high inflation have severely hit the consumer confidence and demand in this part of the market. The consumer confidence index in major economies such as Germany and France has dropped sharply. Residents tend to put more budget on necessities such as energy and food. Demand for durable consumer goods such as electronic information products declined. Some enterprises in the electromechanical industry reported that European customers are cautious in placing orders, and the number of new orders has dropped significantly.

In addition, the epidemic has led to the obstruction of international personnel exchanges, which has brought difficulties to the development of foreign contracted projects. “At present, the vast majority of new projects of engineering contracting companies are negotiated online, which has an impact on maintaining customers, acquiring projects, especially new market development, especially projects that require domestic engineers to go to the local area to guide equipment installation and commissioning. It is greatly affected.” Dong Ming, director of the Strategy and Engineering Department of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, said.

Actively respond to stable orders

Facing multiple difficulties, mechanical and electrical enterprises have taken active measures to develop new products, expand new markets, and stabilize export growth from multiple perspectives and channels.

In order to ensure the number of orders, many mechanical and electrical enterprises insist on independent research and development, manufacturing and operation, build their own brands and develop independent channels. Wenzhou Longhua Daily Electronics Co., Ltd. is one of them. During the epidemic, the company has increased its research and development of new products, actively promoted industrial upgrading, and enhanced its own anti-risk capabilities. Since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the purchases of Laizhou Hongyuan Vise Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in the European and American markets have dropped sharply. In response, the company adjusted its strategy in a timely manner, shifted the target of market development to low-end markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia, and developed a series of high-end products. Cost-effective products have achieved steady growth in export orders.

In order to expand sales channels, the company actively explores both domestic and international markets. Fujian Fuan Minnan Yanan Motor Co., Ltd. combines nearly 30 years of experience in overseas sales channels, customer resources and green energy system integration to deploy new energy products such as energy storage and fuel cells, integrate the traditional motor industry with the new energy industry, and make full use of domestic Market advantages, actively tap the potential of the domestic market, and target new infrastructure fields such as 5G telecom base stations and data centers, and have achieved remarkable results.

Online docking to expand the market

Since the beginning of this year, in order to help electromechanical foreign trade enterprises to solve urgent problems in a timely manner, and to assist local commercial authorities to accurately assist foreign trade enterprises in their bailouts, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products has held a number of online matchmaking activities to build a platform for business cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises.

According to Yang Tong, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products and Director of the Exhibition Center, the Chamber of Commerce uses the long-established foreign cooperation institutions and the electromechanical cloud exhibition platform to cooperate with the Department of Commerce of Jiangsu Province, the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province, the Department of Commerce of Hubei Province, and the Guangxi Provincial Department of Commerce. Zhuang Autonomous Region Department of Commerce, Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce, Cixi Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Yueqing Municipal Bureau of Commerce and other local commercial authorities have held 29 online trade fairs and 4,352 “one-to-one” precise matchmaking meetings, a total of 915 Mechanical and electrical enterprises have precisely matched 1,095 international buyers. It has played a positive role in stabilizing the market, grabbing orders, activating the overseas cooperation resources of the chamber of commerce, demonstrating the export-oriented strength of the chamber of commerce, meeting the needs of online activities of provincial and municipal commercial authorities, and accurately serving member companies.