China to set up new cross-border e-commerce pilot zones for greater opening-up

Guido Ghedin

On July 13 the State Council officially decided to set up a batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone in 22 cities.

Among the designated areas are: Beijing, Hohhot, Shenyang Changchun, Harbin, Nanjing, Nanchang, Wuhan, Changsha, Nanning, Haikou, Guiyang, Kunming, Xi’An, Lanzhou, Tangshan, Wuxi, Weihai, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Yiwu and Xiamen – the city where Cifnews HQ are located. With this move, the country continues to promote the opening to the outside world, along with the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade policies for Chinese companies.

It was pointed out that accelerating the growth of international e-commerce is an important measure to increase imports and exports, and better meet the needs of consumers, thus boosting both domestic and out-of-China development. Since 2015 the State Council approved the establishment of free trade zones for e-commerce in Hangzhou and other 13 zone: the result has been an impressive growth of cross-border sales growth for two consecutive years. Customs clearance and logistics are key topics of these reforms, with the aim of creating a standard and shared approach to global markets, thus driving business innovation and industry upgrade.

" simpler system, with simpler regulations, will guarantee easier examination and approval, customs clearance integration and information sharing."

The latest State Council conference pointed out a series of key operations that will be positively affected by the establishment of free trade zones – logistics, warehousing and customs clearance in particular. The aim is to further simplify the whole process: examination and approval, customs clearance integration, information sharing, a more tolerant yet prudent and effective supervision.

This will increase the import of foreign competitive products on one hand, and encourage Chinese enterprises to speed up the construction of overseas warehouses – and the establishment of an effective global marketing network – on the other.

On August 22 2018 the first Cifnews cross-border business center (CBC) will open in Xiamen, during the first day of e-commerce event CCEE 2018. The brand new 8-story building – situated close to both Xiamen airport and free trade zone – will host offices and co-working spaces dedicated to international e-commerce and logistics operators willing to establish or empower their presence in the Chinese territory. Once more, Cifnews join hands with global service providers to help China’s SMEs to fully embrace the transformation from the traditional trading model to the cross-border e-commerce, enabling Chinese brands and products to meet the demand of consumers on a global scale.