By Wang Shen
The Xiongan New Area has applied to build a cross-border e-commerce pilot zone to accelerate the development of cross-border e-commerce around China, as reported by the Yicai Media Group on Monday.
Recently, the Hebei Provincial government suggested that it would support the construction of a comprehensive national cross-border e-commerce pilot zone in the Xiongan New Area, to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade in the new era.
Thus far in 2018, China has set up 13 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones. The average time for customs clearance of goods has been shortened by more than half, and the import and export of products has been stabilized.
The cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone will help to build complete cross-border e-commerce industrial and ecological chains.
The data from the iResearch Consulting Group, a provider of online audience measurement and consumer insights, showed that the number of e-commerce transactions in China had reached RMB 7.6 trillion in 2017, an increase of 20.6 percent year-on-year. This growth rate was much higher than that of traditional import and export trading, with a market penetration rate of 27.35 percent.
According to Alibaba's previous data, the volume of China's cross-border e-commerce transactions would reach RMB 12 trillion in 2020, with a three-year compounded growth rate of 16.44 percent and a market penetration rate of 37.6 percent, which indicates a huge potential market for the future development of cross-border e-commerce.
Analysts generally believed that cross-border e-commerce would continue to replace the traditional trading systems in the future, and it is expected to become the primary form of global commerce.
In recent years, China has continually introduced policies to encourage enterprises to trade with other countries through the Internet. With the sharp decline in the Chinese export quota, the government policies have become more export-oriented., Cross-border e-commerce companies can first ship the goods and then centralize the customs clearance, as well as tax refunds to achieve efficient customs clearance, foreign currency exchange, and taxation.
