People’s Daily Overseas Edition 2019-03-28
TheChina(Qingdao) Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone established with the approval of the State Council in 2016 offers a new opportunity for the development of cross-border E-commerce in Qingdao.
Within three years after the establishment of the pilot zone, a cross-border e-commerce service center is established and a range of policies covering customs, commodity inspection, taxation and foreign exchange are issued, creating a favorable ecosphere for the development of cross-border e-commerce. In addition, the fast-growing port industries and multimodal transportation network and the proximity toJapanandSouth Koreahave given rise to a number of new cross-border e-commerce businesses in the pilot zone.
An Innovative Platform for Integrated Production and Trade
With the cross-border e-commerce service platform, Mr. Xiu, a local businessman engaged in production and sale of commercial freezers in Qingdao, is no longer worried about getting orders. “We used to travel around the world looking for buyers. Now, with the cross-border e-commerce platform, our products are exposed to buyer around the world. All we need to do is to ensure the product quality,” he said.
In recent years, large-sized enterprises in the Qingdao Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone are encouraged to build their own cross-border e-commerce and foreign trade platforms, while small and medium-sized enterprises are called to develop overseas markets in order to improve their export capacity and promote the development of new foreign trade forms through innovation.
Haier Group’s Tradso.com is one of such platforms. In less than three years since its establishment, the platform attracted 4000 enterprise clients and 300 supply chain clients covering 11 industries in a dozen provinces (municipalities) and over 1300 overseas buyers in 30 countries and regions includingU.S.A.,Russia,South KoreaandJapan.
According to statistics for 2016 to 2018, the volume of foreign trade through Tradso.com grew at a compound rate of 260% in the context of an unstable foreign trade environment inChina.
It is not the only one such platform in Qingdao.
Hiking Group has established a service system integrating “online and offline domestic and overseas comprehensive services for foreign trade and cross-border e-commerce, supported by 12 platforms for international trade, financing guarantee and export credit insurance, etc, helping 12,000 micro, small and medium -sized foreign trade enterprises establish overseas sales network, foster independent overseas brands and expand cross-border e-commerce trade.
The China (Qingdao) Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone has created many China’s firsts: the first C2M (customer to manufacturer) business pattern, the first web-based e-commerce platform for import of cotton yarn “www.ecottonyarn.com”, and the first cold chain cross-order e-commerce platform “Xianyunwang”, to name but a few.
To make use of the city’s overseas industrial parks and resources, the Qingdao Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone spares no effort to build an international offline intelligent logistics network along the “Silk Road” in a bid to facilitate import of high-quality goods from around the world through development of overseas public warehouses.
At present, 24 Qingdao enterprises have built 52 public warehouses in 26 countries including the U.S.A., Japan, South Korea, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, with a total storage area of 200,000 m2, forming an international system of public warehouses covering all major countries across the world. Compared with the traditional logistics mode, Qingdao’s overseas warehousing service reduces international logistics cost by 35% on average. In addition, commodities purchased by customers in the west coast of theUnited States,Japan, theUnited Kingdom, andGermanythrough cross-border e-commerce platforms may be delivered on the same day.
Furthermore, a “cloud platform” is created by the Qingdao Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone by integrating the resources of 50 foreign trade service businesses, banks and third-party payment companies to provide integrated financing, payment, warehousing and logistics, business and staff training and big data analysis services.
Unique Port Advantage
Apart from the innovative patterns, cross-border e-commerce enjoys a unique geographic advantage.
In collaboration with the Qingdao Customs, the Qingdao Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone has set up the country’s first quick inspection center for sea freights to and from South Koreato realize “daily delivery”, reducing transportation time and costs by half.
On March 9, a shipment of RMB 60,000 worth of garments, baby strollers and home appliances was released at the quick inspection center for export toSouth Korea. The ship left Qingdao at 7pm and arrived inSouth Koreaat 9 am the following day, taking only 14 hours, reducing transportation cost by RMB 10 per kilo compared with air transportation.
The unique port advantage gives an edge to the development of cross-border e-commerce in Qingdao.
In the Qingdao Bonded Port Area, Li Chunyan, manager of yuanyanggo.com, an online trading platform of Zhonggang Group, is busy importing cosmetics and mother-and-baby products fromJapanthrough their cross-border e-commerce platform.
Li Chunyan said: “We benefit a lot from Qingdao’s port facilities. We operated in Ningbo and Canton, but finally selected Qingdao because Qingdao port is the second largest foreign trade port inChinathat can provide support and impetus to our operation here.”
Diao Yunfeng, vice president of Haier Group and chairman of Tradso.com, agrees with Li Chunyan. “Apart from the superior port facilities, Qingdao has another cutting edge, that is multimodal transportation. We are going to develop markets in countries along the Belt and Road through multimodal transportation, expand exports to Central Asia through the Alataw Pass and exports toRussiathrough the Manchuria port,” Diao said.
Now, Qingdao operates five regular international trains to Central Asia, Europe,Mongolia,South Korea, and the ASEAN region from the multimodal transportation central station, forming an international transportation network linking the Maritime Silk Road and the Silk Road.
All these together provide a powerful driver for the growth of cross-border e-commerce in Qingdao. In 2018, Qingdao’s total volume of cross-border e-commerce trade hit RMB 34.245 billion, up 41.9% y-o-y, in which B2B trade was RMB 32.926 billion, up 48.83% y-o-y, and B2C trade was RMB 1.317 billion, up 53.86% y-o-y,
After three year’s development, Qingdao has become the only city in northernChinathat has four supervision models—“online bonded import”, “direct purchase import” “general export” and “special regional export”.
Industrial Development Policies
Favorable policies and environment drives the development of cross border e-commerce in Qingdao.
Qingdao Bureau of Commerce has issued a 20-item policy to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Commerce for adopting the successful practices to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce in pilot zones.
The Qingdao Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone has launched a third-party service tracing platform - Import Quality and Safety Information Tracing Platform - to ensure that consumers buy authentic products through online interactions on the import process. So far, more than 1 million tracing codes have been provided covering pre-packed foods, small appliances, garments, shoes and hats, and general merchandise.
In collaboration with the forex administration department, the Qingdao Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone has launched export order financing business to help financial institutions to explore new financing models for export enterprises and help cross-border e-commerce exporters to get bank loans. So far, a total of RMB 6800 has been raised for 300 micro, small and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce businesses under the new mode of business.
The Qingdao Customs has taken measures to facilitate customs clearance in support of the development of cross-border e-commerce in Qingdao, such as “customs duty deposit guarantee” service, which, compared to traditional cash deposit and bank guarantee, eases financial pressure on enterprises and reduces time and cost for customs clearance.
Besides, the Qingdao Customs has introduced a new pattern of supervision based on the credit of consignees of cross-border e-commerce goods, which significantly reduces field checks and improves the operating efficiency.
The soft environment for cross-border e-commerce has beenimproving continuously in Qingdao, attracting more and more cross-border e-commerce enterprises like NetEase Kaola, Jingdong and Vipshop to settle in the pilot zone. Now, there are 680 cross-border e-commerce enterprises in Qingdao.
A comprehensive online public service system and a cross-border e-commerce financial service system will be established in the Qingdao pilot zone in 2019 in a bid to make full use of the superior resources in financing, payment, tracing, talent, logistics, overseas warehousing and customs supervision to forge an internet-based ecosphere for cross-border e-commerce across the city.
Besides, Qingdao will make the most of its geographical, policy and port advantages to forge a regional distribution center for commodities to and from Japan and South Korea, and launch a cross-border e-commerce cooperation program targeted at South Korea, and then expand the cooperation to Singapore, the U.S.A. and Germany, setting a new example for international cooperation in cross-border e-commerce trade.
