New policy enables a dream to come true
When Gaston Mwewa Mpande Chiboko arrived in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, in 2013, he barely knew anything about China apart from what he had learned from kung fu movies.
He never imagined that one day he would start his own business in the city after graduation.
This was made possible thanks to the flourishing e-commerce entrepreneurial environment in Hangzhou and favorable policies from the local government.
Chiboko, 26, from Zambia, is the first foreigner to obtain an entrepreneurship visa in Hangzhou under a new policy launched by the local government in December. This allows foreign graduates such as himself to acquire residence permits that include permission to work directly after graduation.
“The new policy has enabled me to realize my dream of launching a business in Hangzhou,” said Chiboko, who graduated from Zhejiang University of Science and Technology in February.
In January, he registered his own trading company Hangzhou Shijie Import and Export Co. Ltd at the Cross-border E-commerce Town in Xiacheng district of Hangzhou, and launched Natural Freedom, his own brand which specializes in designing and producing kids’ garments, and exporting them to Zambia.
On January 3, the first batch of garments was exported to the African country and was well-received.
Chiboko has also imported African drums and wooden sculptures to China, and they have sold fast in Hangzhou.
He added, “I’m looking forward to continuing to improve in both my business and personal life here, not just by making money but by making a difference for foreign students who want to start their own firms and become established here, too.”
The city, home to e-commerce giant Alibaba, has witnessed a boom in cross-border e-commerce thanks to its efficient and fair service environment, coupled with innovative and favorable policies to support startups and unicorn enterprises in the e-commerce sector. (Unicorn enterprises refers to a tech startup company that reaches a $1 billion market value as determined by private or public investment).
All these factors have contributed to setting up a complete crossborder e-commerce industrial chain and sound environment for such enterprises, leading to fast growth in the volumes of exports and imports.
Between January and September last year, the city realized a cross-border e-commerce transaction volume of $7.26 billion, a yearon-year increase of 27.9 percent. Among these, exports contributed about $5 billion, accounting for 15 percent of the city’s export volume during the period.
As a result, cross-border e-commerce has become a new growth engine for Hangzhou’s economic transformation and foreign trade.
“Hangzhou will further intensify the construction of its cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot area and build up the e-World Trade Platform pilot area, vying to become a core functioning area for global e-commerce and the digital Silk Road,” said Tong Jiali, director of the Leading Office for the Construction of the China (Hangzhou) Cross-Border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Area.
Launched in March 2015, the area has attracted more than 1,400 cross-border e-commerce enterprises with combined registered capital of 22.9 billion yuan ($3.4 billion).