Tech giants ‘drove cross-border boom’
China’s tech champions, including online shopping giant Alibaba Group Holding and fast-fashion platform Shein, played an important role in facilitating cross-border e-commerce, mainland officials said at a forum promoting Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
At the Digital Silk Road Development Forum yesterday in Xian, capital of Shaanxi province, Alibaba, owner of the Post, and Shein were among those named as exemplars of trading platforms that had helped advance the country’s booming cross-border e-commerce sector.
Those platforms had, “through their application of new technologies and exploration of new models, improved operational and service capabilities, pushed for digital upskilling in industries and empowered small and medium-sized enterprises for global operations”, said Liang Hao, executive deputy secretary general of the World Internet Conference (WIC).
“[They have] built efficient and collaborative platforms for trading across different countries and regions,” he said.
China is increasingly looking to exports to boost its domestic economy, as post-Covid growth remains shaky.
The National Bureau of Statistics yesterday reported better-than-expected economic growth of 5.3 per cent for the first quarter, partially fuelled by “increased overseas demand driving export growth in the industrial sector”, said Ding Shuang, chief Greater China economist at Standard Chartered.
Liang from the WIC also credited cross-border e-commerce for bolstering China’s economy.
“Cross-border e-commerce is now the new engine of global economic growth with huge potential,” he said.
Big Chinese technology firms are responding to calls from authorities to support trade with other countries.
Alibaba.com, a businessfacing international e-commerce platform, had been actively working to advance a government-led cross-border e-commerce initiative, executive Wang Yongjian said at a round-table discussion at the forum.
That initiative is aimed at coordinating the development of cross-border trade in more than 165 e-commerce pilot zones and various industrial clusters around China.