At the beginning of 2016, the State Council added Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao, Suzhou, Hefei and Chengdu as national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones. Why these six cities? The Ministry of Commerce gave five conditions:
First, the basis and conditions for replicating and promoting the experience and practices of Hangzhou’s “six systems and two platforms”.
Second, the scale of foreign trade imports and exports. In principle, the top 10 provinces and cities in the country in terms of foreign trade imports and exports are given priority consideration, while taking into account the development of the central and western regions and the reasonable layout of the east, central and western regions.
Third, the scale of cross-border e-commerce and domestic e-commerce in the relevant provinces and cities is considered, and it is hoped that the scale is large.
Fourth, the provincial and municipal party committees and governments where the applicant cities are located attach great importance to foreign trade work, and the work plans submitted are innovative.
Fifth, these provinces and cities formally applied to the State Council in the name of the provincial and municipal governments.
Indeed, among the six newly added cities, Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao and Suzhou are all strong foreign trade cities, while Hefei and Chengdu are representatives of the central and western regions respectively, so as to achieve a reasonable layout of the east, central and western regions.
Among these cities, Tianjin is the most mature. In fact, as early as October 2015, Tianjin was approved to become the eighth comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot city. At that time, Dalian, Qingdao, Suzhou, Hefei and Chengdu were not allowed to engage in bonded import business. In addition, Tianjin also has the advantage of superimposed free trade zone policies, and its parallel imported automobile business is in a leading position in the country. From the overall planning point of view, Tianjin’s cross-border e-commerce pilot mainly includes online platforms and offline industrial parks. In March 2016, Tianjin’s cross-border e-commerce comprehensive service platform was launched, and the first bonded import ticket was completed. In terms of industrial parks, Tianjin is divided into three parts: ① Relying on the Tianjin Port Bonded Area, the Airport Economic Zone and the Dongjiang Bonded Port Area to develop “bonded import” business-type industrial parks; ② Relying on the aviation logistics area to develop “general import” business-type industrial parks; ③ Relying on the central business district to develop cross-border e-commerce headquarters, operations, payment and settlement-type industrial parks.
Tianjin is the gateway to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and has a unique geographical advantage in the development of cross-border e-commerce. Compared with Dalian and Qingdao on the edge, Tianjin’s port advantages are more obvious. However, this does not mean that Dalian and Qingdao cannot survive. Dalian is the gateway to the three northeastern provinces, and Qingdao can radiate the entire Shandong Peninsula. Relying on different hinterlands, Dalian and Qingdao can also give full play to their port functions and expand and strengthen cross-border e-commerce. Japan and South Korea in Northeast Asia are key trading countries for Tianjin, Dalian and Qingdao, and Japanese and Korean products have a very good mass consumption base in China. In this way, using imported cross-border e-commerce as a channel to introduce Japanese and Korean products will have a very good market prospect.
In addition to imports, Tianjin, Dalian and Qingdao can also give full play to the industrial advantages of the hinterland and vigorously develop export cross-border e-commerce. In fact, the pilot promotion work of the national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone is the export that is currently in decline. It is for this reason that Suzhou, Hefei and Chengdu, which do not have international location advantages, can also be designated as national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones. For a city, the most critical factor in developing import cross-border e-commerce is location conditions. Suzhou is located behind Shanghai, Hefei is located in inland China, and Chengdu is located in the southwest. Whether it is water, sea or air, it cannot be compared with coastal port cities. However, these places have their own industrial base and certain industrial belt advantages. Through export cross-border e-commerce, these places may be able to revitalize the local low-end manufacturing industry and the declining traditional foreign trade exports. As for imports, it is only a supplement to meet the basic needs of local consumers for overseas goods.
After the addition of these six cities, there are a total of 13 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones in my country.
Such a layout not only takes into account the development needs of different regions, but also integrates the reasonable balance of import and export cross-border e-commerce. It can be said that it has been deeply strategically thought out. From a global perspective, cross-border e-commerce is a new form of import and export trade. The Chinese government took the lead in piloting it and promoted it to the level of national strategy. This enlightened move will surely enable my country’s cross-border e-commerce industry to continue to maintain the first echelon and even lead global development.