On December 20, the 4^th Global Cross-Border E-Commerce Conference (GCEC) was held in Jinhua. The conference was supported by the Foreign Trade Development Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce and co-organized by the China Electronic Commerce Association and the Jinhua Municipal Government. Yin Xuequn, deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and mayor of Jinhua, and Jin Hong, deputy director of the Foreign Trade Development Bureau, delivered speeches. Zhang Xinyu, secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Jinhua Emerging Industry Cluster Zone and director of the management committee; Lou Dongjiang, secretary general of the Jinhua Municipal Government; Lu Cheng, secretary general of the China Electronic Commerce Association; and other guests attended the conference.

In recent years, Jinhua’s cross-border e-commerce has enjoyed excellent momentum. According to statistics, there are more than 400,000 online stores and over 50,000 e-commerce companies with more than 600,000 employees in Jinhua. From January to November of 2018, online sales in Jinhua reached 256 billion RMB, ranking second in Zhejiang Province and sixth in China. The cross-border e-commerce exports of B2C have reached 27.76 billion RMB, accounting for 53.8% of the total exports of Zhejiang Province. In particular, since Jinhua was named the permanent host of GCEC in 2015, it has not only attracted e-commerce giants such as Alibaba, JD.com, and Amazon, but also helped to bring in the Yiwu Comprehensive Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone, Yiwu International Mail Exchange Station, Jinyi Comprehensive Free Trade Zone, and other platforms.

Yin Xuequn pointed out that cross-border e-commerce has built a new model of foreign trade cooperation, which has become a new driving force for international trade. In the next five years, Jinhua will focus on the construction of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone and the international trade comprehensive reform pilot zone, and strive to be a center for cross-border e-commerce, logistics services, and innovation with a perfect industrial ecological chain. Yin extended a sincere invitation to both Chinese and international enterprises to come to Jinhua to invest and make the most of the opportunities there.

In his speech, Jin Hong said that the thriving cross-border e-commerce industry has made international trade easier and more accessible, reducing laborious processes, breaking the limitations of time and space, and making global business a reality. The Chinese government has highlighted the development of cross-border trade and has embarked on a course of cross-border e-commerce with Chinese characteristics. As a demonstration base of e-commerce, Jinhua has ranked in the top four e-commerce cities in China for several years. Hong believes that the organization of GCEC in Jinhua will facilitate the city’s transformation, upgrading, and innovation. Jinhua and global e-commerce will work hand in hand to create a bright future. (By Wu Zhenrong – Jinhua Daily, translated by Li Ziyi, edited by Kendra Fiddler)